Chevrolet Unwraps 2017 Cruze Hatchback Before Detroit, On Sale This Fall

Mark Stevenson
by Mark Stevenson

No, you aren’t seeing things this morning. Chevrolet announced late Wednesday night a five-door version of their staple compact Cruze will be heading to Detroit for the 2016 North American International Auto Show — and they published some photos to prove it.

The first-generation Cruze, while available as a hatchback in other markets, was never marketed as a five-door in North America. The addition of a the new hatchback looks to fix that for the Cruze’s second generation.

As a current owner of the long-forgotten Saturn Astra, this intrigues me.

It was thought that General Motors might fill the compact hatchback-sized hole in its lineup with a Buick rebadge of the Opel Astra. In China, the tri-shield is enticing; in America, not so much (unless there’s a $3,000 on-the-hood cash incentive). So, General Motors decided against bringing its Chinese-rebadge Buick Verano GS stateside and we’ll be seeing the Cruze hatchback on our shores instead.

The five-door Cruze will swallow 18.5 cubic feet of whatever your heart desires if you bring a few friends along, or up to 42 cubic feet of cargo if you plan to drop the rear seats and run errands solo. It sits on the same 106.3-inch wheelbase as its sedan counterpart, making the space between the axles slightly greater than that of its Opel/Vauxhall Astra cousin across the pond.

When it goes on sale this fall, the Cruze hatchback will only be available in LT and Premier trims. For comparison, the Cruze sedan is also available in more basic L and LS trims. Adding the RS package means your Cruze hatchback will look like the one pictured here.

Powering the Cruze will be the same start/stop-capable 1.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine fitted to the sedan, producing 153 horsepower at 5,600 rpm and 177 lbs-ft of torque between 2,000 and 4,000 rpm. GM expects to achieve 40 mpg on the highway with the four-door Cruze, so expect a similar claim for the hatchback.

And, as with every GM vehicle these days, the Cruze hatchback will be available with Chevrolet MyLink (and associated Apple CarPlay and Android Auto); 4G LTE (and its incredible data fees) with WiFi; a full suite of safety technology including lane keep assist, rear cross traffic alert, side blind zone alert and rear park assist; and heated surfaces everywhere.

We’ll learn more about the Cruze hatchback at the Detroit show next week.



Mark Stevenson
Mark Stevenson

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  • NN NN on Jan 08, 2016

    Looks sharp, and completely Korean in design. If you want an American car these days, buy a Toyota or Honda.

  • JHawk88 JHawk88 on Jan 08, 2016

    ... I'm pretty sure that's a Ford Focus.

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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