K-Car Envy

This one is interesting… These early Daewoo cars were essentially GM of Europe products. The Imperial was basically an upscale Daewoo Royale, which itself is little more than an Opel Rekord with the front end of the larger Opel Senator stuck on. However the Imperial is featured here as the designers oddly decided to style the upscale version of the European GM product as if it were an American Chrysler. A K-Car at that… Even the name is shared with the last K-Car based Imperial of the early 90s. Strange fact – the Daewood Imperial production began in 1989 (and ran through 1993), while the K-Car Chrysler Imperial was built between 1990 to 1993. However, the very similar looking New Yorker / Fifth Avenue were produced throughout the 80s.

Why was Daewoo selling GMs in the first place? A little back story… It all starts in 1976, when GM partnered with Shinjin Industrial Company to sell GM cars in South Korea, under the name Saehan Motor Company. However shortly afterward the fell into financial problems, with Daewoo group taking a large stake in the company in a 1978. Saehan Motor Company was renamed Daewoo Motor Company in 1983. So I guess GM buying Daewoo 20 years later was just a matter of things coming full circle.

 Devolved Inspiration: Daewoo took the K-Car route with it's upscale product - sharp creases and loads of chrome and vinyl.

If autofug were a country, this would be it's leader.

Click here for it's video on YouTube...

Wish I had more info butI can't speak the language in the video. It appears to have been filmed in Florida, however.

It appears to be mostly Mercedes wagon based, although you would think it may need a larger engine to push all that mass around. It's possibly a Chevrolet truck diesel, given that the engine sounds a bit larger than a Benz unit to my ears (and there's a random Chevrolet emblem front and centre on the hood). Other notable pieces are Chrysler Imperial headlights and pieces of older Cadillacs wedged in the bodywork.

I'm actually kind of impressed that it's actually driveable, and that the rear wheel steering seems to work so effectively. For the looks of it, you would think it would collapse in on itself with any movement at all.








Update:

It's for sale! It's 29 feet long and weights 7500 pounds! He hopes to get $950,000, which is about 100 times to more than it's worth.