It was 2010, I had just dropped out of high school (one of my many brilliant life decisions) and after three attempts at both the driven and written portions of the test I had finally gotten my drivers license. It just so happened that a cute girl that I went to to high school with who was a grade above me was selling her 2000 Daewoo Leganza because she had upgraded to a VW Cabrio. My father and I drove up to her parents house one afternoon to check out the car. At first glance it seemed to be in fairly good condition aside from a scrape or two on the exterior. Immediately what caught my eye was the leather seating and wood grain! Down the road when girls would ask me what a Daewoo was, I’d tell them it was pretty much the Korean version of a Lexus!
My pops took it for a spin around the neighborhood to see how it drove. Being the son of a car guru like Paul Niedermeyer, I always try to take him with me when car shopping or at least have him test drive whatever ridiculous impulse buy I would pull up to his front curb just so I could be reassured I hadn’t bought a total P.O.S. The Daewoo received the stamp of approval from Dad, so $500 dollars was exchanged and off I was in my first car! It was a fairly smooth ride although the interior noise level was nothing to write home about. The mom of my friend who sold us the car warned me to not take it much further than out to the coast but I completely disregarded her advice. I drove her all the way to San Francisco and back, up to Portland, down to the Applegate Valley, weekly trips to Corvallis and all over Eugene. I ended up putting about 20,000 miles on the speedometer by the time I was done with it.
After one too many trips to Southern Oregon, the poor Leganza began to overheat. Although I was quoted a repair bill of $500, I was flush at the time and decided it was time to move on and impulsively purchased a newer Ford Ranger. That truck lasted a couple months but that’s a whole other story…………..
My relationship with the Leganza finally ended when I found myself in a financial bind and was offered $400 for it from a local scrap yard. I honestly regret getting rid of it and not putting a little time and money into repairing it due to the fact the interior was so clean and I genuinely enjoyed driving it but everything happens for a reason so I hope someone else got to pick her up for a good price and give her a new life.
For further and more detailed review of this same car check out my Dads aka Paul Niedermeyers review:Â https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-capsule-review-2000-daewoo-leganza-wills-first-car/
Welcome aboard, Will! A fine first piece!
Korean Lexus! That’s a term I call The Hyundai Genesis! Back to your Daewoo, If you have 1 or 2 beers, the side view looks like a 1st Gen Buick LaCrosse!
I get the feeling it wasn’t the Rangers fault…mine is 33 and still great…Welcome aboard!
Those aren’t scrapes, they are character lines. 😉
Leather and wood grain. These are the main ingredients that make a car luxurious.
How long did you have the car?
About a year give or take!
Any upcoming stories about the Fiero and Plymouth in the background?
These were shot back in 2010. Jim Cavanaugh wrote up the ’59 Plymouth. Or more specifically, he had left a long comment which I then turned into the text of the post. That was how I snared him into being a writer for CC! 🙂
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/uncategorized/curbside-classic-1959-plymouth-fury-love-transcends-reason/
It’s not the exact same one, but here’s my kick-to-the-groin on another white Fiero:
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-1984-pontiac-fiero-gms-deadly-sin-19-give-us-five-years-to-get-it-almost-right-and-then-well-kill-it/
My first car was an 80 Corolla stick, so you got way more than you paid for.
My first car was a 1966 Datsun PL411. You ALL got way more than you paid for. 🙂
I seem to remember reading that the design for the Leganza was originally offered to Jaguar, who turned it down as the basis for a smaller than XJ sedan. But that info is probably in the referenced article?
I never cared for Daewoo’s “corporate” grille….it looked like it was another brand’s disguise.
Yeah… that interior is comfy looking, but I agree about the grille. It’s a Buick with its nostrils flared.
I never got close enough to one of these to look inside – it is actually quite nice. Most of the outside is pleasant enough, thought that grille never worked for me.
I just noticed the background of the lead shot – “My” 1959 Plymouth, that turned out to be my accidental first contribution here at CC. I look forward to reading more from you.
A girl I know had one of these. When the franchise folded, GM refused to honor the outstanding warranties even though GM bought bankrupt Daewoo.
The dealer was kind enough to call her on occasion and bring her in for warranty work (apparently below GM’s radar). Eventually, the dealer could do no more. She kept it for awhile because she was so “upside down” on the amount owed versus the market value. She eventually traded it because parts and service was becoming more difficult.
A usually financially somewhat sound coworker was eventually forced to roll the debt from her Nubira onto a Toyota Corolla.
Welcome aboard, Will. Daewoo built a pretty decent car, but IIRC their new-car sales strategy was truly bizarre–recruiting college campus reps, that sort of thing. Maybe one of the commentariat can more thoroughly recall what it involved. Also, I never understood the model names; to me, “Nubira” and “Lanos” sounded like planets.
Like Mercury or Saturn! LOL!
No more like Uranus.
The Newbeera and lanoss names made no sense but they were on old Holden Platforms inherited from elsewhere, The whole dealer or lack of it network collapsed early and the cars lost value early which was unusual in Australia where cars are almost an investment. These Daewoo are rare sights in NZ they simply didnt do well as used cars.
I sometimes stop by local Bone Yard, victory Auto Parts, and saw a Lubira being towed in. I hadn’t seen one in years!
My mother bought a used 2007 Suzuki Reno, 7 years ago, and it’s hanging in there. No, I didn’t recommend it, but was cheap for a 2 year old car with only 5000 miles in ’09.
Nice piece, Will, and I totally get the “Lexus” thing – in side profile, it does resemble a slightly shrunken first-generation (1993+) Lexus GS300. (To me, anyway.) Our family rented one from a place that rented used cars, and my initial impression of the interior was the same as yours – very nice looking, especially for its class. But the one we rented was really buzzy under acceleration – like it was about to detonate. My brother-in-law and I joked that “Daewoo” sounded phonetically like the actual sound the car made when you mashed the gas.
“Day-WOOOOOOOO!….”
Every time I see a Daewoo I have to laugh. I’m reminded of one of the auto magazines talking about the new upcoming model year, in the year that Daewoo pulled the plug on the American market. The description of Daewoo’s nonexistent new models were described as “Daewoo, Dae came, Dae gone.”
I had one from 2003 to 2007. A 1999 Leganza automatic in white bought from the first owners: a convent. Good car; but sadly we had the last of the 2 litres. The next years model in NZ upgraded to 2200 c c and two airbags. It used the Aussie GM Family 2 (ex Vectra) engine. And yes the body design was a recycled Giugiaro proposal for a new small Jaguar called the Kensington. The Lexus GS-300 was also Giugiaro hence the ‘little brother’ family resemblance. I paid $NZ 5000 for it and sold it for an amazing $1600. We live by the beach and rust got it — total WOF inspection failure. Unsurprising as some of the factory white paint was applied micrometer thin in places.
Great info Alistair. Here is the Kensington concept car.
Not a bad car to own by the beach! Locally a contractor that empties rubbish bins etc along the beaches had Tata pickups for the work because no matter what they buy it would rust out completely within a few years, so paying half the cost of a Toyota made sense.
First cars are always a unique experience. No matter how crappy they are, you still love them. No matter how badly you abuse it, there is still a sense of pride the owner usually has. I’m still on my first, and the emotional trip is similar to what I have described above.
So, this is extremely tangential but – just how tough are driving tests in the US and what do they involve exactly? How much variation is there state to state?
Do they cater specifically to different driving conditions in each state? It’s interesting to me that you could take a test in Minnesota and then drive all your days in Montana which must be very different. You can do the same between different European or commonwealth countries but the numbers of people doing that are presumably lower.
Depends on the state you are in. Michigan is known for being pretty easy, while Pennsylvania is known for being incredibly hard. Everything gets regionalized to an extent.
In my state it’s pretty easy: none at all.
20k miles out of a $500.00 car and at the end getting $400.00 back. What a great deal!
Dagwood Lasagna
I had that earlier, and it was goood, But fattening…..
The follow up of the Daewoo Leganza was the Daewoo EVANDA~MAGNUS / Chevrolet EPICA Mk. 1 / Suzuki VERONA. Same chassis with the slightly changed fascia and tail. Exciting thing was with these that some limited numbers were equiped with a 2 Litre small but a V6 petrol engine. Was this engine borrowed from the 2 Litre V6 Suzuki Vitara???
That was actually an inline six, not a V6. I don’t think Suzuki had anything to do with these cars apart from applying badges for some markets (US or North America only?).
Yep, inline six, a dying breed by that time. I thought it was interesting to see a new one on the market, but as I recall the power numbers were disappointingly low.
Welcome, Will! Daewoo or not, must have been nice for your first car to have something with luxury touches like those in the cabin.
Daewoos seem to have mostly disappeared around here. The last one I saw was a Leganza in 2015 that looked like it hadn’t moved in a long time. The Nubira in particular was *so* anonymous, though, that I could probably have seen three on my way to work this morning and wouldn’t have noticed them.
Daewoo is korean for infectious disease. I would never recommend even an enemy buying something so worthless.