Daewoo plans big U.S. push

LOS ANGELES: South Korea's largest automaker, Daewoo Motor Corporation, plans to open between 40 stores and 50 stores in the United States this year.

Daewoo's factory-direct stores enable customers to buy cars, parts and service, quite different from standard U.S. franchise dealerships which just sell cars.

Three models of Daewoo -- the midsize Leganza, compact Nubira and subcompact Lanos -- are expected to be sold to U.S. customers, with Lanos priced between US$9,000 to $12,000.

The Lanos model is seen as strong competitor to its counterparts manufactured by General Motors, Ford and Chrysler.

They fear that South Korean and Japanese carmakers will pour exports into the U.S. market next year in response to economic crisis at home and falling value of the Japanese yen and South Korean won.

That will intensify a price war that already has eaten into sales by the Big Three, and has forced them to boost discounts to more than $2,000 per vehicle in the U.S., according to one west coast research firm CNW Marketing.