Holden's small to medium Viva was previously sold in Australia by Daewoo as the Lacetti, without a great deal of success. These days, GM Holden has a lot of input into Daewoo models and changes have been made to improve them, even though they are still built in Korea.
Not major changes at this stage, those will have to wait for the next model, but certainly the car is better than before. This is no sports sedan as the suspension is on the soft side, but there's decent feel through the steering.
Holden Viva has good balance for a front-driver and road grip is fine. Refinement and comfort are good for a car of its size and price range.
Unlike many imports, Viva is brought into this country with a full range of body types - four-door sedan, five-door hatch and five-door wagon. All are powered by the same 1.8-litre four-cylinder engine that uses a twin-cam cylinder head and four valves per cylinder.
Transmissions are the usual four-speed automatic and five-speed manual. The wiggly-gate automatic transmission shift pattern is a bit on the awkward side if you use the Hold feature.
On-road performance of this engine/transmission combination is best described as adequate.
It will suit the average driver who isn't interested in high performance.
