GM Daewoo opens new proving ground
November 5, 2007 by Alborz Fallah
If you think the Korean car industry is going to go away, think again. GM Daewoo has just opened a $US100 million ($A108 million) proving ground in Korea.
Work on the 477,000sqm Cheong-Na Proving Ground began in October 2005 with the South Korean government giving GM Daewoo a 30-year rent-free lease of the land!
GM Daewoo’s business is dominated by exports. Last year the Korean arm of General Motors made 1.5 million cars of which only 8.5 per cent were sold locally. This year GM Daewoo expects to reach 1.8 million units.
Holden currently sources the Barina and Epica from GM Daewoo (Although Australia’s version of the GM Daewoo developed Captiva has been made in Thailand since September). GM Daewoo also supplies small cars and SUVs to the rest of the GM world under several badges.
The once-struggling manufacturer was acquired by GM in late 2002 and has since seen over $4 billion of investment poured in, with more still to come. However unlike many things GM has touched in the last decade, Daewoo has been a success story.
With more and more top notch quality coming out of Korea from the likes Hyundai and Kia, there is no reason to expect anything less from GM Daewoo in the next few years.
And we’ll lay odds there will be plenty of Australian accents at the proving ground – Holden is GM’s nominated shareholder in GM Daewoo. Now they’ll be able to dial in Australian-style ride and handling into the next generation of Barinas and Epicas from the start.
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GM really should of focused on the companies they already had and pay more attention to them, instead of pouring investment into Daewoo. The Captiva is evidence of improvement for Daewoo, but they still have a long way to go. With Holden using mostly Daewoos in their lineup, better vehicles couldn’t come soon enough.
lol hahahaha, Yes past bankrupt Daewoo is a success story only because certain models built in Korea or Thailand are so cheap and nasty, if someone gave me billion’s of dollar’s to build cheap cars I would laugh to the bank as well, I have said this before Hyundai is the quality mark here, not Kia and definitely not Daewoo.
Wow Daewoo has more money for extra mass GM production, engaging in this practice under a paper thin (money) outlook will see more profit, refinement and QA problems..
“Another Great Epica Disaster” the last sentence in the post makes me laugh to, >>>>> more top notch quality coming out of Korea, there is no reason to expect anything less from Daewoo in the next few years.
OK if that is the case why wasn’t Daewoo aiming for Quality in the first place, do vulnerable owner’s still have to wait while suckers buy GM-WOO’S in the meantime, here’s one reason because Daewoo sucks GM dry awaiting more funds needed to overcome warranty and Recall complaints..etc.
Commondores might be made there soon enough… :-)
i cant remember who it is on here that keeps telling us holden might move back to sourcing opels, but this is why i find it hard to believe that they might.
a $4 billion investment!!!!!!
they will try everything to make this work first.
its like buying a lotto ticket and not checking your numbers.
im sure they will get better but will it be too late and will the holden name be too ruined by the time they have the goods?
people still cant comprehend that hyundai makes quality vehicles now
Myke, GM is the largest car company on earth, recently regained the lead from Toyto. I’m sure your advice that they are wasting their money in Korea is something the GM management should adopt immediately – not.
Woz is soooo intelligent. 2 years ago Hyundai was rubbish, now it’s quality. I’m sure GM spent 4billion to build a substandard factory – not. Kia is worse than Hyundai – Hyundai owns Kia, Kia has one of the worlds leading stylists heading up design, and the cars are now looking much better than Falcons.
The only thing they still have to learn is to make interior plastics that don’t smell disgusting, and find a way to make decent springs and steering boxes/racks.
Most of the posters here don’t remember how disgusting a piece of shyte the Toyota Tiara was, because they weren’t around when Japan was building the most puerile rubbish available – but it was cheap. The Koreans have never built a worse car than the Japs did. I still remember with horror driving the original Toyota Corona – what a piece of rubbish. Thankfully we had Fiats then, they had some soul and gave tremendous driving pleasure. And yes, they had 4 wheel disc brakes.
Those of you who think the Korean stuff is rubbish, just wait a minute or two – soon the Chinese stuff will appear, and the Kia will be elevated to dream car status in comparison the the “Sunni Blissful” or whatever they will call them…..
your right reckless, people rave about how good toyota’s and subaru’s are, but it really wasn’t that long ago at all that toyotas where just cheap jap cars and subaru’s where a complete joke. Now look at them! The rate at which hyundai have turned around is truly remarkable and there is no reason at all why daewoo cant do the same, particularly with the huge resources of GM behind them.
Woz – i laugh at you, you say hyundai is the benchmark and kia is still behind them, but mate hyundai IS kia, kia is hyundai! Ever noticed how simlar the interiors of the hyundai accent and kia rio are? How about how about the fact that all kia’s share the same platforms and engines as their equivilant hyundais? How about the fact that many many interior panels are shared between brands? But somehow they are so different? oh right, ones wearing a kia badge, and in your eyes cars are judged solely by the badge they wear!
And what about your comments that GM’s money is being soaked up by recalls etc, umm dude, seriously, do some research, if you do i guarantee that you wont be able to substantiate your claims, mainly because daewoo dont have any more warranty drama’s or product recalls then any other major manufacturer
^Korean products are on the definite improve (ie. Hyundai), however GM is trying to establish Daewoo as if they are the equilavent to a japanese car. This could be true in five years or so, but ATM they still have a long way to go.
Hey Reckless you are sooooooo ****ing wrong about Hyundai they build much better quality for it learned much quicker in the beginning, they have made great cars the last 7 or more years, Kia maybe owned by Hyundai but which part of Kia, assets, manufacturing, design, elaborate please and whats your point, Ford has a share with company’s like Mazda, jaguar etc, does Ford build the same platforms through the range..no
You must be one of the fools who bought a Holdenwoo..
“GM is the largest car company on earth” yeah whatever, not making the largest profits is sadder…
GO WOZ! Reckless#1tantum is a real looney bin who finds the most smallest reason to hate Ford and goes on like a jerk and has a tantum!
Thanks, Driving-Fords-Is-like-XXX, Richo and Reckless must own Holden dealerships or something, defending a lost battle can be pointless, I know its hard Holden fans to accept a beloved company like GM Daewoo which has to access Korean engineering to develop core products for imports and exports, if Ford was to venture down that path I certaintly would be against any such proceedings, when someone belts out figures, heresay and propaganda, I have every right to shoot them down.
I laugh when someone can dish it out, but can’t accept a debate and be civilized…
You’ve got to be kidding me… GM the largest car company on earth..? Reckless, are you seriously that dumb! I’m not gonna say Ford is the biggest on the planet, but it’s a crap load bigger then what GM is. Are you managing to forget all the other over large companies in the world… I’ll use an example, I know, the actual largest company in the world… VOLKSWAGEN! Reckless, you must be 5 years old to try and say something that big without even thinking about it. *Round of applause for the stooge*
I still remember when Reckless1 had his famous “Tantum” about almost nothing to hate Fords.
But well done (round of applause) GM biggest? you wish!
what are you talking about? I have freely admitted on a number of occasions that the current crop of daewoos (captiva accepted) are completely and utter crap, the barina in particular is the biggest peice of shit i have ever driven! I know that its a bad move by holden, i KNOW they shouldn’t have done it, all i am saying tho is that IN TIME things will improve and in 5 years time it will no longer be an issue, but yes in the mean time IT IS an issue. I have never said it wasn’t.
And woz as for what parts of kia does hyundai own, hyundai owns 100% of kia, they own EVERYTHING, have done for a number of years now. All kia’s are is re-bodied hyundais, the sportage is a re-bodied santa fe just with a smaller v6, the optima is a rebodied sonata also with a smaller v6, the rio is a rebodied accent, and theyre forthcoming cerato replacement is a rebodied i30
oh and by the way, look it up, GM is infact the biggest auto maker in the world. If you take into account all of the brands they fully own such as holden, daewoo, saab, opel, vauxhall, chevvy, pontiac, saturn, GMC, hummer, cadillac, and i’m probably forgetting a few, if you take into account all of them and they cars they sell, they are still sell more cars per year then toyota, althogh the margin is quite small. Ford are a long way behind, nothing against ford at all! They just happen to own less companies and therefore dont have as big a market share
but yes look it up, GM is still the biggest, but probably not for long as toyota is gaining on them fast
and vw is also still quite a way off being the biggest, although they are probably the most profitable, they’re biggest shareholder is porsche tho so thats probably to be expected (porsche ofcourse is the most profitable car company in the world)
and before everyone flames me down and says “no richo you are so wrong, your just a holdenwoo loser who cant take it” please take the time to read this wikipedia site on general motors and read the OPENING LINE which states:
“General Motors Corporation, also known as GM, an American multinational corporation, is the world’s largest auto company by production volume for the first 9 months of 2007, and by sales volume for 76 consecutive years.”
here is my reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_motors
look it up on wikipedia if you dont believe me!
I think Reckless is certainly right about the quality of korean cars being on the rise.
However, I think it would have been better for GM to retain the Daewoo badge instead of selling those korean cars as holdens. Whilst this would have driven up the sales of the korean-built cars, it might have a substantial negative impact on holden in the long run, in terms of perceptions of quality.
Jeez, those little woz/ford boys have been slapped in the face with facts in this thread.
One of them even said the argument shouldn’t be confused with facts haha.
Andrew, I agree that Holden has made a marketing mistake pulling the Daewoo name altogether. They should have continued the original marketing of free servicing for 3 years on the Daewoo models, which was an effective strategy against the competition that existed then – ie Hyundai and Kia. Those vehicles were pretty average then, and from memory I think there was a Daewoo station wagon which was a bargain for those needing a small wagon.
Since those days, Hyundai has acquired Kia, has taken quality pills (but have outstripped themselves on pricing a bit -$48000 for a Santa Fe Elite is rich even if the car is good), Kia has retained a superb designer and Daewoo has been acqired by GM with subsequent massive capital injection.
The Captiva is the first vehicle to show the transformation, and the next ones will continue to improve.
Spot on about Captiva – bloody nice looking car and against the trend of other so so cars Barina, Epica and dare say more Aussie input since day 1!
am i the outcast in saying the captiva is ugly and over priced…. i hated even sitting in the thing…. my grand parents wanted a medium SUV, so i took them car hunting, i sat in the thing and instantly felt un comfortable….
They ended up with a santa fe diesel, i thought it was a much better car… and in the end wasnt that much in it price wise….
to be honest i think holden have lost the plot with the daewoo thing, and i dont think it is a korean thing, cause kia and hyundai are exceptionally good at what they do, but the daewoos (holdens) still look cheap and tacky.
the epica is a discrace for holden, i cant believe there are people gullable enough to purchase this product. Especially concidering for not much more you can buy a mazda 6 or mondeo…. even camry or 380 mitsu!!
GM would of been better off using the GM Daewoo brand as there price range and holden to keep importing there opel products.
Not trying to bring ford into this, but i think ford is smart in bringing back the euro products…. there a much nicer drive!
i did drive the captiva too, and i was a little dissapointed in the diesel, it seemed to be un economical for a diesel and was noisy? anyone else found this?
I think the Captiva diesel is a little too small for what is quite a large vehicle. The engine is only 2.0l and it should have at least a 2.5 if not a 3.0.
Nissan sells a hell of a lot of vehicles with engines too small as well, such as the Patrol with 3.0 litre, the Pathfinder/Navara with peaky 2.5 litre. The patrol should at least have 6 cyl 3.0, and the pathfinder should have 3.0l 4 cyl like it used to.
When a vehicle has too small an engine, the maximum fuel economy potential of the diesel is compromised.
When a vehicle has the correct engine size, the economy can be dramatic – the I30 1.6l returned 3.2l/100k and the A3 1.9e returned 3.3l/100k in the recent trials Darwin to Adelaide. Made the Prius look like a petrol guzzler :)
Tonyn Says:
November 6th, 2007 at 11:00 am, Politically correct Tonyn, could not of said it better myself these are the proper facts that need broadcasting to unsuspecting public buying crap from the market today, the latest ad on TV showing the epica makes it look horribly cheap against the Mondeo, I bet you if you saw these two cars in the flesh side by side, the Crapica would have to ask questions of why does Holden rebadge such crap (cheap bastards)..
Distributing cars from a falling company that now needs millions of dollars to keep afloat spells bad management and to catch up to Hyundai in 5 years will mean very long deep scar’s “The Greatest Epic a disaster…
I don’t think it is too late for Holden to go back to Europeon cars, Holden might think twice about the new Vectra/Insignia due next year.
It’s a shame the Barina is selling reasonable well, otherwise they could can that and replace it with the Corsa. I saw the VXR version on 5th Gear, man it’s a fine looking car.
Yes maybe thats what is says on Wikipedia… that doesn’t mean that it is in fact the largest… bear in mind, anyone can edit the pages on wikipedia. What proves the VW is by far the largest is the fact that it has companies everywhere, I mean literally, look up the international website and just view all the different countries it’s in. More to the point, it owns Audi, which is in a whole crap load of countries aswell… and it owns probably the best sports car brand in the world… BUGATTI! VW only seems small because you don’t really see much of them around here.
Infact, do a comparence, go this site http://www.gm.com. Click on the GM Worldwide icon thing up the top right. View the “many” countries it is in.
Then do the same with http://www.volkswagen.com...
Azza it doesn’t matter how many countries you are in, what matters is how many cars you sell. GM still dominates the US car market which is still the largest car market in the world by a considerable margin, VW on the other hand isn’t nearly as strong in the US as they are in europe.
you say think about how many different brands VW owns? ok, they own: VW, Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Seat and Skoda. Some of those brands are quite impressive indeed, but however a number of them are niche brands which although may well be profitable they sell in low numbers, which significantly limits the VW groups total global sales.
Lets look at GM on the other hand, they own: Buik, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, Hummer, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn and Vauxhall, which is a total 4 brands more then the VW group, and with the exception of Hummer and Cadillac, they are all volume sellers. As a result GM’s total global sales drawf that off the VW groups. Toyota is the only brand that is close, and will in all likelyhood leapfrog them once and for all in the not too distant future, but for the monent GM is still the one.
VW have aspirations of being the biggest, but are still some way off and by their own admissions dont expect to challenge GM and toyota for quite some time yet.
Frankly i cant understand why we are even having this discussion, GM being the biggest auto maker in the world is actually an extreemly commonly known fact in the automotive world, theres not even anything speculative about it, its just something that is correct and has been correct for a VERY long time (although not for much longer!)
and yes wikipedia can be edited by anyone, so go do some more research. And by research i dont mean looking at abstract things like how many countries each brand sells cars in and drawing conclusions based on that. By research i mean proper research that draws on HARD FACTS to make their conclusions. If you do so, you will see that the VW group not only isnt the biggest car manufacturer in the world, but unless i am mistaken its actually 4th.
Just do a google search on “biggest car maker in the world” and look at the article after article after article detailing the battle between GM and toyota for the right to call themselfs the biggest car maker in the world. Notice how VW doesn’t get a mention. For the record earlier this year toyota did infact leapfrog GM as the biggest car company, but GM has subsequently re-taken the no. 1 spot, so its a bit of a see-saw battle at the moment, but toyota will almost certainly win it in the end