Ming's New Daily Driver (It's a GM car, but...)

[mgescuro]

THose actually look kinda cool.
Congrats on the purchase!!

Carbon FIber on the B pillar???

[Ming]

Originally Posted by mmm...bowtie

I love the finish on the wheels. I'm not a fan of chrome and wish more manufacturers would offer stock wheels in that color. Do any of those Suzukis come with stick shifts?

Yes, they come as sticks with slightly better fuel economy, but I have carpal tunnel in both wrists. I'm posting another photo of when the car was still being worked on with a close up of the "Gunmetal Gray" SWT wheels. Pretty cheap at a little over 100 bucks a wheel if memory serves, and they use the same tires.

Originally Posted by 69Firebird400

Congrats, Ming! May you have many happy, trouble-free miles in your new car! Plus, you got a great color for the Texas sun, huh? Learned your lesson from the Bonneville's black?

Yes, hot hot hot, and frequently needs cleaning! White looks good to me with a dark tint job. I had no idea what to expect with the wheel color contrast, but I like how it turned out.

[Ming]

Originally Posted by prowlerjc

I'd have taken a manual, no bra (do small cars have training bras?), but other than that, I like it.

I like the SX/4. Was this a better value?

I did too, but then I saw one in person and the SX4 has this much cargo space behind the rear seats with them up, and is in no way a "wagon" by my measure:



I wrote more about why I chose the Forenza Wagon HERE at my Suzuki blog.

[BusyBody]

Congrats and enjoy your new ride.

[nadepalma]

Fantastic Ming! Congrats on the new car. Enjoying it so far?

Take care and happy motoring!

[darndot]

I would have taken a hard drive to the head for you.
I have lost all respect for you, my GMI Overlord.

I guess I can forgive you since it is a Daewoo under the skin.
Hope you enjoy your new ride.

[Ming]

Originally Posted by darndot

I would have taken a hard drive to the head for you.
I have lost all respect for you, my GMI Overlord.

I guess I can forgive you since it is a Daewoo under the skin.
Hope you enjoy your new ride.

My Bonneville or Safari replacement will come some day, fear not.

Like you say, I never could fully pull myself away from GM, another explanation for my car choice.

Thanks guys, its great so far, I'm enjoying the smooth quiet operation of the engine. Or is it the fact that my Bonneville's failed wheel bearing sounded like 1000 angry bees and my Safari sounds like an industrial air conditioner from a dead stop?

I'm also loving the MP3 CD function and Aux-In. And of course that highly chemical Daewoo new car smell. Mostly I like that while on my commute I can drive without feeling like change is leaking from my pockets onto the road behind me with heavy gasoline usage and rip roarin' engines. The Bonneville was OK at about 19MPG mixed, but I can already tell this is going to be much better from that angle and the engine only has 100 miles on it.

I'll still need to take the Bonnie out for an occasional stretch of her legs, though.

[Ming]

Originally Posted by 69Firebird400

The finish on the wheels actually reminds me of the competition grey wheels you can get on a new Corvette. I think they look badass on a Vette, but if I was getting a Corvette, I'd probably still prefer polished aluminum. The chromed ones are a little too shiny, IMO.

I have 17-inch chrome rims on my Bonneville (the only optional accessory on the car) that look really good for about a week before they need cleaning. Go a month and they look awful. I wanted wheels that would look good for a month before cleaning, and brake dust is less likely to stick out on a gray colored rim. I also like the contrast with the white paint. Oh, and the stock plastic hubcaps absolutely stink (below, a bit hard to see). Look like they're ready to fall off, and conceal the fact that the car has disc brakes all around. You'd think they'd want to advertise that. The Forenzas used to come in a package that had aluminum wheels standard, but they fell to package changing and decontenting.

[01cavalier]

Good choice of car! I'd have to agree with you about liking a normal wagon.

[windvale]

Very nice little car...I like the interior very much...congrats !

Question - how is it a Daewoo if it's a Suzuki ?

[Ming]

Question - how is it a Daewoo if it's a Suzuki ?

It's produced in Korea by GM Daewoo and Suzuki rebadges it (Suzuki claims some level of engineering input - sends engineers over to quality check, propose things it wants). Its sold in Canada as the Chevrolet Optra. In Australia its the Holden Viva. In Korea it is the Daewoo Lacetti.

[69Firebird400]

Originally Posted by Ming

It's produced in Korea by GM Daewoo and Suzuki rebadges it (Suzuki claims some level of engineering input - sends engineers over to quality check, propose things it wants). Its sold in Canada as the Chevrolet Optra. In Australia its the Holden Viva. In Korea it is the Daewoo Lacetti.

I like the idea that someone proposed earlier of rebadging your car as a Chevy.

And about the wheels - I do like your choice - competition grey alloys trump plastic cheapo hubcaps that look like they're falling off any day of the week!

[Ming]

Problem would be the steering wheel has an "S" molded into it. I would go even more crazy and badge it as a Holden Viva if I was going for that.

More shots since I didn't have any good full length ones:

[likearock00]

Glad to see you're happy with your purchase, Ming!! Looks very nice....those cars have come a LONG way!!

[Toto]

Great choice, Ming.

It's produced in Korea by GM Daewoo and Suzuki rebadges it (Suzuki claims some level of engineering input - sends engineers over to quality check, propose things it wants). Its sold in Canada as the Chevrolet Optra. In Australia its the Holden Viva. In Korea it is the Daewoo Lacetti.

In Europe it is the Chevrolet Nubira.