GM to Spend $500m on Cruze Launch

Robert Farago
by Robert Farago

Not to belabor the point (much), but the Chevrolet Cruze is GM's next next big thing. As such, the future Chevy needs a steady stream of spin touting it as such. And so why-the-Hell-isn't-he-embattled GM CEO Rick Wagoner cruises over to Lordstown, Ohio to announce his company's intentions to someday rule the world. I mean, design, build and sell a competitive, profitable small car for the North American market. Automotive News [sub] reports that Rick promised Lordstown $500m to facilitate Cruze control. That ain't much in the new car development scheme of things. And once again, The General's spinmeisters are using every possible opportunity to amp-up the rhetoric re: GM's impact on the U.S. economy. "The investment in Lordstown is one of several that have been announced at U.S. plants in the past five years, adding up to over $2 billion total investment in Ohio and more than $20 billion in the United States." Federal loan guarantee much?

Robert Farago
Robert Farago

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  • Pfingst Pfingst on Aug 22, 2008

    GM has $500 mil? Who knew?

  • Kericf Kericf on Aug 22, 2008

    I was watching the Olympics last night when I saw a commercial for that new Christian Slater show "My own worst enemy". It actually had a Chevy commercial WITHIN THE TV SHOW commercial(TV Barn). They flash to split screen with two Christian Slaters and the two names under each, then it flashes "CHEVY" on the screen and then a split screen of a Traverse and Camaro with the names under each (Traverse for normal persona, Camaro for the secret agent persona). I laughed out loud at the add and my wife didn't get what was so funny about it. They are advertising two cars that you cant buy yet? From the article I linked to: "Speaking for my gender, I'm insulted. It's like carmakers are trying to fool the guys -- for whom this show is obviously intended -- into thinking that their product is just like a human. C'mon, give us some credit! I know good and well that one of the co-stars is an inanimate object ... and that the other one is a Chevy."

  • Potemkin Potemkin on Aug 23, 2008

    Somebody tell the folks at GM marketing they are working off the wrong calendar. It is not 2011 yet. It's tough being in GM marketing. People know your current stuff sucks so you can't say it doesn't, so you spin the new stuff that people have no experience with.

  • Cpmanx Cpmanx on Aug 25, 2008

    In fairness to GM (I can't believe I just wrote that), they are facing the same problem that VW and now Ford are facing, as they introduce European models a year or two before the essentially identical products make their US debut. You can't pretend the Euro models don't exist, but if you hype them too much in the US you make them sound old by the time they appear here--and you make your current lineup sound positively obsolete. That said, the PR folks at GM seem to be running out of control. That might be good for reassuring the stockholders and for making the case for possible gov't loans, but it's a terrible way to sell cars. I can't imagine why anyone would buy a Cobalt now, and yet I also can't imagine that anyone shopping for a compact car in 2011 will recall the hype machine that was running in 2008.

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