Here at IAB, we have a very soft corner for cars that rescue their manufacturers from the sink hole of bankruptcy. Indeed, the Chevrolet Cruze is one such savior which brought GM back to life. So you can only imagine GM’s jump for joy when they sold 1 millionth Cruze on the day Chevrolet completed its 100 years of existence. It’s almost like a superhero movie script!
Yes, Chevrolet is celebrating its 100th birthday this year and the Cruze just sold its 1 millionth unit worldwide
click past the break to learn more
The 2011 Chevrolet Cruze debuts tomorrow in India with black interiors, slightly better plastic quality, iPod docking facility, Bluetooth with music pairing capability, vanity mirror with light and a single CD changer (replacing the 6 CD changer).
The teaser campaign is live on Facebook – http://www.facebook.com/guesswhoisbackinblack
One has to cough up around 16k rupees extra for the improved Cruze. Watch out for the ads on Times Of India tomorrow morning.
The Cruze turned the fortunes for the then bankrupt GM like no other car. It looks like a muscle car but was designed in Korea and engineered by Opel. In that sense, the Cruze is truly a ‘Global Car.’ Back home as well, the Cruze dethroned the Honda Civic from its ‘Supreme’ spot as is now the better selling car in its segment along with the Toyota Corolla Altis Diesel. [ Read More ]
General Motors has pushed out a few electric Cruzes in Seoul, South Korea. Before you ask me when it’ll come to India, let me inform you these are just part of a test program. General Motors isn’t interested in putting them into production anywhere in the world. Not just yet.
Named Cruze BEV, the electric Cruze will go from 0-60mph in just 8.2 seconds and will accelerate to till about 165kph.
The test vehicle, in a single charge, will run for around 100 miles using its 31 kWh battery pack. A full charge out of a 220V socket will take about 8 hours. Just like the Volt, this e-Chevy will have its battery packs mounted to its underbody
click through to read the press release for all the information.
The Chevrolet Cruze is making headlines and how!
Showcased at the Paris Motor Show back in 2008, and introduced in Europe last year followed by other markets, the Chevrolet Cruze has set the records tumbling by surpassing the 270,000 sales mark in little time. Even here in India, customers have shown great interest in this car which is expected with a petrol engine during the first quarter of 2011.
Chevrolet strengthened the Cruze range by adding an automatic transmission variant earlier this year. It has priced the vehicle very competitively and given it all the credentials of a driver-oriented diesel sedan.
The Chevrolet Cruze is now available in more than 60 nations. It is re-badged as a Daewoo in South Korea and as a Holden in Australia. If you take into account the re-badged vehicles’ sales figures, your count will easily surpass 340,000!
India is among the top 5 countries which having most demand for the Cruze – China, Russia, Mexico, India and Spain are its top 5 markets, in order.
The Chevrolet Cruze is being offered with a special styling package in the United Kingdom. The CS sports performance package is being offered on all variants of the car. The Chevrolet Cruze CS has been inspired by the Chevrolet Cruze BTCC (British Touring Car Championship) race car.
The Chevrolet Cruze CS comes with a rally car like 12-spoke white alloy wheels, a lowered stiffer suspension, rear spoilers, ‘CS’ graphics and matching interior carpeting. The CS package for the Chevrolet Cruze comes at a premium of 1,595 GBP (1,12,812 Indian Rupees) over the standard car.
Would GM India offer a CS package on the Chevrolet Cruze in India? No way!
The Chevrolet Cruze is the segment leader as of now and in the unlikely event of the Cruze losing its market share to the Corolla Altis Diesel or the future Hyundai Elantra, GM could offer an ‘attractive pseudo-CS package’ albeit with discounts. But that would not happen anytime now as the Cruze is ‘cruising’ its way to glory in the market place.
Engineers developing cars are always used to their company’s financial arm dictating the outcome of the product. So to allow this, engineers would have to make some compromises on their product.
Anything can be compromised in a car, but safety. So engineers invent newer and economical ways to make sure that their cars have high safety standards. This is exactly what the engineers at General Motors have done for the Chevrolet Cruze.
The Chevrolet Cruze has been developed with the help of elaborate computer crash simulations. Crash simulations are ‘extreme’ computer programs which simulate the deformation and impact forces on the vehicle when a car crashes. The engineers use a crash simulation program to study the results of a crash and using the data to correct or re-engineer the model before the final prototype is built.
With the help of crash simulations, a countless important tests can be run on a single vehicle without even a scratch on the vehicle.
click through to read more and view image gallery
Chevrolet and its European tuning associate Irmscher has launched a modified Chevrolet Cruze in Germany with cosmetic and mechanical upgrades at this week’s AMI motorshow in Leipzig, Germany.
Called Cruze Irmscher Edition, the car receives an optional boot lid spoiler, 18-inch alloy wheels draped in fatter 225 sport tires and aluminum door sills.
Irmscher’s under-hood modifications include a 25mm suspension drop, exhaust silencers with elliptical twin exits along with a 36HP and 146Nm boost for the 2.0-liter turbo diesel engine taking the total output to 186HP and 466Nm at 2,300 rpm.
Post surgery, the diesel Cruze does zero to 100km/h (62mph) in 8.0 seconds. The Cruze Irmscher Edition can be bought in Chevrolet’s German dealerships.
For the Indian Cruze buyer with a disappointed look, well you see Chevrolet at the moment is focused on selling the default Cruze. Once the company is able to clear the backlogs, it will think about introducing body kits and modifications.
Karl Slym, President and Managing Director of GM India in an interview recently said the Transformers-GM partnership is not going to influence cars in India. This means the Bumble Bee paint scheme would not be imitated on smaller cars like the Cruze and the Beat.
click through for image gallery
