The Automotive Amanojaku

This is where you'll find news, random car-related thoughts and personal views from a rabid car nut. "Amanojaku" is Japanese slang that means "person who is deliberately contradictory". I've always found myself drawn to the less appreciated car makes - the "underdogs" if you will. Suzuki, Pontiac, GM Daewoo and Holden, are among my favorite brands to watch and comment on. Let me hear your thoughts!

Friday, April 20, 2007

The GM Daewoo Enthusiast ... in English?



What to do if you're a fan of GM Daewoo and you live outside of Korea and can't read Korean? Hey, hey, no jokes about "What Daewoo Fans?" and Bobby Lee's "Tank" character from Mad TV, please... (hehe)

Anyway, since Daewoo as a brand left the global stage for the most part several years ago and became GM Daewoo, it might not be as easy as it once was to find small start-up enthusiast sites in English.
Since it is still possible to buy Daewoo-built cars even in the U.S. today, or if you have an older model, where can you go to read what fellow enthusiasts have to say?

Internationally, GM Daewoo product is now sold under the Chevrolet, Holden, Buick and Suzuki brands. Grilles and emblems are swapped out along with some minor equipment changes or different displacement engines, but they remain GM Daewoo cars underneath the thin disguises. The Taiwanese Buick Excelle is one of the rare examples of taking it further than a "rebadge" and re-doing the entire front end. The mainland China Excelle (for now at least) looks like any of the other Lacetti rebadges.

True fans of automobiles still know what cars in their favorite brands are manufactured by GM Daewoo, even if they wear the badge of another auto maker. Interestingly, even Korean fans of Daewoo have some idea of this as it is proudly stated on the GM Daewoo website with Chevrolet, Buick and Suzuki logos.

Daewoo Tech is a site that has sporadic updates to its main page and some severely outdated posts mixed in with new ones, but appears to be one of the top sites for Daewoo enthusiasts outside of Korea. The emphasis is heavy on the Chevrolet Lacetti and WTCC Lacetti Racing Program: http://www.daewootech.com/cms/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1

The Suzuki Forenza & Reno Forum is currently the most popular part of www.Suzuki-Forums.com . Of course, "Forenza" is Suzuki's name for the Lacetti, and "Reno" is the 5-door hatchback. The members of suzuki-forums are not unaware of this, and you'll find general Lacetti-related posts mixed in with the Suzuki-specific ones. A member there " Kinkyllama " has taken a Forenza sedan and seriously tuned it for performance, and has some videos of himself racing at the track along with many photos and how-to type posts. I think he also runs a small business obtaining and custom making parts that should be compatible with Canadian Chevrolet Optras and other Lacetti-based cars powered with the 2.0L 4-cylinder engine.
There may be more sites, and if you know of one or more I encourage you to post them in the "comments" here!

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