Somehow, I’ve become the resident Daewoo connoisseur here at Car Autance. Kind of cute, mostly crap, my Lanos ran around Shenandoah Circuit before its untimely demise, ending with me towing the thing back to Ohio and donating it to charity. Still, before it died, people at the Out Motorsports Rainbow Road rallycross kept telling me just how damn cute it looked bobbling around the track. Perhaps even cuter is this TikTok account of another Daewoo, the Matiz.
We never got this generation of the Matiz, a low-powered four-door hatchback, but this nameplate is a direct precursor to the Chevy Spark. Just watch as it boops its snoot on trees, brick walls, and other things in some random Polish village. The Matiz is cute and comical to look at, with the round headlights paired with a super-tall greenhouse and skinny body. The car looks as if it’ll tip over if the wind blows too hard, adding to the Mr. Bean-esque comic charm.
Strangely, videos of this little red claptrap regularly crest more than two million views. The two most-viewed videos of this car have more than 20 million views at the time of writing. The Daewoo is beat, with faded paint, no exhaust, or even missing a roof, depending on when the video was filmed.
Yet, TikTokers have developed an obsession for this damn car. “I love this thing, it could do anything,” one comment said. “I would pay an ungodly sum of money to own this car,” another person remarked on the platform. Gen Z’s got more love for Daewoo now than anyone else ever had before.
Weirdly, the Daewoo Matiz love isn’t just limited to the comments sections of mariolizak’s TikTok videos. Searching “Daewoo Matiz” on TikTok yields dozens of Matizes being hooned, crashed, modified, and more. That’s a lot of attention for a Korean city car from the late ’90s.
I wonder if I could cash in on that TikTok virality by starting a business importing Daewoo Matizes on the side. They’re just about old enough to be imported to the US, and a quick search suggests they’re not too expensive. What a wild sight it would be if Gen Z 20-somethings paid Bring a Trailer prices for a Korean city car from a dead brand. Judging by the numbers we’ve seen on the used car auction site, it wouldn’t be the craziest thing ever.
More great stories on Car Autance
- Our Rivian RT1 Review Rundown compiles takeaways from top car journalists on the new electric pickup truck. Check it out to get a big range of perspectives on this vehicle in one place.
- This retrospective on Ford’s surprisingly effective youth marketing from the 2000s is a nice dose of near-past nostalgia.
- Upgrading a BMW ZHP with Toyota Camry parts… it’s a thing, and the results can be better than you might expect.
- Keeping an old Land Rover alive is a never-ending education on good repair procedures
- Our guy in Ohio bought a car that the internet loves to love, but the fun didn’t last.
