Daewoo LeMans

The Daewoo LeMans is a compact car, first manufactured by Daewoo in South Korea between 1986 and 1994, and between 1994 and 1997 as Daewoo Cielo — a car mechanically identical to the LeMans, differentiated only by its modified styling cues. Like all Daewoos preceding it, the LeMans took its underpinnings from a European Opel design. In the case of the LeMans, the GM T platform-based Opel Kadett E was the donor vehicle, essentially just badge engineered into the form of the LeMans, and later as the Cielo after a second more thorough facelift. In markets outside South Korea, the original version of the car bore the Asüna GT, Asüna SE, Daewoo 1.5i, Daewoo Fantasy, Daewoo Pointer, Daewoo Racer, Passport Optima and Pontiac LeMans names. The "LeMans" nameplate was not used at all for the facelifted model. Five-door hatchback models exported to Europe were badged Daewoo Nexia with the Daewoo Racer name used seemingly at random on various bodystyles. The Daewoo Heaven name has also been used. The Cielo was subsequently replaced by the subcompact Daewoo Lanos and the compact Nubira in 1997, except in Russia where the production lasted from 1996 to 1998 and Uzbekistan where the production started in 1996 and lasted until the end of 2016. In Uzbekistan, the local manufacturer UzDaewoo Motors (later GM Uzbekistan, now UzAuto Motors) produced exclusively the second generation of the LeMans and badged it as Daewoo Nexia.