New Chevrolet Cruzes will roll out of the assembly line in September, with hopes of drawing the attention of younger drivers and emerge as a major player in the compact market dominated by Honda and Toyota.

The American company had long been struggling to build a steadily profitable line of compacts. Its Corvair and Vega were both safety and design disasters. Customers were more enticed with Corollas and Civic than Chevys. None of its small cars got the Recommended Buy rating from Consumer Reports’ April issue. Cruze’s predecessor, the Chevy Cobalt, sold only 105,000 units in the U.S. last year. In contrast to Japanese car makers Toyota and Honda, both of which drew more than 20 percent of its total auto sales from its compacts, GM only had an 8 percent share.

Furthermore, GM execs dismiss the compact line as an unwise investment due to their cheap prices compared to their expensive manufacturing cost, which is also the reason why its compact offerings, as one reporter observed, are compromised because of GM’s tight control costs.

“They really haven’t spent any time or money on these vehicles,” said Mr. David Champion, the senior director of Consumer Reports’ auto testing department.

Although GM may be lagging behind the compact race, particularly missing the industry boom last decade, the competition is far from over. Demand for compact and subcompacts in the U.S. is increasing phenomenally, from 21 percent in 2005 to 33 percent this year, and much bigger demand is expected from international market.

Early Cruze prototypes had issues of its own, and poor showroom performance resulted in delaying the production from April to August. Noisy tires, constantly shifting transmission, and lag between gas step and the turbocharger were among the major culprits of the delay.

According to Mark Reuss, GM’s North American president, all the problems had been fixed. The former head of engineering assured that the transmission was redone, the turbocharger lag was resolved, so as the transmission. He also added that an Eco version of Cruze will be available, and expected to run for 40 miles in one gallon.

However, many consumers are still skeptical about considering Chevy’s compacts. Previous offerings were often overlooked due to their outdated looks and mediocre performance.

Nonetheless, GM engineers are working hard to improve Cruze’s quality. Pitted against other models during one test ride, Cruze actually proved quieter and the handling seemed to fare better. A reviewer from Consumer Reports was also impressed with the car, from it looks down to its handling and performance.

A base Cruze will retail around $17,000, slightly more than those similar offerings from other companies. GM said that the price premium justifies Cruze’s additional standard features not commonly found in other compacts.

Mr. Tom Stephens, the Head of Product Development of GM said, the construction of the Cruze is better than that of Corolla or Civic.

“They’ve got quite a gap that they’ve got to close just to be competitive, let alone get ahead,” said Mr. Stephens.

GM has revealed that the American market version of the Chevrolet Cruze will get refinement upgrades for it to be ‘good enough’ for the American consumer. “We have a different set of competitive vehicles here in North America than what exists in Europe. We needed to make a number of adjustments,” said Chuck Russell, GM’s vehicle line director for compact cars in North America.

Here are a list of the changes:

* The windshield has been replaced with an acoustic laminated version.
* Doors get more insulation and sealters were added to some of the door headers.
* Airbag count tops at 10 including knee airbags and rear seat side airbags.
* The Cruze gets a different rear suspension design – an Opel Astra-like Watt’s Z-link as opposed to the regular torsion beam suspension on the world market Cruze.

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LORDSTOWN – Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland joined General Motors North America President Mark Reuss and other state and regional leaders today to announce the creation of 1,200 jobs through the addition of a third shift at GM’s Lordstown plant to support the production of the new 2011 Chevrolet Cruze.

“I’m proud to celebrate the creation of 1,200 new Ohio jobs and the resilience of the working men and women of the Mahoning Valley. The chips were down but we never gave up,” Strickland said. “That grit and steely determination is why I love this valley and why I believe in Ohio.

“The economic impact of GM’s investment will benefit the people of this region and communities throughout Ohio: GM’s Defiance Foundry will build engine blocks for the Cruze. GM’s Parma Metal Center will stamp dozens of components for the Cruze. GM’s Toledo Powertrain Center will produce transmissions and numerous suppliers in the Mahoning Valley and across the state will contribute parts for the Cruze,” Strickland said.

“Born in Ohio, built by Ohioans, the Cruze will become synonymous with Ohio. And that’s fitting because it reflects the innovation and resilience of the people of Ohio.

“It’s a great day in Ohio. Because GM is making a little automotive history in Ohio today. And Ohioans are going to be making a new kind of car for years and years to come,” Strickland said. “We look forward to continuing our strong partnership with GM and the Lordstown community to keep auto manufacturing strong in Ohio.”

U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan also released the following statement:

“President Obama and Congress made the unpopular but necessary decision to take partial ownership of General Motors and guide it through bankruptcy. This bold step may have saved manufacturing in the United States from being wiped out,” Ryan said. “As a result of that leadership, not only were the Mahoning Valley and Northeast Ohio community spared an economic catastrophe, we now stand to reap the benefits of those tough decisions. I commend the workers at the GM Lordstown plant for their leadership and maturity. Without their skills, talents and positive attitude, this day would have never come.

“I would like to thank Governor Strickland for his constant attention to the Mahoning Valley and the 17th Congressional District. His input and guidance have been instrumental in not only this project, but in every one of our economic successes over the past few weeks.

“I would also like to commend Senator Sherrod Brown for his powerful voice on behalf of our domestic manufacturing base. The American auto-industry has no better friend in the Senate.

“It’s clear that our local economic development strategy is working: another 1,100 high-paying jobs in Lordstown, corporate investment of $650 million and 350 permanent jobs at V&M Star, 500 more jobs expected at VXI in downtown Youngstown, a San Francisco technology company bringing up to 100 jobs to the Youngstown Business Incubator in the next two years, and Severstal Steel returning to work in Warren. I believe that this is the beginning of the Miracle on the Mahoning,” Ryan said.

Ohio and GM are continuing to move forward on important investments for our state. Last week Governor Strickland joined GM officials at the Powertrain Plant in Defiance to announce a $59 million investment that will support the production of the next generation fuel efficient Ecotec engine while creating about 80 new jobs.

And, on Feb. 8, the governor announced that the Defiance plant was awarded a $518,232 industry efficiency grant through Ohio’s State Energy Program, funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The award will help fund new equipment that will save energy, reduce raw material consumption, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and allow the facility to be more competitive by reducing its overall annual costs by $515,013.

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People buy cars they don’t need with money they don’t have to impress people they don’t like. That’s why hardly anybody in Europe is buying the Chevrolet Cruze, which has been on sale over here since last summer. It’s an affordable car that you might need but you won’t want, and which won’t impress anybody at all, because it’s just not that desirable. Allow me to explain…

The Cruze uses GM’s global Delta II platform, which is also the underpinning of the new Opel Astra as well as (in basic structure) the Chevy Volt. We Euros get Cruzes built in Korea but you in North America will have yours made in Michigan. It’s a conventional sedan, though in Europe at least, a hatchback and station wagon will follow.

The Cruze is Jetta-sized, but I’d say it looks better: less bloat, lower beltline, crisper shapes, good proportions. It manages to be both distinct and clean, with the major exception being the odd “headband” across the grille that encloses the recklessly large Chevy bow tie. If that is supposed to look sporty in a Jane Fonda, 1980’s aerobics way, it serves its purpose.

The interior is good, within the cut price idiom. For a Daewoo, the Cruze is short on depressing Korean genericness and long on generic-but-OK GM stuff, such as the standard cow’s tongue steering wheel and annoyingly deep-set instrument pods. It’s a bit fussy but not in a particularly creepy way, and I actually liked the cloth-befitted dashboard – fabric being generally preferable to dead cow. Finish and the selected plastics are quite OK.

What is really good is available space: the Cruze has plenty for four. This is more than a commuter car: I could deal with sitting in the back for hours on end and the trunk could handle all my trip luggage too (as it has a capacity of 16 cubic feet). Oddly, GM likes to stress that the trunk has indentations enabling space for two golf bags – I didn’t know that golfers were a cheap-car-buying demographic yet.

Not to forget, the Cruze has fared very well on the newest Euro-NCAP crash tests.

This is a really cheap car, so I’d gladly accept an interior that isn’t quite VW-standard if it saved me thousands. (You can get one like my tester for €15k, which is around 30% less than a comparable Jetta in Germany. And entry-level Cruzes start at €12k, which is the average price of cars that are two sizes smaller).

But some things just aren’t worth a low price. Case in point: the Cruze’s engine. The 1.8L machine produces 140HP of which I could only feel around 105 actually doing any work. And what little output it could muster produced more than its share of an unlovely noise. It’s an old-school engine that has somehow found its way into a new car, and it ruins the experience. Picture a car that feels well-made but which at highway speeds has a gruff, obtrusive, strained sound coming from its engine department: that’s what the Cruze I drove was like. (I also spent an hour in a Cruze equipped with the 110HP 1.6L engine. It’s slightly sweeter, but the sound is still gruff, and it’s so weak you have to thrash it all the time, so it’s not an alternative). Apparently the Diesels are the pick of the bunch, but they come at a steep, three-grand price premium. At a reported 25MPG, the tested 1.8L is not exactly economical either.

I didn’t like the overly snatchy brakes or the late-action clutch, either. And speaking of snatchiness, the ignition lock is snaggly.

In contrast to the engine, the Cruze’s ride and handling are perfectly acceptable in the grand scheme of things. The Chevwoo doesn’t communicate like an Euro-market Focus or cosset like a Renault Megane but it felt capable at a wide range of jobs – city, highway, high-speed (110 MPH) autobahn. The bias is definitely on comfort, but the ride-handling compromise is quite good. And wind and ride noises are pleasantly low.

But back to the engine problem: how can it be that a major car company introduces a new global model with a dud motor? Well, I’m going to speculate that this is the product of a major planning malfunction; it’s the only explanation I can think of. Somewhere along the line, somebody upstairs at GM may have realized that the Cruze had as much interior space as the poorly-packaged, larger yet cramped Opel Insignia / Buick Regal. And that it beats the similar Opel Astra on several counts – but all at a seriously lower price. How to protect the Opels from the Chevys? How to keep the Daewoo off Buick’s neck?

Instead of letting the brands fight it to the finish in the way (for instance) that VW does with Skoda, GM seems to have cheapened the Cruze by installing an obsolete engine. (Obviously, GM has some good small engines on tap; why else wouldn’t they use one? Cost can’t be that much of a factor.)

I have to tell you that it’s a personal thing for me: just as I don’t trust a man who dyes his hair, or I don’t trust a banker, or a teetotaler, I don’t trust a car maker that willingly adulterates one car in order to protect another.

Porsche did it with the 914 and with the Boxster in order to protect the 911, and thereby earned the distrust of first Setright and then Clarkson. (And just look what has happened to Porsche in the mean time). GM does it with the Cruze, so why would I buy one, or recommend it to anybody I know?

I mean, everybody makes mistakes, but to install a crummy engine in a new global car on purpose sounds like what a company would do that is trying to pull one over you. Just think of what kind of unseen short cuts they might be taking, quality-wise.

If you wanted to be generous, you could forget this possibly petty matter of trust. Instead, you could say that this is a pretty decent, useful small car that will hopefully be equipped with a much better engine when it leaves North American factories next year. But as it is right now, there are around a dozen better cars on the market, most made by trustworthier companies.

[Editor's Note: The US-spec 2011 Cruze will offer an available 1.4 liter turbocharged engine in addition to the 1.8 liter base engine tested here]

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You’re driving along listening to your favorite radio station and a commercial playing contains a website address you want to check out. But you can’t – or shouldn’t – be writing while driving. Wouldn’t it be great to just hit a pause button on the radio?

Now you can.

Pause and play radio is a built-in feature of the High Navigation Radio in the Chevrolet Equinox, Buick LaCrosse, GMC Terrain and Cadillac SRX as well as the Cadillac CTS Jukebox and Navigation radio, on which it debuted in 2008. Pause and play is coming soon to the new Buick Regal and Chevrolet Cruze.

Just like digital video recording at home that lets you capture live broadcasts and take a break while watching, pause and play radio lets you stop a live broadcast, record up to 20 minutes, and play it back later. It’s as simple as pushing the radio reverse button.

But say you’re listening to a football game on XM Satellite Radio, and your gas gauge is running down with the game clock. Do you risk running out of fuel to catch the end of the game?

No worries.

Before shutting off the vehicle, the driver can press the radio pause button, shut off their vehicle, get out and fill up, get back in the vehicle and start it, push the radio play button and resume listening to the game it stopped.

The content is stored on an embedded hard drive within the radio. Listeners can fast-forward and reverse playback as desired.

DETROIT — General Motors’ new compact Chevrolet Cruze, whose introduction was pushed back while the company worked out some kinks, is ready for production in Lordstown, the company’s quality chief said today.

“We didn’t fix the problems. We killed them,” said Jamie Hresko, GM’s global quality vice president, said in an interview.

GM had planned to start building the Cruze early this year and have the vehicle on sale as soon as April. But when negative reviews of some gasoline-powered versions of the car started surfacing in Europe and when internal GM testing of U.S. models failed to meet expectations, Hresko said, he and others called a halt to the car’s launch.

“I drove the (early production) cars, and I got concerned about performance and shiftability,” Hrekso said, adding that the car’s transmision was much rougher than expected. “It wasn’t hitting my standards.”

British reviews of the Cruze praised its price and features, but many of them recommended that readers avoid the version with a 1.8-liter gasoline engine and pick the diesel model instead.

GM doesn’t plan to offer the diesel here. It plans to offer the Cruze with a turbo-charged 1.4-liter gasoline engine or the 1.8-liter that drew criticism overseas.

GM delayed the car’s launch until this summer when vehicles typically start production for the next model year.

Hresko said the automaker changed out transmission components and worked on the engine issues. He’s now convinced the vehicle will operate smoothly when it launches.

“We had to put some different hardware in it, but we got there,” Hresko said. He added that he plans to visit Lordstown closer to the vehicle’s launch to give workers a pep talk.

“A great execution equals job security,” Hresko said.

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By Don Shilling

General Motors is highlighting the importance of the Chevrolet Cruze as it shows off the Lordstown-built car at a Detroit car show.

The Cruze is critical to the automaker’s future, even more important than the Chevrolet Volt, said Bob Lutz, GM’s vice chairman.

The executive told The Detroit Free Press that the Volt, a plug-in electric car, is receiving much attention from the automotive press, but its importance paled compared with the high-volume Cruze. GM hopes that Cruze sales will reach 1 million worldwide, while Volt sales are expected to be about 60,000.

The Cruze already is in production in other countries, but the U.S. launch is scheduled for this summer.

The Cruze was one of the small cars featured at a news conference that GM had Monday at the North American International Auto Show.

James Bell, executive market analyst for Kelley Blue Book, said he was impressed when he drove the European version of the Cruze, and he’s hoping the U.S. version will perform as well.

“We’re all very anxious to drive it. That’s where, hopefully, its advantage lies,” he said.

The Cruze features a six-speed automatic transmission, and two of the three trim lines have a turbocharged engine.

The transmission is designed so that it has enough gears to save gas at highway speeds but still have power to handle rapid accelerations. The turbocharger delivers more air to the engine, which boosts accelerations.

“We hope it provides a Honda Civic-like driving experience, where it’s fun to let it rip every now and then,” Bell said.

While the Cruze styling doesn’t stand out, it’s clear that GM has upgraded the interior of the car with better materials and design, he said.

Overall, he said the Cruze is a huge improvement over the Chevrolet Cobalt, which has been made in Lordstown since 2004.

“The Cobalt showed up ill-prepared, but the Cruze looks like it will be equal to or better than the competition,” he said.

GM has been trumpeting the fuel economy of the Cruze, which it said will get up to 40 mpg on the highway in a high-efficiency model.

Bell said he expects that model to be released a few months after the first Cruze models are launched. GM hasn’t been specific about the fuel economy for the other Cruze models.

shilling@vindy.com – source

Bob Lutz, GM’s vice chairman, said during a speech Sunday to the Society of Automotive Analysts that the U.S. automaker had made strides only months after it restructured through more than $50 billion in federal aid and a government-led bankruptcy.

“I think we are finally in a position where, from a financial structure, we should be,” Lutz said. “Anything remotely resembling normal industry demand, we should be solidly profitable.”

Lutz’s prediction followed statements last week by chairman and interim CEO Ed Whitacre Jr., who said GM could be profitable this year although it would depend on economic factors.

Looking ahead to 2010, analysts at the annual outlook conference described an industry in the middle of massive structural changes marked by government intervention, new competition from India and China, and technological innovation that could fundamentally alter vehicles.

John Casesa, managing partner with Casesa Shapiro Group, said that while the landscape for the industry had shifted rapidly in the past year, companies that have restructured to break even at U.S. annual sales of 10 million to 11 million vehicles could post sharp profits when sales levels return.

U.S. sales fell about 20 per cent in 2009 to 10.4 million vehicles, its worst performance in nearly three decades. Lutz said GM is predicting U.S. sales of about 11 million to 12 million vehicles in 2010, raising hopes that it could approach profitability.

Outlining GM’s product lineup, Lutz said the company had high hopes for the Chevrolet Cruze, a compact car scheduled to be released later this year achieving 40 miles per gallon. Lutz said the Cruze could reach annual global sales of nearly 1 million units a year.

Lutz also said GM would build a production version of the Cadillac Converj, a luxury version of the Chevrolet Volt, the automaker’s highly anticipated extended range plug-in hybrid to be released later this year. Lutz said the Converj was at least two years from production.

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Air Design is Mexico´s number one OEM fabricator of car accessories and polyurethane ground effects. Since 18 years Air Design is supplier of all major car brands in Mexico like GM, VW, Ford, Peugeot and many more.

For Chevrolet Mexico Air Design designed a complete styling kit for the new 2010 Chevrolet Cruze. This styling kit consists of a front bumper, side skirts, rear end apron, four door moldings and a rear spoiler (wing of type flush). This styling kit is the only kit in the world for the Chevrolet Cruze that is 100% approved by GM mechanics and has a perfect fit thanks to the math data of GM and vehicle surface scanning.

All Air Designs ground effects are made from special flexible polyurethane which makes it extra durable. Air Designs spoilers are made from stiff hardened polyurethane. At Air Designs plant in Morelos Mexico there are 7 high pressure polyurethane presses to produce their body kits. On all their products Air Design offers a 5 year warranty.

The flyer: Right click save as
More info: ventas@airdesign.com.mx // www.airdesign.com.mx

GM spokeswoman Sharon Basel told us that the intention all along had been for engines for the early production runs of the Cruze and Volt to be supplied from a European facility that already builds variants of GM’s so-called “Family 0″ powertrains. The Flint plant would not have been ready for start of production of Cruze this spring.

With the continuing financial crisis and weak sales, GM’s European factory has enough capacity to supply Cruze and Volt for a time so that the automaker can conserve capital. The timing of construction was reaching a point where GM would have had to commit to spending millions of additional dollars that it doesn’t have right now. Therefore, the company has opted to cancel the contracts and put the plant on hold until the situation improves. In the meantime, both vehicle programs are still on schedule and otherwise unaffected by these moves.