Jan 28
Daewoo becomes Chevrolet
A few months ago, General Motors ran full page ads in the national press, with a very strange offer. If you bought a car from their (relatively) recently acquired Daewoo brand, they’d swap it for another brand new one - this time with a Chevrolet badge - in six months time.
Whatever their reason for this bizarre offer, it signalled the move from the Daewoo brand, to Chevrolet. Interestingly enough, the cars remain unchanged and are not the same Chevrolets available in America.
Daewoo cars, during the twelve or thirteen years they’ve been in the UK, have more or less filled the gap left by Lada’s departure from EU markets and Skoda’s return to its roots as a quality car manufacturer. So, what sense does it make to move to the Chevrolet brand?
I’d bet the majority of Daewoo/Chevrolet UK’s target market have a very hazy idea of what Chevrolet is all about. I’m a car fan and a quick look at the US Chevrolet website shows that my perception of a Chevvy is something big, loud, not particularly pretty and with an enormous engine, isn’t fully representative of their range. So, the average Daewoo owner - i.e. someone who doesn’t really care about cars, they just want to move from place to place without using their legs too much - will almost certainly have no usable idea of what Chevrolet is all about.
Anyway, whatever their reason for the brand change, it appears that it’s now complete. Looking at the new Chevrolet UK website, the irony is that, whatever name you give them, the cars are the epitomy of anonymity.
April 4th, 2005 at 9:28 pm
I think that chevrolet launching in the uk is good but they should have imported cars such as the chevrolet trailblazer over
April 14th, 2005 at 6:20 pm
North American Chevrolets are available in the UK thru a select number of US Branded dealerships. The Chevrolet name has been imported to the UK in place of the Daewoo brand to unify the european brand. there are some similarities to the US brand, the AVEO in the states is the KALOS in the UK, albeit with a few spec differences, it is the same vehicle with a larger engine and LHD. In the future the brands will be brought together - namely the HHR which is a potential European launch target.
The Chevrolet brand is the Launch brand for GM in the States and is intended to be exactly that in the uk. New variants have been launched in January and the New Matiz is due in June 2005. The 4×4 S3X is due in early 2006 and will also include the first of Chevrolet’s european diesel powerplants.
September 21st, 2006 at 5:49 am
I,m not a big chevy fan nor am i a fan of small vehicles even though i do drive one. Chevy’s move on Daewoo is not a good one cause like ford with jaguar chevy will change the name and change the way the car handles and feels like the add says like a rock, yeah they feel like one and drives like one. and i am an automotive mechanic and i have had the oppertunity to work on all makes and models here in canada and what ticks me off is that the UK has much more sytlish and refined vehicles than we do and to get one you have to have lots of money and convert to right hand drive. I only wish that north American manufactures would get a clue and borrow some of the ideas that european manufactures have and import them into their vehicles. lets face it in North American we own fuel guzzling peice of craps that look pretty bad especially the new vehicles.