regfootball

i think if the mid range roll on acceleration is better than launch out of the gate it will be better for this car real world. but numbers are what they print in the reviews..... a 4 cyl that is as fast as a turboX saab is what i hope. that should be fast enough for front drive. 28 mpg highway is a big plus. could have been less.

like the idea but its pretty much Fiero 2? I'd like to see an Acura NSX part duex. For lower price points it really just makes more sense to do something akin to a Cobalt SS. The Cobalt's problem was not its ability, but that no matter how effing well the car performed, it was still a $h!hy cobalt at the end of the day. Translation, a well done performance Cruze makes a much more sellable proposition in the market.

yeah i have seen like 20 mpg real world numbers.........cruze eco makes more sense to me from an mpg standpoint

where is the cruze coupe...........needed badly........ Genesis is a great poor man's G37...too bad the Genesis' exterior sucks in that back window and otherwise looks 1997

if the corvette and caddies are going to have any serious cred beyond USA they will need smaller displacement DOHC engines. They may require the same power, but outside the US that is what will be demanded. GM Caddy Corvette are wising up and realizing you cannot pin the future of any one model or brand on selling in or appealing to fans in the USA or one country in particular....which is also why Holden will probably be toast someday.

Here's a good one. Our economy is recovering. (lots of laughter in the background)..... want a better one? knock knock who's there boo boo who? there's no need to cry.......

yummy

yeah the back seat is murder, the front ain't even spacious

i actually have had this question myself recently. i noticed it was getting grubby under the hood of my t-rex and thought i should hose the engine, because even cleaning all the gook off it would help it stay cooler. i should ask the detail guy where i work. he does an amazing job getting stuff to look good.

the AWD is to blame on the crossover, it adds weight and drag you can feel and the engine needs more torq to keep on the boil. plus the car is 62 inches high. the FWD sportback with the stick is pretty zippy though. the mpg is indeed a real concern although people do achieve beyond the highway numbers. for example, my neighbor has an 07sx4 which he has said will bring 35mpg some occassions. and that is with AWD. when i go to true delta i see the sportback fwd does decently, its no cruze eco though. I know my cobalt feels like crap to drive in comparison. of course that could be even though GM was the largest and sells so much, they still sold junk like the cobalt. people buy tons of corollas also. i'd like to see a turbo fwd or awd sportback. a 2950 pound AWD hatch with about 230-250 hp that would be a hoot. cars like the focus SFE and elantra and cruze are low riders close to the tarmac and such. vehicles like the tucson and sportage you see big dropoffs in mpg due to the taller body and aerodynamics. and even then the cruze with automatic routinely gets complaints all over for really bad real world mpg. the company moves 2.5 million units a year globally, i don't think the US is what matters to them mostly...as long as business grows back at a steady pace. Sometimes car rubes forget that the US is not the only auto market out there. I sort of think its funny the way VW, the new parent is watering down their products in a quest for volume but it will probably be funny to see the hipsters cringe when those Golfs are running around with Japanese running gear in them in a few years. If that is the case, then at least they won't be broken down like VW's are so much all the time.

hey sales are up 22%........ here is the deal......for Amer Suz it's low risk, low volume approach...'get by' for now until things in the auto market develop for the future. the strengths globally have small tiny-small cars which simply do better in other markets. conversely i think the reason for a Kizashi is the US and try to do better here. Personally, the GM tie up was nasty for them. The XL7 is / was liked but there was no model to follow it. Grand Vitara is designed for other markets really where the GV and its truck base have a dedicated base. The Daewoo stuff is what killed a lot of the good will.......I have conversed with Aerio, Sprint / Metro, first XL7, Vitara and GV / tracker owners, pretty much anything that was not part of the GM/DAT lovechild, people love their rides. And they are quite brand loyal. I see this first hand. The Forenzas, Veronas, Renos, etc.......... that's the stuff that killed a lot of progress. The Veronas......oy....... Right now, the biggest gaps in the lineup are car like crossovers. The SX4 people love em who buy em but what most folks shop for is stuff like CRV's, Sportages, and then the 3 row stuff. A Kizashi based crossover would be good. And then a new SX4 design that is larger as well. GV is old, the folks that do buy them like them but they are old and the truck base is not what the meat of the market wants. People like the Equator, but part of it is because they know its the Frontier and the Nissan trucks have a lot of good will. Kizashi needs to develop its niche more. It's a good car, but they'll need to concentrate more on the lesser price models and emphasize the value and develop some performance adds to the sport models to make them earn more car rube cred. Really they need to develop better unique selling propositions. The AWD is helpful as it really sells the base models here. People get an AWD car for winter for not much over 20 grand and its smooth and quiet. If the car had a G6 badge and pontiac grille it would be flying off lots. SX4 buyers love their cars. I think people need to remember the SX4 is a slightly inflated Swift. IMO the wheelbase is about 6 inches too short and the car is 2-4 inches too narrow. Plus the windows are not liked by everyone. I really love the SX4 Sportback + manual. It's lighter and not carrying the AWD and the clutch and shifter are so fun and delicate. I would buy or lease one right now if I could swing it and could exit my cobalt. The sedan has a huge trunk and the CVT is a nice runner on that car. One thing that is lacking across the entire lineup, and i hear this feedback a lot....lack of eye popping mpg numbers on the sticker. I get that. That is legit. The cars themselves to seem to outperform the stickers though. The biggest chore however is stabilizing the dealer network and such and then growing it back again. More dealers will raise the visibility back up again. advertising and product development will follow. I would bring the Swift, try like hell to get out an all new upsized SX4, fine tune the Kizashis, get a couple new crossovers, and hope you just are not running on fumes before all that happens. This is a tough auto market..if Japan ever ramped up its commitment to the US market more........other markets are more important methinks......

the wagon is nicer than the hatch.....!

911 has awd, gtr does, r8 does also, i think buyers of hyper cars like that are expecting those options of AWD on the sheet... The whole Ecoboost deal is making for a lot of money and have people buying their cars in some cases just because of the engine. I really am not a AWD fan but I see it as an option at some point again it has it's fans and will attract buyers. I would really like to see the car get a little smaller and lighter. This would add performance an engine could not add. Imagine a 2900-3000 pound car. This would enhance handling to greater levels and improve braking to a retina detaching level. The new Mclaren is I believe at 2800 pounds and does some great things.

The small block provided enough power in the 60's to do what nearly all Impala owners ever needed to do. Unless they were towing a big trailer or were running a special weight class in drag racing the engine was more a novalty than anything else. Don't make it anymore than it was. The DOHC engine in a Vette would provide a powerplant that would interst many who could care less now about the pushrod engine. As hard as it may be for some to beleive there are many who hate that engine as much as some hate DOHC here. You may call them snobs but if they have money they are potential customers. I don't care how they feel or if they are right or wrong but giving them an option is just good business. I agree that keepimg the Vettes weight down is commendable. I still would like to see them lose some more weight and a little of the bulk of the car. I would love to see if more as a true sports cars and a little less a GT type car. Ferrari has no issue, Jaguar has no issue BMW has no issue, Aston has no issue Mclaren has no issue in dealing with the power, weight or handling. I don't see that an issue with the Vette as long as the powertrain was intergrated into the design of the car. I Know GM is smart enough to be able to figure it out. "De-tuning the power with a heavier engine & worse handling is NOT going to raise the appeal ante'" Where do you really get this stuff? I Know you are smarter than this. The fact is the Vette lead engineer has made it clear that they would do nothing to the Vette unless it made it a better car. If they did do a DOHC you can rest assured it would out perform the present car and perform better and no less than the Pushrod engine. Give them a little credit they are not that stupid. The Vette is in good hands with Tadge Juechter and he will accept nothing but the best for the car by taking no steps backwards. If they do go with a DHOC it will not be ill handling nor slower. They have not let us done before. Hell where were you when they added the weight to the ZR1 with the supercharger. With your way of thinking that should have made the car damn impossible to drive with all the added nose weight. I never heard you complain then. Lets face it you appear as a Pushrod snob as much as some are DOHC snobs. They are both wonderful engines and the fact is there is room for both. Funny how so many condemed for for putting the Ecoboot in the F150. They look like geniuses now with sale climbing and taking near half the sales with a $795 premium on them over the V8. I think if you can get diehard V8 truck people to buy a TT DHOC V6 F 150 A DHOC TT V8 Vette should not be a hard sell. Like it or not the buyers are there and their money is as green as anyone elses. the Z06 would not be a Z06 if it weren't for the blower. Funny how Chevy even despite monster displacement, still could not get m5 killing power out of it with pushrod architecture, but without blower. Were they supposed to go to a 10 litre v8? the dealer group i work for, primarily we have ford shops and let me tell you those ecoboost ford trucks are FLYING off the lot. Cannot keep em in stock. Turbo with older folks has a bad stigma.........unreliability and turbo lag. Thank Chrysler, Saab, etc. Modern turbos have changed the game and the young performance types dig em. VW's and Audi's are garbage but they are magnets for the young punks who wants to drive performance cars, or what they call em. Seems to me as worthwhile investment for Corvette to revisit a DOHC engine as much as its worth GM's time to have things like a supercharged, rear drive, manual trans Cadillac wagon, or to even consider things like an El Camino revival. As has been alluded to earlier, if GM has money in the budget for that low return / good potential of not making money type of stuff, at least it seems fair for GM to stuff the vette with an engine type that modern performance car fans across the globe may be drawn to.

AWD in fact is the most important performance item that needs to be added (as an option) on the Vette. TRACTION = better acceleration and handling. I have a feeling it is coming. The new v8 is probably something that is foreseen to be needed in world markets. I would also guess that perhaps Lotus may be involved. I could see this thing being crammed into a Lotus. In this regard, it makes sense to get it in cars, the Corvette is probably one way they can justify the cost to design and build and amortize it before it trickles down to other vehicles. Look at all the Ford ecoboosts in so many models. They don't really need em, but as a company they decided it needed to be there for some markets so they spread it around as much as possible. We have no idea if this small v8 may end up in 2019 Cadillacs or whatever. In the meantime, the finances need to be planned and verified, and design needs to happen, and soon it has to get put into something. This vision of a small v8 corvette may be as much for 7-8 years from now as it is for say, 2014.

it seemed to me the 2.5 just didn't have good throttle response, and it takes it own sweet time to build revs.

It's roomier than the Cruze by a lot. The trunk is massive for a mid-size much less a compact. In 2.5 form, it doesn't feel *that* much faster than a Cruze turbo (which I had two weeks ago as a rental). Interior wise, the Cruze uses nicer materials, but the Jetta is put together better.... though in the case of this car, that isn't really hard when most of the buttons are blanks. the Jetta is the only one in the compact class that really gets that space matters in the back. the trunk is also very good. The VW has great packaging, its just dated and really a half assed design as far as looks and anything exciting. The Jetta seemed to me to be put together well inside, but that is hard to notice when everything is so cheap and uninspired. And the Cruze is put together well also. The 2.5 flat out sucks. It has no business being in this or any car. It's not quick, it sounds crappy, Once on the boil, the Cruze turbo seems as quick really. In stick form, the Cruze turbo is nicer to drive because you can get the rpms down lower at highway speed. The Jetta is better than a Corolla though. I just can't believe how crappy the new Jetta is. It's not that far removed from being a very good car. A decent modern 2.0 litre non turbo four popper. A more lavish interior design and materials. A bit more excitement on the outside....and better fuel economy. The Jetta has a decent ride and handling. Not superlative, but worthy of nice comments. The Jetta looks like a mid eighties car and it sort of feels like it still, too. Nice idea, but its 2011. The Jetta is a huge ripoff IMO.

but it also does 0-60 in 2.9 and 197 mph

that gal in the dress, i'd hit that.

corvette will be competing globally with the likes of R8, GTR, etc. in certain markets a small displacement mill will be an advantage.....

eco gets 44+ mpg in real world use i don't think diesel will be part of the cruze lineup 1.8 + stick is a nice combo actually but cruise should have been added. it would be nice to punch those in the face at GM who still pull this non customer friendly crap

just because dwight says so? i am sure some engineers out there are quite capable of making a tiny engine like a 3.0 v8 that is smaller than a huge pushrod mill. the 1.4 turbo is quite small, a 3 litre v8 is basically that plus a cylinder bank. perhaps GM has some tricks up their sleeve. maybe the future cruze performance engine is a 1.5 turbo and so maybe GM can afford to co-develop something like that together. if the euros need a small displacement motor, and GM thinks it nice to be tightly wound in order to do it, hey why not? GM cannot exist in a north american vacuum anymore. Corvette is dead if they don't make it world appeal. Lotus might want it for the Evora. Corvette's current fan base is practically all residing in a nursing home right now anyways. GM sees they gotta move on some. Hey, maybe eAssist is on the corvette future list also.

perhaps this small v8 will help the corvette become more accepted in europe, and perhaps the motor can be shared with Lotus, etc. as you say. there would be a good chance then that corvette may not even sell in some countries with a huge pushrod motor. a tiny v8 as such would be quite compact. even with its DOHC headgear. perhaps a 3.0 displacement could avoid some taxes in some places.

a half of that v8, a 1.5 turbo with 200+ hp in a sonic would rock

No one who actually sits in a CTS will consider it a roomy car for it's size and bulk. As far ad what I do to maintain a living, you can all f@#k off, pricks.