1999 Daewoo Lanos S from North America - Comments

Tires wore out completely at about 20,000 miles. Very soft rubber compound.

Dashboard squeaks terribly.

"Check Engine" light has been blinking since shortly after I bought it. Neither the dealer nor our mechanic (to whom we've brought all our cars for 15 years) could figure out why it blinks. It's annoying.

OEM brakes wore out right away.

Serpentine belt tensioner broke.

Air whooshes into the cabin from somewhere around the "B" pillar when traveling at highway speed.

At 36,000 miles, the wire loom that services the automatic transmission conked out, causing the transmission to buck and shift on its own. My wife was on the freeway when this happened. The nearest Daewoo dealer was an hour away, and they charged us $650 to replace it!

Water pump and thermostat are in one single housing, and when they failed (this is normal with all cars at some time), the mechanic had to go find a special tool to simply change the water pump... and he has been in business for 15 years and has every tool you can imagine!

The paint chips off the body panels very easily.

De-fogger failed.

The dashboard is so difficult to disassemble, the dealer charged us for 10 hours of labor when the air conditioner's condensor unit failed. Oh yeah... the entire A/C system failed, forcing me to cough up $1700 to fix the system on a car that is listed at a value of only $2000. I live in Southern California, so A/C is a necessity.

Nobody will buy this car from me, so I'm stuck with it until I run it into the ground, which I gladly will.

The engine is fantastic. Very solid, and very strong. Pulls well.

Unfortunately, the rest of the car is so poorly built, I have a hard time figuring out how the Koreans expected to survive in the auto business for very long. This car is a true piece of poo-poo. I would love to transfer the engine to a Honda Civic and keep running it, but I'll likely have to sell the whole car to a salvage yard as soon as I pay it off entirely.

Oh yes... the Daewoo dealership was bar-none the absolute worst I've ever dealt with.

Never, ever buy a Daewoo. Serves them right to go bankrupt.

My Daewoo has a winding noise I've had it fixed three times in a month and a half it has something to do with my wheel barrings and no one can figure out what is wrong with my car.

OK, so the tires are probably what the dealership put on. Can't blame the car for the tires going!! Find something to comment on that will actually be USEFUL to a prospective Daewoo buyer rather than telling us the dealership you went to has poor customer service.

Falls Apart Quickly! Thank you!

I've been wondering what FAQ means.

Having my Daewoo Lanos for three year, I have only had to replace the mufflers, tires and brakes all of which are normal wear-and-tear replacements. The car has been great for purchasing it for under 3000 dollars. The car is reliable and that has been the best thing about this car.

My '99 Lanos is very dependable and has never left me stranded. I have a closet full of parts and all I've used is an o ring from the thermostat housing! Yeah it idles a bit rough, and the intereior is cheezy all plastic, but engine is strong and doesn't leak on the driveway. I have 88K now with 1 timing belt change and that is it. Tranny seems tough too. I zip all over town with this lil cutie and park anywhere! I love it!

Okay, that made me mad, I am going to rant.

I have a 1999 Daewoo Lanos, it runs great, paid 3000 for it, at 80000 miles. I have about 107,000 now, still runs great. I push it to its governor every day, the only time it ever broke down was when my sister was driving it for a year.

Cars do need maintenance, you can't just leave them out to rust (maybe a cause of the paint chipping?). After I started driving it, I started to have issues with it squealing, from the point I got it up until about 2 months ago, about a year or so, then I started to push the car, checking the water, oil, things like that, it slowly stopped squealing.

You might find this funny, but I drove it into a ditch about a week ago. Me and my parents pulled it out, my dad drove it to "Make sure nothing was wrong" and he drove it to its limit home, including braking, steering, and engine...

So, yes, the cabin needs a little work, but what car doesn't things break inside, in any car, your going to accidentally snap something.

About the A/C, what did you buy, a flipping home cooling system to toss into the car? 2000 bucks, about what I PAID for my CAR. Nice, you either are exaggerating or got really ripped off by someone who didn't know what a Daewoo was, or what a car was for that matter.

Me and my dad have changed out the brakes for that reason, but those brakes are probably just so they sell the car then forget about it.. We put newer ones in it, upgraded the shocks and I fixed the blinking "Check engine" light on my own, by actually using the car, and warming it up before I drove it.