Suzuki Forenza Gets Thumbs Up from HispanicBusiness.com

Since reviews for the Suzuki Forenza are rare now that the car has been out for years without major changes, I'm always on the lookout for a review. HispanicBusiness.com made an unusual move of combining two different vehicles together into one review: The Forenza and the recently introduced all-wheel-drive SX4. Overall the review was positive for the Forenza, not so much for the SX4. Here are some noteworthy quotes:

"Suzukis are popular vehicles in the Hispanic market."

"The Forenza comes through with what seems like oceans of legroom. That and a surprisingly smooth ride lets the Forenza travel long distances in relative comfort."

"SX4 lack cruise control and that's good. It's not a highway cruiser. It's a city commuter with scant inside room. The driver and passenger are very cozy and the backseat offers less room."

"Like SX4, the Forenza also serves plenty of notice if it's driven too hard into curves. Yet it feels livelier in traffic than the 10.5 seconds 0-60 would indicate."

One complaint about the Forenza from the article that I agree with is the lack of ABS standard. This can be forgiven somewhat since the Forenza has disc brakes all around. But the problem is not just that it isn't standard equipment, its that the Forenza can't be ordered with ABS in conjunction with any other package, apparently. To get ABS you have to get a base Forenza, forego the cruise control and other Convenience Package & Popular Package luxuries, and get ABS as a rather pricey separate option. Its a bit bizarre - like ABS cannot coexist with some of the other options for some reason.

That said, I've driven plenty of cars without ABS and never thought a thing of it. And all of them had rear drum brakes. With the Forenza you get so much standard that something like this really stands out, perhaps more than it should. I'm thinking that it's not going to matter in the end, from the mouths of Forenza owners at Suzuki-Forums.com who say they've never felt their Forenzas were unsafe during hard braking.

But back to the review. Anyway, its good to see the Forenza still winning kudos after having been on the market for so long. KIA and Hyundai are now offering some stiff competition, however, and aside from the still very affordable "long" wagon (as opposed to the hatchbacks some companies are passing off as "wagons" these days) the Forenza is due for an update to stay in the game.

Forenza sales were down recently after carrying Suzuki's sales for some years now, and are not setting the kinds of records they were before, and I can only think that this is due to the new product from KIA/Hyundai. Unfortunately for Suzuki, as this review shows, the SX4 while new is not a good "replacement" for the Forenza, and I fear the SX4 sedan will also be more of an Aerio replacement.

It will be interesting to see how the Forenza fares in the months and years to come, and whether or not it will get any upgrades from GM Daewoo.

Source for full article/review

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!

Next Suzuki Verona caught in California: Spy Shots

From the The Car Blogger @ Blogspot:

GMDAT and Suzuki share alot of components and it seems that the partnership will continue on with these latest shots of what appears to be the Daewoo Tosca with Suzuki badges spotted in Southern California. Suzuki suffered poor sales from its rebadged product of the Daewoo Magnus mid-size sedan, which was introduced for the 2004 model year. Both the Chevrolet Epica sales in Canada and Suzuki Verona sales were discontinued for the 2007 model year.
Last year, GM Daewoo introduced the Tosca, the successor of the Magnus that spawned a different name in South Korea. It was also an in-house design, different to its predecessor which was designed by Giugiaro Designs. Not long after the ceremonious debut, Chevrolet introduced their rebadged variant of the Tosca, consisting of the Epica name. It was intended for European markets only. Nonetheless, it sparked alot of rumours of Suzuki introducing their variant of the Epica and reintroducing it in North America.

[Source: CarSpyShots.net]


Car Blogger / More Photos, Information: http://thecarblogger.blogspot.com/2007/03/spy-shots-next-suzuki-verona-caught-in.html

Detroit's GM Fans Have no Daewoo-built Buick on their Radar

Recently I've posted quite a bit on my favorite car forum regarding my desire to see Buick import an Excelle or a Tosca as a Buick to combat the steep 40% decline in Buick sales in the USA.

GM fans at GMInsidenews.com will have none of it.

Narrow thinking, in my opinion has lead to the problems Buick is having as a brand. Buick has more than a few opportunities around the globe to bolster its product portfolio, but is stuck with styling duds like the Terraza, and clone cars of other traditional GM brands already offered sometimes in the Pontiac dealership next door.

In the last few years that Buick has dropped like a rock in sales, Suzuki has risen at least that much on the back of GM Daewoo product sales, specifically the Forenza, sold as a Buick in China and Taiwan.

The GMI guys generally hate my suggestion, mostly due to the "Daewoo-Stigma" I expect that they have, but I think its worth restating the option when GM fans spout that "there is no other choice, they're doing the best that they can, Buick can only reskin Chevies and Pontiacs and hope for the best with new styling".

A radical change could help Buick, if only GM were brave enough to give up the silver-haired set mentality and give an entry level car from GMDAT a try. Certainly it couldn't HURT sales. And image? You've got to be kidding me. People around my workplace consider the new Hyundai Azera to be a better car than "A stodgy old Buick".

It would indeed be able come out of "thin air" because the products have already been sold by Suzuki here in the USA, and countries like Australia and Canada seem to have no problem importing the Epica.

The best of Buick's offerings now is a reskin of the GMC sold in the showroom next door at BPG dealerships (Enclave). And all it really offers is better (subjective) styling.

And from the responses to my idea, my guess is that most people at GMI just want more reskinned Epsilon(II) s, Lambdas for Buick.

Formula: reskin, rehash, QuietTune, and hope it sells along with 5 other stablemates. Like the Rainier. Or Terraza. Or LaCrosse. Such HUGE hits...(sarcasm intended)

Its a stale, dated 1980's GM-style approach to selling cars that might have worked once, but not since that little thing called the 

Internet caught on.  And Buick deserves to fail if that's all GM (and its fans) can come up with - more reskins of mechanical quintuplets of every new platform GM North America makes.

More tired excuses, or action and revitalization and a Buick that really attracts younger people with value-packed pricing? The best "entry lux" cars that Daewoo can offer, or a continued slide in sales with promises that newer, better styling alone will save the day with a reskinning and heavy chroming of less expensive models, essentially a Mercury-like (gussied up Fords available at the dealer across the street) strategy?

We'll have to wait and see.

Photo above: Taiwanese Buick Excelle (Forenza/Lacetti-based)

A Truly Global GM

I wrote this yesterday for GMInsidenews.com, please feel free to comment:

The Truly Global GM: One and a Half Years Later

And How having "too many" brands can be an asset

Commentary by Ming

www.gminsidenews.com

2/6/07

Back in September of 2005 I wrote a commentary here at GMInsidenews titled " Should a Truly Global GM Replace North American GM Brand Cars? ". With over 12,000 views, it spawned some excellent debate by our passionate members at the time, and even bled over into some other news forums and blogs.

I still think that a strong GM needs to be a "Global" GM. Not because I endorse some kind of Globalism that robs U.S. workers of their jobs, but because the best of GM's competition thinks globally and competes globally. Toyota doesn't let the fact that Scions and Lexuses are not produced in the U.S.A. interfere with selling them here. They don't make a practice of holding back great product from the North American market because of Union agreements or internal politics. They don't endlessly debate about "what the American consumer wants" before introducing cars like those in its Scion lineup --- cars that many predicted would fail for being "too Japanese".

Now, one and a half years later, I feel that GM is due some praise for the steps it has taken to make its U.S. lineup reflect the best of what it offers overseas. I honestly never would have thought that within two years GM would be offering a mildly restyled Holden Commodore as the Pontiac G8, or the Opel Astra as a Saturn. I had asked for it, but I did not expect it.

If one believes that GM is still a lumbering dinosaur unable to move quickly to adapt, then it would be logical to assume that GM already had these plans in the works or was deep in discussion with its subsidiaries regarding importing these cars before I had written my commentary. I'm not so full of hubris to assume that my article on this one forum out in a sea of automotive internet sites might have spurred these plans on. But that doesn't mean I don't want to congratulate GM for what it has decided to do, nonetheless.

The Saturn Astra, from the press photos we've seen, looks superb. Projector headlamps, 3 and 5-door styling (not some sedan with a tiny trunk) and as-is styling elements all over? Not one bit of apparent "blanderization" by the beancounters in Detroit looking to make a buck or two by stripping parts away that they think we might not notice? Wow.

The Pontiac G8, with a bold, masculine grille and edgy styling unlike the rumored Solstice front end swap? I've long felt that the as-introduced 2004 GTO's biggest problem was its 1990's "bubble" and swoopy styling. None of that in this new G8. It's modern and sharp-looking and is the first Pontiac that I've really wanted to own since my 2000 Bonneville SSEi. And this is thanks mostly to Holden. Detroit could have over-reacted to the lackluster debut of the last GTO and gone hog wild with some kind of bizarre restyle of the front end to avoid people saying "GM didn't do enough to make it look like a Pontiac". But common sense won the day, and the experts at GM realized that the new Commodore looks mighty handsome as it is, and didn't need extra ribbing or swoopy curves. Again, wow.

Many point out that GM has too many brands in the U.S. to support with enough unique models. It was the 1980's all over again when GM announced it would make the Crossover Sport Vans for no less than 4 of its U.S. brands, and the major difference between them would be slightly different grilles. We all know how that went down.

But having many brands can be an asset. How? Each of the traditional rebadged, re-grilled and or "reskinned" brands in the U.S. - lets face it, Pontiac fans, you know what brand I'm referring to - need not be a lineup of Chevy USA clones with different styling to some degree but otherwise mechanically identical (Torrent, SV6, G5). While it might be difficult to make the transition to "Holden USA", Pontiac, for example, could benefit from a unique to the U.S. market lineup for the first time in decades. No longer would you be able to get the same basic car with different styling down the road for less at the volume discount Chevy dealer or next door in the Buick showroom. As of now, the only Pontiac products that aren't some level of reskin or rebadge are the Vibe, and its a Toyota-engineered product with Toyota manufactured parts. Of course the "on hiatus" GTO, and the G6 Coupe/Convertible, which is unique.

To sum it up: the North American market-only brands that demand too much in the way of resources to keep competitive and unique can rely on very different models from overseas instead of just more styling variations of the same cars for each brand.

It shouldn't stop with the Astra and G8. To give an expired example, instead of a 4th CSV (Relay), Saturn could have waited and gone with the Opel Zafira instead.On the flip side of my article was an urging for GM to export more from Detroit. U.S. built Cadillacs are sold in Europe, Korea and China. But perhaps even more importantly, Detroit-engineered vehicles like the HUMMER H3 and Cadillac SLS (long wheelbase STS) are to be produced in more overseas locations, such as South Africa and China. This kind of development is vital for Detroit to remain a hub of engineering prowess. GM should encourage the global strength of Opel, Holden and GM Daewoo, but shouldn't rely on them completely and outsource all engineering to them. Toyota keeps the heart of its engineering at home, and Detroit's GM headquarters shouldn't make the mistake of thinking that they can outsource everything and just manage their hard-working global subsidiaries from their armchairs in Michigan.

Again, GM should be praised for these efforts. "American" cars and trucks sold and built overseas indicate to people around the world that Detroit-based GM is a global player and still very relevant despite the withering attack on its market share by Japanese automakers at its home of operations.

So what's left for me to ask for?

For one thing, GM is still not making full use of its GM Daewoo subsidiary in the U.S. market. Rather than yet another Epsilon-based reskin, a brand like Buick could use an entry-lux car in the form of the Daewoo Tosca, for instance. If its good enough to be Holden's Camry fighter, then its good enough for Buick, which sorely needs an injection of young, professional, bargain-hunting buyers who also want crisp, modern styling - not just an aging model with heavy rebates, or something they could buy from a Chevrolet dealer but with "Quiet Tuning" and a tri-shield badge. The kind who flock to Korean cars like the Hyundai Azera for the long list of built-in features and current styling elements. This is where the Daewoo-built Tosca beats 1996 Riviera-styled LaCrosse as Buick's entry-level car. That doesn't mean a car the size of the LaCrosse has no place in Buick's lineup. It's just that the current model is not designed in a way that effectively lures younger buyers to the brand, from a styling or pricing standpoint. Suzuki no longer sells the previous version (Verona) so that exclusive agreement, if it ever existed, should not stand in the way.

We saw the Aveo take the subcompact market by storm a couple of years ago and rise to the top. In an increasingly competitive market, GM Daewoo can deliver a high level of standard equipment for a low price, and modern, frequently refreshed styling. GM Daewoo is simply more nimble and able to invest in its much smaller product line than GM in Detroit (which recently decided it wasn't "worth it" to dedicate resources give the Cobalt a mid-cycle refresh, for instance), and can help keep GM North America's car offerings more diverse and fresh looking than what Detroit's GM can do alone.

Astra, Commodore (and Ute?), and Tosca (or next-gen Lacetti). These cars represent some of the best offerings from GM's global subsidiaries, and I look forward to seeing all of them here.But for now, let me just congratulate GM for making the steps needed to integrate its various disparate brands around the world into the highly competitive U.S. market where they can help GM stand against the relentless onslaught of Toyota, Honda, Nissan and others.

Cheers to our mates in Australia and Germany for designing the great looking, competitive cars we'll come to know as Saturns and Pontiacs!And maybe, just maybe what we'll see next will be a single model Chinese LaCrosse displacing the W/G-Body U.S. Buick LaCrosse and Lucerne, with a Daewoo Tosca / Holden Epica at the low-end "entry lux" for volume sales wearing a Buick badge as they do in China, a market where Buick is highly respected. Or a Holden Statesman replacing the Lucerne.

Thread with member comments at GMInsidenews.com: http://www.gminsidenews.com/forums/showthread.php?t=44515

GM Daewoo sales rise 33% in January; new models do well

SEOUL (MarketWatch) -- GM Daewoo Auto & Technology Co., the South Korean unit of General Motors Corp. (GM), said Thursday its auto sales in January surged 33% on year on the back of robust sales of its new models Tosca and Winstorm.The automaker sold a total of 81,377 vehicles at home and overseas in January, up from 61,233 units a year earlier.Local sales soared 51% to 11,328 units from 7,504 units a year ago, while exports increased 30% to 70,049 units from 53,729 units.Domestically, it sold 2,265 units of mid-size sedan Tosca in January, while sales of its Winstorm recreational vehicle totaled 2,597 units last month. The company introduced Tosca in January last year and Winstorm in July.

Source: MarketWatch

Obscure Trivia of the Day: Daewoo's (and Holden's) first Suzuki Link-Up? The Damas

While reading up / Googling on the Daewoo Damas (a small work van), I discovered that it is actually a 5th gen Suzuki Carry (or based on it and has evolved a bit since then as the "Damas II"). The Damas II has an Liquid Petroleum Gas tank installed from the factory from what I can tell and runs on a very small engine.

In 1985 arrived the 5th generation Suzuki Carry and Every with the same dimensions, technical layout, body styles and engines. A high-roof truck became available, as well as a turbo on the 543 cc engine. By 1990, in Japan the length of the van and truck (pickup no longer available) became 329.5 cm and 324 cm respectively and the engine grew to 657 cc. In the export the vehicle (panel van available) was known as Suzuki SK 408 (797 cc) and Suzuki SK 410 (970 cc), also as Suzuki Carry and Suzuki Super Carry; in Britain as Bedford Rascal since April 1986, by June, 1990 as Vauxhall Rascal, in Southern Europe as GME Rascal, in Australia as Holden Scurry.

In Korea it is built as Daewoo Labo (truck) and Daewoo Damas (van and minibus, with smoothened front wheel opening); in Taiwan as Ford Pronto. In Colombia it was known as Chevrolet Super Carry.

This might be the only vehicle in the world that was sold as a Chevrolet as well as a Ford, be it in distant parts of the world.

In China, this generation is known as Anhui CH, Changhe CH, Hanjiang SFJ, Songhuajiang HFJ, Kaixuan NJD (both also as a 4-door double cab truck) with various digits behind. One of the Chinese 2-door trucks with a wheelbase of 200 cm is currently sold as Chatenet Yack in France with a diesel engine from Portugal. The FAW Jiefang CA6350 minibus has a different body, a wheelbase of 194 cm, a length of 349 cm, and a width of 144.5 cm, engines 1.0 and 1.1 litre. The Anhui Fc1608 truck has another body with a wheelbase of 220 cm, a length of 380 cm and a width of 148 cm. This 5th generation Carry would remain available in the export until the arrival of the 7th generation in early 1999.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia:

Daewoo Damas Manufacturer: GM Daewoo

Production: 1991–present

Drivetrain: MR layout

Class: Van

The Daewoo Damas is a small van produced in South Korea by GM Daewoo. It has been produced since 1995, and is currently in its second generation. There is also a pickup truck version, called the Daewoo Labo. In some export markets, the Daewoo Damas was known as the Daewoo Attivo, and since GM's takeover of Daewoo, it has been known in some markets, such as Central America, as the Chevrolet CMV for the passenger van and Chevrolet CMP for the pick up truck.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~mjs/damas-big.jpg

GM Daewoo Lacetti trim and option differences with the Suzuki Forenza

Over at Suzuki-Forums.com I posted several screen grabs of the different options and trim that are available on the GM Daewoo Lacetti.

I had been scouring the 'net for a bugflector for my upcoming wagon purchase, but to no avail. Perhaps I can find someone with contacts in Korea who can import one for me...

Follow the LINK to see more photos of the options.