Curbside Find: ’97-’02 Daewoo Nubira – Postcard Perfect Footnote

Photos from the CC Cohort by Mike Hayes.

I didn’t dare to use the word “unicorn” on this post’s title, even if I’m pretty sure that’s what this Nubira is nowadays. True, not many of these Daewoos have survived to this day, but “unicorn” is such a mythical-sounding name. As in something worth hunting for and looking forward in expectations –qualities I’m not entirely convinced an old Daewoo embodies.

But the brief period the maker aimed high, aspiring to be the next hot thing in the US market? That I’m pretty sure qualifies as an automotive footnote. And here we have a perfect sample of the era, surviving to this day with few blemishes and posing in a setting that’s oh-so postcard-like.

Footnote? Absolutely. Any car that needs lots of introduction to non-car –or even casually inclined– car people probably qualifies as such.

“Oh, gosh! That’s a Daewoo!”

“Dae…who? What you talkin’ ’bout Dad?”

“Mmmm… do you want to hear a story, son?”

Daewoo’s brief US foray has been told elsewhere at CC, a scant few years when the maker reached America’s shores with lofty goals. Yet, when these Daewoos arrived in 1998 on US soil their fate was no different from those of many foreign outfits; reaching America hoping to make it big from day one, realizing in short order that dreaming is easy but that reality has a way to get in the way.

At launch, the company offered 3 model ranges with the subcompact Lanos at the bottom and the Leganza on top. Today’s Nubira belongs to the middle rung, an accessible compact that offered similar equipment to Japanese competitors, at discount prices. The model came in 4-door sedan, 5-door hatchback, and a nifty-looking 5-door wagon. The version featured today.

The Nubira’s soft compound shapes, which are so very late ’90s, neatly avoid being wholly generic. They are the work of Turin’s IDEA Institute. For the most part, these Daewoos were considered reasonably assembled and worth the money. Albeit, less refined than Japanese offerings.

Those qualities aside, Daewoo crashed and burned in its quest for world domination. Result of overstretched resources that crumbled under too ambitious goals.

There must be some truth to the cars having decent assembly, as this one has survived with few blemishes. However, I’m aware that today’s find is the exception, not the rule. Though most Daewoos seemed to have vanished not necessarily by fault on their own. Instead, due to the fate that befalls low-cost products –buyers that cared little about them, wore them out and tossed them when done.

Still, there’s the occasional dedicated low-cost car owner, to which this Nubira certainly owes its existence. A nice unicorn that serves to tell a now-fading automotive footnote.

 

Related CC reading:

Curbside Classic: Daewoo Nubira – A Family COAL

Automotive History: The Tangled Story Of Daewoo In The United States