{"id":23510,"date":"2019-03-09T19:11:40","date_gmt":"2019-03-09T23:11:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/henrypayne.com\/?p=23510"},"modified":"2019-03-09T19:11:40","modified_gmt":"2019-03-09T23:11:40","slug":"born-of-high-expectations-chevy-cruze-hits-the-end-of-the-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/2019\/03\/born-of-high-expectations-chevy-cruze-hits-the-end-of-the-line","title":{"rendered":"Born of high expectations, Chevy Cruze hits the end of the line"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div align=\"left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2019\/03\/07\/PDTN\/4aa8cd67-87c9-4f17-960e-e9ff38526ddc-Lordstown-001.JPG?width=540&amp;height=&amp;fit=bounds&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"An American flag drapes the hood of the last Chevrolet Cruze as it comes off the assembly line at a General Motors plant where 1,700 hourly positions are being eliminated perhaps for good, on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, in Lordstown, Ohio. The factory near Youngstown is the first of five North American auto plants that GM plans to shut down by next year.\" \/><\/p>\n<\/div><p><em>An American flag drapes the hood of the last Chevrolet Cruze as it comes off the assembly line at a General Motors plant where 1,700 hourly positions are being eliminated perhaps for good, on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, in Lordstown, Ohio. The factory near Youngstown is the first of five North American auto plants that GM plans to shut down by next year.\u00a0<span class=\"credit\">(Photo: AP)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable-p-1 p-text\">So long, Chevy Cruze, you burned so very brightly.<\/p>\n<p class=\"speakable-p-2 p-text\">The last Cruze came off the Lordstown assembly line in Ohio on Wednesday as General Motors Co. shut down the plant and abandoned the compact sedan segment. The move comes as GM has signaled a shift away from sedans\u00a0and into SUVs and electric vehicles as it<a href=\"https:\/\/www.detroitnews.com\/story\/business\/autos\/general-motors\/2018\/11\/25\/general-motors-planning-oshawa-ontario-plant-closure\/38606867\/\" data-track-label=\"inline|intext|n\/a\">\u00a0idles five plants in the U.S.\u00a0and Canada<\/a>\u00a0that make the Cruze, Chevrolet\u00a0Impala, Chevrolet\u00a0Volt, Buick Lacrosse, Cadillac XTS\u00a0and Cadillac CT6.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">The Cruze leaves behind 142,617 customers who bought the car in 2018 \u2013 a mid-level talent in a robust, if shrinking, 2.5-million small-car sales segment in the U.S.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">The Cruze enjoyed a short but thrilling roller-coaster ride over its eight-year career.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Slotted between the subcompact Sonic and mid-size Malibu, the Cruze was Chevrolet&#8217;s third compact entry in three decades, following the Cavalier and Cobalt. It debuted in 2011\u00a0at an opportune time, riding America\u2019s shift to small sedans as the Great Recession squeezed incomes, and memories of $4\u00a0a gallon gas were fresh.<\/p>\n<div id=\"module-position-RnfTnEcXDHQ\" class=\"story-asset image-asset\">\n<aside class=\"wide single-photo\"><div align=\"left\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2019\/03\/07\/PDTN\/9c0b3e35-e3cc-4744-b12c-be6ce7fbc3c7-Lordstown-002.JPG?width=540&amp;height=&amp;fit=bounds&amp;auto=webp\" alt=\"Amy Drennen, right, of Lordstown, Ohio, an employee at General Motors for 12 years, receives a hug from Pam Clark, as people gather in front of the General Motors assembly plant, Wednesday, March 6, 2019, in Lordstown, Ohio. Wednesday is the last day of the plant's Chevrolet Cruze production, a move that will eliminate nearly 1,700 hourly jobs and idle the plant.\" width=\"540\" data-mycapture-src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2019\/03\/07\/PDTN\/9c0b3e35-e3cc-4744-b12c-be6ce7fbc3c7-Lordstown-002.JPG\" data-mycapture-sm-src=\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2019\/03\/07\/PDTN\/9c0b3e35-e3cc-4744-b12c-be6ce7fbc3c7-Lordstown-002.JPG?width=500&amp;height=326\" \/><em>Amy Drennen, right, of Lordstown, Ohio, an employee at General Motors for 12 years, receives a hug from Pam Clark, as people gather in front of the General Motors assembly plant, Wednesday, March 6, 2019, in Lordstown, Ohio. Wednesday is the last day of the plant&#8217;s Chevrolet Cruze production, a move that will eliminate nearly 1,700 hourly jobs and idle the plant.\u00a0<span class=\"credit\">(Photo: Steph Chambers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette via AP)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div><\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Its debut was emotional for GM, coming as the most significant model launch since the company\u2019s reorganization under a federally led bankruptcy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">\u201cThis is everything for us,\u201d then-GM President of North American operations Mark Reuss said at the car&#8217;s Ohio launch in 2010. \u201cThe rebirth of the American economy starts right here at Lordstown with a world-class, high-volume car built in the heartland of America.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Getting up to 48 miles per gallon on the\u00a0highway, the Cruze cruised to a peak of 273,060 sales in 2014 before crashing to earth as the U.S\/ economy rebounded, gas prices stabilized at around\u00a0$2 a gallon\u00a0and America fell back in love with sport utility vehicles.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">The new badge proved a nice diversion for the brand, too, as the discontinued Cobalt became a lightning rod for bad news after a faulty ignition switch caused multiple fatalities. And with consistent volumes over 200,000 sales, GM invested in multiple variations\u00a0including diesel-powered and hatchback models.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">\u201cThe Cruze stands out by providing a comfortable ride, a surprisingly large trunk\u00a0and several high-tech, luxury-adjacent features,\u201d Car and Driver magazine enthused at the time. The Cruze was an early adopter of technology features like like 4G WiFi and smartphone app connectivity that were popular with young buyers. Despite its strengths, the Cruze never broke the magazine\u2019s Top 10 picks like segment icons Honda Civic and Volkswagen Golf.<\/p>\n<div class=\"partner-outstream\">The $18,870 Cruze\u2019s disappearance leaves a hole in Detroit\u2019s entry-level compact car lineup, as Ford\u2019s compact Focus also ends production this year and Dodge\u2019s Dart long ago left the playing field.<\/div>\n<p class=\"p-text\">\u201cWe\u2019ve already seen those Cruze customers migrating to the Trax. And we\u2019re seeing an uplift in sales to the Equinox also,\u201d said a Chevy spokesman. The Trax is a subcompact SUV that starts at $22,195, and the compact Equinox starts at $24,995<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Analysts say that the price-jump to equivalent SUVs \u2013 and reliable sedan entries from Asian automakers \u2013\u00a0poses a risk for the brand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">\u201cChevy hopes most of those customers will go to utility vehicles,\u201d says IHS Markit senior auto analyst Stephanie Brinley. \u201cBut there are people who still prefer sedans, so there is the risk they will buy a Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla instead.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">The Civic and Corolla have been the perennial best-sellers in the segment at over 300,000 units sold annually in the U.S.\u00a0Both\u00a0are manufactured\u00a0in America\u2019s heartland by non-union labor \u2013 the Civic in Indiana and the Corolla in Mississippi \u2013 even as Cruze\u2019s Ohio home lays off its UAW workforce.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">The Japanese badges proved formidable for upstarts like the Cruze, which spanned two generations over eight model years. The Corolla (11 generations of new cars) and the Civic (10 generations) have been in the U.S. market for about 50 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">\u201cThat could be part of the Japanese success,\u201d says IHS\u2019s Brinley. \u201cChevy had to retrain the automotive buyer whenever they came out with a new model name.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">That branding will continue to be a challenge moving forward,\u00a0experts say. The Cruze&#8217;s demise is part of a larger shift for GM away from gas-powered vehicles towards a future of electric and autonomous vehicles. CEO\u00a0Mary Barra envisions an all-electric future she refers to as \u201czero accidents, zero emissions and zero congestion.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">The company&#8217;s autonomous-vehicle development unit GM Cruise LLC is\u00a0\u00a0is working on an autonomous vehicle called the Cruise AV that will compete against established ride-sharing brands like Uber and Lyft. And GM is putting enormous capital\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.detroitnews.com\/story\/business\/autos\/general-motors\/2019\/01\/13\/cadillac-shows-new-electric-car-detroit-auto-show\/2552115002\/\" data-track-label=\"inline|intext|n\/a\">into 20 new, all-electric, zero-emission vehicles by 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">For now, GM electric vehicles like the $37,000 Chevy Bolt EV are well out of the reach of Cruze buyers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">\u201cThe conversion to electric is not going to be a straight transition,\u201d says Brinley. \u201cYou can\u2019t move compact Cruze buyers into Bolt EVs. It\u2019s going to be the next generation of buyer that\u2019s going to switch to EVs. A lot is expected to happen\u00a0between now and then.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">For now, then, Cruze buyers who\u00a0want to stick with Chevy sedans will have to move down to a smaller $16,295 subcompact Spark or up to a $22,685\u00a0midsize Malibu \u2013 the\u00a0Malibu starting at about the same price as a subcompact Trax SUV.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">The good news for GM, say\u00a0Brinley\u00a0and GM representatives, is sedan buyers increasingly are comfortable with switching\u00a0to SUVs. A GM spokesman said there is no wall anymore between sedan customers willing to shop for SUVs.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p-text\">Versions of the Cruze will continue to be sold in foreign markets with production in Argentina, China, Mexico and South Korea.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An American flag drapes the hood of the last Chevrolet Cruze as it comes off the assembly line at a General Motors plant where 1,700 hourly positions are being eliminated perhaps for good, on Wednesday, March 6, 2019, in Lordstown, Ohio. The factory near Youngstown is the first of five North American auto plants that [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23510"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23510\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/henrypayne.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}