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The Compact Multi Purpose Vehicle segment is growing fast. The Daewoo Tacuma will certainly write a new and exciting chapter in the history of personal transportation.

Tacuma is a state-of-the-art compact MPV, project coded U100. It is aimed at young and growing families who appreciate the versatility of a traditional people mover but rather avoid the feeling of driving a mini-bus.

Once again time to market has been considered as a major critical factor of success in the project:Tacuma has taken just three short years from conception to reality.

Deliberately combining the practicality of a multi purpose vehicle with the comfort and sophistication of an executive sedan, the Tacuma will impress its drivers offering a quiet yet solid ride, characteristics that are not typical of this type of vehicle.

Initially conceived in Korea, Tacuma is based on its own unique platform and has benefited from the experience of project partners of the caliber of Porsche, Pininfarina and Italdesign.

Production takes place at Daewoo’s state-of–the-art plant at Kunsan and is slated at 100,000 units/year with at least 30 percent of this volume dedicated to the world markets.

The briefing was simple: reach an harmonious integration of the demands of a mini-van with the style and comfort of a modern sedan.

Deliberately conceived to stand out from the crowd, the Tacuma still bears the trade-mark Daewoo chromed grille but also features very original shapes such as the dramatic upsweep of the rearmost windows and the interesting curves of the tail-lights. The result is a series of bold styling statements that is sure to catch the attention.

The line of the short bonnet continues for the whole length of the car before

developing into a half-oval towards the rear windows. Another styling mark placed lower down the rear side panel accentuates the car’s athletic stance while the styling of the rear is dominated by the high-set and vertical tail-light assembly.

Its design is the result of the strong partnership of three great design houses:

Pininfarina for the exterior and Giugiaro’s Italdesign and Daewoo’s own Design Forum for the interiors.

With Tacuma Daewoo has utilised its well-proven ability to combine different skills in order to reduce time to market.This fast-track approach to Industrialisation, already adopted for Lanos, Nubira and Leganza, has once again proven itself to be a success.

Created by Pininfarina,Tacuma is a vehicle with plenty of character from every angle. The dynamic elliptical curve of the side glass is highlighted by flowing body lines that add a sophisticated and athletic look.The bold front styling prominently features the famous Daewoo Grille and the unusual vertical tail lamps that elegantly frame the rear liftgate. This minivan has the dynamic and sporty styling that ensures it stands out in the crowd.

• Folding outside mirrors make manouvering in close quarters easy while

• Roof rails add a pleasant accent to the overall styling

• Tinted glass helps cut out interior heat build-up and enhance privacy.

• Chromed exhaust pipe tip brings a sporty accent to the rear styling.

• Radio antenna is centrally located near the rear edge of the roof. It is

easily removable for security or for automatic car wash.

Under the expert hand of Giugiaro’s Italdesign, the interior of the Tacuma remains faithful to the basic design briefing and combines style with practicality. Despite its compact overall dimensions the Tacuma will easily carry five adults and have plenty of room for their luggage.

This results from the vehicle’s significant height (1,580 mm) as well as width (1,755mm), allowing passengers to comfortably sit upright and make the best possible use of the volume available.

Five individual seats, all ergonomically designed for maximum comfort fit the

practical mould of the interior. Front driver’s seat is multi-adjustable and feature a fold-down armrest, while all three rear seats can be individually folded down for a fully modular use of available space. Each seat can also be removed to offer the greatest possible loading volume. With all seats in place Tacuma offers 347 litres of loading volume, increasing to 1,425 litres with all three seats tumbled forward. The total volume increases to a massive 1,847 litres with rear seats removed.

Interestingly the center rear seats slide forward by 120 mm to increase shoulder room for passengers using the outboard seats. When folded flat, the back of the center seat incorporates a small work desk or a picnic table.

As well as a generous boot, Tacuma features original and inventive touches in the form of storage drawers under the front seats, in the floor area of the rear passenger compartment as well as in the side panels in the boot. A large glove box, sunglass holder, generous door and seat-back pockets as well as aircraft style fold-down tables on the back of the front seats contribute to the practicality of the cabin.

Driver comfort is a priority: the steering column and seat are adjustable for height, to allow for the best possible driving position.A new design for the large dashboard and the typical ergonomic positioning of all controls

contributes to safety as well as comfort. The tasteful interior uses subdued and stylish fabrics and quality materials that contribute to a luxurious feeling.

The Tacuma is powered by a 2.0 litre DOHC petrol engine developed by GM Holden in Melbourne. Mounted transversally it drives the front wheels through a GM derived 5 speed manual gearbox using a single dry plate clutch. It delivers 94 kW @ 5600 rpm and 183 Nm @ 4000 rpm.

This is well know powerplant for Daewoo and can be found in both the Leganza and the Nubira range. With a displacement of 1988 cc the unit naturally features a twin cam, four valves per cylinder with centrally mounted spark plugs for the best possible flame distribution. This version has a slightly higher torque than Nubira to reflect Tacuma’s load-carrying role.

The engine management system comes courtesy of Delphi and runs on a 16 bit processor to ensure precise and timely management of all engine

parameters. The system has an electronic distribution system with knock sensors and a prime pulse device to enrich the mixture for better cold starts.

Hydraulic tappets ensure optimal valve function, boosting efficiency and reducing noise and maintenance.

An automatic 4 speed electronically controlled transmission is available as an option. Developed by ZF, this unit is a state-of-the-art transmission featuring Economy, Power and Hold Modes as well as an adaptive "fuzzy logic" shift control system.

Tacuma offers a naturally rigid body based around a hexagonal type high-tensile steel frame. The fully independent suspension has McPherson struts at the front and a torsion bar with compound link arrangement at the rear.

Porsche of Germany, as one of the development partners in the U100 project has contributed to the fine-tuning of suspension components and has conceived a suspension system that offers the best possible combination of ride and handling characteristics.

The front struts are positioned so as to reduce to a minimum variations to caster and camber angles under stress and help maintain straight-line stability while ensuring excellent ride and comfort.

The independent rear suspension has been designed to offer not only excellent levels of comfort but also sharp handling characteristics.

Moulded urethane has replaced the usual rubber used for coil spring mounts resulting in a vast improvement in noise and vibration compared to conventional materials. The use of Nitrogen charged shock absorbers all-round contribute to a very comfortable ride.

The steering is precise thanks to a powerful rack and pinion system.Turning radius is surprisingly tight at 5.26 metres, and help make Tacuma

remarkably manoeuvrable in city traffic.

The braking system features 10 inch ventilated discs at the front and 9 inch drums at the rear delivering effective and fade-free performance in every conceivable driving condition.

The powerful and effective optional ABS is manufactured by Delphi and features a 4 Channel/4 Sensor set-up as well as an electronic brake force

distribution feature that continuously monitors load and road surface conditions as well as cornering angles to determine optimal braking power to be distributed to each wheel.

While minivans have a reputation for being more noisy and less refined than modern sedans, particular attention has been devoted to Noise, Vibration and Harshness throughout the development process of Tacuma. Rigorous NVH testing has been conducted at Daewoo’s Worthing Technical Centre as well as 2 million km of actual road trials including extensive testing in Australia.The result is one of the quietest andmost relaxing driving experiences in the class.

Tacuma’s engine bay has an active role in keeping the engine noise away from the passenger compartment. The first line of defense is constituted by a seven-layer dash panel.This component features a layer of foam sandwitched between a dual-wall steel structure. The whole assembly is encased in layers of polyurethane foam and vinyl sheeting as the outer shell.

Generous sound-absorbing materials on the underside of the bonnet effectively prevent noise and vibration from dissipating, while urethane foam insulation prevents vibration from dissipating via the A pillar.

Exhaust noise is dampened by a triple layer tunnel design including insulating material between the interior and the exterior metal stampings.

Since both engine air intake as well as exhaust system are significant sources of noise, Tacuma is equipped with a generous 10-liter resonator as well as a high-capacity 24-liter muffler. The combined effect of these devices is to significantly reduce engine noise at the source.

Combined with generous damping materials used for the wheel wells, a six-layer construction is used for the floor below the carpet.This has been extremely effective in making the Tacuma one of the quietest in the class.

The wedge-like profile formed by the leading edge of the bonnet and the top of the windscreen helps reduce wind noise as well as drag.The car is equipped with a range of damping materials in the door trim, B and C pillars, cargo area walls and ceiling to achieve a quiet and relaxing interior at all speeds.

Tacuma is the result of the latest advances in safety design. Extensive supercomputer simulation has been utilized in the development process as well as 120 actual crash tests and 210 sled tests in order to produce a car with the highest level of passenger protection. These have been measured by EURO NCAP Standards.

Active protection has also been given a high priority with devices such as impact beams and heavy duty door hinges.

In addition to 278 degrees of unobstructed outward vision from the driver’s seat, Tacuma provides an exceptionally wide 21.5 degree rear view through the use of slightly convex outside mirrors.

At night visibility is enhanced by powerful multifocus halogen headlamps and fog lamps. An original feature of the Tacuma is the automatic actuation of the rear window wiper when reverse gear is selected in rainy conditions.

The vertical tail lamps, high mounted stop lamp and rear bumper reflectors all

contribute to make the Tacuma easy for other drivers to see.

The electronic four speed automatic transmission is equipped with a brake

transmission shift interlock (BTSI) which only allows gear selection from the park position while the brake pedal is depressed.

Tacuma meets all industry standards for protection in low-speed impacts with 8 km/h front and 4km/h rear bumpers.The bumper system is closely integrated with the front and rear sub-frame design for superior absorption and dispersion performance.

The front frame design used in the Tacuma has enabled the car to meet the highest Euro NCAP standards including the critical 40 % offset collision test conducted at 64km/h. In a full or offset frontal collision impact forces are directed to the left, right and downwards as they flow through the

entire front structure thus minimising the deformation of the passenger

compartment.

The integrated front subframe unit consists of two parallel hexagonal frame members and a cross-member at the back of the engine compartment. In conjunction with the bumper beam this assembly represents an exceptionally strong structure with over 15 percent higher impact absorption performance than conventional square or rectangular designs.

The Front Subframe is fabricated using the tailored blank process which consists of laser welding 1.6 and 2.0 mm high tensile steel sheets end to end and then press stamping the entire panel at once. This results in a structure that effectively absorbs impact energy while minimising deformation and engine intrusion in the passenger cabin.

The A pillars have an important role in absorbing and dissipating impact energy and protect the cabin.They are reinforced by vertical supports at the column mid point.

The upper and lower B-pillar sections are connected internally by 1.2 mm thick reinforcing plates.The upper section of the B-pillar also has 2.0 mm thick reinforcing plates. They are designed to effectively disperse impact energy through two large crossmembers in the floor as well as the roof members. The result is that Tacuma meets the Highest Euro NCAP standards.

Each door features high tensile steel impact beams in the mid section and aid the B Pillars in minimising intrusion into the cabin.

Door hinges are attached to the body by three fasteners. This contributes to added strength and can make the difference between a door jamming and opening after an impact.

A two section, ladder-style rear subframe effectively protects the passenger cabin as well as the fuel tank and extends from the front edge of the rear seats all the way to the rear bumper mounts.

Tacuma is equipped with two airbags designed to deploy in collisions of 22.5 km/h or higher.

All outboard seating positions feature 3-point seat belts for complete passenger restraint. The front seat belts are equipped with an electronically actuated pre-tensioner with load limiter to minimise collision related head and chest injuries.

WARRANTY

3 year/100,000 km std

Roadside assistance std

Freecare std

TRANSMISSIONS

Tacuma is launched at $ 23,990.

Automatic transmission is priced at $ 1,950.

The optional Value Pack including ABS and alloy wheels is priced at $ 1,950.