Cohort poster cjcz92 says this shot was taken on June 22, 2017 outside Greenwood, S.C. Someone is mighty slow to take their signage down, or maybe they have some leftovers still to sell. Can I interest you in a “new” Lanos?
Cohort Outtake: The Last Daewoo Dealer?
– Posted on June 28, 2017
Once rented a Daewoo Lanos and it was a surprisingly good car on the highway! It ferried 4 adults with luggage to the Orlando airport, late, at 90mph!
Of course everytime I think of a Daewoo Lanos, I think of the movie Pineapple Express…
Guessing it takes a lot of money to take down a big-ass sign like that, sooooo,, It’s now Daewoo’s buy here pay here. Reminds me of an old Happy Days episode. Owner of “Arnolds” of ARNOLDS DINER, (later called AL’s) Was played by Pat Morita. The boys found out he was not named “Arnold ” His response was “Does this look like the face of an ARNOLD?” “Bought diner, big sign on top says ARNOLDS. Signs very expensive!”
I think of Queen Latifah’s line from Taxi: “You open the door. I don’t wanna get Daewoo on my hands!”
Or in Ye Olde Latifah’s way: “Ah don’wanna get Daewoo on mah hands
Loved that line, and had fun with the movie itself!
I’ve notice some signage up in Lexington Park, MD although the store is more of a buy-here/pay-here used car lot than anything else. Not quite as high class at the picture above.
Pretty sure they still make Daewoos in at least one former Eastern Bloc country or former Soviet territory.
Ever seen a Chevrolet Cruze, Sonic, or Spark? Then you have seen a Daewoo, albeit renamed GM Asia. They discontinued the name, but GM is still using the bones of that company for small sedans.
Not surprised. I think the Daewoo design center started each day with the mantra, ” Let’s see – what would the Russians build?”
That’s a rather well kept facility for a dead brand store. Hard to figure what benefit there is to keeping it that way, rather confusing image for a used car dealership, and not exactly a fondly remembered brand.
I wish I would have taken a picture. In St. Joe, MO the other day I passed a rather pristine DX gas station sign in font of a very old building housing a working auto repair shop. I had to google today if the brand is still associated with gas. Turns out it was just a well maintained vintage sign.
There is also a restored non-functioning Skelly station in Brookfield, Missouri.
Oh, what a beautiful Dae-woo…
Low-hanging fruit.
GM Korea
With apologies to Harry Belafonte:
A nice green sign in a parking lot
(GM come and Daewoo go home)
Marks a brand he no longer got
(GM come and Daewoo go home)
Dae, me say Dae-Woo…
Nearly splattered coffee all over the keyboard. Genius!
+11!!
Daewoo
Dae came
Dae gone
Remarkably well maintained for a brand defunct in this country for…15 years? In fact that sign and building are probably in better shape than nearly all of the cars they once sold.
Reminds me of this Opel Kadett sign I found in Oxford, NC a few years ago. It had outlasted not only the brand, or even the dealership as a business entity, but the building itself. The sign finally went too a few years ago.
A few years ago I saw a British Leyland dealership sign still up in Lansing, Michigan — advertising Austin, MG, Triumph & Jaguar. This image below is from Google StreetView, dated 2015. I have no idea if the sign is still standing.
Yes it is still there. The dealership building usually has a couple of vintage sports cars inside as well. I have no idea what the story is, but its been like that as long as I can remember.
I took photos once, but they must be pre-digital, so it would take a while to dig them out.
After some googling, I think that it is a used car dealership. While not shown in this picture (there are more pictures in the CC cohort) the U-Save car and truck is just down the street.
I always thought Lanos, Nubira and Leganza all sounded like planets.
Actually DAEWOO CIELO was in production here till afew years ago.finally after the new round of sanctions went into action in 2012 they stopped sending engines to kerman motors& that had pulled the plug on them forever.
It’s a used car dealership, but they still market themselves as Greenwood Daewoo:
http://www.greenwooddaewoo.com/default.aspx
The fact that they would rather identify as brand that has been dead in the US for 15 years rather than as a used car dealership really says something about used car dealerships…
That’s crazy it’s still there after all these years! GM and Ford always seemed to be pretty quick to replace or at least cover up the signs of discontinued brands, though to their credit, most of these brands were sold with other brands at dealer franchises and not as exclusive stores. Chrysler always seemed to be a bit slower, with evidence of Eagle and Plymouth around for sometimes many years after.
It is odd that they have kept the Daewoo name, but the place is a used car business that is in operation.
Haha, I was just thinking of how La Brea C/J/D in Los Angeles had Plymouth signage for years until they sold the dealer complex back around 2010.
I seem to recall, the Daewoo’s weren’t really bad cars. Perhaps a little cruder than some of their competitors but basically solid cars. They seemed to survive pretty well after the fall of Daewoo, and were once comparatively common, or at least more common than I expected them to be. However, I don’t think I have seen one in several years now, and the Dallas/Fort Worth Craigslist only shows one, a Leganza, for sale and it apparently isn’t running, so perhaps final extinction is at hand. Somehow, I can’t imagine any Daewoo’s getting restored and showing up at Cars & Coffee anywhere.
Sic transit Transit mundi
https://dallas.craigslist.org/ndf/cto/6187881263.html
I’ve actually been told that they were quite decent cars for the time. A close family friend owned a Chrysler dealership and took on a Daewoo franchise in the late 90’s. In 2004ish I was on my way back from a hockey game with him and we saw one on the road. His comment was that it was really a shame, as they were actually pretty good cars. In truth, for the 90’s Daewoos were probably screwed together better, and comprised of better quality materials than Kias or Hyundais.
In classic CC fashion, yesterday morning waiting to get on the highway I was stopped behind a well maintained Nubira Wagon, thinking it’s been years since I saw a Daewoo on the road.
I always though they failed in the US market because their logo looks like a jockstrap
Jeff you have won the internet today.
The Daewoo US web site was up for years after the company stopped selling cars here. The site’s function was to direct owners to former dealers who were still willing to service and sell parts for Daewoos. Among others, they still listed the former dealer in Southfield.
I just checked, and the Daewoo US site is now dead.
Probably a result of the necessity to honor warranty claims / support the vehicles. I bet that site went down once it was no longer legally obligatory.
I saw this on my way to make a dealer trade in this area.
I was amazed it was still up! Im 24; ive never seen a Daewoo dealership
Next on my list would be finding a Daihatsu dealership ?
This is a used car dealer calling themselves Greenwood Daewoo. Why they would have kept the name Daewoo is a good question.
You have a better chance at finding a Citroen dealer. Lol
“I throw my rods up in the air sometimes
Saying Heeeeey-o
I’m a Daaaaaae-woo”
LOL moment at work. Thanks for that. 🙂
Daewoo dealers expected GM to keep the brand going after they bought out the company. As if they needed yet another flagging brand, then.
Some Dae’s were rebranded as Suzukis. Nubira to Reno, and Leganza to Forenza. Lanos became Chevy Aveo.
I actually shopped Daewoo way back when they came out. I drove a 2 door Lanos hatch which was fun to drive for a 90 horsepower car with decent ride and better handling than it should have had. Seemed really solidly put together, too. I studied the brochure intently with the intent of ordering it just how I wanted. I didn’t pull the trigger because I still owed too much on the car I had at the time.
Went to Italy on ’05 and made arrangements to rent an Alfa Romeo for the drive on the Autostrada from Florence to Positano on the Amalfi Coast. When I got to the rental counter the only car available to me was a Daewoo Laganza. Needless to say I was disappointed. Once out on the Autostrada where you only venture into the left lane to pass, the closing speeds of cars using that lane were fast beyond belief. The Laganza was like a slug out there in that company. 80 MPH was all you could wring out of her with a tailwind going down hill.
I can’t remember having seen any Daewoo dealerships either (unsurprising considering that I’m 19) but today the CC effect came into play, as I spotted a 2000 Leganza SE. Even more interesting is the fact that it had a manual transmission, which makes it even rarer.
cool/funny .
-nate
A friend of mine got a rental car, I asked, ” What kind car did they give you?”
He said, ” An Anus”
I was like, ” What the heck? A what?”
He said, “A Daewoo something…”
I looked at the name, it said, “Lanos”. 😀
In 2005, some woman who lived on 2nd floor, at my previous apartment building…owned a black Daewoo Lanos, it looked like a wannabe EK 1996-2000 Civic hatchback.
It ran great. I know, one time, it gave her trouble, but she fixed it, and the lil Lanos was on it’s way.
The biggest problem was her keeping it registered and paying the insurance…I think either it got impounded for expired tags or it got wrecked.
I forget, it seemed like eons ago.
I used to pass this dealer quite a lot when I was driving many miles from Spartanburg to date a girl in Greenwood.
I even remember when they still had new Daewoos there. Since then it’s just had used cars but the signage is kept in good condition.
Maybe it’s a marketing ploy to keep bringing in confused people… who may have forgotten or never even knew Daewoo ever existed. Maybe the manager is still hopeful that Chevy will start selling their little Korean “cars” under their original badge.