A car with a difference

By ALASTAIR SLOANE

A brief history of Korean carmaker Daewoo in New Zealand: It arrived here in the mid-90s and started selling its cars through independent dealers. Then it began selling direct to the public from its headquarters in Auckland. Then a distributor set up a dealer network. Then the parent company in Korea went broke. Then General Motors bought it for $2.7 billion. Now it's back, this time known as GM Daewoo New Zealand.

Its return, under the umbrella of the world's largest carmaker, has made the 7500 or so Daewoo owners in New Zealand happy.

For a while there, when Daewoo went to the wall, those owners were left in limbo. They owned a car that no longer had a maker. Worse, it didn't have a heritage. Now, with GM's money and muscle, it has both.

It has dealers, too, 12 of them throughout the country flying the GM Daewoo logo: "Two letters make a world of difference." Get it?

Robert Brehaut does. He's the general manager of GM Daewoo, a 25-year Holden employee who volunteered to head the new operation "because I wanted to be part of the challenge of making the brand successful in New Zealand".

"The two letters, GM, make a considerable difference. I am convinced that there is a major opportunity for GM Daewoo New Zealand to throw away the previous uncertainty which surrounded the Daewoo brand and make it something great."

That uncertainty was at its worst through the middle of last year, after Daewoo went belly-up. Where does this leave us, owners asked the distributor, Rapson Holdings Ltd. Will it be the end of Daewoo in New Zealand? What happens to factory warranties and parts?

The distributor was suddenly no longer the distributor. It didn't know what would happen to Daewoo. But it continued to stock parts, support service centres and honour warranty agreements, all along saying that everything would work out in the end.

It did. Brehaut and Rapson Holdings head Russell Burling worked through a transition phase this year to introduce an after-sales service for Daewoo owners. Existing warranties would be honoured. Owners could relax.

Brehaut and his new GM Daewoo team also asked New Zealanders what they thought of Daewoo cars. Some of the answers were rude, derogatory.

"Daewoo cars were perceived as Japanese cars were in the 1970s," said Brehaut. "Some people had no impression of us at all. Some Daewoo owners said they had been plagued by poor parts availability and poor service.

"But some said they loved their Daewoos and were happy that GM had become involved.

"Now we want to turn an uncertain past into a successful future."

Brehaut unveiled the future of GM Daewoo the other day. It is a hatchback and sedan called the Kalos, ancient Greek for "beauty", and pronounced Carlos, as in Blues first-five Spencer.

Beauty or bewdy might suit Spencer's A-game, but it is not synonymous with Daewoos of the past, except perhaps for the minicar Matiz, which has a curious appeal.

"The Kalos is just the first of our new cars," said Brehaut. "We are looking forward to what the combination of GM and Daewoo can produce.

"Getting new vehicles from development to the market will be faster with the help of GM."

Like the Matiz, the Kalos was designed by Italdesign, the famed Giorgetto Giugiaro's studio in Turin. It was commissioned before Daewoo went broke. The Koreans wanted a compact car with short front and rear overhangs and plenty of interior space.

"We set out to produce an alternative to conventional lines and tread new paths in terms of design," said Giugiaro.

"We had already successfully pursued this concept in the Matiz. It was therefore perfectly natural that we should want to go for unmistakable design again. In any case the GM Daewoo specifications also called for individuality in terms of design."

The Kalos comes as a five-door hatchback and four-door sedan. There are two models, the entry-level SE and better-equipped SES.

For example, the SE comes with driver's airbag, air-conditioning, central locking and power windows. The SES adds a passenger's airbag, alloy wheels and ABS anti-lock brakes.

Both hatchback and sedan models are powered by a 1.5-litre four-cylinder engine producing 62kW at 5600rpm and 128Nm at 3000rpm and mated to a five-speed manual or four-speed automatic gearbox. Brakes are discs in front, drums in the rear.

GM Daewoo marketing manager Julie Knight pointed out that the Kalos, with a 13.3sec zero to 100km/h sprint time, was no GTi. Its target market is the "mature audience", or oldies. "It would be a great first car for the youth market, too," Knight said.

The Kalos SE costs $19,995, the SES $21,795. It joins the Matiz, the people-mover Tacuma and stationwagon Nubria in the GM Daewoo lineup.

Brehaut sees the Kalos as a factory-backed alternative to the used import or late-model New Zealand-new car.

He is excited about the new car and company. "Will the average New Zealander like the Kalos? Does GM Daewoo present a smart solution?" He reckons the answers won't be as rude as those he got when Daewoo was just Daewoo.