GM Officially Launches Cruze Diesel

“What we don’t expect to do, is to convert gas-buying car buyers over to diesel.”

Meanwhile, Toyota has spent over a decade building and promoting Prius and Hybrids and now offers a stable of Hybrids not only to appeal to current Hybrid owners but also to entice regular gasoline driving drivers to at least consider the advantages of owning a Hybrid.- "There's a Prius for Everyone". hums Toyota, meanwhile GM sings a old and familiar song.


But GM's approach has always been to be as cutting edge conservative as possible. Only sell, what is already sold.

I'm not saying GM should be working to convince regular gasoline buying car buyers to consider a diesel. But I am saying GM's attitude about any vehicle they produce that falls outside of the current mainstream of "Big Truck" or "Sedan" always carries with it a internal sense, that GM themselves doesn't trust it. I think GM needs to push the needle a little more towards "risk" and perhaps start producing more accesible alternative products, with the direct aim of actually trying to convert regular gasoline buying car buyers to something else.

I mean IDEALLY shouldn't the goal be to make the Diesel Chevy Cruze such an interesting product that whether I'm a Diesel fan, or have never owned a diesel, it becomes a vehicle I'm forced to consider?

 

Quote from the article:
" The Cruze “is the number one vehicle sold around the world,” she said and “we’re going to emphasize its torque, quiet driving at highway speeds, and [its] efficiency.” Forty percent of Cruzes sold worldwide, she added, are diesels."

Is the claim that the Cruze is the number one vehicle worldwide true? I thought that was the Corolla. Or am I way out of date?

To me, anything that raises miles per pound of CO2 emitted is probably a good thing. So I'm good with GM doing this.

 

And a regular Civic may cost less to drive! Compare Side-by-Side

New and Upcoming Diesel Vehicles

 

Could you be reading too much into that statement? The rest of it is, “we’re going to promote the benefits of diesel and people who are interested in performance and efficiency and who drive a lot of highway miles are going to recognize the benefits.”

It sounds more like an honest answer to, 'who will buy it?' It should be refreshing that GM is being more realistic with their announced expectations. Some people still hold them accountable for not reaching early announced Volt sale rates.

The fact is, because of fuel cost and outdated info, not many people who drive gasoline will consider diesel no matter the make. So the early 'adopters' will be those who have done their homework on what car will work for them. There is also pent up demand for a non-VW diesel, but most of them likely have already done the work. Much like early hybrid buyers.

 

I definitely think its a good idea for them to bring it over, they have it in Europe, its fairly easy to just import the engine and put it in the American model. I can't say its very exciting though, for some driving patterns diesel greatly outperforms its epa ranking.

I would say the competing technology is advanced di with electronic valve control as in the maxda 3 skyactiv. For other drive patterns this will also greatly exceed its epa, and should come in about as efficient if you adjust for the higher energy of diesel. GM sells many more cruzes than mazda does 3s though. I don't think there will be a high percentage of takers on the cruize diesel simply because of that urea tank. But lets give these guys a chance to try and sell it.

 

A few years ago the urea tank would have been a con. Now I don't think so. The fluid is available at Wal-mart now, and those researching diesel fuel economy will be looking at the Jetta and Passat. The larger car's numbers are close to the smaller's with the same drive train. Besides the size weight which should be in the Jetta's favor, the only difference is that the Passat uses urea in exhaust treatment.

Those actually doing the research will reach the conclusion that urea is worth the small price and hassle for the fuel economy improvement.

 

Higher fuel price, and hopefully DEF & DPF systems do not require maintenance.

 

It's pretty simple, they're covering their asses so they don't have to throw down incentives in order to meet a media-imagined target. It has the added advantage that it's a semi-new product so a year should give them a chance to screw money out of the diesel-heads whole ironing out any problems with the US-only features.

 

Certainly I could. But it's a pretty specific and direct quote. And I believe indicative of a slow to die culture within GM.

Whatever you think about Diesel and/or Diesel automobiles, GM has often acted exactly like what GM is...an automotive manufacturing behemoth. Therefore for decades their formula for success has been to only sell, exactly what they know will sell.

I'm not really criticizing GM for producing a Diesel Chevy Cruze, I can't even really criticize GM for producing them in numbers that would align with their projected customer base.

From 2010 to 2013 Toyota has released The 3rd Generation Prius, The Prius v, and The Prius C and the PiP.

Meanwhile in 2013 GM seems to offer the Diesel Chevy Cruze like they are sliding a potentially bad piece of meat to a hungry dog using a stick.

 

there is really nothing wrong with GM having diesels. As any company, they offer what people want to buy.

 

Well that's pretty much what I said, when I said, "I'm not really criticizing GM for producing a Diesel Chevy Cruze, I can't even really criticize GM for producing them in numbers that would align with their projected customer base."

 

They had a horrible rep in the US w/their diesels in the early 80s. And, it's not like their rep for their non-diesels of that era was very good as it is.

 

their diesels are not known to be reliable even today

 

Of late, it's probably more accurate to say Ford's powerstroke diesels have been unreliable.

The 80's GM diesel rap is a tired one usually perpetuated by those knowing little. I owned 2 duramax diesels, followed the GM diesel forums for 10 years, and had no drive train issues. I can't speak to GM's European diesel effort but it sounds like they sell a bunch of diesels.

 

"Why Don’t Americans Buy More ‘Clean Diesel’ Cars?"

First Shift: Coming clean about diesels

Why Don't Americans Buy More 'Clean Diesel' Cars? - HybridCars.com

 

I've seen many indications that GM's diesel passenger cars in the early 80s were horrible w/underengineered engines. Following GM diesel forums for 10 years doesn't really help much give we're talking about going back 30 years, before web browsers, HTML and HTTP were even invented.

It also doesn't help that GM's assembly practices and labor relations were crap back then too. Listen to . Great story on NUMMI on NPR's This American Life | PriusChat was my reaction to it. I've listened to it several times as I still have the MP3 when it was a free podcast ep. It was just both almost unbelievable but also believable given we had 3 GM products from that era. They were all not very reliable.

Sigh... on tonight's ep of NBR | Nightly Business Report, they mentioned the diesel Cruze, featured some GM PR people, talking about the payback and later NBR made claims (from analysts) that once gasoline reaches $4.50/gallon that diesel becomes more "cost effective than any other type of technology." They go onto claim that for long distance highway driving that hybrids and electric cars "don't make sense" that the Cruze diesel will get "50 mpg". Right... at least NBR points out the diesel costs more and even showed briefly a shot of regular gasoline at $3.999 and diesel at $4.259 (above premium at $4.219).

 

On the above, the transcript is finally up. From Feb 8, 2013, Fri - Episode Transcript - NBR | Nightly Business Report

One can watch the video at the top. Coverage starts at the 11 min mark.

Let's see, in CR's tests at The Most Fuel-Efficient Cars | Best Cars for Gas - Consumer Reports, they got 55 mpg on their highway test (which is run at 65 mph). No diesel beat it (even those w/42 mpg EPA highway ratings), diesel costs more and the MSRP of the Cruze diesel is higher than a Prius liftback...

 

Published on Feb 8, 2013
Chevrolet Cruze Clean Turbo Diesel AutolineDetroit Discussion,
Josh Tavel, Vehicle Performance Manager for Chevrolet Small Cars.
Don't Knock the Chevy Diesel - Autoline After Hours 182 - YouTube

 

^^^
Watching now. Interesting. I think he's wrong on the tax credit. There wss Federal Tax Credit for Diesels, but it's long gone. If anyone's aware of it being resurrected for diesels, I'd be curious to hear about it.