Chevy: Volt-to-Cruze specs 2014

I'm a little confused by the tables. I think the Hwy and City table columns are switched...
what I don't understand is the MSRP, ...$40,000 for a prius c? (Edit: phew you fixed that )

 

ELR was rush job to get a few more sales. Similarly the Cruze diesel is just testing the waters at EOL for the current platform (e.g. only an AT available because they don't have an appropriate transaxle available here for a manual diesel).

I don't think you'll see anything really interesting for a year or two when Delta II X merges the Theta and Delta platforms and brings the Equinox and Cruze together. At that point I hope they'll have more Voltec and more diesels on offer.

GM's primary need is to shed weight. Expect a slow creep downwards until they can actually be competitive in that area. The problem with competing on particular attributes is that if your best isn't the best it's not a sales winner, and any sacrifices made in other areas will lose you sales.

 

I believe an MPV version of the Volt is in the works:

Chevrolet Crossvolt Trademarked as Possible Name for Future Volt MPV | AutoGuide.com News

 

How about Voltagon.

 

Wasn't that a Japanese cartoon I watched as a kid?

 

I originally considered Voltagen, but there's a German car company that wouldn't be too happy about that.

 

I can only imagine these two cars being on the same shopping list because of the considerably lower purchase cost of the Cruze. However, a quick look at reliability over at CR squashes that idea:

 

Cruze is a win/win for dealers, customers and the manufacturer. It has a expanding customer base and good reviews. Hopefully GM can expand the Cruze into hybrid technology. If the customers buy into a hybrid Cruze, that could have a lot of potential.

DBCassidy

 

I don't think GM and Toyota are head to head at all.

Toyota's achieve the EPA's numbers without trying. Prius C is 53/46/50 c/h/com and my sister who has no hypermilling knowledge is getting 55mpg+ driving around normally. I'm getting EPA in my GenII when I drive it hard, way higher when I hypermile.

In a Prius, anyone can get great mileage. In a GM, Chevy, or Ford you have to be really lucky to even get close to EPA.

 

I wonder if the ~ 6k USD price difference between the Cruze and the liftback Prius holds in the marketplace using lower trim (but equivalent) cars. It is always a bit of a trap to pick ONE trim but I am much more inclined to look at a (lowish) common denominator trim, say AC and auto transmission.

If the Cruze is not $2000 cheaper than a Prius 'c', the Cruze has a problem.

 

1+

EPA in my Prius ? What a horrifying thought.

 

The majority of Sonic owners don't seem to have much trouble hitting combined EPA or better over on fuelly.
Chevrolet Sonic MPG Reports | Fuelly

 

Looks like the Spark is doing pretty good, too.
2013 Chevrolet Spark MPG Reports | Fuelly

 

The Diesels usually beat the EPA - particularly if you do mostly highway driving. Remember that the Volkswagen Passatt TDI recently got over 77 MPG in a cross-country USA drive. That is a lot better than its EPA 40 MPG.

 

The Cruze Diesel is a pretty good car. It is dead silent inside since it has a lot of insulation. It is built for highway driving/cruising. With Prius driving skills, it should easily get 60+ MPG on the highway.

Compare that to the Prius which has zero insulation in the doors and thin window glass - so little, my daughter complained about the noise of being able to hear every outside sound while in the back seat while driving in San Francisco.

 

And if you read the rest of the article you will note that is with extreme hypermiling driving, not average driving. Me driving the Prius like a goof nets the EPA milage. Driving it smartly and it goes up.

Drive a cruze like an idiot, you won't get anything near EPA. Drive it well, you might.

 

The average for Cruze owners on fuelly is doing better than combined EPA. Same for the Corolla and Focus. The Prius owners on the other hand are just missing the EPA combined for all model years of the gen3.

My pre-hypermiling car was a 1996 Taurus with adjusted economy ratings of 18city/26hwy/21combined. My best mpg was 27mpg at 65mph+ on a trip. Day to day I was averaging 23mpg.

Your blanket statement on ease of meeting EPA by manufacturer is wrong.

 

Well the 3 hyrbid Toyota/Lexus vehicles we have, and the 2 friends that have Prii all get above EPA without trying driving at high speeds with traffic. Even our non-hyrbid Toyotas and Lexus vehicles have all gotten above EPA with the only exception being our previous RX350 that got EPA, but it too was driven hard.

Of all my coworkers who own numerous Fords, GM's, and Chevys because they dont want to give their money to the commies overseas (apparently Mexico is OK?) none of them get the FE it is rated for. One even traded in a brand new 2012 Fusion 4 months after purchase for a Camry because the Fusion was netting 20's.

Perhaps those that log to Fuelly in "normal" vehicles are more fuel conscious than the majority that share the same make/model whereas the Prius is so mainstream now that there is a more average distribution.

Or there is just some sort of magic fuel bubble in this geographic location, but I doubt it.

 

There might selection bias with fuelly, but some of the individual cars of the models I listed were quite low. There was also over a hundred or more samples for each model.

That doesn't make much sense. Fuel conscious traditional car owners are more likely to log their consumption, but with the Prius, even the less efficient owners will log their consumption.

If the fuelly numbers for the Prius seem off, kind in mind how low CR got with it.

Since the update to the test, it is pretty straight forward to meet the EPA numbers. Looking back at old Taurus, and older Buick shows that I was getting them without trying. To not reach them; the commute has to be really bad for fuel economy(too short to warm up, up hill and in the snow both ways, etc.), something is wrong with the car, or the driver races around and truly doesn't care about economy until they fill the tank.

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Happen to know the engine and his commute? 20's for a Fusion on an all city drive is fine. Otherwise, if it was an ecoboost and he has a heavier foot, the turbo can really plummet the fuel economy without discipline.

I think your sample size is too small.