Comments on: Episode 249 – Big Ford Recall, Tesla Offers House Calls, Vauxhall Plants Stay Open

By: T. Bejma

T. Bejma — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 16:32:49 +0000

Pedro Fernandez Says:
October 14th, 2009 at 2:24 pm
@ Jim, I believe you have the Cruze mixed up with the Korean-built Spark, the replacement for the lowly Aveo.

You are incorrect Pedro. The Spark will be built in the US as well as the Cruze. Most likely Lake Orion. There is a replacement for the Aveo coming (and it is a LOT better looking). Will be in between the Cruze and the Spark.

By: Jim Sachetti

Jim Sachetti — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 13:05:28 +0000

# hermann the german Says:
October 14th, 2009 at 6:39 pm

“The Cruze may seem to have a high MSRP, but as the dollar falls and the yen rises guess who is going to start looking blue in the face.”

Not Honda or TOyota! After all, both Honda and Toyota build their civics and their corollas in the USA and with largely US content, so they could not care less about the falling $!

But even if they were imported, many imports tend to NOT increase their prices for many years after the $ falls. Incl. Luxury German imports.

By: hermann the german

hermann the german — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:39:46 +0000

The Cruze may seem to have a high MSRP, but as the dollar falls and the yen rises guess who is going to start looking blue in the face.

By: dave

dave — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:11:55 +0000

Last I heard the Cruze was to be made at Lordstown Ohio, they made the Cobolt and they are about 50 miles from me. It was big new that they would stay open

By: Pedro Fernandez

Pedro Fernandez — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 22:04:47 +0000

Just read an article from Popular Mechanics dated 1978 talking about the upcoming GM X cars and how crucial it was for GM to debug these cars before the public got a hold of them, “The future and reputation of GM rests on this”. funny how 30 years later, they’re still in the same predicament.

By: Nick Stevens

Nick Stevens — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:52:31 +0000

For GM to be able to demand a premium over the corolla and civic for the unknown compact Cruze, and the consumers to agree to pay it, the car has to overcome really high hurdles.

First the enthusiast mags like Car and Driver have to test it against these (volume and profit) giants and it has to slay them and ace the test!

Second, a few years have to pass so the owners can tell COnsumer Reports how great the reliability is, and greater than that of the civic and corolla, an even higher hurdle!

Only if these two happen would the consumer be willing to pay a higher, instead of the much lower, price for a given size GM car vs a similar size car from Honda or Toyota.

By: Jim Sachetti

Jim Sachetti — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:49:04 +0000

GM used to sell 1,000,000 Impalas a year back in the 60s. I know today this is impossible, but they could sell 500,000 of their bread and butter cash cow cars. You can’t make a profit when GM has 5 different models in the same exact size category cannbiballizing each other and selling 40,000 a year!

Ford is much better than GM in that respect, and will be even more so when it finally gets wise and closes down the utterly redundant Mercury brand. Ford has much fewer models in each segment. it only has ONE FOcus and one Fusion and one Taurus. Count how many models GM has in each of these segments. Hopeless!

By: John V

John V — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:00:00 +0000

I wonder if there are 300,000 buyers looking for a Cruze or if that just happens to be plant capacity at the shifts and rates agreed to in the latest UAW contract for the Lordstown plant. The price is not the issue, everyone knows GM uses high MSRPs and then marks them down some for “sales.” Then there are the incentives.
The volume prediction looks like the same trap the Detroit three get caught in nearly every time. Marketing by plant capacity seems to be the norm. It has nothing to do with customer demand. They don’t get it – they need to show the buyers the right stuff, then ramp it up when the customers agree that it is the right stuff.

By: Kit Gerhart

Kit Gerhart — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:54:03 +0000

The 60 degree pushrod V-6 will soon be gone, so that should help with the intake gasket problem.

By: motorman

motorman — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:31:36 +0000

GM says they will build the best cars in the industries.Does this mean there will be no more intake gasket problems and intermediate steering shaft problems that went on for years. These 2 problems have chased away lots of old GM customers as I had the intermediate steering shaft problem with a new 1982 Celebrity and a new 2004 Impala. Lots of people complain about GM using cheap materials in their interiors but using cheap materials in the parts of the car that counts is a bigger problem they have to solve. till GM fixes these types of problems and the customers know this it will be a tough sell for GM

By: Pedro Fernandez

Pedro Fernandez — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:11:03 +0000

Well, there’s always Mr Rebate Man, coming back for a post-b/k appearance, or better yet another c4c plan,(cashforcruze) after all it’s just paper money.

By: Kit Gerhart

Kit Gerhart — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 20:02:31 +0000

The 2 liter TDI they now sell here seems to be about the same as the “top” diesel they sell in Golf in the UK. The 1.9 that they sold here until a couple years ago was, as you say, “old and tired” by the time it went away. Still, it worked pretty well and got great fuel economy, at least with a manual transmission. They never sold the old TDI with DSG in the US.

Yes, if the Cruze is more expensive than Civic and Corolla, it will be a hard sell, even if it is “better” than the Honda and Toyota. It will be hard to sell 300,000 of them, even at the same price, no matter how good the car turns out to be.

By: Jim Sachetti

Jim Sachetti — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:53:10 +0000

That’s the very old and tired diesel they sell in the US, I believe they have far, far better diesels with far higher HPs they offer in Europe.

But the main conclusion is, as Pedro noted, if they sell a civic-corolla sized Cruze at a higher price than these two, there is no hope they will sell 100k a year, much less the 300,000 and 350,000 units each of these sell in the US market.

By: Kit Gerhart

Kit Gerhart — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:40:40 +0000

The VW TDI’s are very low rpm engines compared to gas engines. The current 2 liter’s 140 hp arrive at 4200 rpm, rather than the ~6000 more typical of similar size gas engines. These diesels certainly feel different from gas engines, but I like them. The old 90-100 hp VW 1.9 liter TDI has plenty of power for normal driving, at least with a manual transmission. I haven’t driven the new 2 l, but I’m sure I would like it.

By: Jim Sachetti

Jim Sachetti — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 19:23:58 +0000

Thanks for the info, Kit. Makes sense, since the Cruze will be sold in many countries. But they should price it right, if they want it to sell the kind of volume Civics and Corollas sell world-wide.

Diesels are also turbos, for the most part. 2 lt TDs are really big dogs. I know VW has soem sweet 1.4 gas direct injection engines, had them more than three years before GM wised up and used them itself, but they are not cheap. A colleague in Europe bought a VW GOlf with that premium 1.4 and paid 21,000 Euros (30,000$!!) and the little hatchback probably has neither leather nor any real or fake wood in the interior!