Chevrolet Optra

[Faisal]

Re: Chevrolet Optra

Is it the same car that is sold in India and test-driven here?

http://www.indiacar.com/roadtest/optra_a/

Seems like copied from Daewoo Nubira (not necessarily a bad thing) and designed originally in Italy (gets brownie points). Styling ain’t bad, and the interior comforts look good. Not so sure about its engine performance and reliability. Chevrolet in US is not exactly known for building solid and reliable cars, as compared to, lets say Toyota or Honda. So, presumably Chevrolet in Pakistan is sweetening the deal with a good price to make your trips to the mechanic seem kinda worth it, in the long run.

The performance tests in that website, show an 1.8 litre engine brought from GM Australia, which is giving a bit poor results on low end torque. Here is a relevant part of the review

The Optra’s long-stroke motor is fairly tractable, and will chug along from just about any engine speed. However, it is unresponsive and lacks urgency at low rpm. This can be quite a pain in traffic, as you constantly need to keep the engine in a lower gear to avoid getting bogged down. Part-throttle performance isn’t great either, and you experience some jerks when you get on and off the throttle. You really need to use the gearbox to wring the most out of the Holden engine —and that’s not something to look forward to. The gearshift is heavy and slow, and the ’box doesn’t like being hustled through its baulky gate.

If you want a driver’s car, and not just a styling beauty, you may have to test drive it, alongwith Corolla and City to get a better idea.

ps. When you say “It is around 10K in pakistan”, do you mean Rs 10 lakhs or $10,000 (@59 = Rs 5,90,000)?