That’ll be the Daewoo
The last time they made a car called the Chevrolet Cruze, it was a rebodied Suzuki Wagon R:
This time, it seems Chevrolet Cruze will be the export name for the Daewoo Lacetti replacement in Europe and the US. It doesn’t look very American at all—as usual, it looks Korean, which it is. The good news is that the platform is shared with the next Opel Astra and engineered in Rüsselsheim.
Speaking of dodgy Daewoos, I saw, in the metal, the new Holden Barina—Daewoo Gentra X in its country of origin—and the transformation is not very pleasant. The grille does not have a centralized Holden lion badge: it’s placed higher within the grille. Here’s the original Korean model as on Autocade for reference:
I imagine that New Zealand is not going to be far behind Australia, given that the news reports of the facelifted Barina only appeared in the Aussie press earlier this week. Admittedly, I thought I was looking at a Škoda Fabia at first glance, then I had the misfortune of seeing the rest of it. I just hope, for buyers’ sake, this car is safer than the old Kalos.
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