After reading Eric703’s excellent history of Daewoo in the United States earlier this year, I realized that we’ve featured several Leganzas over the years but never really anything on the Lanos, the entry-level offering. Yes, Adam Dixon republished his review from when it was newly introduced back in 1998 but nothing really in the metal. So I decided the next one I saw would get “the treatment”, as it turned out I came across one in the junkyard a few weeks ago.
As a bit of a bonus it was an SX model, thus the top of the Lanos lineup above the S and SE versions. Curiously, if you wanted a sedan you had to choose between S or SX, no middle model was available. For the hatchback you were stuck deciding between S and SE models, no top of the line ones.
I don’t know why we here generally feel compassion for crappy little cars (and also though at the same time seem to love ridiculously overstuffed large ones too), but there’s something humble and honest about a small car that isn’t trying to be ostentatious or full of image, just there to serve its owner. Often they do this very well, sometimes not so well, and in other, more rare cases, there’s just a failure to launch. Which pretty much describes Daewoo’s trajectory in the U.S. – a short bounce up, then an even more rapid thud back to earth.
The Leganza (the big one) actually turned out to be a pretty decent car, all things considered. The one I featured here last year had topped 175,000 miles and Paul’s son owned one for a while as well, the Leganza even had a certain minor pedigree in its design story. The middle of the range Nubira and the little Lanos had nothing of the sort though, being there to fill out the range and really start at rock bottom. The Leganza was sedan only, the Nubira had a sedan and a wagon version, and the Lanos was available as a hatchback as well as this sedan.
I’d always thought that the sedan was a bit of an afterthought (as they often are, but considered essential at the time for the US market), and tend to describe the designer as having designed it from front to back and somewhere around the midsection realizing that he had two feet less length to finish things up than anticipated, so the trunk area tends to look more than just a bit runtish.
Looking at it with a bit more of a critical eye this time, I don’t know that it’s as bad as I had thought it for the last 23 years though, there IS style back here, note the clear turn signal lenses with orange bulbs behind them, that was in fashion at the time, lights that wrapped into the trunklid were as well and aren’t the cheapest possible way to do things either. The Daewoo badge here is at a jaunty angle, but that’s because it’s apparently trying to leave the party before it all comes to a halt in the crusher.
Opening the lid reveals a decently roomy space, the spare is missing and that brake disk doesn’t look like it belongs on this car, but the rear seats look like they can fold 60/40 and there is a covering material over the bare metal on the sides.
I’d never realized that the SX was the top trim mainly due to the fact that the door handles and mirrors are black unpainted plastic across the Lanos range, something I (and almost every carmaker) usually associate with their absolute most basic trim version, not the highline. Still, the SX does get you some goodies that aren’t included otherwise such as alloy wheels (missing from this one) as well as access to a few more.
That extra stuff starts at the front with foglights! Which are also no longer present on this one. While this one does have an unfortunate skin rash around the mouth (Maskne?) at least the bumpers are painted body color, Galaxy White in this case and the lower fascia does a decent impression of a lower spoiler with extra grille work.
Daewoo wasn’t here long enough to ever update its design language (at least as an actual manufacturer, there are numerous other cars that are/were rebadged Daewoos such as the Chevy Aveo and the Pontiac LeMans), and thus this is the one and only grille that we here know, it’s better here in the black version, the Leganza got it with chrome slats which was a little much for some people. The Daewoo badge looks a little truncated as if the top half fell off or something but no, that’s it.
Every Lanos in every trim and body configuration got the same 1.6liter 105hp@5,800rpm and 107lb-ft of torque@3,400rpm mill. Adam didn’t seem to love it in his review and indicated that he had to be nice, so maybe it actually sucked. Perhaps he will chime in with his real impression of the cheap SX on offer here. Still, it was technically competitive at the time and is a transverse, 16valve DOHC design, so pretty standard for the class. Paired with the optional 4-speed automatic as this one is, it was rated at 23mpg city and 34mpg highway. The standard 5-speed manual added 3city and 2hwy to those numbers.
Something about the oil cap spoke to me so I twisted it and was surprised to find it was a two-piece cap that only turned a quarter turn. I’m sure I’ve owned at least multiple cars with a similar design but can’t for the life of me figure out which, from the other side it looks like a threaded cap instead due to the finger holds on the perimeter. Someone apparently had the cover off this engine at one time seeing as how the nuts are gone and the exhaust manifold is gone too.
Opening the door reveals a pretty dour gray and black interior. Airbags for both front occupants was standard, but the tilt wheel was an SX-only item. You also got remote keyless entry, likely as a separate fob.
Power windows and locks came on all but the base version, the cloth insert on the door panel is nice, and check out the manual mirror adjuster here. Looking back to the prior picture shows an electric adjustment for the passenger side under the left vent. Seems weird but is perfectly logical, and for reference this is exactly the setup that my $54,800 base price cost back in 1992 Mercedes-Benz 400E had as well. Good enough for Stuttgart means good enough for Seoul. It was white with a gray interior as well. Hmmm.
The center stack is thoroughly modern for 2000, and the cloth as well as plastics don’t look any worse than on any other small import. The four speed has an overdrive button on it and what looks like two selectable gears below Drive. This is the era of the horn buttons on the airbag wheel.
Digital clock, cupholders, three-dial ventilation, rear defroster button, all good stuff. The CD player was standard on the SX only, as was air conditioning although that was an available option on the lessers. You could also opt for a power moonroof on the SX but this one doesn’t have that. Which means I might actually fit into this if I were to try.
Who knows what caused this one to die with just over 101,000 miles on it, the gauges though look modern and that 130mph speedometer must have given some people a good measure of hope, although the actual top speed seems to be around 114mph for the manual version.
It really doesn’t look half terrible. In 2000 the cheapest Lanos stickered at $8,669 and the most expensive (this one) without the three available options (Automatic, Moonroof, ABS) was asking for $11,719. I’m guessing that real world transaction prices were a whole lot lower than that. The buyer of any Daewoo got a 5yr, 60k mile powertrain warranty and a 3yr, 36k miles bumper to bumper one. It also came with 3yrs, 36k miles of free scheduled maintenance and roadside assistance. Heady stuff. Unfortunately when Daewoo folded in 2002 the owners were likely left holding the bag.
25,170 buyers convinced themselves they’d like to sit in these seats in 2000, its most popular year and that accounts for almost half of the just under 58,000 total Lanos sales here from 1998-2002.
The back seat looks comfortable enough although the legroom is deceiving as the front seats are scooched quite far forward. No lower floor vents to lose a jelly bean in though, so perhaps a plus there, although no vents whatsoever are visible, hopefully the front seat occupants took pity and adjusted one of theirs towards the back.
Shortening a very long story, after Daewoo filed for bankruptcy GM took full control of them in 2002 and immediately shut down their US operations, they did not acquire the dealer body in the sale and took zero responsibility for past sales of Daewoo-branded cars here. These days of course the former Daewoo produces very competitive vehicles for GM, including for instance the recently discontinued Chevy Cruze, but also the highly regarded Buick Encore (both of them) and Chevrolet Trailblazer which we reviewed just a few days ago.
If nothing else, it is impressive that twenty years later some of these cars are still running around, some with fewer miles than one might hope before the end, but others ultimately achieving very mileage-filled lives. Below is a little treat with perhaps some cheap Lanos SX appeal from the UK market, I couldn’t locate a US-market Lanos commercial.
Related Reading:
Junkyard Classic: 2001 Daewoo Leganza CDX – Battling Uphill All The Way
Junkyard Classic: 1989 Pontiac LeMans LE – K-Po(o)p Kadett
Curbside Recycling: 2004 Chevrolet Aveo – It’s Red
My impression is that these were better than the common rep they had, undoubtedly because of more subjective feelings about the brand and for being abandoned here. Well, I mean in terms of their basic build quality and longevity, as I’m sure it was no Civic in its refinement and handling.
There were some of these around here on the streets until pretty recently. But I have not seen one in a while now.
If there was ever a more “nothing looking” car out there than this I don’t know what it is.
“Lanos !” Sounds like an ointment for the treatment of painful haemorrhoids.
“…but there’s something humble and honest about a small car that isn’t trying to be ostentatious or full of image, just there to serve its owner.”
I fully agree with this, I really appreciate inexpensive and basic vehicles that do their job well. But I will add one ingredient I think a reliable econobox needs in order to actually endear it to me: just a hint of differentiating specialness. It doesn’t need to be much–a clever dashboard design, an unusually good driving position, an plush armrest, a bit of style, a tangible if subtle sense of quality. The Fit had the Magic Seat and lively handling, the original Versa a huge rear seat and cushy armrests, the Yaris a funky waterfall dashboard and refined ride quality, the xB was…well, an xB. Nothing else like it. In pictures, this Daewoo doesn’t strike me as having any differentiators, much as the late-aughts Accent and Rio were perfectly good but completely unremarkable and invisible. They were Anycars.
My father’s good friend, who owned a Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep dealership took on a Daewoo franchise in ’99 or 2000. His take, years later, was that they were very well made cars. He felt it a shame that Daewoo didn’t stick around. One man’s opinion, but after 50 years in the biz, I took him at his word. Never had personal exposure though.
This particular car is equipped pretty much feature for feature the way my ’96 Sentra GXE was, minus the automatic. That car stickered for $15,600-sh in ’96 and I drove it off the lot for $11,995, so the pricing on these was VERY competitive 4 years later, for what I see as pretty much the same car. Truthfully, the materials and workmanship in this one look better than the Nissan I’m referring to, which was not as attractive nor as nicely trimmed as this. I had an inkling when these were on lots that when it came time to trade in the Sentra one of these might make a good lateral replacement, or if pricing made sense that I might trade a size up to the Leganza for my commuter, but it was not to be.
I test drove a base Lanos sedan and while the engine was pretty much like every other 1.6 out there, the handling was pleasing enough to make me adventuresome on the local freeway on-ramps (including using the handbrake for FWD ‘bootleg’ turns – doing those left an odor of scorched tires in the trunk) and yet rode decently over the ill-maintained roads of Little Rock, much better than the bottom tier Hyundai Accent I drove afterwards. It surprised me that Hyundai survived while Daewoo didn’t. I’m glad I didn’t buy one because of that.
It’s somewhat discerning to me, in the fourth to last pic, to see a 3rd gen. Integra, 7th gen. Celica, and a Genesis coupe sitting in a junkyard. Time really does fly. That feels like yesterday to me, and practically nothing of the sort exists anymore. Me and my friends all had reasonably priced sports coupes in our prime (Celicas, Eclipes, an Avenger, a Sebring, Cougars…), and outside of the 86 twins, all lost to time. There isn’t even a Civic coupe anymore. Wild.
Obligatory Pineapple Express reference, “You just got killed by a Daewoo Lanos!”
It took years for the Japanese automakers to gain credibility in the U.S. There was already competition from the European makes. When Daewoo appeared on the scene it entered a market filled with competition, domestic and foreign. Many buyers had memories of the Hyundai Excel, and they weren’t good ones. Hyundai and Kia kept at it and now they are almost considered to be competitive with Honda and Toyota, or at least with Nissan. I don’t think that the odd names were a positive. I once mentioned that to a salesperson at the dealership though he didn’t appreciate the comment.
There was actually one other trim available in the US – a hatchback-only Sport. It was available in red or black, with a red-and-black leather (likely only actual leather on the seating surface, with the rest synthetic), alloy wheels, a nice body kit, fake aluminum trim on the dash, and I believe a sportier suspension setup. Not sure on the years available – my parents’ was a 2001, I think. It had a manual transmission.
It actually held up quite well and served them and me for about ten years with no serious mechanical issues. One thing that was noticeable is that the engine definitely had a point in the rev range where power increased quite noticeably, much like the VTEC B16A in my 2000 Civic Sí. Certainly the power increase wasn’t nearly as large, but it was pretty peaky, and the lack of a tachometer meant you had to use speeds as your shift points.
Not a bad car at all. Might even still be running somewhere. Worst thing was the paint – it chipped easily from the cinders used on the roads in the winter in PA. But no car is really immune to that.
https://images.app.goo.gl/V9YeAt59bGSDdutp9
You are correct; it didn’t appear to be available in 2000, the year of this car, at least according to the brochure I was referencing.
Yeah it looks like the Sport was available only in 2001, and perhaps 2002.
Re the power increase-It was a type of tuned intake runner, where it transitioned
to a shorter one as revs increased. I remember that feeling well from the one I had in Korea, and it was rather abrupt.
Ah-ha, thank you! I knew it didn’t have variable valve lift and it seemed too abrupt for traditional variable valve timing. I wonder if other engines with similar systems had such an abrupt changeover – I’m thinking of the Toyota 4A-GE in the Corolla GTS and MR2 in particular.
Here’s a link to pictures that include the Sport model in my first comment that looks like it’s stuck awaiting moderation:
https://consumerguide.com/used/1999-02-daewoo-lanos/
https://www.kbb.com/daewoo/lanos/2001/sport-hatchback-2d/
These cars were still based on the basic bodyshell of the Opel Kadett D; not that difficult to see the similarities in proportions. Engines were Daewoo.
What they share with the Opels, is there curious positive frontwheel camber, which makes them steer lightly in city traffic and dwell a bit uncertain on motorways.
They were quite rugged, except for cracking frontshields due to flexing of the body. And occasionally small parts fell or rusted of …
The ranks are thinning of these here cheap imports have replaced the cheapies from Daewoo, the dash is a clone of my Citroen Xsara including the manual drivers mirror adjuster, Daewoo as a brand has gone now but not before the GM Daewoo cars landed badged as Holdens the awful Barina(Lanos) and excerable Cruz, and people wonder why the Holden badge has gone glueing their name to any junkheap in the GM range did not help them the Commodore was popular here but only the Commodore.
The later Daewoos, such as this, were dull rather than poor, IIRC.
Not a bad for cautious buyer lightly used.
The Chevrolet badged derivatives never caught the imagination like a Camaro might or a Corvette, though….even when Clarkson and Co used one
My family rented a used Daewoo for Christmas one year when we had a surplus of people at the house, from Rent-A-Wreck. I don’t think it was a Lanos like our featured car. I’m trying to remember.
Anyway, our joke was that the car sounded like its name when under hard acceleration. “Dae-WOOOOOOO….”
I recall a Daewoo dealer opening down the street from a grocery store I worked at at the time, it only lasted about a year until Daewoo US went belly up. A Mitsubishi dealer then moved in and is still there I believe.
There has been a hatchback around my town for a number of years, but I realize I have not seen it in the last year, and you can’t really miss it, as it is a violently bright green.
I’m glad you were able to fill in a missing gap here at CC with a Lanos! It’s such a generic shape that I find myself taking double-glances at various small late-90s or early-00s cars just to make sure it’s not a Daewoo.
One thing I find particularly interesting about Daewoo’s final US sales figures is that over four years and 170,000 cars, their sales were split just about evenly between the Lanos, Nubira and Leganza. And it seemed to me that the Lanos was consistently viewed as the stepchild of the family in the US market. Daewoo desperately wanted to be considered as more upmarket than the other Korean brands of the times, but felt compelled to offer a cheap car regardless. And ultimately, despite trying to push customers into the marginally more expensive Nubira, the Lanos outsold it (barely) in the end.
In other world markets, I think the Lanos achieved considerable success, particularly in Eastern Europe.
Completely generic, and rather joyless even by the day’s standards, but it’s great to see a writeup on this. Great catch!
the interior reminds me so much of my first car, a cherry red 2002 Hyundai Accent. both from korea!
“That’ll be the Daewoo” tagline in the UK ad: I can’t decide whether it’s clever or lame.
If I was going to own a Hyundai dealership, I’d name it Pleasant Valley Hyundai and this would be my jingle:
“Come down to Pleasant Valley Hyundaiiii, makin’ deals everywhere…” — with apologies to The Monkees, Gerry Goffin and Carole King
Groannnnnn…!
>>[ *A P P R O V E D* ]<<
I’d name my dealership Sunday Monday Hyundai. Open Tuesday through Saturday. Closed Sunday and Monday at Sunday Monday Hyundai. If the day rhymes with Hyundai, that’s our fun day. We’re closed. See you Tuesday at Sunday Monday Hyundai.
Black bumpers, mirrors and side trim no matter which trim level….that’s a Saab thing, isn’t it?