The Daewoo Lacetti is a compact car manufactured and marketed globally by GM Korea since 2002 and now in its third generation.
The first-generation Lacetti was available as a four-door sedan and five-door station wagon, styled by Pininfarina—and five-door hatchback styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro. The sedan and wagon were marketed as the Suzuki Forenza in North America. The hatchback, was introduced in 2004 and marketed as Daewoo Lacetti5 in South Korea, Suzuki Reno in the United States, Daewoo Nubira in Europe, and elsewhere also as the Chevrolet Nubira and Lacetti.
In November 2008, the second-generation Lacetti was launched as the Daewoo Lacetti Premiere, a badge-engineered version of the Chevrolet Cruze, co-developed by GM Daewoo and Chevrolet. It was marketed under the Daewoo marque until the beginning of 2011, when the brand was discontinued, and was marketed under the Chevrolet and Holden brands.
The name Lacetti derives from the Latin "Lacertus", meaning "youthful".
Lacetti was developed based on its predecessor Nubira under Daewoo before it was acquired by GM. The four-door sedan, designed by Pininfarina, was launched in South Korea on 25 November 2002, following a development period of two years and six months.
A pre-production prototype of the five-door hatchback, styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro, was shown at the Frankfurt Motor Show in September 2003 with production starting in December. The hatchback featured a different exterior and interior design than the sedan.
At the Geneva Motor Show in March 2004, Daewoo revealed the station wagon body variant penned by Pininfarina with the hatchback's updated interior and a facelifted derivative of the sedan's frontal styling. The facelift replaced the three-slot grille with a single item for a new full-length item featuring a bold horizontal bar capped in the center by the company's logo. The wagon's door handles ditch the lift-up variety from the sedan and hatchback for pullout versions.
A facelift for the sedan was released on 25 March incorporating these new door handles, front-end styling and interior changes. The hatchback also received new door handles around this time.
The sedan was facelifted for some markets from 2007, receiving the same front end as the hatchback featured since its debut. This version was only produced in certain countries, such as Colombia, India or Thailand, and in 2013–2016 in Uzbekistan as the Daewoo Gentra.
In South Korea, the four-door Daewoo Lacetti was released in 2002. The five-door hatchback showed off only after the 2004 facelift of the sedan, which mainly included a new front grill, switching from a three-part corporate Daewoo grill to a simpler, Chevrolet-style grill. The hatchback name was Lacetti5, offering a specific design for the front, rear and dashboard.
The wagon version, called simply the Lacetti Wagon, was introduced in late 2007—though it was already sold in many other countries. It had the same dashboard as the hatchback, with the sedan front end. At the same time, GM Daewoo introduced the VM Motori diesel engines on the Lacetti range.
When the Lacetti Premiere was introduced in November 2008, the sedan and wagon version sales were discontinued, leaving the only hatchback in the range, renamed Lacetti EX. The Lacetti EX was discontinued in October 2009.
In Australia and New Zealand the Daewoo Lacetti was briefly sold between September 2003 and December 2004 as a four-door sedan. At this time, Daewoo withdrew from the Australian market. Fitted with the 1.8-liter engine rated at 90 kW (120 hp) and 165 N⋅m (122 lb⋅ft), the Lacetti offered standard five-speed manual or optional four-speed automatic transmission. The single trim level, called SX, included are dual front airbags, air conditioning, power steering, keyless entry, power windows, CD player, and an alarm. The special edition SX Limited from October 2003 added anti-lock brakes, side impact airbags, alloy wheels, climate control air conditioning, six-stacker CD player, tilt/telescopic steering wheel, lumbar support for the front passenger seat, and leather trim.
From 2005, the Lacetti (sedan and wagon) and Lacetti hatchback were sold together as the JF series Holden Viva. It was introduced at around the same time as the Daewoo Gentra-based Holden Barina. Unlike the Barina, however, the Viva was meant to be below the premium Holden Astra as a budget alternative.
Despite the Viva's lower price compared to the Astra (A$17,990 compared to A$21,990), the Astra continued to outsell the Viva by a factor of about two-to-one.
With the release of the all new Holden Cruze in mid-2009 the Viva ceased to be sold in Australia. In New Zealand, where many cars are imported second-hand from Japan, several Japanese specification Chevrolet Optra sedans and wagons were also sold.
The Lacetti was available in Canada as the Chevrolet Optra in two models, a four-door hatchback (the Optra5), and an Optra wagon, all in LS or LT trim levels (2005 wagon only had base or LS trim levels). The sedan was available for model years 2004 and 2005, but was removed for 2006. All are powered by the 2.0-liter inline-four D-TEC engine, rated at 119 hp (89 kW) at 5400 rpm and 126 lb⋅ft (171 N⋅m) of torque at 4000 rpm, driving the front wheels through either a five-speed manual transmission or a four-speed automatic. Despite its compact size and the 2.0-liter engine, fuel economy was poor rated at 10.7 and 7.4 L/100 km (22 and 32 mpg‑US) for city and highway driving, respectively, which was worse than mid-size cars like the Toyota Camry or Honda Accord, considering that the Optra was a compact car.
The car was positioned as a versatile and fun to drive but affordable budget compact family car. Brakes are disc, front and rear. The Optra slotted between the Cobalt and the Aveo, and it replaced the Daewoo Nubira.
Independent suspension, 15-inch wheels, and CD player were standard on the LS sedan, with optional ABS and air conditioning; the LT adds standard air conditioning and cruise control, standard fog lamps on both LS and LT, and an optional sunroof. The sedan is rated as an Ultra Low Emissions Vehicle.
The Optra5 hatchback was added to the line-up for 2004 and was more contemporary in styling and equipment, with projector type headlights and fog lamps, clear taillight lenses, and blackout grille. In addition to the same options available on the sedan LS and LT models, an options package contained alloy wheels, sunroof, spoiler, leather steering wheel and shift knob, and steering wheel mounted controls for the eight-speaker audio system.
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