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Holden to produce four-cylinder small car

Holden, known for it's massive sedans and massively appealing V8s, is on the small car bandwagon with its announcement to build a four-cylinder car in Australia to be sold alongside the Commodore. Holden currently has three four-cylinder cars, but they're comprised of rebadged Daewoo's and an Opel, and haven't set the Outback on fire. The new compact car will be based on the Chevrolet Cruze, but with a body designed by Holden, and will offer both four-pot gas and diesel options. Down the line, Holden said it will investigate ethanol-capable engines and start-stop technology for its new Corolla fighter.

Holden has a few reasons to make such a move right now, changing consumer tastes being one of the most important. The Australian government has also pledged $6 billion (AUD) to its local auto industry, which has allowed Holden to carry out its plans with less concern about the bottom line. Holden will spend $200 million (AUD) and the government will provide another $179 million (AUD). The new compact sedan will have to stave off competition from Toyota, as well as the parade of cheap Thai cars that have been flowing into Australia after the two countries concluded a free trade agreement. The new Holden will face-off against the Ford Focus and Toyota Corolla when production begins in 2011.

posted : 12/23/2008 @8:39:35 PM
Chevy Cruze WTCC livery gets official Italian reveal

Chevy used the Bologna Motor Show this week to debut its new livery for its also new Chevy Cruze WTCC racer. The Chevy Cruze will replace the Lacetti both on the street and the track, where the Lacetti managed to rack up 14 wins in the last three seasons of the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC). The new livery carries over the team's white and blue color scheme with an asymmetrical application that is said to highlight the new ginormous split grille up front. Aside from the new graphics, the WTCC Cruze looks particularly menacing with a full complement of fender flares, a large rear wing and deep front chin spoiler. The racer will debut in early March in Curitiba, Brazil, while the production car will go on sale in Europe around the same time. We here in the States will have to wait even longer to buy the successor to our own Cobalt, that is, if General Motors is even around then.
posted : 12/5/2008 @6:38:50 PM
Wagoner now driving Volt mule to Congress

General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner will be taking advantage of the media circus surrounding his drive from Detroit to Washington D.C. tomorrow. As it seems every press outlet will be covering the roadtrip adventures of the three Detroit leaders as they travel via wheeled transportation to the capitol to beg for billions (remember, no corporate jets this time), Wagoner has wisely dumped the ho-hum hybrid Chevrolet Malibu in favor of a Chevy Volt mule in a Chevy Cruze body during at least the last few highly-visible miles of his journey. Wagoner will still trek part of the route to Washington in the hybrid Malibu, but just not all the way. To take full advantage of the public display, GM will also bring a show version of the highly-anticipated 2011 Chevy Volt to the capitol and put it on display when Wagoner arrives at the Russell Senate Building around 9:30 AM. If you are in the neighborhood (Delaware Ave. and C Street), Wagoner will be briefly talking to the public before he opens his heart to Congress. Thanks, TKTK.
posted : 12/4/2008 @5:09:02 PM
GM unveils Chevrolet Cruze WTCC racer

For the past few years General Motors has been competing in the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) with a car based on the Daewoo-built Chevrolet Lacetti. Top Gear fans will of course recognize the Lacetti as the current Reasonably Priced Car for Stars to demonstrate their track abilities. As the road-going version of the Lacetti grows long in the tooth, the General will be supplanting the budget people mover with the new Chevrolet Cruze. And that means in 2009, GM will replace the Lacetti with a new, Cruze-based WTCC challenger. The WTCC Cruze is already being tested in preparation for its debut in Brazil next spring. Cars running in the WTCC are based on compact and midsized cars with 2.0-liter four-cylinder engines. Touring car racing has been popular in other parts of the world, but has never caught on in the U.S. in spite of being more closely related to stock cars than the ones that run around in circles under the banner of NASCAR.
posted : 10/15/2008 @9:30:03 PM
Paris 2008: Chevrolet Cruze meets an eager Europe

The Chevrolet Cruze is three kinds of car: small, American and important. And with the state of General Motors, it isn't even the individual words that mean the most: it's whether The General can combine them into a reliable, fuel efficient and cost effective package. True, we don't get to drive these things while they're parked under the lights, but to have a seat in the Cruze is to imagine a GM that begs the question, "Where was all this before the meltdown?" The studio imagery we've seen so far translates nicely into real life, and the center console looks and feels substantial – in fact, it looks like it could be foreign – even if the silver mesh treatment in the show car was a bit much. The car has a compact yet full-bodied stance, and will probably look even better on the road in a color other than scarlet, and not under klieg lights. Spring of '09 will welcome this first Cruze variant to Europe, after which other regions will get it, as well as a probable hatchback and wagon. It will be powered by a 1.4-liter turbo four-cylinder that charts up to 140 hp and is said to return 40 mpg. Have a look at the high-res gallery of live shots below to get a better idea of what to expect when the Cruze goes on sale here in a couple years.
posted : 10/5/2008 @6:16:59 PM
Paris 2008: Chevy Cruze unveiled on eve of show, interior revealed

We've gotten a pretty good look at the 2010 Chevy Cruze already, but the model that had been making rounds in the U.S. was nothing more than a styling buck with no guts inside. Today, just a few hours ahead of the Paris Motor Show, General Motors has revealed the rest of the Cruze, including its interior, and we like what we see. The exterior looks crisp and shows off Chevy's latest design language, especially with the Malibu-esque face and sharp headlights. Everyone agrees that it's a step-up styling-wise from its Cobalt forebear. It's the interior that really shines, though. What appears to be a tweed-like fabric covers sweeping colored panels from the dash to the doors. Two large gauges, two smaller ones and a digital readout places the most important information front-and-center while a cluster of buttons sits just below a centrally-located LCD screen. Meanwhile, the center stack appears to be a fresh design, though any judgment on its ergonomics will have to wait. We won't be getting the Cruze in the States until April 2010 as a 2011 model. When that finally happens, the Cruze will be powered by a 140-horsepower 1.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder, which will somehow manage to achieve above 40 mpg on the highway. If you want it now, perhaps you should stop buying so many Cobalts. In Europe, sales will begin in March of 2009 with a range of gas and diesel powerplants.
posted : 10/5/2008 @3:12:17 PM
GM ramps up Cobalt production to meet demand

General Motors cites the success of the current Chevy Cobalt as the reason for delaying the launch of the Cobalt's replacement, the upcoming Cruze, in the States. In order to meet the market's soaring demand for small cars in general, and the Cobalt in particular, earlier this year GM added a third shift to the Lordstown Plant where the Cobalt is built. For '09, the General plans to build an extra 70,000 Cobalts, expecting fuel prices to remain high and demand for its compact sedan and coupe to follow suit. Unfortunately for the struggling automaker, those extra cars may not necessarily add up to extra profits, with the Cobalt priced below its main competitors from Japan. For this reason, GM will be adding a few bucks to the bottom line of the Cruze, in a pricing move similar to the recently released Malibu. Hopefully, the same tactic GM employed with its mid-sizer will translate to the Cruze and that extra cash will result in a better car than its predecessor.
posted : 9/24/2008 @10:19:32 PM
Chevy Cruze could be priced higher than rivals

Remember when we told you that GM plans to make more money off of its small cars by upping its prices? Well, as far as the Cruze is concerned, not only do they plan to charging substantially more than the outgoing Cobalt, they might demand more cash than a comparably equipped Corolla, Civic, or Focus. According to GM, that's because it needs to make more per car than Honda or Toyota. With the average Civic rolling away for $19,184, GM doesn't have a lot of room to play before hitting the $20,000 ceiling. And if GM was to get an average price of $19,500 for the Cruze, that would be a $3,000 premium over the current (average) price for the Cobalt. That still gives no indication of how much money GM would actually be making on the car, though. Design honcho Ed Welburn feels the car's styling and interior will justify the extra dosh, and said he believes "we have some very unique content and materials that are in the vehicle." Conviction is a good start, and if they can back it up the verdict might go their way. For that, we have to wait for the jury of consumers to decide.
posted : 9/24/2008 @10:16:28 PM
Paris Preview: 2010 Chevy Cruze in person

This afternoon GM design VP Ed Welburn and Chevy general manager Ed Peper gave us a preview of the new 2010 Chevy Cruze compact sedan. As is all too often the case with cool new small cars, the U.S. market is last in line as the Cruze will be going on sale in Europe next March as a 2010 model with a choice of 1.6L and 1.8L gas engines or a new 2.0L diesel that puts out 150 hp. As many have surmised from previous images of the Cruze, it is actually a bit bigger than the current Cobalt it will eventually replace. According to Peper, it actually slots in between the Cobalt and the Malibu, although it will get better fuel economy than both. GM chose to debut the Cruze in Europe because it's the brands fastest growing market with a 23-percent growth in sales through the first half of 2008. Asked why the U.S. isn't getting it sooner, Peper blamed the current sales success of the Cobalt and other upcoming launches such as the Camaro. Peper also indicated that the Cruze will get an impressive 40 mpg on the highway at launch. When the Cruze goes into production at GM's Lordstown, OH plant in April 2010 as a 2011 model, it will be powered by the new 1.4L direct-injected turbocharged four-cylinder that has been announced previously. We don't have any pics of the interior yet because the car on display here is just the same styling buck with no guts that appeared in Lordstown a couple of weeks ago. We'll be sure to get those interior shots and more when the car makes it official world debut at the Paris Motor Show next month.
posted : 9/24/2008 @9:50:00 PM
Automakers eek out extra fuel economy on older models

Conspiracy theorists have long insisted that automakers could push their vehicles to achieve better fuel economy, and as it turns out, they were right. Of course, it isn't as easy as flipping a magic MPG switch, but automakers are making incremental gains on vehicles even between redesigns. Techniques like changing gear ratios, lowering revs at highway speed and using lower rolling resistance tires are helping drive up efficiency a few percentage points at a time. For example, the 2009 Cobalt XFE (above) achieves 37 mpg on the highway compared to 36 mpg for the 2008 model with minimal aero and mechanical changes. Ford made similar changes to the 2009 Escape, enabling the Blue Oval's smallest crossover to hit 28 mpg in 2WD four-banger guise. Honda achieved similar incremental improvements when it introduced cylinder deactivation on the 2008 Odyssey. Chrysler will show 1 mpg improvement on the 2009 Avenger and Sebring four-cylinder model, which will bring the Pentastar's midsize sedans to 31 mpg. While everyone seems to be sitting on the car buying sidelines until some unbelievably fuel efficient vehicle comes along with great looks and a low price tag, the reality is that these baby steps are what we should expect. There are some some bigger jumps on the horizon, like the Chevy Cruze that promises 45 mpg on the highway and diesel offerings like the Jetta TDI and oil-burning Accord. For the next few years, however, expect automakers to pick the low hanging fruit of high gas mileage first.
posted : 9/13/2008 @5:42:46 AM
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