Daewoo does not build many cars like the Daewoo Lacetti: a 4-door sedan / 5-door hatchback / 5-door station wagon with Petrol engine, built from 2002 to 2024 in the decade of stability control, dual-clutch gearboxes and the first serious hybrids. Its designer of record is Goran Popović at Pininfarina (sedan, station wagon) / Giorgetto Giugiaro at Italdesign (hatchback).
How it came about
The Daewoo Lacetti (Korean: 대우 라세티) is a compact car manufactured and marketed globally by GM Korea since 2002. The first-generation Lacetti was available as a four-door sedan and five-door station wagon, styled by Pininfarina—and five-door hatchback styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro. The sedan and wagon were marketed as the Daewoo Nubira in some European markets and as the Suzuki Forenza in North America. The hatchback, was introduced in 2004 and marketed as Daewoo Lacetti5 in South Korea, Suzuki Reno in the United States.
After the 2004 model year, it was marketed as Chevrolet Nubira and Lacetti in Europe, as the Chevrolet Optra in Canada, Latin America, Africa, Middle East, India, Pakistan, Japan and Southeast Asia, and as the Holden Viva in Australia and New Zealand. In 2008, the second-generation Lacetti was launched as the Daewoo Lacetti Premiere, a badge-engineered version of the Chevrolet Cruze, co-developed by GM Daewoo, Holden, and General Motors. It was marketed under the Daewoo marque until the beginning of 2011, when the brand was discontinued, and was thereafter marketed under the Chevrolet and Holden brands. The name Lacetti derives from the Latin "Lacertus", meaning "youthful".
The hardware
Under the skin sits Petrol engine; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. Kerb weight is 2756 -. The gearbox is a 4-speed automatic / 5-speed manual. The layout matters: the engine drives the front wheels, the packaging choice that gives a small car a big cabin. The wheelbase is 2600 mm. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Family and rivals
Where it sits in Daewoo's history is not in doubt: the Daewoo Nubira came before it; the Daewoo Lacetti Premiere / Chevrolet Cruze / Buick Excelle (second generation) (China) followed it; it was built at Gunsan. On a showroom list of its day it stood against the Porsche Cayenne, the Mazda Mazda6, the Volvo XC90. Its Daewoo stablemates include the Daewoo Honker 2000 and the Daewoo Arcadia.