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"It's the most sung-about car brand in the world. It's been in more movies than Dustin Hoffman. Now you can walk into the pub and tell your friends you drive a Chevy." So says Andy Carroll, md of Chevrolet UK, on the relaunch of Daewoo cars in the UK.

But what will the Chew image mean to the majority of British motorists? Big, certainly. Gas-guzzling, probably. Soft-suspensioned, possibly. Maybe even a thumping great V8 engine. None of which bears any relation to the new breed of cars wearing the Chevrolet badge.

"We did a lot of research into the brand image of Chevrolet in the UK," continues Carroll, "and it you ask consumers--what if Chevrolet came to the UK, but with smaller cars to fit UK roads?--the answer is very positive."

OK, so we all know that, initially, the 'new' Chevrolets will simply be rebadged Daewoos, but Daewoo fits very well with the Chevy ethos. Because, despite the general UK perception of this American behemoth, Chevrolet means something quite different to the Americans who drive them. In the US, Chevrolet is by no means a premium brand, but an affordable, everyday car, with a hugely varying range; think Ford, as a comparable UK marque.

The reasons for the launch of the Chevrolet brand in the UK make good sense. Daewoo's image was at a pretty low ebb in 2002--even before it suffered financial collapse and was bought out by GM. As Carroll freely admits, the Daewoo name still carries a lot of negative baggage--"it can take quite a while to turn that around," he says. Another fact revealed by the manufacturer's market research is that the name Chevrolet has 93% recognition among the British public. I can't help wondering who the other 7% are--getting on for one in 10--who don't recognise the name Chevrolet even when prompted. Where have they been for the last 40 years? Not at the cinema, clearly.

Carroll wants the UK image of Chevrolet to come to mean "value for money, expressive styling, durability, reliability and the use of proven technology". Not rocket science, then. 'Proven technology', incidentally, doesn't mean gadgets and gizmos. The manufacturer admits that its cars carry "no more specification than is needed for a modern single person or family ...". While well-equipped in terms of ABS, power steering and the like, you won't get innovative, high-tech options. But with an entry-level price under 7000 [pounds sterling], the new three-door Kalos (the UK's first brand-new 'Chevrolet' rather than a re-badged Daewoo) certainly fits the value-for-money ideology.

Currently, however, the entire European Chevrolet range is petrol-powered. What about diesels? Chevrolet tells us that the new S3X, a seven-seater SUV unveiled at the 2004 Paris Motor Show and due to reach the UK in early 2006, will be Europe's first diesel Chevy--and a range of diesel engines will become available on other models sometime alter that. Indeed, a new 19,000[m.sup.2] plant, due for completion in April this year, is being built in South Korea specifically to produce Chevrolet's diesel power units. These will be a 1.5-litre, three-cylinder turbodiesel and two versions of a 2.0-litre, four-cylinder engine.

Chevrolet's plans don't stop at diesel power though. In the medium term, it's aiming to come up with a hybrid electric vehicle and, in the longer term, we might even see a hydrogen-powered Chevrolet.

One thing is certain--all these new cars are buying into an outstandingly successful heritage. Today, worldwide, there's a Chevy sold every 16s; some 175m have been sold since Chevrolet was launched in 1911. Chevrolet UK has a lot to live up to.

Following the rebranding exercise, Chevrolet is still looking after Daewoo's traditional 'older' retail customers (those in their fifties and sixties) through its warranties and roadside assistance. But it's also hoping to attract a younger audience--and the new three-door Kalos, the first European model to be a Chevrolet-from-the-word-go, is a move in that direction.

The three-door has significantly sportier styling than the existing five-door Kalos, and offers a new entry-level price of 6995 [pounds sterling]. There's not a lot of choice in this price range and, from my impressions, the Kalos wouldn't be a bad bet if the budget won't stretch to that BMW.

True, the interior of the Kalos lacks any real feel of quality--but what do you expect? This is an extremely low-cost car. More importantly, the Kalos is easy and pleasant to drive, with comfortable seats (more comfortable, in fact, than those in many more expensive cars), plus adequate space in the rear, and acceptable performance from both the 1.2S and 1.4SX models. The price of the 1.4 starts at 8395 [pounds sterling]; quite a jump from the 1.2. Given the fact that value for money is likely to be high in the priorities of anyone buying a car of this sort, you have to question whether the 1.4 is worth the extra money.

In certain aspects, the Kalos is remarkably good. Coming downhill on a narrow, out-of-town road, we encountered a tight, and suddenly blind, corner. We quickly discovered that the corner tightened, the descent steepened and--oh look--here comes a slippery patch of wet road, dusted with snow. There was almost no grip and for one very nasty moment the Kalos went into slight understeer (enough to spread a look of alarm across the face of an oncoming driver), and then the Chevrolet's suspension very cleverly sorted itself, pushing the rear out into a nice, controllable neutral stance. The nose of the Kalos tucked in and on we went, the danger averted. Fairly impressive handling for a car in this price bracket.

I was less impressed by the gearshift: the selection seemed a little vague and I wondered whether, in time, it would become a decidedly notchy nuisance. And for other reasons, I couldn't help feeling that the venue for the launch of the three-door Kalos--the twisty, bumpy roads of Croatia--was carefully selected to show the car in its best light.

The Kalos's ride and handling are extremely good: well able to cope with the demands of a challenging road surface. But what, to the people of Dubrovnik, is a major road, is to us little more than a bumpy back alley. Visit the area for the stunning beauty of the old city (it really is worth seeing), but not as a high-speed testing ground for a newly launched car. It's possible that the 71bhp 1.2S would seem underpowered on the demanding roads of Britain: the 93bhp 1.4SX might be a better bet back home.

Having said repeatedly that the Kalos is a cheap car, I confess that it looks good, it really is comfortable and much to my surprise I enjoyed driving it very much.

It seems that a cheap car can, after all, offer real driving pleasure. To me, this makes the three-door Kalos a highly respectable launch-pad for the new Chevrolet brand.

DRIVER'S LOG

OTR PRICE: 6995 [pounds sterling] to 8395 [pounds sterling]

ENGINES: Petrol: 1.2 and * 1.4

TRANSMISSIONS: 5-speed manual. 4-speed auto

POWER: 93bhp @ 6200rpm

TORQUE: 130Nm @ 3400rpm

C[O.sub.2] RATINGS: 171 g/km

OFFICIAL COMBINED: 39.8mpg

INSURANCE GROUPS: 3E-4A

ON SALE: Now

GM AND THE CHEVROLET RANGE

With Saab and Cadillac marking out their territory as GM's premium brands, and Vauxhall/Opel taking the middle-range slice. Chevrolet will slot into place as the entry-level GM brand.

The current Chevrolet UK range offers a four-model line-up:

* Matiz city car (from 5995 [pounds sterling])

* Kalos five-door and new, three-door family hatchback (from 6995 [pounds sterling])

* Lacetti five-door, saloon, and Station Wagon models (from 9495 [pounds sterling])

* Tacuma five-seat midi-MPV (from 10,995 [pounds sterling])

There will no longer be any new cars branded Daewoo, except in Korea and Vietnam. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, it's a case of 'Daewoo has died; long live Chevrolet'. In the UK Daewoo will become merely a name we see on dishwashers, TVs, microwaves and fridge-freezers etc.