Daewoo Chevrolet Forums and Owners Club

Over the years I have had many different cars to suit many different purposes. I'm sure that most of us have had to buy that family car once the kids come along then reacted once they've grown up and left by going out and buying something frivolous.

So-I've ranged from a Toyota Hiace camper van through to the Matiz via stuff like a BMW 730i; Fiat X1/9; Metro turbo and three Subarus.

Now I find that I only really use a car for the daily commute. Gone are the days when I covered the entire UK driving 40,000+ miles per year. They were the Beemer years.

I admit that I came across the Matiz rather by accident. I became fed up with huge bills for repairs and fuel on a Subaru Legacy, the final insult when the exhaust needed replacement. I drove straight to the nearest car dealer who, it turned out, had changed to Chevrolet from VW. I enquired about small, economical cars and was shown the Matiz.

My first impression was favourable. I rather liked the bold colour, Ocean Blue. The interior looked airy and most surprisingly spacious and I fitted in comfortably. I'm not small at just under 6' but had plenty of headroom. I asked about specification as I won't consider anything without air-conditioning, remote locking and power steering. The 1.0 SE + had all of them along with electric front windows and a height-adjustable driver's seat.

Duly impressed, I asked for a test drive. This was arranged on the spot. I was pleased with the performance. The little engine pulled sweetly through the gears and seemed to draw deeper breaths above 3000 rpm. The gearchange was fast and precise but the whole experience let down by the rather crashy ride and body lean through corners.

I came back actually rather stunned by the Matiz. I have learned never to trust motoring journalists and this view was reinforced by my reckoning over that of Top Gear.

When I sat down to look at the figures, I was astonished to be offered a good amount for my sickly Scoobie against leasing a new Matiz. I got a three year deal for £99 monthly and had the servicing covered.

I have now driven over 13,000 miles, with no problems. The fuel consumption averages 45 mpg. I can fit the weekly shopping into the boot and feel comfortable after each drive. The engine is run-in and sounds actually quite good. I do grin when it reaches that 3000 rpm as it suddenly comes 'on song' and pulls well for a mere 1 litre. I'm still not happy with the ride or ultimate cornering but can live with the low standard.

I am positive that there are better cars out there-but I challenge anyone to find anything better for the price.

Update.

I really like this leasing business-just got my new 12 months tax through the post. The only extras for which I have to pay are petrol and insurance. Everything else is covered.

My name is T&A and I'm an ex-Matiz owner.

I got married in 1999 and left my job in England to move to Scotland. With the job went my company car (Rover 200 TD) and the insurance with it. I had a couple of 'offs' with that car so getting my own insurance on even a banger was hopeless - how about 1.5K to insure a Cavalier worth 1.2K. Daewoo were offering free insurance and the cheapest car was a Matiz SE - i.e. the base one. I also had no money so getting one on finance seemed sensible. So I did.

It suited my daily comute to the centre of Edinburgh quite well. Hills were always an issue, the handling on the wet cobbles of the 'old town' was hit and miss, mostly miss and the ride was bouncy - the narrow track and solid beam rear axle didn't help. Neither did Edinburgh roads which are worse than Beirut in most cases.

For most of its life with me the Matiz, known as Henri - Henri Matiz geddit ? - served as a second car, my comute car. My wife decided to change jobs and at that point it became our only car and worked well. The engine was nippy to 50, above that headwinds had an effect. The engine sounded like a mini Porsche flat 6 at full chat, but it kind of lived at full chat most of the time. The lack of torque became annoying, but it worked as a good, basic runabout and I wanted to like it more like I used to like my Minis but our relationship was love-hate.

The end of our relationship came when my wife became pregnant with our son. I worried a little about the Matiz from a safety angle - perhaps unfairly. The final straw came when I got one of those dent-removal people to get rid of a dimple in the bonnet and the guy just pushed it out with his finger, no tools. "Yeah, these are dead thin" he said. I appreciate that the thin metal was to save weight, I wanted metal around my sone though - anyone who has driven with the morons of Midlothian will know why.

I was more than halfway through the finance so I just handed it back. Despite threats of this affecting my credit rating I found out that they were not allowed to do that, so Henri went to Glasgow. His new owner rang me a few weeks later and was happy I reported no major issues.

The problems people have reported here pretty much matched my experience - the gearbox is just there to make it quieter at speed. Getting 2nd at a junction or roundabout was useless. The ride was poor. The steering was diect and the cornering good on smooth roads. Anything less than a marble surface and it would skip sideways on a corner. In heavy snow it was quite good with the skinny, tall tyres and only defeated by drifts so deep that it beached itself and the wheels were off the ground. It started every day, carried 5 adults with no issue and just worked.

I never had the gasket and inlet manifold issues but I suspect that was due to low mileage. Or maybe I didn't notice. I didn't have that relationship with the car that I would check it as often as I do the cars we have now. And the inside had a horrid small, kind of like model glue which never went away.

At the same time I loved the one-box shape, the interior space and the concept of this as a city car. It was a top seller in Italy at the time as well and they love small city cars.

Now I'm more into economy than performance and I would like to try the later 1.0 version and the new suspension but the world has moved on and I'm looking at a Citroen C1 Diesel instead. A new Matiz with a better chassis, the same one-box idea with a wider track and a reasonable price would entice me back but I would want something unusual under the bonnet too. A tiny Turbo Diesel and long top gear would be perfect.

I just got my hands on my 'tiz after passing my test, I like it, replaced the front seats, gave the wheels a lick of paint; looking into a few bits to get it to like hills a little more, but apart from that, I like mine a good deal.

My wife has just bought a 2005 1.0Se to replace her beloved Peugeot 106 diesel she owned since new in 1993.

She only drives around town. Period. So parking and ease of entry are paramount.

40k miles and she is fourth owner. Bodily very good, couple of scratches. Silver metallic so my Yaris touch up paint works. Mechanically - seems fine. Gearchange very notchy... changed oil (due) for Castrol SMX-S which has improved it a lot.

FULL service either by selling garage - or me.. including antifreeze and brake fluid change. Fully rustproofed all suspension items... the rear arms were bubbling and very rusty. Removed/derusted and repainted the transmission cover.

Tyres all new. Exhaust rear box replaced by previous owner: I derusted entire system - especially round welded joints and painted with aluminium heatproof paint. (The Peugeot had its original rear box - 17 years old). Repainted rear drums and front calipers. Touched up kerbed alloys.

Fitted mats £13 from local accessory shop.

Runs very well . Gearchange nice and light. Bit crashy over potholes but OK. Lots of room inside and she finds it great for parking.

Fuel consumption? Only 50 miles so far. Noise at 60mph? Not done it yet.

Seems nice car for not much money.

Had our 1999 800cc SE plus Matiz about a month now. Just needed a second car as a runaround so we basically looked for anything that came into the cheaper tax bracket. Only had £400 to spend so wasn't expecting much and was expecting to get a much older car than we got. Found ours on "pre-loved" 44k FSH, 10 months MOT, 1 Months tax. Faults were listed as passenger electric window didnt work, and has plenty of knocks and scrapes but it was only £250. Decided to go and have a look as we was desperate for a car. 3 doors, bootlid and one wing were all dented, and someone had put 185 tyres on the alloys so they rubbed when you turned but apart from that it drove ok. Had looked at others on the internet and nothing else was around for that sort of price so bought it.
Boot lid dent just popped out when pushed from the inside so that was an instant fix, scanned ebay and found a seller scrapping the right colour and managed to buy the 3 doors and wing, 4 alloys all for £85. Collected them and 3 hours later the car was nearly perfect again. Electric window needed a new switch so went to the breakers and picked up loads of odds and ends for £20 and the car was finished. Previous owner rang me up after 2 days to say she had found a spare key for it and couldn't believe her eyes when i turned up in it.
Had an issue with it starting but spare ignition coil that had got from the breakers had cured that.
Overall find performance is good for the size of engine, its great on petrol and is comfortable enough. No idea what it would be like on a motorway or long trip as we only do 5-10 miles a day in it and its ideal for what we needed and really pleased it cost just over £350.

Sounds good!

Hey,

I got my Matiz at the end of June this year (2010). Decided I wanted one for learning in and to have as my first car. I was going to have a 1988 Austin Metro Auto, but decided I will have a Matiz instead. I found mine in the local newspaper which has an issue every Thursday. My Matiz was found in the spares or repairs section and the advert read "Daewoo Matiz, W reg Tax and MOT'D, need tlc and attention", £450.
Located only in Cardiff I called up the seller, viewed it, went for a test drive in it and it was super. The seller was an old gentleman who kindly reduced the price to £400. I was happy to pay the sum, so i popped down to the local cash machine, popped out 400 and payed it up front in cash and did the paperwork!!
The only issue that this Matiz had ,was the battery was not charging! The Alternator somehow just packed in after the gentleman parked the Matiz outside his home for about 4 months. Weird or what? Anwyay, i replaced the alternator, polished it had it valeted, insured and it was ready for use!! Its in an un-molested condition, and everything is original! Accept for the chrome which i have fitted to the end of the tailpipe!! It also nicely, still retains its Daewoo dealer sticker in the rear window and its Daewoo dealer original tax disc holder which is still nicely stuck onto the windscreen

It is currenty being enjoyed as our family 2nd car at the moment. As soon as I pass my test I will be using it. I'm looking foward to that! Its pretty lively for an 800cc engine! I'm not afraid to takeover someone and go into the second lane! LOL

Cheers,
Dan.

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Hey,

I got my Matiz at the end of June this year (2010). Decided I wanted one for learning in and to have as my first car. I was going to have a 1988 Austin Metro Auto, but decided I will have a Matiz instead. I found mine in the local newspaper which has an issue every Thursday. My Matiz was found in the spares or repairs section and the advert read "Daewoo Matiz, W reg Tax and MOT'D, need tlc and attention", £450.
Located only in Cardiff I called up the seller, viewed it, went for a test drive in it and it was super. The seller was an old gentleman who kindly reduced the price to £400. I was happy to pay the sum, so i popped down to the local cash machine, popped out 400 and payed it up front in cash and did the paperwork!!
The only issue that this Matiz had ,was the battery was not charging! The Alternator somehow just packed in after the gentleman parked the Matiz outside his home for about 4 months. Weird or what? Anwyay, i replaced the alternator, polished it had it valeted, insured and it was ready for use!! Its in an un-molested condition, and everything is original! Accept for the chrome which i have fitted to the end of the tailpipe!! It also nicely, still retains its Daewoo dealer sticker in the rear window and its Daewoo dealer original tax disc holder which is still nicely stuck onto the windscreen

It is currenty being enjoyed as our family 2nd car at the moment. As soon as I pass my test I will be using it. I'm looking foward to that! Its pretty lively for an 800cc engine! I'm not afraid to takeover someone and go into the second lane! LOL

I have spent just £431.69 on the car!
1. Daewoo Matiz SE+car= £400.00
2.Service Kit=£20.69
3. Second hand alternator=Amazingly was only £11.00!!
All giving a total of £431.69!
Service kit was bought so i could give the Matiz a service myself! I never ever trust mechanics to even touch my car!! Anyway! dad is a meachanic technician, lol he can touch it! haha

Cheers,
Dan.

I came into possession of a Matiz '00 a few weeks ago. Previous car was a black '92 Fiesta (with a beautiful red pentagram on the bonnet - stylish).

Won't be doing the same with this one as it's burnt orange and not mine (on loan). So far though, I've been pleasantly surprised. The 800 cc engine is actually surprisingly powerful and quicker than the Fiesta (1.1 L). If I could sum up this car in one word I would say "nippy" as it's agile and fairly quick on acceleration - no doubt due to it weighing not much more than a brick.

It's hilarious how small the turning circle is - I already pissed someone at work off by being able to turn in a 5 m circle easily and nicking their space while they were busy doing a 3-point turn.

Few little niggles that I've already sorted - fitted a new battery and air filter as for some reason the wrong air filter was fitted! Also a few more small issues that hopefully friends and you guys can help with.

But overall, I'm very pleased with the £0 cost of this car