Here we have a Daewoo Espero sedan, seen in the Dongzhimen area in Beijing in 2013. The good Daewoo was in a reasonable shape, painted in white and standing on steel wheels. It didn’t have license plates but there was an official temporarily license plate number behind the windshield (on the left on the photo).
The Daewoo Espero was a mid-sized sedan produced from 1990 until 1997. The exterior was designed by none other than the Italian design studio Bertone. Well, it kind of shows. The Espero was a very pretty wedge-shaped car, ultra modern for the times, but at the same time almost totally unknown outside of Asia.
The Daewoo Espero was not officially sold in China in period, and in the many many years I lived there I only saw a handful. Amazingly, Daewoo did sell several other cars in China in the same period. They were actually one of the first import car brands on the Chinese market, but they failed to turn that advantage into local production.
The Daewoo Espero hailed from a time when exhaust pipes were allowed to stick out! Note the old Daewoo badge.
Some Daewoo Espero cars arrived via the gray market and others via diplomatic channels. On the photo of the rear of the car, you can see the typical license-plate frame that was commonly used to fit the wider Chinese license plates on import cars that had a smaller license plate area.
The Dawoo Espero was available with 1.5. 1.8, and 2.0 petrol engines. Sadly, there were no engine badges on this car, so I can’t be sure what was under the bonnet on this car. It was great to see one of these rare South Korean cars in Beijing. May some still be around!
OMG