Once upon a time my parents had a Daewoo Leganza. It was an attractive car and, while a bit underpowered, it ran well until being totaled by another driver. In the decade since, Daewoo was broken up and sold and disappeared from the marketplace even in Korea.
Today my parents are looking for a cheap used car and they've located a nice, low mileage Leganza for about two grand. The car checks out, but they're wondering how much of a basket case it would be to own an orphan car like this. Anyone have any experience or advice?
I seem to remember getting some parts from the GM dealer back in the day but I do not recall what for.
Sorry 
Paul B
Have them walk away. No.... RUN away. Finding parts for one of those is getting harder to do than locate common sense in a modern teenager.
But if they do.... the engine is a 2.2L Isuzu Amigo. The trans is a cavalier. As for body parts.... yeah... good luck there. Korean market stuff doesn't fit (fenders, bumpers, hoods, lights). And the US supply is gone. IIRC, the newest one you'd find would be a 2002. That's 10 years old on a car that wasn't that great to start with. You could find a nice '02 Hyundai that will be much easier on the wallet and much easier to get fixed.
These are folks who owned three Peugeots, so it wouldn't be their first orphan car :D
Is a Deawoo a step up or down from a Peugeot?
Seriously run away. I have no experience with Daewoo cars, but their forklifts are the worst ever.
I bought a 2000 Daewoo Leganza for the BABE rally last year.
http://daewhoopteedoo.blogspot.com/
paid $200 (two hundred) for it, honest. For that price it wasn't a bad car. The AC worked, and it got good mileage. In the 7k miles I owned it I had to replace the water pump, hoses, battery, alternator, and every piece of plastic on the interior disintegrated upon touching it, never replaced that. But other than that, it was a great car.
They're CHEAP cars. I mean really CHEAP. At $2k, you're in Accord or Camry money.
I had a Chev Optra for a while- Its a Daewoo Lacetti in the real world. Hard parts were not too bad from Worldpac and those type of places, but the GM dealer wasn't very interested in talking to you. Kind of like trying to buy Probe parts at the Ford store.
$2k and I would be looking at a lot of different cars. Not necessarily model year 2002s, but I would think a 1992 LS400 would be a better car and you can get those for sub $2k all day long. Or an Acura Legend, or a Honda Accord, or an Elantra, or ... etc.
I'd maybe check somewhere like RockAuto. I can still find parts for my Nissan Micra and Mazda 808 there.
My mother still has her Leganza. Some parts like belts hoses ect can be gotten at regular parts stores. Any OEM parts her mechaic orders through a dealer in I think Jersey. Every piece takes about three weeks to get and has a bit of an odd smell, as though it was smuggled in in a load of instant kimchee
What are those parts prices like?
The prices aren't out of line compared to other dealer parts but the wait is a problem if it's something the car needs to run.
you can get parts here: FourGreen
I ordered a discontinued Hyundai part from them, came from Korea in reasonable time. Look for discount codes, I think the owner(s) sponsor a Kia Soul bb.
