Date:         Mon, 15 Dec 2003 13:02:42 -0500
Reply-To:     The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         The Bus Depot <vanagon@BUSDEPOT.COM>
Subject:      Re: Off Topic, but need advice on a Deawoo
Comments: To: Sean Garrett <SEAN.GARRETT@ASU.EDU>
In-Reply-To:  <10B7D57404FD0C4587019E88DACD0917053DFA85@ex2.asurite.ad.asu.edu>
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> I have a friend who has a 2000 Deawoo Lonos with less than
> 40,000 on it. Its not under warranty for some reason (I am
> still checking on this)


It's not under warranty because General Motors essentially pulled a fast
one on Daewoo owners, or so I've read.  Korean-based Daewoo Motors had
been in financial trouble for quite some time, and GM (who owned a
minority share in the company as I recall) decided they could use the
company as a supplier of low-end GM cars. However, they weren't
interested in using the Daewoo brand name in the U.S., and therefore
didn't see any profit motive for supporting existing Daewoo owners. As I
recall, some Daewoo owners and dealers claimed that they were led to
believe that they could safely buy/sell a Daewoo car because of GM's
plans to rescue the company. But when the time came, GM bought all of
Daewoo Motors' global assets EXCEPT for Daewoo/America. This left
Daewoo/America as an "orphan" - a car brand with no products or
factories to their name, basically just an empty shell. Daewoo/America
promptly filed bankruptcy and liquidated, since it had nothing to sell,
leaving Daewoo owners and dealers holding the bag. At the time, I
remember reading complaints by Daewoo dealers in the trade press that GM
had completely abandoned them when it came to standing behind the cars
that they'd sold (or even still had on their lots). I don't know if any
resolution occurred (if it did I never read about it), but your friend
may want to contact GM and ask them. Meanwhile, GM is, sure enough,
starting to market Daewoo-made cars under other GM brand names - so it
would seem they got just what they wanted, the assets without any of the
U.S. liabilities.

- Ron Salmon
  The Bus Depot, Inc.
  www.busdepot.com
  (215)  234-VWVW

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