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GM Sees Record 100,000 Sales of "30 mpg or Better" Vehicles

Discussion in 'Other Cars' started by cwerdna, Apr 3, 2012.

  1. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    GM Sees Record 100,000 Sales of 30 mpg or Better Vehicles

    Here we go again... :(
    It was mentioned on CNBC earlier today, of course w/o the words highway.

    What's the combined mileage of the '12 1.8L Cruze w/automatic? 27 mpg.
    What's the combined mileage of the '12 4 cylinder Malibu w/automatic? 26 mpg.

    What's the combined mileage of the Prius liftback and Prius c? 50 mpg.
     
  2. SageBrush

    SageBrush Senior Member

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    The funny part is listening to GM crow about the depth of their fuel economical fleet. They must be comparing to the GM of 1984.
     
  3. austingreen

    austingreen Senior Member

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    Hey when I read it, it originally said highway but it was from a better publication. It also said that 4 years ago only 12% of gm vehicles did that, this month it was 43%. Its a huge improvement. We shoiuld use combined mileage on these things.

    The highway is dishonest, especially if you leave it out, as is cafe when it implies epa, or even the prius c when it says 53 and in small print city. The change of mix of gm cars from suvs to small cars is impressive though. The cruze and sonic are the first successful small cars gm has had in awhile. The other recent entries were crap.
     
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  4. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    bob klutz must be rolling over in his grave.
     
  5. austingreen

    austingreen Senior Member

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    AFAIK he's still alive and as loud as ever. This is what he said in 2006, that helped land gm in bankrupcy

    Bob Lutz rips proposed fuel economy regulations

    In other words technology won't help, and people want SUVs with V8s not efficient cars....
    GM today without lutz is saying people want efficient cars and we will try to make them. Ofcourse there is a new investigation on fires happening on cruzes that could unravel this story, but in march GM sold a lot of small cars.
     
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  6. SageBrush

    SageBrush Senior Member

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    [​IMG]

    Snatched from CR.
     

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  7. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    Yep. Despite plenty of problems being reported on Cruzetalk, some pretty severe for a new car, a bunch even affecting a moderator (causing him to label his car a lemon), a bunch of defenders there (it's not all the users there) bash CR's reliability results, methodology, etc. saying they're wrong, biased in favor of Japanese cars, etc. and making statements (about a high mileage driver) that they see "no reason" why he wouldn't hit 1 million miles.

    I'm talking about complaints about the automatic transmission, premature clutch wear on manuals, spiking speedometers (reading 80+ mph while standing still), coolant smell inside the car (faulty heater core), front suspension popping noise, steering wheel sticking, etc.
     
  8. austingreen

    austingreen Senior Member

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    Well, I don't read CR:D, nor do I trudt there advice on cars. They aren't car people. I also have never owned a gm car or truck, although the rental counter has given them to me:eek:. I certainly do not find the cruze or sonic all that exciting, but neither are most of the cars in those categories. The car mags will pick the focus and fit, I don't really no or care what CR chooses. You did forget to mention the big thing against the cruze right now, the safety investigations of the fires. That should have been on the top of your list.

    I was talking about much higher sales of compacts and subcompacts, which I believe that press release was about. It does try to slide by highway mileage, but hey, gm is selling a lot more cars, with much higher mpg than they were 4 years ago. They are also making a profit on these small cars instead of the loss they were taking on their previous ones.
     
  9. SageBrush

    SageBrush Senior Member

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    Cwerdna relayed complaints from Cruze owners posted on Cruzetalk. The table I posted was a tabulation of complaints from Cruze owners sent to CR.

    No advice. If there is any bias or dishonesty in reporting, it is coming from the Cruze owners themselves LOL

    Btw, I read the main thread on CruzeTalk complaining about transmission issues. It sounds to me like a bit of a mixed bag, with poor control logic brought out by aggressive driving habits. At least, those transmissions that are not outright early failures. Some owners want to hope that the problems are 2011 MY, and have been sorted out for the new year. I'm a bit skeptical because the Cruze, while a new car to NA, is not a new car.
     
  10. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    Although I can see why some people wouldn't trust CR's opinions (I couldn't care less about their opinions of computers or tablets, for instance), I do trust them enough to accurately report reliability statistics.

    Yep, I listed a bunch of common complaints I've seen on Cruzetalk that came to mind. Besides the automatic transmission issues, there are numerous problems, seemingly far more numerous and severe than we saw of the 3rd gen Prius early on, or even later. This seems to concur w/the poor CR reliability results.

    My parents and I have owned 3 GM products before. We don't buy GM anymore.
     
  11. cycledrum

    cycledrum PSOCSOASP

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    It's just marketing schtick.

    Truth is, most conventional cars have a 12 mile per gallon delta between highway and city FE.

    Prius highway/city has delta of 3 ... and city FE is higher than highway.

    Yeah, fuelly only showing 48 MPG avg. for '11 Pri, but that whup the 30 MPG you *might* get in a cruze. Gimme a Cruze for my driving routing, betchya it can't beat 29 MPG avg. ...

    Mine, 49.5 MPG lifetime.
     
  12. cycledrum

    cycledrum PSOCSOASP

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    .... not to worry ...

    Toyota is shoving it right back at 'em in advertising the ...

    53 MPG Prius c

    'Win the game of life with Prius c '

    :D
     
  13. SageBrush

    SageBrush Senior Member

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    Toyota at its most deceptive posts the BIG number, that is 6% higher than the combined MPG while writing the small number in smaller print.

    GM posts the BIG number, that is ~ 50% higher than the combined MPG, and often does not post the small number at all.

    There is deceptive, and there is DECEPTIVE.
     
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  14. cwerdna

    cwerdna Senior Member

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    ^^^
    I just wish that the practice of printing and only mentioning the highest number was outlawed.

    If they're only going to say/emphasize one, it must be combined. I don't care who is affected. It should apply to every automaker, Toyota included.

    ARGHH!! The press (in this case, Nightly Business Report) has again picked up on GM's claim of "30 mpg" w/o even mentioning highway. Ford decided to also do something similar.

    From http://www.nbr.com/transcripts/episode/full-episode-transcript-tuesday-apr-3-2012 (I watched the ep):
     
  15. fuzzy1

    fuzzy1 Senior Member

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    I seem to remember links here pointing to regulations that DO prohibit such advertising. Enforcement has been an entirely different matter.
     
  16. GrumpyCabbie

    GrumpyCabbie Senior Member

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    Where's the problem here? GM are selling more cars that are economical. So they're getting 26 mpg instead of 30mpg, but at least it's not 14 mpg like 5 years ago.
     
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  17. austingreen

    austingreen Senior Member

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    That is a different matter. If you were about to say, buy a cruze that might help. It just seems that those on these message boards seem to check them out a great deal on cars they have no interest in.


    If they are so bad why did you buy 3:) Mom drove an mg converable when I was little, it contiously broke down but she loved it. Dad worked for an autosupplier that didn't sell to gm, until the late 90s, so no gms:D

    But the point is, instead of lutz saying how no one wants a 4 cylinder car, they all want 8 cylinder SUVs, the new gm is saying america wants efficient cars and they are starting to sell them.

    Now, I agree that they should use combined not just highway milage, but the cruze gets anywhere from 27-33 combined here:D
    Its a good thing just as GrumpyCabbie says.
    +1
     
  18. hill

    hill High Fiber Member

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    When Lutz made this comment . . . . :

    . . . . he once again proved what a whack job he is. He's ignorantly equating Trucks & SUV's to Japanese (what he calls) fleets of small cars. Fleets (of ANY manufacturer) more specifically, Corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) of cars ... big cars ... medium cars ... small cars, have NOTHING to do with Trucks and SUV's 'accumulated credits'. GM (et al) fought hard through their lobby, to EXEMPT heavy SUV's and Trucks from CAFE standards. As usual, he was just blabbing ... being Bob Lutz.
     
  19. PriQ

    PriQ CT+iQ

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    30mpg... fuel sipper...?
    Where are my plaid capri pants? I'm going to the disco!
     
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  20. GrumpyCabbie

    GrumpyCabbie Senior Member

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    Just because they quote mpg it doesn't mean it's the same size gallon used in the UK.

    30 mpg US is about 36 mpg UK and 33mpg US is 40 mpg UK. Their prices almost always refer to automatic transmission and for petrol cars.

    Diesel isn't popular in the US for a couple reasons - 1, it costs more than petrol - a lot more. 2, their emissions are stricter than ours - a lot stricter. They wouldn't allow 85% of diesel cars sold in Europe for that reason.

    Put it another way. A petrol car emits about 25 times less NOx (smog forming emissions) than a modern 2012 year Euro 5 diesel. Or you could have 25 petrol cars driving around emitting the same as that one diesel car! If you compare them to the older pre 2011 Euro 4 diesel emissions, then a UK petrol car emits about 200 times less smog emissions.

    So next time you're walking in a city and your child starts coughing and develops asthma consider the above.