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Although all-new versions of the Chevrolet Cruze and Malibu are set to debut by the end of the year, GM will retain the current versions as fleet-only vehicles, dubbed the “Cruze Limited” and “Malibu Limited”.
While the Malibu Limited will be available in LS, LT and LTZ trims, the lone powertrain will be the 2.5L I4. The Cruze will drop the diesel variant, but retain the “Eco” version, as well as the manual transmission option.
60 Comments on “GM Retaining Current Malibu, Cruze As Fleet Specials, Diesel Dead For 2016...”
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At least GM has gotten away from using the “Classic” label for these cars. Too bad about the Cruze diesel, but I was wondering how this was going to work out. The cars were not inexpensive and the diesel market is pretty small. Of course, the price of diesel fuel really doesn’t help the average driver much.
I have to admit, I was one of the people calling for more small diesels about 5 to 7 years ago, but I didn’t buy one then. With the price differential between diesel and regular unleaded and the way my life has changed in the last several years, I don’t see a time where I *will* buy a diesel anything.
I always hated “Classic.” What a way to tell everyone you bought a car on it’s way out. Something which was only made to help the balance sheet, or to sell to Enterprise. Depressing.
Right. “Limited” is much better. That’s totally different.
When you have a degraded product, it doesn’t make any difference what you call it. People will figure it out soon enough.
Still, these fleet specials make a lot of sense. They have the tooling in place and fully depreciated. They can sell them to the rental fleets for an attractive price and still make money. They don’t cheapen the value of their flagship vehicles in the used market. Shoppers who don’t care about having a state of the art vehicle can buy these used off the Enterprise lot at a reasonable price. Even if these are cars that you wouldn’t touch personally with a 10 foot pole, there is a market for them.
“I was one of the people calling for more small diesels about 5 to 7 years ago, but I didn’t buy one then.”
Same here. I was a disciple to the Holy Church of Our Lady Diesel for many years, but when the time came to put my money where my mouth had been, I choked. Balking at the heavy additional premiums that come with buying Diesel engines and fuel, I was re-baptized in the warm embrace of regular unleaded.
I’d still favor a Diesel if somehow the price premium was less severe. The new Golf Sportwagen makes an awfully strong case for its Diesel variant, what with its draught horse torque and exceptional resale potential.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that the diesel is going away on the next gen Cruze.
It does seem extremely stupid to go through the federalization process for the diesel on the current Cruze to basically only have a few years of production, though. Sometimes I feel like GM does their product planning based on what they read on internet forums instead of actual market data. They seem to so often go after a niche and then immediately circular file the idea after they’ve done all the work to get it to market. I feel like the Cruze Diesel, SS sedan, SS-R truck, almost everything they made for Pontiac and Saturn (G8, GTO, Solstice, Sky), CTS wagon, etc all fall under this niche chasing.
read the tag on the photo – “best non-hybrid mileage of any passenger car”
that’s all you need to know about why the diesel is dead.
Why the hell is anyone going to pay for one of these when there are other options out there that get better economy on cheaper fuel?
Diesel makes sense on a VW, because they have a track record in North America. It makes absolutely no sense on a GM product, even if the engine comes from Opel.
GM’s has a long history of introducing tech that they have absolutely no intention of supporting. The cars are gone by the next management shuffle, and it’s only a few years before your dealer tells you that key parts are NLA.
Why buy a diesel at all? Because they make sense if you run a lot of highway miles, even with the current difference in fuel prices.
but do diesels make as much sense as a hybrid?
clearly not.
Would you, who seems fairly knowledgeable about cars, advise a random person on the street to buy a diesel Volkswagen or a hybrid Toyota?
I think we’re done here.
For highway use, definitely the VW. In my (rental) experience, the Prius doesn’t get exceptional highway mileage, wanders like crazy in crosswinds, is downright scary in a snowstorm, doesn’t have much of a trunk, and doesn’t have any torque above 60 mph.
A Jetta or Passat Tdi is a highway star in comparison: stable, big trunk, lots of passing power, much better seats.
The real competition would come from cars like the Dart Aero or the Cruze Eco. Both of those are dirt cheap and get 40+ mpg highway.
While it’s true that the Prius really shines in city and mixed driving, it does fine on highway journeys, assuming it’s driven at a reasonable speed. Diesel’s real advantages show up when cruising at 80+ mph for hours on end. At those speeds the hybrids drop MPG like any normal car due to drag and increased RPM, but the diesel will only be marginally lower than running at 65.
Still, a Camry hybrid is rated at 39 MPG highway, which is tough to argue with for such a large, relatively cheap car. And the Honda Fit can be had for less than $16k and gives a solid 40 MPG on interstate runs. So unless a buyer is already leaning to a diesel, it’s going to be a really tough sell.
Yes, I think the way cheaper, (in some cases) less complicated cars have caught up to or surpassed diesels has really hurt the purchasing equation for them.
Eight or so years ago, there weren’t as many decent choices for high mileage cars on the market. Now it seems as if every manufacturer has several decently roomy and equipped models that get pretty good fuel mileage on the EPA loop and the road.
I disagree about a Prius doing fine on highway journeys. Battery power contributes nothing at highway speeds, the gas engine is very weak, you get pushed around in the wake of any truck or SUV, the Toyota-vague steering isn’t helped at all by low-rolling-resistance tires, and the seats have no support.
Still get nightmares where I’m going up a long hill in the southwest, the batteries are fresh out of electrons, trucks are bearing-down on me, and I can’t get the damn thing to speed up. No thanks, give me turbo torque instead, diesel or gas.
Prius trips are bearable once in a while, but they’re a non-starter if you drive mostly on the highway every day. Why punish yourself? It costs more up front, and it won’t save you a dime in fuel. The only thing you’ll get out of it is a stiff neck from holding the steering so tight.
City driving is different obviously. Journeys are shorter, speeds are lower, you’re not likely to stay in one body position, and the hybrid system makes a contribution.
the camry hybrid at work *never* got the advertised hwy mileage. my tdi passat always beats the hwy estimate. i do a lot of hwy runs at 70-75mph for 2-5 hours at a shot.
i find that gas power and esp hyb powered cars often do not make their hwy estimates when driven this way while the tdi always does.
fwiw, that diff seems to be the way the epa calculates ‘hwy driving’. their idea of hwy driving is an interurban commute with varying speeds. my idea of hwy driving is 60-75mph steady.
“Diesel’s real advantages show up when cruising at 80+ mph for hours on end”
I don’t know about that. My JSW TDI’s mileage takes quite a dip above 65 MPH. Then again, a gasoline-powered car might do the same.
You might be done…so speak for yourself. Why purchase all the unnecessary weight and complexity of Hybrid/battery technology when a simple and efficient Turbo Diesel will give you 45+mpg efficiency and easily give you 300,000 miles of longevity??
Sorry Dude….Diesels trump Hybrids just about all the time….only exception being if you are a city slicker doing most of your driving within city limits.
Diesel cars are more fun to drive than hybrids if your an enthusiast. In the real world the mpgs aren’t that far off from each other. I got 52mpg on my moms 12 passat tdi manual when I barowed it for a day. Plus way more fun than a prius plus your in a nice looking sedan not a miniature Pontiac Aztec.
Interesting that you said it’s your mom’s.
How come you don’t own one?
“Fun” and “nice-looking” (both subjective, BTW) are not necessarily what the average commuter is looking for in a DD. They’re looking for high efficiency with low up-front and low maintenance costs.
I would say the “average” consumer is looking for a brand they trust and a design they like at a monthly payment they can (at least theoretically) afford.
Smart consumers factor in things like maintenance costs and fuel economy. We’ve seen truck and SUV sales explode as fuel pricing drops temporarily, so I’m not ready to give the average buyer too much credit for future planning.
And if your[sic] getting 52mpg in a Passat, you aren’t having fun.
malarky. i brought home 52 in my passat and had a blast.
It’s funny to see something described as “10 hours highway driving.” I always thought the areas of the US where people say distances in time (rather than miles) were limited.
“Oh how far is that?” Someone would ask in Ohio.
“About 45 minutes.” Is the type of expected response.
It’s pretty universal in my experience.
How far away do you live from the office? About 20 minutes, depending on traffic.
My in-laws live about six hours away from us.
Hell, even air traffic tends to be that way. NYC-LA flights are five hours, rather than 3000 miles.
Are you from the Midwest though? I meant to add, that’s where I think it’s prevalent. Air traffic isn’t really comparable – it’s not easy for the average person to judge how long a flight would take in miles.
midwest. absolutely common here to quote distances in hours. i know it’s 5 hours from detroit to the bridge.
and if you have to ask your not from there.
From the south. All car-related distances are in minutes or hours unless you’re talking about specific directions.
It would be interesting to know if they will keep the diesel in the new model.
Isn’t there another round of US diesel regulations coming soon? It would be nice to get one set of regs for all vehicles on the planet so these powertrains could be qualified for use everywhere. Too bad that’s about as likely as the Minnesota Vikings winning a Superbowl.
Good to see GM is keeping a watchful eye on the rental market. Got to replace the old sproingy Impala and Orlandos with something, anything at all apparently.
Orlandos? As a person from the United States of America I’ve never seen one or heard of that here.
The Orlando is/was a Canada-only model (like my very first car, a two-tone green 1970 Pontiac Parisienne of happy memory). It has been discontinued.
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2015/03/chevrolet-axes-slow-selling-orlando-canada/
So does this mean the all new retail Cruze will retain the diesel engine?
It would be interesting to see a real Passat TDI competitor. Put the turbo diesel in the next Malibu, maybe that will be sales magic…
I’m guessing that the fleet-only versions will be built in factories that are separate from the “consumers-only” versions? I’m also guessing that the “New” versions of the Cruze and Impala aren’t really that much different than the fleet versions.
No almost all of the USDM GM factories are flex factories. They can build multiple models on the same lines. I’m not sure about Kansas factory where Malibus are built, but I know the Lordstown (Cruze) facility can.
New Cruze sourced from Korea?
Derek: I don’t think so. There would have been a lot of noise if Lordstown would have lost the Cruze.
Too bad about the Cruze diesel. I was seriously considering one. The diesel is reliable, even more so than the VWs it seemed. The big problem is that Cruze is a small car. I am only 5’10 and I couldn’t sit comfortably behind myself. This was the right engine but in the wrong car. It needed to go into a Malibu or even in an Impala. Also, the other mistake was only offering it only in the top of the line model. I am not going to get into the manual transmission argument, but Chevy was trying to compete with the Jetta. One can get a Jetta S TDi for about 21k or even less. Yes, the Cruz has leather…back-up camera…etc. Who cares? It is a small car that’s 25k…well into Accord and Camry territory. This was destined to fail from the beginning. No wonder GM is perennially in trouble.
Of course, now the current owners are screwed. Their value will go down like a rock…parts will get to be more expensive to purchase, mechanics will be totally absent at dealerships and there will be no continuing education for them. Great job GM. Keep it up! Another bail-out needed in a few years down the road.
I’m reading that to say that the Cruze Limited is losing the diesel while retaining the Eco version, amongst others. Nothing’s been said about the new, main market Cruze.
They should have offered all trim levels, with the diesel engine an option on each. That was a big mistake offering only a high end trim line.
I am disappointed that GM missed a opportunity with the 2.0L diesel engine by putting it in the Cruze instead of the Impala. 46 mpg Cruze is hardly noteworthy since Cruze gas ECO version already offers 43 mpg at a much lower price. That same 2.0L engine in the Impala would have demonstrated a FULL-SIZE sedan with 40+ mpg. Now THAT would have been news. 2.0L diesel torque would easily power a full-size car. It was an excellent engine in the wrong application.
I don’t think so, the take rate would have been too low on the Impala anyway. Impala customers (read: largely fleet) are not diesel customers.
Corey, there are lots of people out there looking for a diesel midsize. Most of them are frightened of VW’s reputation, myself included. What choice do we have though? I don’t have money for a new E series Mercedes…the Impala diesel would have sold..even Malibu probably.
I’d like to believe that – but I argue most of them are satisfied with buying a VW or a Mercedes if they have the cash.
I don’t think diesel buyers into passenger sedans buy American. Diesel buyers who buy American are seeking big trucks.
Does GM have a good passenger car diesel reputation in other countries?
Sure they do have a good reputation. They have tons of competition as well but the Opel GM) diesel powered vehicles have a very good reputation. Some of the other components fail prematurely but the diesel engines are great. The Cruz’s engine was made in Germany by Opel and shipped to USA where it was put into the car.
GM’s diesels even have a good rep in the US, on the truck side (Duramax).
The potential problem with the Cruze diesel is that it uses different emission controls than the Opel, and those are the expensive bits to fix. It’s almost a sure bet that parts will be incredibly expensive, or unobtainable within a few years.
Correct David. It was the right engine for the wrong car. The impala would have been more suited for this engine. I saw a nice black impala in the LTZ trim and my jaw dropped. It was sharp. Probably the sharpest looking impala in a long time. It would have been midsize force to reckon with.
I’m amused by the pictured ad. It says that the Cruze Diesel will go 700 miles “on a single tank of gas”.
Go ahead. Fill the tank with gas. I bet you don’t get TWO miles out of it, much less 700.
Good catch. Should have just said fuel. I say fuel in speech, I don’t like saying “gas,” just like I don’t like saying “pop.”
Being a diesel driver, using gas as a generic term is a huge pet-peeve (although my #1 is still people touching their monitors). Of course I’m a weirdo and know the difference between gas and diesel but most people probably have no clue that there are passenger cars with diesel engines.
You’re right. A significant number of people *don’t* know that there are ordinary passenger cars that take diesel.
I also drive a diesel (TDI), and it’s also a pet peeve of mine. For me, I say “fuel” to people, because if I say diesel, I get asked, “So you drive a big pickup?” And then I have to explain how the Germans have been selling diesel-powered cars here for several decades, and how not every diesel is a big truck…and it’s easier to just say “fuel”.
“(although my #1 is still people touching their monitors).”
How else do they get their Windows 8 to work?
Windows 8? Blasphemy! I’m talking about Windows 7 users using their greasy sausage fingers to point at things. It seems they don’t know about hovering.
Is there any data out there from GM as to how many diesel Cruzes they have sold since the introduction in the summer of 2013? All I can find is sad numbers from Green car congress from 2014.
Ironically, I was at Epcot last week and went on the GM commercial that is called “Test Track”. At the end of the ride there is a brown Cruze TD sitting there amongst the other fine GM automobiles. I don’t think selling them in the $27000 range has helped at all. VW finally decided to offer a base TDI last year starting in the low 20s, which is what Chevy should also offer as an option.
Brett, I was also at Epcot and spent some time with that diesel Cruz. That’s when I noticed that there was no room in the back seat and the vehicle should only be seen as a commuter. So, do we need a 25-27k commuter vehicle? If it can serve as a family car then yes. I tried to engage the dealer personnel there but they weren’t familiar with the diesel at all. Those guys dont work for Disney but for GM or for a company contracted by GM. While they Cruz had leather, it felt cheap inside. The door closed without a reassuring “thump”. It is OK in a 17-18k car. Not in a 25k one. No way.
My favourite part was that they disabled the hood and trunk/hatch releases on all the cars. I guess I have to visit my friendly local Chevy dealer to get a better look at the important things. The wife and I test drove a 2013 1.4 turbo and 2.0 TD Cruze in the summer of 2013 when the diesels first appeared. The gas engine was weak, not enough torque. The diesel was nice but the price was insane for what they were offering. So we ended up buying a Jetta SE when the 1.8 TSI became available a year later. We were in no rush and GM’s offering wasn’t very impressive.
I have owned a Cruze Diesel for four months now and enjoy it a lot (it’s my mid-life crisis car). GM put a significant amount of money and effort into getting its engine into compliance with US and EU regulations and it is surprising that they would turn around and dump it. I am also wondering, as others have, if this story only refers to the fleet model.
Marketing support for the diesel model has been practically non-existent. I’m not sure why.
The fuel price difference between diesel and regular gasoline has been mentioned by others. In Calgary this week, diesel is only 3¢/litre more expensive than regular gas, and considerably cheaper than premium. (3 months ago, the difference was 30¢, but oilpatch demand for diesel has collapsed.)
How is a Cruze Diesel a midlife crisis car? It is a perfectly practical and reasonable car except for being a hair more expensive for what you normally pay for a non-luxury compact sedan.
“How is a Cruze Diesel a midlife crisis car?”
Lol, sounds more like a mid-life disappointment car
LOL! Calvin is on a roll today.
I decided to do my mid-life crisis differently from other guys (the car is blue-ray metallic, not red, and my trophy wife is my first/current wife).
A sports car is the obvious thing to get at this time in my life, but when I was honest with myself, I realised that I do a lot of long highway trips that I enjoy. And I wanted something a bit unusual. The Cruze Diesel fit that description. It had been a demonstrator, so the price was discounted.
The seats are comfortable. The toys are nice. The torque is enjoyable. The pick-up is way better than my old Santa Fe. And the highway range is amazing. I have gone 970 km on one tank, on a trip with 4 people and their luggage, in bitter cold. Oh, and the engine started first time after being outside overnight in -36C temperatures, which impressed the heck out of me.
It is the first car that I ever got to choose by myself, for myself. When I was a student, my father found a car for me, and after school I started a family right away, so it was station wagons and minivans and old used Santa Fes. So that makes it special for me too.