Chevrolet Optra

Due to the current high price of COE (Certificate of Entitlement), my father had to make do with his old ride. This is the first time he had driven a car till end of its 10 years live span. Registered on 14th January 2004 and we have to de-register the car by 13th January 2014. On 28th November 2013, we finally had to see her off to the car mart where my father traded in for a used car. This is also the first time he bought a used car as all his previous cars are bought new.

Don't be surprise to see the mileage to be only 58293km after running the car for 10 years. My father is the only registered owner and we can't be tempering the meter. His Singapore is just from Jurong West to Jurong East and vice versa. Most of his cars have very low mileage and under utilised.

The Optra is the first car to be fully badged as the Chevrolet in Singapore after Daewoo was taken over by General Motor. This car was badged differently in different countries. In South East Asia, it is known as Chevrolet Optra, Daewoo Lacetti in South Korea, Buick Excelle in China, Suzuki Forenza in North America and Holden Viva in Australia. Badge engineering indeed.

I actually brought my father to the Starauto show room 10 years ago because I was driving a Daewoo Nexia then. He liked the  car instantly and bought it a week later without any test drive or checking out other cars in the same range. I think what I like about the Optra is the spaciousness. Comparing the Elantra and Cerato of the same era, the Optra look much more upmarket as well. Well, time flies and we had to say goodbye to the Optra. The used car dealer said that it will definitely be scrap as the COE price is too high to renew and the body of our car look really bad because my father did not take care of the outlook. Rest in peace, Optra.