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I had read a few things here and there, so I decided to follow up. My conclusion? There's a lot more GM DNA in Daewoo cars (In particular the Chevy Optra / Suzuki Forenza) than I had thought:
Lacetti / Optra info
http://irishcar.com/daewooleganzabb.htm
http://www.fastlane.com.au/Reviews/Leganza.htm
Lacetti / Optra info
Called Lacetti in Korea (Chevy Optra in Canada), the Nubira is the product of United Nations, like its predecessor. If you remember, the last generation was styled by Italy IDEA, employed Australia Holden engines and was helped engineered by Germany Porsche using Opel Vectra suspensions. The new Nubira is a similar story. The styling comes again from Italian - this time the more famous Pininfarina studio. The engines are again bought from Holden. The chassis was tuned in UK by an anonymous consultant company (believed to be Lotus). It was developed during the hard time Daewoo went into receivership and was finished by new owner General Motors.
Thanks to GM's quality control procedures, the new Nubira feels well built and robust. Durability tests carried out on the hot and rough-surfaced Australian roads should result in pretty good reliability, showing the company intention to revert the poor image of Korean cars.

http://irishcar.com/daewooleganzabb.htm
In the mechanical department, Daewoo?s continuing association with General Motors continues as the 2-litre engine is developed with the help of GMs Australian subsidiary Holden.
Thats a good start, because the Ozzies are picky about having their engines reliable under extremer circumstances than well ever get in Ireland this side of a total global-warming meteorological transformation.
They also like them to be smooth. In both areas the Leganza?s motor qualifies comfortably. Power output at 133bhp is maybe marginally up on the class average, but anyway is adequate.
http://www.fastlane.com.au/Reviews/Leganza.htm
Leganza is the third member of the trilogy of cars developed by Daewoo since it parted company with GM in 1992.
And, like its more compact and modest stablemates the Lanos and Nubira, the upmarket Leganza too was developed in a programme of international `guest engineers'.
For instance, the body was designed by ItalDesign and Giorgetto Giugiaro (guess where they're from), with various other contributions from around the world. Including under the hood - an Australian-made 2.0 litre twin-cam engine from General Motors Holden.
http://www.autoweb.com.au/section_1/id_DAE...wcars/info.html
Powertrain
Daewoo will use a two-litre, DOHC four cylinder engine in Leganza which is supplied by General Motors Holdens in Australia. The latest generation engines, known as D-TEC, were jointly developed by Daewoo and GM-H and feature new Daewoo-designed intake and exhaust components as well as a new engine control system. Engineers focussed on refinement and efficiency to produce a quieter, smoother powerplant which complements the extensive refinement of the total vehicle.