What are your views on the Chevrolet/Daewoo Kalos? I personally have the misfortune of driving one and find it appalling. It appears to be the kind of car that is bought by someone who cares not about how a car handles, feels and goes.

The interior is this dreadful, hard elephant's bum grey plastic that scratches so easily, the steering is light and gives you no idea as to what the tires are doing, so I find myself having to constantly make corrections mid turn. Meanwhile the suspension provides a relatively smooth ride, for a supermini at least, wallows all over the place if you take a corner at any speed. The car first understeers round a large roundabout then suddenly launches into a slight oversteer, whilst still ploughing wide.

The only redeeming features I can see from my experience with the car are that the light steering is useful in town, it looks alright and has a reasonable amount of space for a car of this size.

Once again, your views please

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Originally posted by Queebs:
What are your views on the Chevrolet/Daewoo Kalos? I personally have the misfortune of driving one and find it appalling. It appears to be the kind of car that is bought by someone who cares not about how a car handles, feels and goes.

So why do you own / drive one???

The car is o.k - for what it is a cheap korean 3 or 5 door supermini just don't have high expectations of it and it won't dissapoint
it should prove reliable for the first 3 years at least

i'd rather have a chery qq

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So why do you own / drive one???

The car is o.k - for what it is a cheap korean 3 or 5 door supermini just don't have high expectations of it and it won't dissapoint
it should prove reliable for the first 3 years at least


"The Power of Dreams"

I only drive it because it belongs to my mother (I'm only 17), so do not have much choice about what I drive, seeing as I cannot afford to pay the insurance for a car of my own.

It does indeed sound like quite a car!

Originally posted by Queebs:

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The car first understeers round a large roundabout then suddenly launches into a slight oversteer, whilst still ploughing wide.

Queebs, for all your criticisms of the Kalos (which all seem reasonable from my experience of small hatchbacks, regardless of origin), this is basically what you'll get from any front driving car if you push it too hard. What's happening is that the momentum you take into the corner/roundabout creates a momemtum that exceeds the grip offered by the tyres. The car will understeer because all its weight (engine, gearbox and driver) are all biased toward the front. What happens next is that in response to the lack of grip, you lift off the throttle (an entirely natrual reaction, albeit wrong) mid-turn. Unfortunately, when you do this, the very momentum you created in the first place is shifting the forces created to the rear by virtue of trying to make a turn (you've lifted off, there is no more power going to the front wheels). This causes a nasty, and often very sudden, snatchy-ness. The front wheels, now devoid of power and not shouldering the burden of most of the turning force will regain grip whilst the back of the car (now forced to deal with what is effectively a pendulum weighing about a ton) stops coping. Next thing you know, you're inches from a hedge and a neck brace.

In short, you're driving too fast and in the process, creating forces that the car is simply not designed to handle effectively. It's not exactly great car-craft but I can assure you that at some point or another, every car enthusiast has done it. I've been driving accident free for the last 12 years but recently nearly stuffed a perfectly good Skoda Fabia head on into a lamppost (missed by less than 6 inches) by doing exactly the same thing.

Consider yourself lucky and save the enthusiastic stuff for a car that goes round corners properly without turning into a WMD.

Some are worse than others. My old Citoen Xsara had a horrible knack of understeering at even the most reasonable cornering speed. Its tiny tyres just weren't up to the job of holding it on the course I'd plotted.
It was a bit of fun doing lift-off oversteer on roundabouts but that faded after a very short time.

I admit that I was going slightly too fast for the car, but I couldn't resist it. However I deliberately didn't panic and lift off suddenly, instead I gently lifted off in order (I thought) to prevent lift off oversteer from happening.

I know this sounds very ignorant, but will a car still lift off oversteer even if you are smooth and gentle on the controls, like you are supposed to be?