A recent ad campaign touted the Daewoo Leganza as a car that provides "affordable luxury." Considering the subjective nature of the words "luxury" and "affordable," Daewoo's tagline leaves plenty of room for interpretation. Ask a 35-year-old, retired dot-com millionaire what he considers to be affordable luxury and he might say, "A new Mercedes...for Monday. For Tuesday, a Porsche. Wednesdays would be the..." You get the picture. Pose the same question to your Uncle Sal who drives a clapped out '73 Buick and you're likely to get something like "windows," or "hubcaps, the nice ones."
In other words, affordability and luxury are relative terms. So what are we to make of Daewoo's top-of-the-line Leganza with its CD changer, leather seats, and budget price? Can "luxury" options substitute for a luxurious ride? Do leather seats make you forget about a rubbery suspension? A few hundred miles in this midsize four-door made us realize that while affordability and luxury may someday peacefully coexist in an automobile, the Daewoo Leganza is not going to be regarded as the first example of it.
Introduced in 1999, Daewoo's product line includes the Lanos, a subcompact hatchback, the Nubira, a compact sedan or wagon, and the midsize Leganza four-door. All Daewoo cars are sold using the same no-haggle model that Saturn has successfully plied for years. Buyers get one year of free scheduled maintenance and three years of roadside assistance service. All this coddling is meant to defray consumers' fears about purchasing a new, untested brand. Those that have taken the plunge have been rewarded with exemplary dealer service. Daewoo recently ranked fourth in J.D. Powers' most recent dealer service customer satisfaction survey, ahead of even top-tier luxury brands like Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar.
Daewoo's marketing strategy focuses on providing extensive feature content along with a low price. For just $19,515 our top-of-the-line CDX tester came loaded to the hilt with a long list of standard equipment that included power everything (windows, locks, mirrors, seats, sunroof), a four-speed automatic transmission with sport shift programming, traction control, ABS, wood grain trim, a leather interior, and remote keyless entry. The only options on the car were a six-disc CD changer and carpeted floor mats. Try getting all those features in a Camry or Accord and you would be spending at least $25K.
Of course, true luxury cars require more than just power accessories and leather seats to achieve their elevated status. Looking good is always a priority for the well heeled and the Leganza delivers with smooth curves and a tasteful chrome grille that makes for a pleasing, some say inoffensive, overall look. The Leganza's design doesn't exactly stir the soul, but considering that it resides in a class dominated by Accords and Camrys, it's apparent that jaw-dropping sheetmetal isn't required for success.
Inside, the Leganza presents a simple, uncluttered interior that uses soft curves and oval shapes to achieve an upscale look. Or should we say attempt to achieve an upscale look. More than one editor on our staff panned the design for its awkward shapes, mismatched panels and excessive self-promoting Daewoo logos. Fit and finish varied depending on where you looked. Dash panels were straight and tight, but none of the steering wheel spokes lined up straight with the hub. The fake wood trim looks about as good as most other fake wood trim -- which is to say not that great. We don't know when automakers decided that cheap plastic wood looks better than just plain cheap plastic, but we're anxiously awaiting the day they realize the error of their ways.
The instrument panel was a welcome sight, with straightforward gauges that were called a "model of simplicity" by our editor-in-chief. Of course he then proceeded to scorn the low-tech analog odometer and dim gauge lighting, so simple isn't always perfect. He then went on to point out the deficiencies of the automatic climate control system that seemed capable of producing only two temperatures, hot and cold, and the unsupportive seats that made his back hurt after 30 minutes.
Most staffers agreed that the seats provided little support, and even with the simple two-lever controls and tilt steering wheel, a good seating position was hard to find. The leather exhibited the quality of a swap meet handbag, and the word "supple" was a conspicuously absent adjective from post test-drive notes.
Climate controls could hardly be called intuitive, but at least Daewoo managed to keep the button count low. The display uses dull yellow pictographs to show airflow settings, but the low-mounted screen can be hard to see, especially when doused with sunlight from an open sunroof. The fact that the display is virtually identical in layout to the stereo equalizer directly above it doesn't help matters.
The stereo is plagued by tiny, hard-to-read buttons that require taking your eyes off the road to decipher. The sound quality was decent for a car in this class, but we weren't overwhelmed by any means. The fact that it offers a tape deck along with the trunk-mounted CD changer was a welcome sight to the more digitally challenged members of our staff.
The most troubling aspect of the stereo was the hopelessly complicated equalizer unit whose existence on what amounts to an economy sedan is questionable in the first place. Do families on a budget really need a choice between a cascading or peak level equalizer display? The unit has a total of 11 buttons designed to give passengers a range of different audio parameters, but it seemed as though music always sounded the best with the whole thing set to "OFF." If this unit was supposed to convey a sense of luxury to the Leganza's passengers, it failed miserably.
Front seat passenger room is adequate for this category, but rear seat accommodations are noticeably cramped. Legroom is tight and the sloping roofline leaves little headroom for taller passengers. Rear child seat-tether hooks are now standard equipment, allowing for secure fitting of safety seats that include tie-down straps. The trunk provides impressive room with a low liftover height, but the CD changer sticking out from the roof of the cargo area can easily get knocked off by a misguided suitcase.
We didn't expect the Leganza to wow us with sporty road manners and dizzying performance, so a lack of zest on twisty roads wasn't shocking. Its tossability surprised some of our editors and confounded others. One gave the Leganza high marks for its low amount of body roll and admired the Leganza's easily predictable weight transfer through the corners, but another found the Leganza less than well behaved, "Is it true that Lotus tuned the suspension? If so, they didn't do a very good job. It manages to be soft and wallowy on the freeway, yet still impacts hard over sharp road surfaces."
Daewoo employs a sophisticated fully independent suspension with MacPherson struts up front and a multilink setup in the rear to support the Leganza. Rubber mountings deliver an isolated ride, but the suspension fails to communicate enough road feel to inspire any confidence through turns. The whole car feels light and nimble, but the spongy suspension bottoms out easily. The standard wheels are 15-inch alloys, but the skinny Hankook tires squealed with the slightest provocation. There was universal agreement that a wider set of rubber would do wonders for the Leganza's overall handling characteristics.
Then again, when you're only packing a 2.2-liter four-cylinder engine, a sporting nature is hard to come by. Rated at 131 horsepower and 147 ft-lbs. of torque, the Daewoo's diminutive four banger is the only available powerplant. In combined city and highway driving, our Leganza returned 21 mpg, a respectable number, but a little low considering the engine's small displacement. Quiet and unintrusive while cruising, a quick mash of the throttle summons a wail of vibration and noise from the engine that instantly reminds you of the "affordable" aspect of this "luxury" sedan.
Coupled to a four-speed automatic, the buzzy four-cylinder provides adequate freeway passing power, but lacks low-end torque resulting in slow takeoffs. Shifts are crisp, but the transmission is easily confused by rapid changes in throttle application. A driver selectable "sport" shift program does little more than your typical overdrive switch, resulting in third-gear downshifts at highway cruising speeds. Along with the shifter-mounted "sport" mode button, there was also a redundant "hold" button next to the lever itself. This was supposed to allow a driver to "hold" a given gear for uphill power or downhill braking but considering that the sport button already does this much of the time, we found little use for this feature.
Our Leganza tester came with standard four-wheel vented disc brakes and ABS. Pedal feel in and around town was acceptable, but panic stops revealed less than confidence-inspiring brakes. The ABS worked admirably, but was accompanied by excessive grinding and pulsing. All Leganzas get dual front seat airbags and reinforced roofs, but side airbags are not an option.
Although we can forgive the Leganza for less than stunning performance and cheap leather seats, we can't overlook the Leganza's poor crash test results. A test of a 1999 Leganza by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety resulted in a Poor rating (their lowest) in their 40 mph frontal offset collision test (See IIHS evaluation). They cited higher than normal cabin intrusion and excessive occupant movement as major reasons for their low rating. In the same test, a current-generation Toyota Camry received a Good rating (their highest), while a 98 Honda Accord was rated Acceptable (second highest).
On that note, it's easy to see why we consider luxury cars to be more than just the sum of their parts. The attraction of true luxury cars is that they provide not only superior levels of comfort and technology, but peace of mind. Makers of high-end luxury cars have known for a long time that while performance and looks will get customers into the showroom, occupant safety and a solid feel will make them want to take it home.
The Leganza is by no means a tin-can deathtrap. Its doors close with a solid "thunk" and its standard airbags and available ABS compare favorably with most sedans in the midsize segment. But when you consider the competition more closely, the Leganza looks less and less like a bargain. A Toyota Camry CE equipped with a four-speed automatic, ABS, front and side airbags, and a value package that adds A/C, power windows, mirrors, door locks, and carpeted floor mats comes in at $19,990. A Honda Accord LX with all the same options except for side airbags tops out at $19,940. The Leganza may include a bevy of additional features for the same price, but the Toyota and Honda will more than make up the difference down the road when it comes to resale value, not to mention their comforting crash test scores and overall refinement.
The long list of exclusive features on the Leganza -- the CD changer, leather power seats, power sunroof, traction control, etc.-- are nice touches, but they never made us forget the floaty suspension, buzzy engine and interior squeaks and rattles. Attempting to give customers a budget alternative in the ever-costly world of new cars is a commendable goal for Daewoo, but we think value encompasses more than just fancy features at a cheap price. If Daewoo's next Leganza can provide the controlled ride and quiet interior of a Camry at a cutthroat MSRP, they might be on to something, but until then we wouldn't consider the Leganza's budget price enough of reason to overlook more refined competitors.
In other words, affordability and luxury are relative terms. So what are we to make of Daewoo's top-of-the-line Leganza with its CD changer, leather seats, and budget price? Can "luxury" options substitute for a luxurious ride? Do leather seats make you forget about a rubbery suspension? A few hundred miles in this midsize four-door made us realize that while affordability and luxury may someday peacefully coexist in an automobile, the Daewoo Leganza is not going to be regarded as the first example of it.
Introduced in 1999, Daewoo's product line includes the Lanos, a subcompact hatchback, the Nubira, a compact sedan or wagon, and the midsize Leganza four-door. All Daewoo cars are sold using the same no-haggle model that Saturn has successfully plied for years. Buyers get one year of free scheduled maintenance and three years of roadside assistance service. All this coddling is meant to defray consumers' fears about purchasing a new, untested brand. Those that have taken the plunge have been rewarded with exemplary dealer service. Daewoo recently ranked fourth in J.D. Powers' most recent dealer service customer satisfaction survey, ahead of even top-tier luxury brands like Mercedes-Benz and Jaguar.
Daewoo's marketing strategy focuses on providing extensive feature content along with a low price. For just $19,515 our top-of-the-line CDX tester came loaded to the hilt with a long list of standard equipment that included power everything (windows, locks, mirrors, seats, sunroof), a four-speed automatic transmission with sport shift programming, traction control, ABS, wood grain trim, a leather interior, and remote keyless entry. The only options on the car were a six-disc CD changer and carpeted floor mats. Try getting all those features in a Camry or Accord and you would be spending at least $25K.
Of course, true luxury cars require more than just power accessories and leather seats to achieve their elevated status. Looking good is always a priority for the well heeled and the Leganza delivers with smooth curves and a tasteful chrome grille that makes for a pleasing, some say inoffensive, overall look. The Leganza's design doesn't exactly stir the soul, but considering that it resides in a class dominated by Accords and Camrys, it's apparent that jaw-dropping sheetmetal isn't required for success.
Inside, the Leganza presents a simple, uncluttered interior that uses soft curves and oval shapes to achieve an upscale look. Or should we say attempt to achieve an upscale look. More than one editor on our staff panned the design for its awkward shapes, mismatched panels and excessive self-promoting Daewoo logos. Fit and finish varied depending on where you looked. Dash panels were straight and tight, but none of the steering wheel spokes lined up straight with the hub. The fake wood trim looks about as good as most other fake wood trim -- which is to say not that great. We don't know when automakers decided that cheap plastic wood looks better than just plain cheap plastic, but we're anxiously awaiting the day they realize the error of their ways.
The instrument panel was a welcome sight, with straightforward gauges that were called a "model of simplicity" by our editor-in-chief. Of course he then proceeded to scorn the low-tech analog odometer and dim gauge lighting, so simple isn't always perfect. He then went on to point out the deficiencies of the automatic climate control system that seemed capable of producing only two temperatures, hot and cold, and the unsupportive seats that made his back hurt after 30 minutes.
Most staffers agreed that the seats provided little support, and even with the simple two-lever controls and tilt steering wheel, a good seating position was hard to find. The leather exhibited the quality of a swap meet handbag, and the word "supple" was a conspicuously absent adjective from post test-drive notes.
Climate controls could hardly be called intuitive, but at least Daewoo managed to keep the button count low. The display uses dull yellow pictographs to show airflow settings, but the low-mounted screen can be hard to see, especially when doused with sunlight from an open sunroof. The fact that the display is virtually identical in layout to the stereo equalizer directly above it doesn't help matters.
The stereo is plagued by tiny, hard-to-read buttons that require taking your eyes off the road to decipher. The sound quality was decent for a car in this class, but we weren't overwhelmed by any means. The fact that it offers a tape deck along with the trunk-mounted CD changer was a welcome sight to the more digitally challenged members of our staff.
The most troubling aspect of the stereo was the hopelessly complicated equalizer unit whose existence on what amounts to an economy sedan is questionable in the first place. Do families on a budget really need a choice between a cascading or peak level equalizer display? The unit has a total of 11 buttons designed to give passengers a range of different audio parameters, but it seemed as though music always sounded the best with the whole thing set to "OFF." If this unit was supposed to convey a sense of luxury to the Leganza's passengers, it failed miserably.
Front seat passenger room is adequate for this category, but rear seat accommodations are noticeably cramped. Legroom is tight and the sloping roofline leaves little headroom for taller passengers. Rear child seat-tether hooks are now standard equipment, allowing for secure fitting of safety seats that include tie-down straps. The trunk provides impressive room with a low liftover height, but the CD changer sticking out from the roof of the cargo area can easily get knocked off by a misguided suitcase.
We didn't expect the Leganza to wow us with sporty road manners and dizzying performance, so a lack of zest on twisty roads wasn't shocking. Its tossability surprised some of our editors and confounded others. One gave the Leganza high marks for its low amount of body roll and admired the Leganza's easily predictable weight transfer through the corners, but another found the Leganza less than well behaved, "Is it true that Lotus tuned the suspension? If so, they didn't do a very good job. It manages to be soft and wallowy on the freeway, yet still impacts hard over sharp road surfaces."
Daewoo employs a sophisticated fully independent suspension with MacPherson struts up front and a multilink setup in the rear to support the Leganza. Rubber mountings deliver an isolated ride, but the suspension fails to communicate enough road feel to inspire any confidence through turns. The whole car feels light and nimble, but the spongy suspension bottoms out easily. The standard wheels are 15-inch alloys, but the skinny Hankook tires squealed with the slightest provocation. There was universal agreement that a wider set of rubber would do wonders for the Leganza's overall handling characteristics.
Then again, when you're only packing a 2.2-liter four-cylinder engine, a sporting nature is hard to come by. Rated at 131 horsepower and 147 ft-lbs. of torque, the Daewoo's diminutive four banger is the only available powerplant. In combined city and highway driving, our Leganza returned 21 mpg, a respectable number, but a little low considering the engine's small displacement. Quiet and unintrusive while cruising, a quick mash of the throttle summons a wail of vibration and noise from the engine that instantly reminds you of the "affordable" aspect of this "luxury" sedan.
Coupled to a four-speed automatic, the buzzy four-cylinder provides adequate freeway passing power, but lacks low-end torque resulting in slow takeoffs. Shifts are crisp, but the transmission is easily confused by rapid changes in throttle application. A driver selectable "sport" shift program does little more than your typical overdrive switch, resulting in third-gear downshifts at highway cruising speeds. Along with the shifter-mounted "sport" mode button, there was also a redundant "hold" button next to the lever itself. This was supposed to allow a driver to "hold" a given gear for uphill power or downhill braking but considering that the sport button already does this much of the time, we found little use for this feature.
Our Leganza tester came with standard four-wheel vented disc brakes and ABS. Pedal feel in and around town was acceptable, but panic stops revealed less than confidence-inspiring brakes. The ABS worked admirably, but was accompanied by excessive grinding and pulsing. All Leganzas get dual front seat airbags and reinforced roofs, but side airbags are not an option.
Although we can forgive the Leganza for less than stunning performance and cheap leather seats, we can't overlook the Leganza's poor crash test results. A test of a 1999 Leganza by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety resulted in a Poor rating (their lowest) in their 40 mph frontal offset collision test (See IIHS evaluation). They cited higher than normal cabin intrusion and excessive occupant movement as major reasons for their low rating. In the same test, a current-generation Toyota Camry received a Good rating (their highest), while a 98 Honda Accord was rated Acceptable (second highest).
On that note, it's easy to see why we consider luxury cars to be more than just the sum of their parts. The attraction of true luxury cars is that they provide not only superior levels of comfort and technology, but peace of mind. Makers of high-end luxury cars have known for a long time that while performance and looks will get customers into the showroom, occupant safety and a solid feel will make them want to take it home.
The Leganza is by no means a tin-can deathtrap. Its doors close with a solid "thunk" and its standard airbags and available ABS compare favorably with most sedans in the midsize segment. But when you consider the competition more closely, the Leganza looks less and less like a bargain. A Toyota Camry CE equipped with a four-speed automatic, ABS, front and side airbags, and a value package that adds A/C, power windows, mirrors, door locks, and carpeted floor mats comes in at $19,990. A Honda Accord LX with all the same options except for side airbags tops out at $19,940. The Leganza may include a bevy of additional features for the same price, but the Toyota and Honda will more than make up the difference down the road when it comes to resale value, not to mention their comforting crash test scores and overall refinement.
The long list of exclusive features on the Leganza -- the CD changer, leather power seats, power sunroof, traction control, etc.-- are nice touches, but they never made us forget the floaty suspension, buzzy engine and interior squeaks and rattles. Attempting to give customers a budget alternative in the ever-costly world of new cars is a commendable goal for Daewoo, but we think value encompasses more than just fancy features at a cheap price. If Daewoo's next Leganza can provide the controlled ride and quiet interior of a Camry at a cutthroat MSRP, they might be on to something, but until then we wouldn't consider the Leganza's budget price enough of reason to overlook more refined competitors.
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