IT is amazing how some cars of fairly recent origin can become very rare sights on the UK roads.

One such is the Daewoo Espero, a Vauxhall influenced mid-sized offering which spearheaded Daewoo's drive into Britain in the mid 1990s. 

Daewoo launched in the UK with a radical sales policy, using its own salesrooms and consultants, turning its back on dealerships, which generally operate across the industry. Its policy was hassle-free car buying without traditional pushy dealers.

It was the first time leisure retailing had been done in the automotive sector and gave Daewoo a very quick insertion into the UK.

A three year warranty and generous part exchange on new Daewoos for old were all part of a no-worries arrangement.

With the Espero customers received a car with a tried GM platform based on the Cavalier of the 1980s with a Bertone-styled body.

I drove one of the early models powered by a 1.5 engine. The body style was certainly better than the very dated interior but the performance was certainly not up to Cavalier standards.

But it was roomy, cheap and decent transport for five. Interestingly, many who mourned the passing of the BL Montego were ready customers for the Espero which answered a lot of of their demands.

Espero was sold alongside the Astra-based Nexia in the first British Daewoo range.

Despite drawbacks which included mediocre fuel economy and a body fairly prone to corrosion it remained popular among price-conscious drivers.

But the cracks started to appear - literally - when it started to flood onto the used market and warranties and care packages had expired.

One of its problems was cracking around the steering rack on the driver's side, which also affected Cavaliers and Saab 900s of the time and because the Espero would have had a low value, an MOT failure from this cause would have been a one way ticket to the scrapyard because repair would have been uneconomic.

Air conditioning failure was another problem and the car gained the nickname in the trade of 'Despairer'.

Even by 2011, out of more than 16,000 sold only 543 Esperos were left on the road with 150 on SORN certificates.

By now they are very rare sights, but I did see one recently in North Wales which had had quite a lot of cash and a few shovelfuls of TLC levelled at it.

Daewoo was later totally acquired by GM and the Korean products with the Espero's DNA are marketed with Chevrolet badging.