Dear friends,
A see a lot of reviews here about Cielo and almost all are positive. Just as well because Cielo deserves it.
I bought mine for 1.8 lakh back in July 2004. I have completed over two years in it and I feel now I can write a review about this car.
First and foremost I only have good things to say about this car. I bought this car which was used lovingly by a doctor and I can say that today if you make a list of top 10 mint condition Cielos surviving in India, mine will be one among those. It is that good. When I bought it had already logged 70, 000 kms. Today, the odo reads 97, 000 kms. But boy o boy , it still looks, feels and runs like new.
I purchased this car by accident. I was upgrading from Omni in 2004 and was actually heading for an Accent. A property deal intervened and after investing fair amount of money there I wasn’t left with much so a friend suggested I buy a Cielo for stopgap and that I can get one for as low as 50, 000 rupees. But believe me the Cielos which sell for 50 grands look pathetic and run even worse. So I didn’t mind spending a bit more to buy a good one. This car looked so good that I immediately said yes, even though for this sum of 1.8 lakhs I could have bought 2 / 3 ordinary beat-up Cielos. It is so good that I feel I bought a new Accent petrol with a Daewoo badge and saved 5 lakhs rupees. Now my finances have improved but by now I got used to this car so much that I ain’t finding a reason to get rid of it. After all nobody sells his car because it runs too well.
Now about the car. It is an Oct’97 Caterbury Green car. It has got JVC dvd, JVC 8" color monitor, Alpine speakers, Alloys wheels, Spoiler, Pirelli tubeless. I run it on petrol and the earlier owner also ran it on petrol which explains for its mint condition. So no ugly holes and alterations that one sees in LPG / CNG cars. I am a petrol freak and gas and diesel are not the things for me. I have seen that net end result is the same. In case of petrol cars, you spend money in instalments, i. e you spend big money every time you refuel. And in case of diesel and gas cars which break down more often, you make more trips to garage and spend same nomey. In my case, since as I said I picked up a "brand new" Accent-like car for 1.8 lakh, I might as well spend some money on fuel which I saved on purchase.
I have touched 165 kmph in this car and doing 120 is a kid-stuff for this car. In between two traffic signals this car touches 120 kph. I continue to embarass my friends in their newer pricier cars on highways. Yes, mileage is poor. I get 9 kmpl in City ( Aircon on all the time ). But on highways when I did a pedestrian 80 kmpl for fuel test run, I was surprised to get 16 kmpl ( again with aircon on all the time ). To keep interiors fresh, I drive with aircon on even in winter.
Now the most glorious thing about this car which no reviewer has mentioned so far. Forget the looks, forget the performance and foget the imposing looks. The single most important reason I went for this car ( I was getting an excellent Esteem at a lesser price ) was its exhaust note. The howling screaming racing sound like those glorious Italian cars. No other Indian car has this sound. If your car is in as good a condition as mine you will know what I mean. I think I burn half of the fuel just sitting there and revving up the engine just to listen to this rasping note. Other car owenrs such as Lancer, City and Accent owners spend a fortune on aftermarket exhaust kits to get this knd of exhaust sound. Normally Jap and Korean cars do not sound like this but may be because Cielo’s parentage is half German ( Cielo was a joint effort by Daewoo and Opel ), the sound effect is European.
I live in Vizag, AP a small town but all Cielo parts are available here. The mech says there are enough cars around and also Cielo is in production in Russia and Romania, so we can continue getting parts for at least another 10 years. Parts are also very cheap. Similar to Esteem and much less than other sedan car parts.
My advice, do not buy those filthy looking Rs.50, 000/- Cielos. Spend more and pay even Rs.2 lakh for a mint condition car and you will have a very pleasant ownership experience. To give you an idea, three months back a local businessman in Vizag sold his year 2000 Cielo for Rs.2 lakh. This car, since year 2000 has clocked only 7800 kms. He being rich had four more cars so upon hearing Daewoo’s demise, instead of selling, he preserved it and used very sparingly. Now he sold this Cielo to make room for another car. This car would easily be Indias’ best condition surviving Cielo. Now you know what I mean by Rs 2 lakh Cielo. Do not fear about spares. They are cheap and available aplenty. When people can manitain a VW Bettle in India which was never manufactured here can’t you maintain a Cielo which was sold in thousands? It is very reliable car. If you get a good used one, it is worth every penny. if Tata says Indica is more car per car, I would say Cielo in present situation is most car per car. Any questions about Cielo and I can be reached at 098484 10657 ( my cell no. ).
Your truly,
PG Sagar
Vizag, AP.