DAEWOO MUSSO 2.9 TDi 5dr (1999)

It was cheap second hand but has been a bit shaky

We were after a Land Rover lookalike, and we had a look at a number of different ones. We settled on the Daewoo Musso because it was cheap second hand (only a year old too), and we hadn't heard any bad things about it, probably because we hadn't heard much at all about it.

The best thing I reckon about the Daewoo Musso is that it's pretty spacious inside, and all the seats are really comfy. They all recline too, even the back ones, and they are generally very supportive. I found that particularly nice when I was pregnant. Being in a proper seating position is good too. When I was heavily pregnant I really couldn't face getting into a normal car, which to me felt like trying to sit down on the floor, which was completely impossible.

We bought our Daewoo Musso in about 2000, and at that time we were getting the services done by the Daewoo dealer, who were generally good at things, courteous and able to do whatever jobs that needed doing.

Things went really downhill in 2002 or 2003 when Daewoo changed hands, and it became GM Daewoo. There was a real difference at the next service, very poor customer service. It almost seemed like some sort of new policy that they were to insult and annoy owners of the 'old' brand. So we went with it and never went back there, took our business to a specialist garage that we found in the yellow pages. They've been great, and a lot cheaper than Daewoo ever were, so I'd suggest doing that.

I'm not sure I could really recommend the Daewoo Musso though, because we've had quite a few mechanical problems with it, the gearbox and the handbrake being the worst. We've had the brakes done a few times, maybe a bit more frequently than you'd expect. Anyway the main problem with all that is that it's been so hard to find parts for them, since they're quite old and were never that popular.