So, What's The Deal With Chevrolet Optra and Aveo?

**niky** · August 16th, 2005 12:03 PM

Don't feel bad. The Optra is dumped on everyone. :lol: *sigh* If only GM had poured its money into the Subaru engineering department and let THEM design all their cars.

**mendozil** · August 16th, 2005 11:05 PM

I own an Optra, and not that I'm being defensive but, I don't agree with what most of you say. My opinion is that most of you are just generalizing the negative things about the Optra, and Korean cars for that matter. Have any of you read reviews and owner reviews/ testraments on say the KIA Sorento? They're better than Ford Explorers, Escapes and such. If you do your research well, you will read that most, 80% of owners of the new Ford Explorer in the US actually DON'T LIKE THE CAR due to its numerous problems and have found the Sorento to be a better option by far, performance-wise and reliability. Korean cars have gone a long way. They're definitely catching up.

The problem is similar to racism, I think. Most of us are simply brand conscious, plain and simple. Nahihiya tayo kung KIA [lang] ang auto natin, but actually, the brand got better, check the JD reports. Same with the Optra. Its fine for family use, soft ride, di nakakapagod dalhin, yes, malakas sa gas ng kaunti but livable. I guess it just depends on what you want to get from it. If you want a practical commute that rides better than Corollas and such (normal city driving, NOT RACING) the Optra is really not such a bad car. Casa ko sa Pasig. In fairness, I find them pretty competent naman.

Checking battery water and such is a pretty basic thing that all drivers should be conscious about. Good drivers ALWAYS CHECK CAR FLUIDS ON A REGULAR BASIS. Safety 1st. Especially if your family members ride the car on a regular basis.

Please keep an open mind. Yes, some brands are not as popular as others, but that's what makes car manufacturers competitive. Otherwise we'd ALL be driving Corollas. That would be a pretty boring world. Diversity is not all that bad.

**carlocaraddict** · August 17th, 2005 12:10 AM

Originally Posted by edl100

Wow, grabe naman ang review ng OPTRA!!! Thanks. I never did like this car the first time I saw it. Ano ba tayo, tambakan ng bulok na korean cars dito sa Pilipinas??

korean DAEWOO, rebadged as a chevrolet, Mercedes MB100 van--a rebadged korean ssangyong van, Chevrolet AVEO--a rebadged DAEWOO something.

admit it, its a Daewoo. When it was launched in July 2003, I tried asking the SA's about that Daewoo thingie. Well, parang hirap sila aminin. Was kinda harsh that time. A potential buyer heard me saying "Daewoo ito sa Korea di ba?". He was discouraged. Open the hood and you will see the "GM-Daewoo" name on the engine number plate. I dont own an Optra but I was able to drive glntVR's Optra 1.6LS m/t with fellow tsikoteers last summer. All i could say is that I had a hard time shifting (kahit sagad na yung clutch). I was disappointed. Sayang talaga.

**zechs** · August 17th, 2005 01:08 AM

doesnt the optra get a maintenance free battery already? you mean yung old type ang kasama? where you have to fill it up with distilled battery water? hmm...for a car that is priced with if not above some other cars...this is a low point.

**carlocaraddict** · August 17th, 2005 08:14 AM

gearspeed, i assume AcDelco ang bat mo. According to mbt, di daw maganda acdelco na brand

**niky** · August 17th, 2005 04:11 PM

Originally Posted by mendozil

I own an Optra, and not that I'm being defensive but, I don't agree with what most of you say. My opinion is that most of you are just generalizing the negative things about the Optra, and Korean cars for that matter. Have any of you read reviews and owner reviews/ testraments on say the KIA Sorento? They're better than Ford Explorers, Escapes and such. If you do your research well, you will read that most, 80% of owners of the new Ford Explorer in the US actually DON'T LIKE THE CAR due to its numerous problems and have found the Sorento to be a better option by far, performance-wise and reliability. Korean cars have gone a long way. They're definitely catching up.

The problem is similar to racism, I think. Most of us are simply brand conscious, plain and simple. Nahihiya tayo kung KIA [lang] ang auto natin, but actually, the brand got better, check the JD reports. Same with the Optra. Its fine for family use, soft ride, di nakakapagod dalhin, yes, malakas sa gas ng kaunti but livable. I guess it just depends on what you want to get from it. If you want a practical commute that rides better than Corollas and such (normal city driving, NOT RACING) the Optra is really not such a bad car. Casa ko sa Pasig. In fairness, I find them pretty competent naman.

Checking battery water and such is a pretty basic thing that all drivers should be conscious about. Good drivers ALWAYS CHECK CAR FLUIDS ON A REGULAR BASIS. Safety 1st. Especially if your family members ride the car on a regular basis.

Please keep an open mind. Yes, some brands are not as popular as others, but that's what makes car manufacturers competitive. Otherwise we'd ALL be driving Corollas. That would be a pretty boring world. Diversity is not all that bad.

Actually, despite being a "Ford" man, I have no respect at all for the Explorer or Expedition... quality!!! My uncle has a Lincoln Navigator that's been in the shop forever due to a broken AT, and there are numerous niggles with other big Ford cars in the family. I have the utmost respect for Kia... especially the Pride! (which is a re-badged Ford/Mazda product... ) which doesn't break down as often as you'd think, and is really cheap to fix. I think new Kias and Hyundais are great cars.

Most people have a sore taste in their mouth for Daewoos or anything related, due to the complete collapse of the Daewoo company and subsequently the difficulty of maintaining them. Same bad rap went to Mazda for when they left, but I have a secondhand Mazda, and maintaining it isn't as hard as they make it out to be. Mazda's are also generally good cars, while old Daewoos were re-badged Vauxhall/Opel models that had the "dog" tag on them even when they were new in Europe.

The new Optra is a far cry from old Daewoos, but still lagging in terms of reliability and technology. Another car I've owned that was "nice" in the same way was our old Sentra Exalta STA. I loved that car, but I still have to admit, it's a dog of an ownership proposition, old tech, old styling, etc... specially if you're the first owner and have to deal with all the problems. As the last of the Sentra line, it was really good, but should have been better. Secondhand, it'd be terrific, though.

I'm willing to see how far GM will support and improve the Optra, but given the company's track record overall, it doesn't look very good. Ford's small car program is improving a lot with the new generation Focus (the Lynx that just left was the perfect iteration of the 323/Protege, some niggling issues for a few owners, but generally very reliable), thanks to input from Mazda and Volvo.

That's what GM needs! They have two japanese companies in their fold know for great engineering and reliability, Subaru and Suzuki... and what do they do? They use Suzuki to sell re-badged cars and they steal straight from Subaru's model line up instead of creating new models incorporating Subaru technology.

Yes, diversity is good. Without it, we wouldn't just be all driving Corollas... we'd be driving the same Corollas we were driving ten years ago...

Oh, and yes, you should check the fluids... but Chevy shouldn't advertise the battery as a "no maintenance battery"... :lol:

**edl100** · August 17th, 2005 08:14 PM

How come GM is ruining the CHEVROLET brand name? it has a very good American reputation. they build great Muscle cars, trucks, pickups, the CORVETTE, MPVs.

They have to ruin the Chevrolet name by rebadging bad DAEWOO cars. Even fitting BLAUPUNKT stereos so that it would look european??

A Daewoo car will always be a daewoo car whether it be called Chevrolet Optra, Aveo, Mercedes-Benz MB100, Opel Kadett, etc.....

I have a daewoo vacumm cleaner and it broke within a year.

**edl100** · August 17th, 2005 08:15 PM

BTW, the kia sorento is a good car. Anyway, this is a Kia. DAEWOO is the one to avoid.

**zechs** · August 17th, 2005 09:35 PM

other korean cars are good..kia ang hyundai, have you guys looked at a sonata? damn, it looks good IMO. daewoo is a thing of the past, let it be the that way. hahaha