The Daewoo Tico is a

city car The A-segment is the first category in the passenger car classification system defined by the European Commission. It is used for city cars, the smallest category of passenger cars defined. A-segment sales represented approximately 4.2% of the ...

produced by the South Korean automaker

Daewoo Daewoo ( ; ; ; ; literally "great universe" and a portmanteau of "''dae''" meaning great, and the given name of founder and chairman Kim Woo-choong) also known as the Daewoo Group, was a major South Korean chaebol (type of conglomerate) and aut ...

from 1991 to 2001.

Overview

The Daewoo Tico was based largely on the 1988

Suzuki Alto The is a kei car produced by Suzuki since 1979. The model, currently in its ninth generation, was first introduced in 1979 and has been built in many countries worldwide. The Alto originated as a commercial vehicle derivative of the Fronte, ...

kei car Kei car is the smallest category of Japanese expressway-legal motor vehicles. The term ''kei'' is a shortening of , (kanji: ), which translates to English as "light vehicle" (). With restricted dimensions and engine specifications, owners ...

. The car was equipped with a three-cylinder 796 cc S-TEC engine - a South Korean-made version of the Suzuki F8B engine - and came with either a five-speed manual transmission or three-speed automatic transmission (only in South Korea). The Tico was exported to

Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...

an markets and was highly popular mainly in Eastern Europe. It was also exported to Latin America where it was named Daewoo Fino for some markets. It was especially popular in

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

, where it was one of the most popular car models used for

taxi A taxi, also known as a taxicab or simply a cab, is a type of vehicle for hire with a Driving, driver, used by a single passenger or small group of passengers, often for a non-shared ride. A taxicab conveys passengers between locations of thei ...

services. Daewoo expanded to

Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's extent varies depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the Western half of the ancient Mediterranean ...

at the beginning of 1995, but the Tico was never sold in those markets. Its successor, the Matiz, was launched globally in 1998 and went on to be a sales success. Over its years of production, the Tico underwent major modifications to its specifications, mostly to the engine. Originally equipped with a carburetor and producing ,Daewoo - Tico (KLY3) - 0.8 (48 Hp) - Technical specifications, Fuel economy (consumption)
/ref> it was later upgraded to fuel injection, thus passing the

Euro 2 The European emission standards are vehicle emission standards that regulate pollution from the use of new land surface vehicles sold in the European Union and European Economic Area member states and the United Kingdom, and ships in European ...

pollution standard, whilst also giving an increase in power output. Some versions of the Tico in the Korean domestic market were powered by

liquefied petroleum gas Liquefied petroleum gas, also referred to as liquid petroleum gas (LPG or LP gas), is a fuel gas which contains a flammable mixture of hydrocarbon gases, specifically propane, Butane, ''n''-butane and isobutane. It can also contain some ...

. Daewoo produced the Tico at the old

Oltcit Oltcit S.A. () was an automobile manufacturer, established as a joint venture between the communist Romanian government (64%) and Citroën (36%). Their main products were the Oltcit Club and Citroën Axel hatchbacks, assembled in Craiova, Roman ...

factory in

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

. In 1998, the Tico was replaced with a new car, the

Daewoo Matiz Daewoo ( ; ; ; ; literally "great universe" and a portmanteau of "''dae''" meaning great, and the given name of founder and chairman Kim Woo-choong) also known as the Daewoo Group, was a major South Korean chaebol (type of conglomerate) and aut ...

. The Tico was sold alongside the Matiz until 2001.

References

{{Authority control Tico City cars Cars introduced in 1991 Cars discontinued in 2001 2000s cars