Daewoo

All you want to know about Daewoo

For specific Daewoo vehicle models, see :Category:Daewoo vehicles.

Daewoo Motors arrived in the UK in 1995. At the time, it was the only manufacturer not using traditional dealerships; it owned and operated its own retail network. It was once considered to be near the top 10 motor companies in terms of production.

Daewoo was forced to sell off its automotive arm, Daewoo Motors, to General Motors by the Kim administration. Since then, GM has been moving to rebadge Daewoo cars as the low-end models for many brands, including Chevrolet. GM was sued by Daewoo's former U.S. dealer network over this practice, since they no longer had new Daewoo cars to sell.

Daewoo commercial vehicles division was sold to Tata Motors of India.

See also GM Daewoo and Daewoo Motor Sales

Current status

Daewoo Electronics survives to this day despite bankruptcy, with a new brand logo "DE", but many of the other subsidiaries and divisions have become independent or simply perished under the "reorganisation" of the Korean government under Kim Dae Jung. In North America, Target stores market Daewoo Electronics products under their "Trutech" brand on an ODM basis.

The group was reorganized into three parts: Daewoo International, Daewoo Engineering & Construction and Daewoo Corporation. It is active in many markets; the most important are steel processing, ship building and financial services.

In 2004, General Motors pulled the Daewoo brand of vehicles out of Australia and New Zealand, citing irreparable brand damage. Later that same year, GM announced that Daewoo Motors in Europe would change its name to Chevrolet as of January 1, 2005. In 2005, it was announced that Daewoo cars would have a Holden badge in Australia and New Zealand. In South Africa, Thailand and the Middle East, Daewoo models were already being sold as Chevrolets. Only in South Korea and Vietnam does the Daewoo marque survive.

The Daewoo commercial vehicle manufacturer was taken over by Tata Motors - the world's 5th largest medium and heavy commercial vehicle manufacturer.

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Daewoo is also moving into the oil & gas industry. While many oil & gas companies decline to conduct business in Burma^{[citation needed]} on account of the abysmal human rights record of the ruling military junta, Daewoo is one of two (the other the French company Total^{[citation needed]}) which has undertaken exploration in the country^{[citation needed]}. During explorations Daewoo found one of the largest gas fields in SE Asia located in Blocks A1 and A3 about 100km off Sittwe in Rakhine State, which they will likely put into production within the next 5 years, thereby providing a lucrative (and probably the largest) source of hard currency finance for the ruling junta. It is unclear whether the link between Daewoo and the oppressive military regime in Burma^{[dubious – discuss]}^{[citation needed]}, responsible for recent bloody crackdown of peaceful monk-led anti-government protesters in September and October 2007, will further hurt the reputation of the company. However, Daewoo has long been known as one of the largest foreign investors in the country.

Apart from involvement in the Burmese oil & gas industry, the Daewoo International President Lee Tae-yong, has been indicted in South Korea for allegedly illegally selling military hardware to the junta.^{[dubious – discuss]}^{[citation needed]}

On Thursday, November 15th, 2007 Lee Tae-yong and thirteen other South Koreans were convicted of illegally exporting weapons technology and equipment to Burma along with other related charges.^{[citation needed]}