Let me help NMOFGM and his colleagues and sympathizers : “buy LaCrosse from Daewoo it is your patriotic American duty!”

Yeah, “A Korean Revolution”.

They don’t even bother to rename it?

Every time I hear about Daewoo all I can think about is the MADTV skit featuring a riced out Daewoo, “Wanna see my Daewoo-woo?”

“It’s the one in the parking lot with the spinning aquarium rims and the Yugioh stickers!”

It is nice to see they are moving upscale and I do mean it. Im sure the fit and finish is going to be immaculate compaired to other GM products.
Look at the quility levels Kia and Hyundai have put over and above what GM and Chrysler have done over the last 5 or maybe 10 years.

Why not… after all, we are getting their Daewoo (Chevy) Aveo. Besides, tons of GM sold in China are assembled with Daewoo parts anyway.

I think it’s a smart move, in Korea the market isn’t wide open like the US and GM can’t export Buicks there, so why not sell it as a Daewoo.

Who the hell cares about badge engineering when it’s the only version of that model that exists in the country? Jeeze.

I am a little confused on why LLN thinks this is bad. Toyota and everyone else sells their vehicles throughout the world. 3 series are everywhere, as are Camry and Accord.

However GM has been part of some markets much longer than the others and started by either buying a company or starting a new one with a local name. Look at South America and Opel. However, different from the others, they tended to allow the areas to develop their own line of vehicles under these semi autonomous nameplates. But GM has gone global with most all their platforms and are sharing not only platforms but entire models with minor revisions. Slightly different strategy than most others but not by much.

Anyway in this case they bought a bankrupt company and kept the name Daewoo. Now they have the global products and are sharing models. It would be very stupid for GM to develop a whole new model based on the eps II platform to send to Daewoos market.

Also, LLN thinks this will be exported from NA to there. I am surprised they do not export from China though.

I would be tempted to but this badge package for the US version for sh!ts and giggles.

Yeah, LLN! Honda builds the TSX in Europe and calls it a Honda Accord and you don’t seem to give a flying fvck about that! Sure they said they weren’t badge engineering cars anymore – but that’s for the same market, not seperate ones. Who gives a crap!

I double dog dare them to do a Daewoo Camaro.

I cant believe they actually left the port holes on the hood for the Daewoo version.

Even after adding the Kia Spectra-like beak and losing some chrome it still looks pretty damn good. Now if they would just get rid of the one thing that also looks ridiculous on the Buick version as well – those stupid chrome trim pieces stuck on the hood.

johnnycanuck – that has to be one of the funniest things I’ve read on this site! A Daewoo Camaro…that would rock! Ha!

OMG. LMAO!!! Oh man. My sides hurt. This has got to be the worst badge engineering I have ever seen from one of the companies that specialize in badge engineering. You can’t compare a Buick with a Daewoo. You know what cars.com did with a Daewoo Leganza back when that piece of sh*t was sold in the states? They crash tested it, and it turned out sooo bad that they returned the pile of scrap to Daewoo as a message of disgrace to the poor quality. So next time you’re in a market for a Chevy Aveo (Daewoo Kalos), or an upcoming Chevy Spark (Daewoo Matiz) might want to think about the legend of Leganza and another failed attempt of GM trying to match the success of Toyota, Honda, Nissan, Hyundai, and Kia.

@johnny
LOL Daewoo Camaro that’s fu*king funny
Whatever negative things people have to say about this GM move. I would be happy if the built more cars in the U.S. and exported them like it sounds like they are going to be doing with this Lacrosse. To much stuff gets imported into this country and not enough gets exported. Just my opinion.

This is how rebadging SHOULD be done!

This Daewoo is completely not sold in the USDM, so why not take one of the better cars intended for our market and sell it in Asia? All the engineering has already been done, and it’s a great looking sedan.

Hell, GM might even be able to – GOSH – export these cars FROM the US into Asia since chances are this car might not sell at a high enough volume to warrant setting up a whole Asian factory just for it.

.

Setting company to build this car on foreign soil would be an OK idea for independent corporation. We are talking US government here. The taxpayers money invested into GM were meant to spent at home on building cars in US not South Korea. Now the irony is that Daewoo is less owned by GM then GM would like us to believe. Since GM could not pay obligatory notes on loans, Korean banks are stepping in. Since banks own more of Daewoo then GM att this point (and will own even more in near future, since GM can not leagally spend taxpayers money to buy foreign company or to pay foreign debt) the profit from selling this sedan will end up in Korea.
There is nothing wrong in my opinion with badge engineering (except it really haven’t worked for anyone insofar to my knowledge), and my sarcasm was aimed more at debate on consumer right to buy foreign or domestic brands. This is a perfect point were lines of foreign and domestic are so blurred, they even will confuse Michigan consumer.

More work domestically. How can this possibly be a bad thing?

It sounds better than Buick Lasagna, New-Beard or Anus

Daewoo wishes they could make a car like that

Remember, this rebadged car is being sold in a COMPLETELY different market than the US. So, other than in these spy shots, we probably will NOT see it on our shores.

HOWEVER, I wish Daewoo didn’t exist and that Chevies and Buicks were sold in South Korea instead.

be careful what you wish for johnny, what if they make a z28, but only offer it in south korea as a daewoo z28 ;P

As perhaps the only Daewoo owner on this forum (2002 Leganza, around 82k mi at the moment)… I am qualified to say that you guys are idiots. This is well in line of what happens on every Hyundai article. They are a great cars, yet there is lots of unjustified hate. Anyway…. the bad news here is GM said they will stop copy/pasting badges on cars, and they are back at it again. The good news is that I can see some buick version owners in the US buying the Daewoo grill on ebay just for lols.

Also Daewoo won’t go away. It is literally too big to fail (in Korea). Also keep in mind that Daewoo (the conglomerate) and GM-Daewoo (the auto group) are now individual companies (as opposed to in 1999-2002 when Daewoo was selling cars in US). And… Koreans are super racist and nationalistic, so even GM crap badged as Daewoo will sell better than GM-badged crap.

I saw a Daewoo Nubira the other day on the road (yes moving) so you are not alone out there

I checked out the 2010 Buick LaCrosse this weekend, and the car is exceptional! I for one do not care if South Korea gets their version of a great product that is produced here in the US. These two versions of the LaCrosse will not compete against one another.

To echo one of the earlier postings, there is nothing wrong with more work for American workers. The same workers will build both versions and allow Buick to realize volume economies in the process.

GM, keep up the Good work and you can get the US Government out of your Board Room, etc.

It is hilarious to see a rebadged American blob rebranded and sold in Korea. What a weird reversal of the norm! After all, GM relies very very very heavily on rebranding Daewoos to sell as Chevrolets worldwide and the Aveo is a Daewoo import, plus GM relied heavily here in Canada on the Leganza and Optra rebadged as Chevs. And the Cruze- well, it is a Daewoo underneath.

No the Cruze is a Delta II architecture and developed by Opel in Germany as is the Astra.

I still cannot believe the complaints about an American company actually exporting vehicles to other countries. Seems like everyone would be happy we actually had something to trade for all the stuff we buy form Korea. Anybody here do anything to sell to Korea?

mitzo…agreed. I am really really on the fence about this car (also about the new Equinox). There are elements of it which I really like, yet there are also things which are obvious GM cost-cutting we’ve all gotten used to and love (or in my case, hate). Namely the interior is a mesh of traditional buick (pre-bailout) and new Malibu. The stupid use of potholes in the front, and chrome all around just adds to the joke of this car and how it can’t actually compete with teh Lexus it tries to compete with so hard.

Why? So they come out with an amazing product, the first NEW product from the recently non-bankrupt GM… and they do the EXACT thing that they’ve been doing for the past 20 years, the exact same thing that gave their vehicles a negative image.

I had respect for the Lacrosse… up till now. It can’t be THAT important of a product if GM is going to rebadge their new luxury car as a Daewoo.

Nobody sees the 5 Series tail?

Daewoo Sh¡t.

badge engineering is when you sell ford X and mercury Y in the same market, just under different brands with slight variation in options or trim…

selling a car called X in one country and Y in another country is not badge engineering…that’s rebranding…and if you will sell more cars and make more profit in south korea by calling it the daewoo thunder**** instead of the buick lacrosse, call it the gdamn daewoo thunder****…who cares…

Everyone would rather not drive this.

Ok, you guys are smart and right as usual.

GM listened and just announced they are going to drop the Daewoo marque in Korea and start a new marque and call it Buick. While this will cost a billion dollars to make the name relevant to the Korean buyers and will lose sales because of the confusion GM felt it was the right thing to do because some idiot bloggers felt it sounded like badge engineering. All this so GM could actually export a GM product being made in the US.

@leftwingagenda
hit the nail on the head. I think these other guys just don’t like GM

^ Both LWA and carstuff.

Do any of us live in Korea? We live in the United States. The rebranded Daewoo Lacrosse isn’t being sold in the US along its Buick “older but better-looking twin sister”. My question is: What is all the complaining about?

“General Motors is no stranger to badge engineering – with not a single of its four remaining core brands able to claim a completely unique product offering”

Really? What other GM division, other than Chevrolet, sells Camaros, HHR’s, and Corvettes? Yes, some other divisions sell cars that use some of the same components, but that’s not “badge engineering”. An example of badge engineering would be two versions of a vehicle that are essentially the same, except for the badges (and maybe some trim, bumper covers, etc). Like the Cobalt/G5. Or Ford/Mercury.

If LLN’s definition of “badge engineering” means “Sharing some components with other vehicles” then virtually every manufacturer on earth is guilty of the crime. Meanwhile, the rest of the world would call this “Platform sharing” or “economics”.

GM claims that the Cruze is a global effort but GM Daewoo engineering did the work, perhaps based partly on an Opel platform. The Americans did frig-all.

mitzo is right. The Cruze shares a basic Delta II platform with the Astra, but they are essentially two different programs. The design/engineering work on Cruze was handled by Daewoo (because they are already selling it in other markets as their Nubira replacement) and the Astra is still being engineered by Opel. If they were the same vehicle, the Astra would already be on sale!

AJ, that is what I want to know. Same ole same ole. No matter what the domestics do they are hated.

And sorry but the Cruze has most definitely an Opel underneath it. No partly about it.

And from an older LLN article:
The new architecture — which is being developed in Germany — will generate sedans, hatchbacks and minivans, including a Daewoo-badged model for Korea and a Chevrolet for Europe. Mertens also revealed that vehicles riding on the new platform will share sheet metal — to simplify production — but will wear unique fascias and grilles to match individual brands.

http://www.leftlanenews.com/gm-to-launch-new-global-platform-by-2009.html

Alright. So if Lexus was to sell it’s ES in another country under what is regarded as a very inferior, lower quality brand you don’t think that would hurt the cars image as a luxury car?

Considering that the vehicles that have come over here from this make believe “inferior” brand have either failed completely or have simply been considered a no-frills economy car. No, that doesn’t make the vehicle itself worse… but I would think less of the brand name if the high-up execs believe it’s fitting for a brand like Daewoo, and I’m left thinking what the engineers, designers and execs think of this car.

jay, someone finally came up with a good point. wow.

I do not know the Korean market. Is Daewoo a Toyota/Chevrolet type brand there? I would guess it is. This may be a step for Daewoo to have an entry in the entry lux market. They may even advertise its American roots.

Perhaps it will even be placed against an Hyundai upper level model. They seem to be entering the higher classes here and I would imagine there also.

Isn’t the Buick whatever-its-called an Opel, really?

“a Daewoo-badged model for Korea and a Chevrolet for Europe” and a Chevrolet for US also, it seems – the Chevrolet Cruze, brought to you by Daewoo. Looks like the Americans changed the fascia and grille for the upcoming US version, and that is the extent of their contribution to the project.

The haters on here are pathetic. I would have a major problem if this vehicle ever made it to our shores as the Daewoo but can anyone honestly foresee that happening? JayJC08, you make a good point but Honda does exactly what you described. What we here in the US call an Acura is “badge engineered” and called a Honda in Europe. Even more of a cultural connect between US and Europe than there is between the US and South Korea. Not the same gap between the products but I’ve never read about it being a detrimental business approach for Honda. Besides, plenty of American sheeple buy them up at a premium. Based on the headline I was initially shocked but after reasoning this out, there is nothing wrong with it. So what if GM decides to give Daewoo a product boost at a potentially lucrative profit margin on the other side of the planet? And, if we the US are going to build it for export, I can’t imagine the problem anyone has with that. Good move GM but just don’t try this with any Cadillacs. That would be going too far.

I’m with Drew Johnson on this one. I feel it will water down the image of quality perceived (by some) in Buick.

Mitzo, Opel styled, designed and developed their Insignia as an Opel, and it won Europe car of the Year. That vehicle was then”badge engineered” with new front and rear treatment as a Buick and is selling like hotcakes in China as a Buick Regal. I am not sure what other revisions were made for China but we will soon find out as it will also be built here in the US and again sold as a Buick.

The LaCrosse is also based on the Opel EPS II architecture which was developed by Opel. However the actual design and development is not that clear. Interior styling was done by China under US direction. Exterior styling was done in the US. The design and development was shared by both China and the US depending on the components. But components are made in both countries for assembly in both countries.

I guess it is pretty clear that GM has become a very global company. They have spread out their work amongst four major Engineering Centers : US, Germany, China and Korea. So far it looks like it is working since every vehicle that has come out in the last 2 years has been at least competitive if not at the top.

arms, perceived by who?

US public? The masses will never know nor care.
Europe? I would think the same as the US.
China? Perhaps but again they will not care.
Korea? Maybe but then again Hyundai seems to be successful in their strategy. And perhaps they will advertise it as US made to actually increase the image of Daewoo.

There are only two auto manufacturers, GM and everybody else…

GM. AN Americna Revolution!

With regard to badge engineering, just a reminder this is not reserved for GM. Let us think of a few examples shall we:

Toyota Camry – Lexus ES350
Toyota Prius – Lexus HS250H
Volkswagon Taureg – Porsche Cayanne
Volkswago Passat – Audi A4, Audi A6
Honda Accord – Acura T/L
Ford Taurus – Lincoln MKS
Audi RS8 – Lambo Gallardo
Nissan Morano – Infiniti FX
Nissan Maxima – Infinity G37
Ford Escape – Small Land Rover

I am sure that we could double or even triple this list. Some of these efforts are better than others and others are simply an unsubstantiated premium.

@ebleyes

You are mistaken.

GM could easily export to the SKorean market (as do BMW, Mercedes, Honda, Nissan, Lexus, VW, etc.) – but it just didn’t make sense for GM since it doesn’t have products that are appealing to the SKorean market (for the price; same reason why GM models don’t sell well in Japan).

The tariff on auto imports is 8% – which is not much higher than that for Canada and LESS than the 10% duty that the EU and Australia have on auto imports.