The good, the bad & the ugly - Daewoo Lanos

I need to know everything possible.



Its a 98 3 door hatch. 10 months rego.
New timing belt, 125000 kms on the clock.
For $2000

Mum & dad went to buy it thinking it was 1000, but found out it was 2. They are thinking about it, but not sure.
We're not really into jap cars. We like our holdens, fords & toyota's

So anyone know any reason not to pay the extra for it? It'll be my sisters car when their insurance comes through from their accident last week, & being on her own we wanna be sure.

Not that it matters, no matter how much research you do, any car can be a lemon...

The bad & ugly - its an old daewoo.

I don't think there is any good...

LOL

We have a 99 model and it is brilliant. Daewoo is actually affiliated with General Motors and the motors in them are the same as the ones in the Holden Camira.
The main issues that can arise are the timing belt, but that one has just been replaced so it should be good for a long time. We got a quote to have ours done for JIC and with genuine parts and done through Holden it was $700ish. Not too bad really. With Non genuine parts at a regular mechanic it would be much cheaper. I will ask DH when he gets home with the non genuine parts quote was. From memory it was about 1/2 that of the Holden quoted price.
We love our Daewoo because it costs nothing to fill and that lasts forever! $2000 for a 98 with the amount of Kms that one has sounds really good.

My husband is seriously a holden man through & through. Until the Daewoo we'd only ever owned Holdens yet he loves his little Daewoo. We're actually selling ours to my sister & BIL as we have 3 cars and it is the smaller of the 3 so not as useful to us these days.

Thanks Lisa

In 2001 I bought my first car, a Daweoo Lanos for $10,000. I loved that little car, never had a problem with it....perfect for zipping around the city. I also not long after moved back to my parents farm driving 100k (round trip) mostly dirt each day for work and it never skipped a beat.

I think daewoo went bust and parts ate hard to get now

Its actually been taken over by Holden, so I'm thinking they might still make the parts, they might just have a different car made the same iykwim.

You'll be able to get daewoo parts from any Holden dealership. I was working at Holden (I'm a mechanic) when GM bought out daewoo, that was in around 2002 I think so that one won't be assembled in aus but should still be a good little city runabout. They are cheap and easy to maintain and run, and with the timing belt, it doesn't matter what car you get timing belts should always be replaced by 150,000km as snapping them can destroy the motor. Doesn't sound like a bad deal to me but if you can get the full service history and just make sure it's been regularly serviced and has no niggling reports on repair history

Toyota are Japanese by the way

Thanks little_mrs
They've decided its worth it. It'll only be doing country driving. Around town & an hour away on occasion at the most, so should be fine.

(& I know, but toyota's have proven themselves )

i had an 99 daewoo and it was great. the only thing is everything went on it at once and it was going to cost me over $4000 to fix so i just ended up trading it in and getting a brand new car! it was good for a run around car

The bad & ugly - its an old daewoo.

I don't think there is any good...

LOL

LOL. It's a Daewoo. Nuff said

LOL. It's a Daewoo. Nuff said

I do have to agree... But after an accident 2 weeks ago, they're without a car, insurance hasn't come through yet & thats the only cheap one around in good condition with rego.

Mum works 5 days a week between about 6 different patholigists, in 3 different towns & lives 40kms out of town.
I think the couch surfing & hitching rides is getting too much for her

She'd rather a crappy car than have to drive 80kms to hand deliver a pack of cigs to dad with either my feral kids, or Grandma's classical music & scary driving

Then later, when they have the cruiser they want, the sister can have the car & everyone's happy! (Look out... the sister at 21 might actually get her L's )

It would probably be more than fine for what you need it for, but long term I'd steer clear. Mum had a daewoo a few years ago and she said when it was running well it was good, but fixing it and getting spare parts was an expensive nightmare.