It appears GM has a plan. Back in Fall of 2009 GM effectively increased their share of Daewoo from 51% to 70%. Okay, cool.
Recently, it’s been revealed that GM will rename and/or rebadge all Daewoos (including all those in Korea) to the Chevy nameplate. It’s not clear yet if the Daewoo name will disappear entirely, but it’s likely that the badge change will occur before the Busan Auto Show in April 29th.
This may reflect an increasing integration between GM and Daewoo. For example, the Lacetti Premiere’s platform was co-developed primarily by Opel and Daewoo. All primary design work and initial manufacturing (not to mention plant and design “debugging”) has been done at Daewoo’s Incheon plant. As I’ve mentioned before, the Lacetti Premiere will be sold as GM’s primary “Corolla-killer.” The other car that will share the Lacetti/Cruze platform will be the Chevy Volt, which is apparently GM’s “savior car.”
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Killer corollas just have themselves to worry about.
I don’t know about that GM snowjob, but the time is now 4:00 a.m., and there’s a heavy snowfall here in Seoul.
Jeffery Hodges
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GM must be planning to market the cars to wealthy middle-aged women.
(It’s obscure – I admit – but think about it.)
In terms of nameplate change. I’m indifferent. The only thing is if I’m a Daewoo dealer. Would it be easier to sell a car that has changed it’s brand name?
Like Chrysler. If I was a Chrysler dealer, would it be easiler to sell it as a Chrysler or as a Fiat? I’m sure many Koreans would think that Chevy is as foreign a sounding name as an American would Fiat.
I can’t imagine a more-unpronounceable-to-Koreans brand name than “Chevrolet”.
Not hard to imagine… Chae Boh Lae.
I don’t have hangul characters on this computer…
hmm…Does Chevy or Daewoo have a better reputation….?
in Korea and elsewhere..
I guess Chevy believes their own badging is better
Wonder if they’ll tak on 1 or 2 grand to the pricetag like
Toyota and Lexus.
Methinks… GM is doing this so they can sell other, non-Daewoo made cars into the Korean market without the hassle and expense of setting-up a separate dealership network and brand identity in Korea… Methinks…
If that’s the case, why don’t they just rebadge Chevy’s as Daewoos? Well, then again, it would be an odd sight to see a Silverado, Equinox or Camaro with a Daewoo badge… I think the rebadge only makes business sense if it won’t seriously impact the brand identity and sales of Daewoos in the Korean market.
I’ve seen and known many many Korean Americans and can’t seem to remember one driving an American car unless it was an SUV.
There is too much smoke here for there not to be a fire:
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2917668
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