A very feeble inheritor of the LeMans nameplate. https://milwaukee.craigslist.org/cto/6038622445.html
I had one of those. If it hadn't been such a s#!tbox, I would've tried to sell it when I lost my job to pay off the loan. Instead, I told GMAC to repossess it.
Possibly the worst car ever sold by the arrow head brand. A friend of mine was involved in the importation of these, he told me some horror stories.
Well Pontiac was in a Panic to replace the T-1000 in 88. GM Brass forced Opel to License the Kadett E model to Daewoo of S Korea. He thinks the Germans purposely altered the parts drawings as the Koreans built the parts to Spec, and many had to be altered for them to fit. So after spending months just getting the parts to fit (not actually work together) They rushed the production line into operation. And the cars were horrible, they were loaded onto drive on/off ships and when they arrived in the US about 40% of the cars would not start! He had teams that would meet the ships with repair parts just to get them off the boats! The marketing plan was to have 60% of the cars be base models so they would have the lowest Sticker price as possible for advertising purposes. Well after selling well for the 1st year the cars got the reiliability rep they deserved and sales in 89 and after were less than 50% of predictions. Now the Koreans figured out if they sold only highly equipped models they would make more USD's so they started Shipping over 90% high end models even though the contract specified 10% high end models. So you ended up with unhappy Germans (Opel who was convinced that the Koreans would start selling cars that looked like Current Production Kadett's that were not reliable and were afraid it would harm Opels Quality reputation. ) Unhappy Korean's as they were convinced the Germans Sabotaged them, and they were losing $$$ on the 89 and later production. Unhappy Pontiac Dealers as they were stuck selling a POS in place of the reliable T-1000 models. And the had very few base model cars to sell, so when they advertised them for the low sticker price, they actually didn't have the cheap cars on the lot. And furious customers who bought the over priced POS's There were some specific problems they were having to repair on the line and on the ships but I don't remember exactly what they were. My friend was in his late 50's when he headed up this project, it aged him 20 years, and it was the last project he lead before retiring from GM in the early 90's. He passed away a couple of years ago so unfortunately I can't ask him for the specific issues they had.
I was stationed in Germany when these debuted as the Kadett. The German-built cars were pretty good, overall. Fast-forward to 1992, when I drove the Daewoo/Pontiac version...a complete pile of crap, compared to the Opel! I couldn't believe it! The were the same in appearance only. Shame, becausecthe Opel was a decent small car. These were sold in England as Vauxhalls, IIRC.
If it's who I think you're talking about, I heard a lot of stories too over the years that people have repeated from him. The biggest problem was you had a car designer who sent the design package to another manufacturer who then in turn licensed said package to yet another manufacturer. The original design package wasn't complete or interpreted correctly so S. Korea was just futzing them together as best they could, then they sent the cars over to GM to deal with without actually passing any kind of QA. Sheet metal didn't fit right, cheapest plastic imaginable for every interior piece and the associated longevity problems, electrical harness pinouts weren't the same or the correct style, engines that weren't machined properly, it was a whole laundry list of problems. Add in the shenanigans of Korea oversupplying the wrong models as stated and you've got a recipe for complete disaster. I think only the Yugo has a worse reputation than these cars for reliability. No one I know EVER wanted to buy a Daewoo, and Daewoo wasn't even a car manufacturer so they didn't know how to fix the problems they had on their hands.
I was pushed into that LeMans; I needed a commuter car, and all GMAC would finance me for was a less-than-five-year-old car. Now I know why I couldn't convince them to sell me a car that was easy to get in and out of. It's like the Warner Bros. cartoon where the buyer's head changes into an all-day-sucker!
These were terrible when new, but this..... https://texoma.craigslist.org/cto/d/1989-pontiac-lemans-se/6324769485.html
I have friends in London that LOVE their Opel version and swear it's a hod rod. I told him they were a total POS here. Looks like the same car. I enjoyed the backstory above!
It just occured to me--buy an Opel or Vauxhall version, get it over here, then rebadge it as a Le Mans, and enter it in the 24 Hours of LeMons. Cheat to the hilt.
