Used Chevrolet Lacetti Saloon 2005 - 2011 review

Born in 2004 as a Daewoo and rebranded in 2005, the Chevrolet Lacetti is a mid-sized family car that's slightly smaller than a Ford Focus. It's cheap to buy and has a splash of style, having been designed by the Italian studio Italdesign.

This saloon and its hatchback brother were available from Day One (when it was still a Daewoo), and the estate was introduced when General Motors rebranded the range as Chevrolet.

Like all Lacettis, the saloon is reasonably practical, with generous rear leg room and a large boot, with split/fold rear seats.

The interior design is straightforward, with a good, widely adjustable driving position and plenty of stowage.

On the road, the Chevrolet Lacetti is reasonably comfortable, but it doesn't like being hustled through corners.

On top of that, the steering lacks feedback, the gearbox is far from slick and refinement is disappointing, with plenty of engine and wind noise entering the cabin.

One of the Lacetti's strongest points is value for money, which is bolstered by a generous three-year servicing, warranty and recovery package from new.

Insurance won't be a big worry, even if the Lacetti ranks a group or two higher than Ford's Focus. You'll fare respectably at the pumps, too; claimed fuel economy is in the high 30s for most of the range.

As an example, a typical 1.6 SX is slightly cheaper per mile to run than a more expensive Focus 1.6 LX or similarly priced Kia Cerato LX, but servicing costs – when you do finally have to pay them – can be around 30% more expensive than the Ford's. They're still cheaper than the Kia's, however.

As in the hatchback, there's no diesel engine in the saloon, so your choice is limited to petrol power. And, with the basic 1.4 confined to the hatch, saloon buyers only have a 1.6 or 1.8 to choose from.

Our favourite model is the 1.6-litre SX, which has everything you need, including air-con, alloy wheels and electric windows all round. Like all Lacettis, it comes with power steering, central locking and a CD player.

There's also the 1.8-litre in luxury CDX trim, which features sat-nav, a CD changer and automatic climate control, as well as leather seats. However, we think you get all that's good in a Lacetti in the 1.6, and the smaller engine doesn't feel that much slower in the real world, so there's no point spending the extra on the 1.8.

There's no choice when it comes to the gearbox. Although other Lacettis can have an auto 'box, it's manual only on the saloon. Mind you, that's no bad thing, as the automatic gearbox isn't worth bothering with.

You'll find plenty of Lacettis in the Chevrolet dealer network and the small ads.

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