GM Korea - Daewoo Cars Outside South Korea

Daewoo Cars Outside South Korea

Before GM’s buyout, Daewoo cars were available in different countries.

In Europe, Daewoo Motor started selling the Espero and Cielo-based Nexia in early 1995. The range was then completed by the Lanos, Nubira and Leganza. The Matiz mini car was released in 1998, and was a great success for the company, most notably in non-Asian countries such as Italy where it won many awards such as the “Car of the Year” award three times in a row, in 1998, 1999 and 2000.

The Rezzo (Tacuma), Evanda (Magnus) and Kalos models were then released, before the SsangYong-based SUVs : Korando, Musso and Rexton. After GM’s buyout, the Daewoo models got a new badge, and were sold under the Daewoo name until 2003: the Nubira III (Lacetti) was the last car to wear a Daewoo badge in Europe. (The former Daewoo models were later rechristened as Chevrolets.)

Daewoo cars were also available in the US & Canada (1997–2002), Australia and many other countries, until Daewoo’s bankruptcy and GM’s buyout. Since Daewoo's withdrawal from many markets, the Lanos was moved to Chevrolet as the Aveo, whereas the Nubira and Leganza were given replacements for either the Chevrolet or Suzuki brands.

January 1, 2005, saw the introduction of the Chevrolet brand in Europe, the whole Daewoo range being simply badge-engineered as Chevrolets. GM’s official tagline was that

“Daewoo has grown up enough to become Chevrolet.”

and that this new name was an opportunity for Daewoo to become stronger. Unofficially, after Daewoo’s bankruptcy, former chairman Kim Woo-Choong’s escape and most notably the “Affaire Daewoo” in France (closure and conflagration of the Daewoo-Orion Electronics plant in Longwy, France), the “Daewoo” brand name had a very bad image – so GM simply decided to extend the Chevrolet strategy that was already used in most other markets (Canada, India, Israel, Russia) since 2003 to create a real global brand, replacing the Daewoo 'dual kidney' with the Chevrolet 'bowtie'.

The Winstorm and Tosca were presented as Chevrolet Captiva and Chevrolet Epica. Some GM Daewoo cars changed names when rebadged; examples are the Matiz which became Chevrolet Spark in some markets (although Chevrolet Matiz was also), or the Kalos which became Aveo (alongside Chevrolet Kalos in other countries). Today, the tendency goes towards a uniformisation in the Chevrolet Europe range: the Spark and Cruze will bear these names throughout all European markets.