796cc 50 bhp 3-cylinder engine not quite up to motorway travel. Rolled over on high-speed reverse-turn by Autocar magazine. Trim quality not brilliant. Terrible Neil Lyndon road test report in Sunday Telegraph on 4/10/98 (though Neil later had second thoughts about the car and gave it the thumbs up for what it is). Joint fourth bottom in 2002 Which reliability survey of cars up to 2 years old; 83 cars surveyed. CO2 output not brilliant at 161 for 800 and 158 for 1.0 litre, means VED for both is £120pa rather than £70pa of new Daihatsu Charade. Spate of rusty hatchbacks and no replacements available led Daewoo to scrap some early Matiz models and compensate owners under the perforation warranty. Despite one reader's 92k miles and 5 years, they don't generally seem to last much longer than 3 years or so without starting to cost an unjustifiable amount in repairs. Used values now slipping.

The Tacuma

Collapse of original servicing network in 2002 may have lead to a service gap. Timing belt and GF50 tensioner pulley replacement at 40k miles or 4 years whichever comes first is critical. 1.6s seem to have developed ECU problems and do not run properly.