Car Throttle

The yearly SEMA (Special Equipment Manufacturers Association) show happens in Las Vegas.  That's enough reason to want to go to it.  But more than the exotic locale (way better than, err, Detroit), SEMA is a hotbed of aftermarket parts.  If you're inclined to think this is a no-big-deal sort of affair, that's not the case.  The SEMA show attracts so much attention that manufacturers themselves have been getting into the SEMA game for a few years now, whether directly or through various 3rd party companies.

There are so many "new car" debuts prior to SEMA that I would literally flood your RSS feed with them.  I don't want to do that.  Plus, I can't write an entire article about a Chevy Sonic

Chevrolet is the epitome of an American brand. And as an American mark, it has previously been more noticeable on the likes of trucks. Why? Two reasons; because trucks are the stereotypical American segment and Chevrolet's attempts at compacts throughout the years have failed miserably. For the sake of brevity, we'll start with the Cavalier. The car was uncompetitive throughout its entire lifespan. The Cobalt that followed fared better, but still fell short of being the entry Chevy truly needed to compete. However, with the Cruze, has GM finally delivered on its promise of doing a small-car right? All indicators point to a yes verdict, and Car Throttle was fortunate to spend a week with the car's Eco variant to see how it fares. Note: Due to horrible

GM has kicked the hype machine into top gear for the upcoming US launch of the Cruze, their competitor in the Civic/Corolla compact car class. If I were them, I would too: their history of making compact cars that aren't totally horrible is... uhh, in fact they never have.  Vega!  Cavalier!  Sunfire! Chevette!  Cobalt!  Aaaargh! But initial reviews of their upcoming Cobalt replacement, the Cruze, have been overwhelmingly positive.  The ground seems to be growing cold, somewhere far below my feet...  Well, unlikeliness of the situation aside, the Cruze is said to be a totally competitive, well-thought out and well-built car that's ready to take on the compact class with everything it's got.  And GM just dropped pictures of the other card up it's sleeve today,

GM has always had it's ups and downs, but to be honest, small economy cars have never been it's forte. Kia jokes aside, almost all of GM's compact cars have been pretty dismal in some way.  Even going back to the sixties, the Corvair was an admittedly sweet car, but became a drastic PR disaster thanks to "Unsafe at Any Speed," which centered around the fact that the Corvair was a rear-engined car with swing axles, which usually means instant death. Then there was the Vega, which was a turd that couldn't keep it's head (gasket) screwed on for long, never met a fluid it didn't like to leak, and had terminal rust problems.  Which was followed by the Chevette, which you could get with a 4-speed