Chevrolet Debuts 2011 Cruze

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 manual and a 48bhp Isuzu diesel.  And that was exactly as awful as it sounds.

GM's always been chasing Honda in the compact wars, when the Civic basically reset the formula for a small car in the early 70's.  And they've always been lagging behind a step.  The J-bodies (Cavalier/J2000) were outdated when they were introduced in the early 80's, but for some reason they stayed in production for approximately 3 eternities.

Coming up to modern times, the last shot Chevy really took at the Civic was the Cobalt.  Based on the Saturn Ion, the problem with the Cobalt was that GM aimed it at the 4th-generation VW Jetta.  Which was finally going out of production after a pretty long production run at the point the Cobalt went into production.  In other words, outdated when it hit the market.

Now, I'm not one to pass judgement on a car before actually driving it, but you have to admit GM doesn't have a great track record when it comes to this.  So I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze isn't going to be a failure.  GM deserves some good news when it comes to the consumer end of it's business, and maybe a small car people actually want is the answer.

At least the ingridients look tempting.  The Cruze is a car for modern times, with intelligent solutions to current problems.  It's surprisingly un-GM; it seems like it wasn't a car designed with blinders on.  The Cruze, which replaces the Cobalt, shares it's chassis with the upcoming Volt green machine.  So no more ox-cart solid axle in the back, modern sound deadening...  you get the point.

The Cruze will be available with two engines: a 1.8L naturally aspirated four cylinder, and more interesting, a 1.4L turbocharged inline four with variable valve timing.  The tiny turbo motor makes 138bhp and 148lb-ft of torque.  Not exactly a tire-smoking ferocious power output, but very healthy for a 1.4L, and with more torque than most naturally aspirated competitors with larger engines.  For instance, Honda's 1.8L R-series I4 in the Civic makes a similar 140bhp, but torque output is only 128lb-ft.

Even better, Chevrolet is predicting highway mileage on the turbo Cruze to break the magic 40mpg number, which would be nice.  The benchmark Civic only gets 34 or 36 depending on transmission choice, and you know Chevy is going to flog this selling point until it's dry.  It helps that both of the Cruze's gearbox choices have six cogs, which is a refreshing break from 2009 Cobalts with 4-speed automatics from the dark ages.

The interior is a huge upgrade from the torture-quality Cobalt, too.  It's impossible to judge material quality from pictures, but the layout is modern and attractive.  The Cruze will be available with all sorts of modern tech goodies too, like Bluetooth connectivity, heated leather seats, a USB port for audio devices, satellite navigation, and a total of 10 standard airbags.  Sounds good to me.

Time will tell if the Cruze lives up to the promises it makes, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.  It would be a nice change of pace.