The Current & Soon Coming Chevy Cruze!

Already on sale in South Korea, Australia and soon in Europe, the Chevy Cruze will go on sale summer 2010 as a 2011 model.

General Motors is in the process of a historic reorganization, one that could help the one-time global automotive leader pare excess brands while rolling out a number of new models. You probably have heard of the Chevy Volt, that plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) that is just the beginning of the automaker’s quest to transform itself into a company producing revolutionary, highly efficient cars.

What you may not have heard about is the Chevy Cruze, which is based on the Volt’s platform, but will be powered by an economical, gasoline engine. This car has already been introduced in several markets, beginning last year in South Korea. By 2011, the Cruze will be sold across GM’s entire market including here in North America. To that end, this site is dedicated to tracking the Cruze’s progress as well as letting you know a bit more about this game changing car.

Advanced Engineering, Highly Fuel Efficient

Powered by a 1.6L I4 engine, the Cruze is paired with a five-speed manual or optional six-speed automatic transmission. GM also offers 1.4, 1.8 and 2.0L I4 engines depending on the market, the latter being a turbo-diesel engine which is already being sold in Australia as the Holden Cruze. It is believed that a direct-injection version of the 1.4L engine will be made available in the US, a car that GM says should get at least 40 mpg on the highway.

The Cruze is expected to replace the Chevy Cobalt and the Pontiac G5, the latter model which will simply die when the Pontiac name is retired at the end of 2010. Seating five passengers, the Cruze will include all of the latest safety and engineering features that customers expect, but it’ll be priced competitively. GM hasn’t announced pricing yet – the car goes into production in April 2010 – but a price in the neighborhood of $17,000 seems likely.

Lordstown, Ohio Assembly Plant Production

Last summer, GM announced that production for the US spec Cruze would be assigned to the company’s Lordstown Assembly Plant in Ohio, a $500 million retooling investment would help bring the Cruze online. Former GM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Rick Wagoner, said at an August 21, 2008 news conference that the Cruze was designed and engineered by the company’s teams in Europe and Asia Pacific and would be manufactured in those regions as well as in Ohio.

Though the company is now going through a painful and deep restructuring, the Cruze project continues as does production for the Volt.  While the Volt be produced in small numbers, the Cruze will be mass produced and could quickly become the best selling model in the GM fleet whether sold as a Holden, Opel, Vauxhall, Chevrolet or Daewoo model.

Photo courtesy of GM Corp.

Buick Musings, And Then There Was The Excelle

My grandmother regularly purchased and drove new Buick automobiles even though she certainly could have afforded a Cadillac if she so chose. To her, a Buick had enough luxury in it without flaunting personal wealth, something that this Quaker bred woman was loathe to do.

Today, Buick soldiers on as the brand just below Cadillac, a line of premium vehicles that has
diminished in popularity in the US, but has reached meteoric proportions in the People’s Republic of China. Yes, in China of all places the Buick name has gained a solid footing, so much so that is by far General Motors’ most popular brand, selling twice as many Buicks there than in America.

Buick’s popularity in the US is understandable, but why China? Well, you have to go back nearly one hundred years during the reign of the emperors in the Forbidden Kingdom. Cars were new to the world at the time and both the last emperor and the first leader of modern China owned Buicks. Though decades of communist rule stamped out most Western practices and traditions, the quasi-capitalistic Chinese state of today has once again embraced all things global, uncovering the early interest in the Buick brand.

Due to the popularity of Buick in China, GM has bolstered the brand considerably by offering several more Buick models there than the three models sold in the US. While the American market has the LaCrosse, Lucerne, and Enclave, China sells several different models which are essentially rebadged versions of other GM products from Daewoo, Opel, Holden, and elsewhere. This year, Buick also began to export to China from the US its big Enclave crossover in a bid to expand its Chinese line up.

Of the cars sold in China, are there any that can also be sold in the US? One model that has gotten a lot of attention this year is the Buick Excelle, a compact sedan that is smaller than the LaCrosse, the smallest of the two sedans currently offered by Buick (Lucerne being the other one). The current iteration of the Excelle is based on a Daewoo platform and sold throughout Asia and other parts of the world as Daewoo, Holden, Chevrolet, and even Suzuki models. Powered by small four cylinder gas engines with a displacement between 1.4L and 2.0L, the Excelle could be just the type of model fuel conscious Buick buyers would consider buying, provided that the quality and luxury levels were there.

Beginning with the 2009 model year, a new Excelle is being sold overseas, a vastly improved model that has sweeping lines and unmistakable Buick features including the signature fascia and ornamental portholes. That model has fueled recent rumors that GM would make the Excelle available stateside, whether imported from China or built in a US factory remains unknown, but is a distinct possibility nonetheless.

Powered by 1.6L or 1.8L four cylinder engines, the Excelle would certainly be the smallest Buick sold stateside in quite some time. Likely, if GM chose to bring the car to the US, it would be mated to a six-speed automatic transmission to help it achieve superior fuel economy. Perhaps GM would even consider offering a six-speed manual transmission to broaden the car’s appeal to a younger generation. Easily, a compact Buick should get about 35 mpg, a figure which would help GM meet more stringent federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) requirements.

If my grandmother were alive today, I doubt that she would choose a car as small as the Excelle, given her larger car tastes. But, if GM manages to offer this car stateside with a level of quality and luxury that Buick drivers expect, the Excelle could once again bolster the brand’s image and be a hit with American drivers eager to enjoy compact luxury car driving.