1998 Daewoo Lanos SE from UK and Ireland - Comments

Bought second hand, so far I have had to clean wiper fluid filters. Have done 22000 miles in six months with no breakdowns or faults.

Wellll, I blew the front stereo speakers out, but they had been pushed way beyond all sensible limits.

First off the interior is this car's weakest point. Ugly fabric and seriously cheap looking plastic everywhere.

The controls are functional and do their job with little or no style.

The driving position is flexible with adjustable steering column and loads of head and leg room, but the seats seem narrow and can be uncomfortable during a long (60+ minutes) drive due to poor lumbar support.

Lack of such frills as powered windows is in part balanced by the anti-lock brakes and duel airbags as standard on this model.

The outside looks good for a car this cheap and with a few customisations (14" alloy wheels, spoiler, racing mesh over radiator grill, fog lamps) it looks great.

Handling is great around town, but very bouncy and a bit wobbly on fast roads.

The 1.35 litre engine delivers good acceleration and seems very quiet except when pushing maximum acceleration.

The car seems to be coping with the 40000 mile-a-year foot-to-the-floor pounding I'm giving it with no reliability issues yet. I commute 160 miles (city and motorway) per day and get just over 2 trips from the smallish petrol tank.

There is nothing particularly outstanding about the Lanos, but no major flaws either. It is quick, reliable and an ideal town car. With some tweaks (sports shocks and padded seat-covers) it's great for motorways too.

Update by Author :

The Lanos in the above review has a 1.5 cc engine, not a 1.3 as noted above. Where can I put my face!

Anyway, it has just passed it's fifth MOT, the third since I bought it with 12k on the clock back in Jan 2001. It's now got 49k on the clock and is still running even better than when I got it. I upgraded from a standard paper air-filter to a K&N 'filtercharger' (an advanced reusable filter) which has upped the power by 10-15%, not bad for 25 quid and 10 seconds installation time - seriously, do your car a favour and get one it pays for itself! (www.knfilters.com).

The Lanos needed a little work to pass the MOT test this time - just a new brake pipe and a suspension spring. Prior to that all I have had to replace is clutch, tyres and exhaust which is not bad for a five-year-old car I work pretty hard. Of course being a compulsive tinkerer there are lots of bits I have tweaked to make it a little more interesting, but finding cheap new and used parts or upgrades in the UK is getting much easier.

I've grown to love my Lanos - so much so I've given it a section on my website.. (www.hadez.org/cool_stuff/cars/daewoo_lanos/my_lanos.php3)

I own a 97 lanos 1.6 sx... I'm happy with the performance, but was wondering, does a diff air filter make that much difference? Hopefully I'm gona splash out on some nice 16" alloys this crimbo and improve stereo system and if I can improve the performance by 10% for less than £50 then that's cool.

(original poster)

I got a reasonable improvement by swapping out the standard air filter for a K&N Filtercharger.

Most noticeable was the smoother and faster acceleration in low gears and revs.

I also started using a premium unleaded petrol (Shell Optimax) and noticed a similar improvement.

These things have not turned my car into a monster racer, but have ironed out some of the performance quibbles I had. As the K&N filters need cleaned instead of changed and a lot less frequently even without the performance enhancement they are good value for money in my opinion.

(original poster)

Well, my Lanos is still running fine at 75,000 miles.

It's had a new rear exhaust, manifold and a couple of shocks (speed bumps breed like rabbits here) but otherwise sound.

I (rather than the finance company) own it now so I have played with it a bit more as due to depreciation it's now practically disposable, I hope to squeeze another two years out of it while I save for a replacement.

I found a set of 16-inch Fox FP5 alloys (16/100x4/45et) with Toyo tyres (195/45/16) on special offer so stuck them on it and the ride is a lot nicer than with the original 13-inchers. No more wandering at high speed or high winds or when braking heavily.

I replaced the standard airbox with an enclosed carbon-fibre intake kit and cold-air feed. Not much increase in horsepower without a sports exhaust to balance gas flow at the back, but it sounds a lot nicer, the power-curve is smoother and acceleration and throttle response better too.

Debadged, with a hammerite-black mesh grille and surround, ring fog lamps and the new alloys it actually looks quite nice if you are not a brand snob.