Daewoo Matiz – everything you need to know

The car is also described as a mini-MPV. A high roofline allows the seats to be fairly upright, creating ample headroom for four occupants. There is room for 104 liters of luggage as standard, and with the rear seats folded down this grows to 512 liters of luggage space. For a car less than 3.5 meters long, this is a fine achievement.

Design Daewoo Matiz

The Matiz has quite a roguish appearance thanks to its oval headlights and lovely curves. In his day, this design was a guarantee of success. The design is by the Italian studio Ital Design (Giugiaro). Who had intended this design to be a Cinquecento for client Fiat, but the Italian automaker sent the designers back to the drawing board.

Ital Design

Daewoo bought the design from Ital Design and after some tweaking pencil strokes, it resulted in the Matiz. The car weighs only 750 kg. A 0.8-liter three-cylinder engine provides propulsion. The technology excels at simplicity. In practice, the Matiz proves trouble-free, reliable and very economical. Consumption of 1 in 16 was quite possible. Those who accelerated less could get 1 in 20, and then you get far with a 35-liter gas tank.

Matiz best-selling car in segment

The Daewoo Matiz kicked off as one of the best-selling cars in its segment. For a long time, it led the sales rankings in the top three. For the first four years of its existence, the Matiz was Daewoo’s most popular model in Europe. Even now anno 2022, specimens can be found that drive just fine and with interestingly low mileage.

Equipment Daewoo Matiz

The Matiz’s equipment is a bit sparse by today’s standards. In his birth year of 1998, it was different. Then it was very complete for its purchase price which at the time was under 10,000 guilders. For example, the SE version already had air conditioning, which was exceptional in the compact class.

Crosswind

Because of its high roofline, the Matiz suffers some side winds. Especially on bridges, that crosswind sensitivity can be difficult to keep the car steady on course. With four occupants and some cargo, that shortcoming is less strongly felt.

Performance Daewoo Matiz

Performance is limited. The 0.8-liter delivers 38 kW (52 hp). Acceleration from 0-100 km/h took 17.1 seconds and the top speed was 144 km/h. Since 2004, the Daewoo Matiz and later thus the Chevrolet Matiz have come with a second engine. That was a 1.0-liter four-cylinder with 47 kW (64 hp). With that, it accelerated in 15.2 seconds and reached a top of 152 mph.

Used Matiz

Quite a few used cars of the Matiz can still be found, including the first generation with only the 0.8 engine. The later version with 1.0 engine is preferable because of just a bit higher performance. Consumption is only slightly higher in this regard.