Daewoo Motors

Daewoo Motors was a South Korean car maker whose roots go back to National Motors, established in 1937 in Bupyeong-gu, Incheon. It was renamed Saenara Motor in 1962, bought by Shinjin Industrial in 1965, ran a joint venture with General Motors in the 1970s, and became Saehan Motors in 1976. After the Daewoo Group gained control in December 1982 it was officially renamed Daewoo Motor Co. from January 1983. Its early cars were based on General Motors models; the Lanos of late 1997 was the first authentic Daewoo design, followed by the Nubira, the Leganza and in 1998 the Matiz, several styled by Italian studios. The company took over SsangYong Motor in 1998 and sold it in 2000, and ran overseas operations in Ukraine, Uzbekistan and Romania. After the Daewoo Group ran into financial trouble, General Motors acquired the carmaker's assets for 1.2 billion dollars in 2002, and in 2011 the Daewoo name was withdrawn and the company renamed GM Korea.