The Glade 4.0

http://www.chevrolet.com/future-vehicles/cruze/



Will GM get a small car right this time? What do you guys and gals think?

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

I like it. At least in the images, the interior and exterior look very nice. All the buzz I've heard about it is generally good, but I've yet to see any in depth review on it. If I were in the market for a small car though, this would be on my list.

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“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general”. - Mark Rippetoe

Yeah, if this were two years ago, this would've been on my list of things to drive.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I'd like to see some clear pictures of the side-profile and back end but the interior looks superbly comfy.

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In time, this too shall pass.

That is a sharp looking car.

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I wouldn't be embarrassed to drive it.

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The Dude abides.

To answer the original question, my opinion is "no."

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

It's got tough competition, the new Ford Fiesta is supposed to be really good. Then of course the Honda Civic always seems to be a great choice.

Reviewers say it lives up to expectations (which were pretty high). I think they're even coming out with a 260 HP turbo, which would be pretty sweet on this car.

I also like the 2 tone interior

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“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general”. - Mark Rippetoe

Looks pretty sharp. I wouldn't kick it out of my drive way.

All fair points. They have certain things to overcome lately, though:

1) The public being agitated over their rollover for facists,
2) The competition you listed
3) A reputation for being hit or miss on reliability,
4) Cost


The real question for this car, to me, is #4. Under 20, including options? Great buy. If not, buy a Mazda or Honda or Ford or Kia or Hyundai instead; all of which (excluding Mazda) have better reps lately.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

The all new 2011 Chevy Cruze: starting at just $16,995

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Holy shitsnacks!

GM is actually doing some good things lately. Or at least interesting things. The new Camaro, Malibu, the Volt, the Buick Regal and LaCrosse. Nice cars and the Volt is at least interesting.

The whole bailout debacle and the union drama are definitely an obstacle for them in a lot of ways but just on the merit of the car itself it seems quite competitive.

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“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general”. - Mark Rippetoe

Except for their Chinese market, I still don't understand why they kept Buick over Pontiac. It has no good target audience.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

That Cruze interior is titties.

It's off-center... the driver seat position appears to be unsymmetrical with respect to the instrument cluster. It would drive me nuts.

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In time, this too shall pass.

I've got an ingrained bias against domestic cars, but that looks really nice.

On a side note, I've never seen Kia be anything but the butt of jokes. I couldn't possibly say that I believe Chevy has a worse reputation.

Kia is kicking ***! Leave Britney Kia alone! *sobs*



I know what you mean about Pontiac over Buick, but lately I'm understanding why.

The LaCrosse is actually really nice and the new Regal is very promising. It's a rebadged Opel Insignia which won car of the year over in Europe last year. The base model is kinda meh in terms of power, but they're coming out with a turbo and eventually... The Buick Regal GS:




Car looks sweet and should have decent power. Probably will be too rich for my blood, but still.

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“Strong people are harder to kill than weak people, and more useful in general”. - Mark Rippetoe

But the question is: who is the market for the Buick?

Young people think of them as Old People cars, by and large. Plus, American's don't want "almost luxurious," we either want a luxury car or not. Look at some of the extremely successful brands out there:

Honda/Acura
VW/Audi
Toyota/Lexus
Nissan/Infiniti

Where is the "almost luxury," middle-brand in those four nameplates? There isn't. There's the base model and the luxury model. The idea of the graduated car market fostered by GM/Ford/Chrysler for 60 years is gone, defunct. Continuing to act like it exists is.... bad management, IMO.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

China.

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Holy shitsnacks!

I meant domestically, but you're right. There is no other market for it... well, maybe India. Not sure.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

With the Chinese Market for Buick being as large as it is (from what I've heard) they really don't *need* a domestic market.

If they can push the Buicks into the Cadillac market and market the Caddys as Euro Beaters (/drool CTS-V), think of the Buick as a softer Cadillac they may have a marketing thing goin there.

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Holy shitsnacks!

Perhaps, but Caddillac would have to make a "-V" version of all their models, down-age their demographic, and dramatically up-quality their vehicles to match most luxury European models, IMO.

I think what Caddy could really do to go a long way towards that is to set their sights on the M3 2-door, and go from there.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine

They're coming out with a smaller CTS, (I forget its moniker) this year. -V variant to come soon too from what I've read.

I would *love* to see a Eldorado Touring Sedan -V to compete with the 7 series Bimmers and S-Class Mercs.

And all things being equal, I'd have the CTS-V over an M3 sedan

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Holy shitsnacks!

I think that'd be great too; however, think of how many innovative technological features are on those vehicles that aren't on any American-made cars.

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“The duty of a patriot is to protect his country from its government.” - Thomas Paine