ANN ARBOR, Mich. — General Motors thinks it can finally sell a good small car.
The company, which has a past littered with compact wrecks such as the unsafe Corvair and rusty Vega, will roll out the Chevrolet Cruze in September — betting it can attract younger drivers and succeed in the most competitive segment of the worldwide auto market.
GM owners may know that “nothing works like a Chevy truck,” but the little Cruze is a big gamble.
“They can’t afford to get it wrong,” said Michael Robinet, an automotive analyst with CSM Worldwide in Michigan.
The Cruze follows another GM small- car flop, the Chevy Cobalt, which failed because it looks dated, is noisy, has a chintzy hard-plastic interior and doesn’t perform as well as competitors. Americans bought just 105,000 last year, compared with about three times as many Toyota Corollas.
GM must also overcome history. Dating to the Corvair in the 1960s, its executives viewed small cars as money-losers because of low prices, high U.S. labor costs and American drivers’ hunger for cheap gas and larger vehicles.
“They really haven’t spent any time or money on these vehicles,” said David Champion, senior director of Consumer Reports’ auto testing department. The Cobalt, introduced in 2004, “came out trying to be competitive in that market but always languished behind.”
The Cruze was held up last fall by managers unhappy with its performance. Production was delayed from April to August.
Mark Reuss, GM’s North American president and former head of engineering, said the six-speed automatic transmission constantly shifted. The tires were noisy, and there was a troubling lag between when the driver stepped on the gas and when the 1.4-liter engine’s turbocharger kicked in.
The transmission was redone, the turbo fixed and noises quelled. Reuss now calls the engine and transmission “brilliant,” balancing trade-offs between fuel economy and performance. A Cruze Eco version is expected to get 40 mpg on the highway.
The company is confident it can make money on the Ohio-built Cruze because GM’s costs are lower than before bankruptcy.
The Cruze
GM will ask about $17,000 for the base Cruze, a little more than competitors, but GM said it has more standard features. A version with leather seats and other goodies starts around $22,700.
