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Careful of what car your buying.

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The_Bollocks
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Careful of what car your buying.

Post by The_Bollocks »


Most of you probally know that a car can be sold with different names depending on the country. A classic example:

Opel Kadett (Sold in Europe; except U.K.)

Vauxhall Astra (Sold in U.K.)

Pontiac LeMans (Sold in North America)

Daewoo LeMans (Sold in Asia)

All of these are the same car, but with different names. You would often think why didn't they sell the Opel Kadett as the GM Astra or whatever all over, since all of these cars are made by General Motors. It is scary to think that when you buy a Pontiac LeMans, (Pontiac having a good history of good, reliable mussel cars), you are also buying a Opel/Vauxhall, or worse, a DAEWOO! And since it has a Pontiac badge on it, the price would be a bit more expensive than if it were badged as a Daewoo. I think it is fraud at its best. Same goes for the late 1990's Ford Fiesta and the Mazda 121, both were the same, but the Ford would cost a little more becuase it had the blue oval on the grill, even though the two cars were both the same. Same with the VW Lupo and the Seat Arosa, the list is endless. So be careful when buying a car, you could have the exact same car for less, just because of what is on the grill.

1982 Ford Escort Mk3 1.3 L (restoration project)
1990 Nissan Micra K10 L (my first car, currently in long term storage)
1995 Ford Escort Mk6 1.3 CL (current everyday car)
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Small Block
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Re: Careful of what car your buying.

Post by Small Block »

How's that fraud? I could understand if all those were sold on the same market, but that's hardly the case.Also "badge engineering" has been going on since the '50s, pretty much.....btw, here's what a mussel looks like Somehow, I'm under the impression that it's not really what you meant. :grin:

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Triad2Much
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Re: Careful of what car your buying.

Post by Triad2Much »

yeah... those fuckers slice my feet open every damn time I set foot in my lake.

then its really hard to swim with flapping skin on your feet.
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Carboy717
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Re: Careful of what car your buying.

Post by Carboy717 »

Pontiac LeMans (Sold in North America)

No its not
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Alan
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Re: Careful of what car your buying.

Post by Alan »

It WAS sold here, years back..
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Qwerty_86
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Re: Careful of what car your buying.

Post by Qwerty_86 »

Maybe they don't sell them in Canada.

Well, they do have badge enginnering domestically. Classic example are '80s/'90s GM cars/trucks. They look exactly alike with some minor cosmetic changes. But the general public is stupid so they don't know that their Caddy is also an Oldsmobile. Most people don't care. If they have the money to spend, they'll spend it. Used cars are a different story.
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Econobrick
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Re: Careful of what car your buying.

Post by Econobrick »

hmm? Well apparently they did, 'cause there used to be a fair number of them around here (still a few i think). i kinda liked them in a way?!

The Cadillac Cimmaron is the hieght of excellence?! A wealthy (i guess) Cavalier?!
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Deep_Blue
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Re: Careful of what car your buying.

Post by Deep_Blue »

Sez Carboy:

Pontiac Lemans (sold in North America)

No its not
Yes it was! I owned one until four months ago!

Image

See?!

The Opel (a subsidiary of GM's Buick division) Kadett E was licensed to Daewoo, shipped to South Korea as parts, assembled in Korea, badged as a Pontiac and imported back to the U.S. as the Pontiac LeMans.

(Just a bit of trivia here-the Opel Kadett C was the Chevrolet Chevette).

Vauxhall Astra to the U.K. and so on...

Damned good car, it is! 45 MPG. 1.6L SOHC 5-speed manual gearbox-and everything was MODULAR! Easy to fix. Mine's still in service, in fact. My stepson still drives it.
***When I die may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline***
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valium
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Re: Careful of what car your buying.

Post by valium »

in a period of 12 years my parent owned 4 opel kadett's and every single one of 'em had it's own special problem.

by the way, i like this model better

link
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Evil Blarg
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Re: Careful of what car your buying.

Post by Evil Blarg »

Time for some Eddie-logix:

So if Opel is Pontiac, is that an explanation of why the Opel Manta reminds me of a trimmed down cheaped up Pontiac Firebird (or Camaro, I mix things up alot).
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The_Bollocks
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Re: Careful of what car your buying.

Post by The_Bollocks »


I'd say, maybe I'm wrong, the Opel Manta is more cost effective to run for us Europeans (4 cylinder engine instead of a V8), likewise with trim, seeing that there is no need for extras on a rally/racing aimed car. It is odd however that their wasn't a Vauxhall variation of the Manta.

1982 Ford Escort Mk3 1.3 L (restoration project)
1990 Nissan Micra K10 L (my first car, currently in long term storage)
1995 Ford Escort Mk6 1.3 CL (current everyday car)
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Carboy717
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Re: Careful of what car your buying.

Post by Carboy717 »

OH ok i know what the lemans is now lmao, i though that was called something else, i firefly? or something like that
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Secret Chimp
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Re: Careful of what car your buying.

Post by Secret Chimp »

I think GM is being a little sneaky with reintroducing Daewoo under its own badges. I'll bet a large majority of your average schmuck has no idea what a Chevy Aveo really is. Not that I blame them; considering how shit-tastic Daewoo did in the US by itself, they're going to have to be sneaky.
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Alan
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Re: Careful of what car your buying.

Post by Alan »

I think the Firefly was a Metro/Suzuki variant sold strictly in Canada? In my old GM computer they showed it listed under Metro parts, so there you have it!
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Carboy717
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Re: Careful of what car your buying.

Post by Carboy717 »

Image

^^Firefly^^
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The_Bollocks
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Re: Careful of what car your buying.

Post by The_Bollocks »


That motor is the exact same as the Suzuki Swift, Geo Metro, and the late model Subaru Justy, but at least the Justy was all wheel drive. These car companies are a sneaky bunch of fucks, GM in particular. Toyota do it aswell, i.e. Toyota Altezza = Lexus IS200, and another by Ford, i.e. Ford Sierra XR4i = Merkur XR4i. No wonder Merkur's never sold as good as they should, no one knew what the Hell a Merkur was.
1982 Ford Escort Mk3 1.3 L (restoration project)
1990 Nissan Micra K10 L (my first car, currently in long term storage)
1995 Ford Escort Mk6 1.3 CL (current everyday car)
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Mustang
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Re: Careful of what car your buying.

Post by Mustang »

down here all they did to daewoo was put GM in front of so its call GM Daewoo. Holden (being the shit car company they are) are also under Gm ownership so down here the opels are just holdens. also the newist pontica gto was just a rebadge holden monaro which was just a two door holden commodore
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Deep_Blue
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Re: Careful of what car your buying.

Post by Deep_Blue »

Daewoo is just Daewoo in the US now. GM owns 'em tho.

The first time around GM subsidized them and Daewoo's company president fot caught with his hand in the cookie jar. They went balls-up shortly after that until GM bought 'em out.

valium: Those Opels from the 80s-early 90s had a couple glitches:

The interior trim was made outta fiberboard and Korean military grade plastic-it disintegrated in the sun.

The 1.6 and 2.0 SOHC engines had the same problems my Newer Pontiac had-soft cams and sticky lifters after about 75000 miles.

Fuel pumps were standard GM units that lasted only about 90,000 (if ya were lucky-but the Opel had an access hatch under the back seat that made 'em a snap to change.).

They were also fraught with electrical problems-the connectors they used were made from the same plastic that the interior was made from. Coupla years in the weather and they crumbled, shorting things out....lost my first ignitor module to this problem. Busted the resta the plug apart-plugged each terminal onto it's respective lugs and hot-glued around 'em-made a new plug as it were.



The Opels ate front struts at a pretty good rate. (but on the plus side it had a trunk you could carry a Geo Metro in.).

Oh, yeah...rust....they anodized the panels, but one stone chip or some missed road salt would take care of them in short order, usually.

Interior electrics sucked-hadda rebuild mine. Alternators were too small.

The plus side was that the 1.6 and 2.0 engines weren't interference engines so if the timing belt jumped/broke-ya just coasted off the road, pulled the plastic timing cover and lined up the marks and put a new belt on.



All in all they were good, dependable cars-kinda like a lawn tractor with a Korean-German accent.



***When I die may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline***
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TheJabMan
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Re: Careful of what car your buying.

Post by TheJabMan »

The LeMans was an oogly critter, yes in canada... used to be one on my old street, white, and the back wheels were covered like a parisienne, not that they have anything in common really...well not that model :tongue:

Oh yeah, and I found this, lmao...

Image
Image
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Deep_Blue
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Re: Careful of what car your buying.

Post by Deep_Blue »

Aye, that's pretty damned horrible.
***When I die may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline***
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Beast
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Re: Careful of what car your buying.

Post by Beast »

Just a friendly rectification - the car was never sold as a Daewoo LeMans. Daewoo sold is as Racer.

Yep. Daewoo Racer.
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