I’ll give my 11 year old VW some slack. It weighs much more (convertible) and has an “old tech” engine that only matches the Aveo on the highway and betters it in town at 29 mpg where an Aveo is likely to be most content (low speeds).

Heck even my 9 year old AWD CR-V betters the Aveo around town in mileage. With 162K miles.

Release the drivetrain in those three cars now and then use the money they save on the Cruz to upgrade the Aveo, Astra, and Cobalt to better materials so it is a better quality car that lasts longer. A side benefit is that they can start building those quality names like Corolla and Civic that people instantly recognize as durable vehicles that people careful with their money buy.

Or… Just make me an electric Aveo GT with 100 miles range and a 150K+ mile NiMH battery lifetime just like the RAV4-EV of 2003 fame. 0-60 times can be equal to the gas car and I’d be happy.

By the same token, popping corn appears to give you a Chevrolet. How much corn is used to build a Chevrolet?

The commerical features a plug-in Prius. How much more vaporware do you need. Where can I buy such a car from Toyota?

And the point is, the second commercial talks about Toyota trying to make zero emissions vehicles. Well, whoopdeedoo. They’re advertising something they don’t have.

The Smart CDI has 45 tire-shredding horsepower.

A 45 mpg highway rating isn’t unheard of in larger diesel cars.
A BMW 330d has a 49 mpg (US) European highway rating. (and 245 horsepower)
A 320d has a 57 mpg highway rating.

The Cruze is a bit longer than a 3-series.

Seriously? I haven’t noticed any such Toyota ads. What futureware/vaporware do they feature?

Buick61: “And even last year they had the commerical showing people making a Prius out of branches and grass, and the voice over speaks to Toyota working to create zero-emissions vehicles and “striving for zero waste in everything we do.””

That ad features a real car. And Toyota did make a pretty sizeable effort to make the car more “sustainable.” There was discussion of that when it first came out. I forget what all goes into the Prius but some of the parts are made of things that surprised me.

By the same token, popping corn appears to give you a Chevrolet. How much corn is used to build a Chevrolet?

Disingenuous and patently untrue. You obviously haven’t been watching TV this summer. Toyota has been pushing their own futureTech/Vaporware for months now.

And even last year they had the commerical showing people making a Prius out of branches and grass, and the voice over speaks to Toyota working to create zero-emissions vehicles and “striving for zero waste in everything we do.”

And there you have Toyota’s Hubris.

It’s easy to be a critic. Being objective takes some research. You took the easy road.

If your point was to note the safety requirements now mandated for cars, fine. But even that is relative. The safest Volvo is no more or less a death trap versus an 18-wheeler, an icy highway, a drunk driver, or a really fat tree.

Actually, it was done by Suzuki, rebadged by GM. And these cars were death traps.

People don’t want to strap their 8 year olds into such cars and risk having to wipe drool from their mouths for the rest of their lives.

We expect safe cars with all the features of a Civic and 45 mpg. I don’t believe that is possible without using expensive materials.

it’s like jaje said, GM and the american makers are constantly flapping their jaws about what their cars can do, will do, might do….Toyandissan justs does it, lets the market buy it, banks the money, and shuts the f%&^ up….

There is a refreshing lesson for the D2.701

“So I guess The Detroit News added 9 + 36 to get their number (though the ‘09 Cobalt is rated at 37, so they could have said 46mpg if they were feeling audacious).”

Nope. Maybe they just can’t add well….

The Toyohodasan group has everyone thinking it can’t be done?

I remember the Geo Metro or Chevy Sprint at 46 mpg with a 3 cyl.

Been done folks. By GM again.

It’s going to be a gas diesel. HCCI, as it’s been called.

GM’s been working on this, we know. They’ve let the press drive an HCCI prototype Malibu. And there was recently news that they’d figured out how to make a car run HCCi even at idle.

This would neatly explain the extraordinary mileage they’ve been claiming. The only way to explain it, actually, as I don’t think there’s a gas car on the market presently that gets that kind of mileage.

This also makes sense of the late introduction date here in the States for the Cruze. The unprecedented HCCI engine isn’t quite yet ready to go.

If I’ve got this right, the Cruze is going to be a home run.

In any case, considering all the safety features people expect; six airbags, ABS, stability control, 5 star crash ratings; and considering people expect sub 8 second 0-60 times; I think if it were possible to build a 4 seat auto with the above features that could achieve 45mpg it would have been done by now. It may require making the supension and many body pieces from light alloy in order to keep the weight down under 2500 lbs or so in order to achieve a good power to weight ratio and good fuel economy.

I do not believe that GM has the engineering / business capability to build such a car for and deliver it at a competitive price point and make a profit.

I was thinking resurrected Saturn Ion with a Chevy Malibu face.

But the PR/marketing guys at GM had to find a way to stir up interest in this refreshed model and introduce it to the US. Somebody correct me if I’m totally off base on this.

You’re totally off base on this. The Cruze is on the all new Delta II platform. It’s in no way a refreshed Daewoo product.

http://www.canadiandriver.com/testdrives/04optra.htm

But the PR/marketing guys at GM had to find a way to stir up interest in this refreshed model and introduce it to the US. Somebody correct me if I’m totally off base on this.

Well, as a general rule, a reporter’s job is typically easier when they just make shit up.

It’s loads more efficient to remove that pesky “find a source to back up your claim” step.

As for the Cobalt though, I heard that GM may keep it and have its car line up like this. Aveo, Cobalt, Cruze, Malibu, and Impala.

40 to 42mpg on the highway is a bit of a stretch, but with optimization of gearing, etc., possible. The similar 1.4 TFI Euro Golf gets very close to that number.

Then keep in mind, this is a projection for PR purposes. We’ve seen other EPA projections being missed, most notable the Jetta TDI.

And here’s a list of cars that do the same or worse than the automatic Cobalt:

Ford Focus
Nissan Versa
Nissan Sentra
Hyundai Accent
Hyundai Elantra
Kia Spectra
Mazda3
VW Rabbit
VW Jetta
VW New Beetle
Mitsubishi Lancer
Scion tC
Subaru Impreza
Dodge Caliber
Kia Rio (manual)

And a significant portion of the Cobalt’s sales was the XFE model, so it’s not right to just pass off the ‘09 Cobalt’s 37mpg.

Assuming the General doesn’t hop on the CH 7 train any time soon.

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Buick61, the auto Cobalt still gets only 33mpg. Add 9 to that and get 42. This strikes me as still rather optimistic. And it wouldn’t be the first time some empty suit exec for Environmental and Whatnot got it wrong.

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Let me add… it’s great that GM is going to take a high-mpg economy car seriously. But people looking for magical improvements are going to be disappointed.

Go GM!

Not to split hairs but the Cobalt auto gets 33. 9+33=42.

And that’s highway economy… to reduce it almost certainly means they need lower overall drag. If the Cobalt is really crappy for Cd, this can be done. If not…

And if the Cd is already fair on the Cobalt, reducing drag significantly involves making the frontal area – and therefore, very likely, the passenger compartment – smaller.

Unless those people uncovering it are hobbits, the car looks to be about the same size as a Corolla. Highway fuel economy will probably be pretty similar to a Corolla unless GM has some significant powertrain magic available.

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If I remember correctly, when discussing future plans, the Cruze among them, Lutz recently remarked that “the Cobalt is just now coming into its own” or something very similar. That hardly sounds like they’re going to retire the Cobalt in favor of this car. At least not soon. Several possibilities occur to me:

a) Lutz is clueless. I could be persuaded of this.

b) They will continue to sell the Cobalt alongside the Cruze.

If the latter, why? Well, what if the Cruze will be more expensive than the Cobalt? Of course, the Cobalt could go into fleets…