Someday, GM Will Own the Streets of Hanoi!
During my visit to Vietnam last month, I photographed many Honda Super Cubs, but I always kept one eye open for other interesting vehicles. I spotted a few Toyota Crown Royal Saloons, which was cool, but catching a Geo Chevrolet Tracker at a Hanoi intersection was one of the weirder sightings. Studying the photograph later, I realized that three of the four (non-two-wheeled) vehicles in the frame were GM products that show the breadth of The General’s Asian empire.
I think the GM product I saw in Hanoi that I’d most like to see sold in the United States is the Daewoo Labo Roach Coach; this thing seems to have about the same footprint as a Honda Fit, if it’s even that big. We need more Kei Truck Roach Coaches!
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
More by Murilee Martin
Comments
Join the conversation
I would totally drive that Daewoo Labo cross country outfitted as a camper van. All it needs is a small bed, hot plate, and cassette toilet! Although it likely has a small fuel tank, increasing range anxiety.
So, did you investigate just what that yellow kei food truck was selling? Was it any good? I'm thinking "Roach Coach" is an eerily appropriate name for the vehicle. BTW Daewoo seem to be making inroads with buses in Asia, my city used to have nearly exclusively Mercedes-benzes city buses, but nowadays it's a hodge-podge of brands (can't afford MBs anymore?), with a large numbers of it being Daewoo.