Earlier today, I noted that

Revitalizing a once-dominant domestic brand is a lot harder than telling the quality-improvement story of a once-reviled Korean value brand

and I think this video helps prove the point. For a brand like Hyundai, highlighting product details helped change perceptions… but then, Hyundai has never asked Americans to think of their cars in especially emotional, patriotic, or culturally significant ways. They’re just high value cars that have become better and better over time. For GM and Chevrolet’s new top marketing execs (freshly poached from Hyundai), the plan seems to be to follow the Hyundai “quality story” gameplan, with a little awkwardly hip flair. For a brand that’s been “the heartbeat of America,” “like a rock” and more, this latest video seems stuck in “excellence for everyone” (i.e. generic and directionless) territory.

Besides, when the word “solid” is used in marketing materials to describe a “3,100-3,300 lb” compact car, it sounds a little like a Mom calling her kid “big-boned.”

Pity the automotive industry. With a minimum three-year lead time for new product development, timing vehicle launches to coincide with appropriate fuel price levels is never easy. Chevy’s Volt, for example, was developed and hyped during the gas price spike of 2008 when it seemed almost anyone would pay a hefty premium to ease some of the pinch at the pump. Now though, with gas prices holding steady at around $3, there’s reason to question whether consumers will flock to unproven, expensive vehicles like the Volt, absent a pressing economic incentive to reduce gas consumption. The Freep takes on this topic today, asking with gas prices so low, will anyone buy a Volt? And this is not mere media hype. Bob Lutz fretted about this possibility last year, when he said

If gasoline stays cheap, then the American public says, “I’m not interested in that; I will keep my Tahoe longer.” It puts us in the industry in a position where we are at war with the customer

This would be a depressingly familiar position for GM to find itself in, especially since it would be a product of The General striving to do something different. Gas prices are slowly beginning to go up again, but there’s no sign that this summer will see the kind of energy price volatility that will have the Volt and Cruze (let alone the Nissan Leaf) flying off dealer lots. Do you see gas prices going up soon? How expensive will gas need to be before Americans see cars like the Volt as a mainstream option? What happens to the Volt if gas prices stay level, or even drop? No only are these intrinsically interesting questions, but there’s also lots of money (including lots of taxpayer money) riding on the outcome. What say you?

It’s all speculation until we get official pricing from VW of North America, but according to Autoblog, the new Jetta will be priced starting “around $16,000” when it shows up stateside this October. With Chevy’s Cruze starting at $16,995, we face an interesting prospect: VW’s entry sedan might well be cheaper than Chevrolet’s. Of course the base Jetta will continue to be saddled with its predecessor’s agricultural 2.5 liter, but the Cruze’s base 1.8 hasn’t exactly earned many accolades either. Of course the base Cruze comes with a goodly amount of equipment, but it’s got an uphill fight on its hands if the more desirably-branded Jetta pips it on pure price point.

GM has announced pricing on its next small thing, the Cobalt-replacing Cruze compact, and the new price of entry is $16,995. That’s about a $2,000 premium over the base Cobalt (which starts at $14,990), a price hike that is justified by Chevy’s high expectations for the Cruze. As Chevy’s Jim Campbell puts it

For the price of a compact car, Cruze offers the styling, safety features, roominess, amenities, and refinement of a much more expensive car.

Base prices for the Cruze’s main competitors are $16,200 for a Corolla, $16,415 for a Civic, $16,095 for a Mazda3, $16,170 for a Sentra, $17,040 for a Focus, $178,485 for a Jetta, $14,865 for an Elantra, and $14,390 for a Forte (including typical destination fees).

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Look at this car, it’s horrible. How did this get through so many people?

We’ve all thought something along these lines when we first sat in a Chevy Cobalt, but few GM employees would ever say it out loud to a reporter. At least they wouldn’t until a much-improved replacement was waiting in the wings. But because the Cruze launches this year, GM execs like VP of global vehicle engineering Karl Stracke can bash on the old Cobalt to his heart’s content, knowing the Detroit News will dutifully report it as a sign that GM “gets it.”

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Chevrolet has had a difficult time deciding if its Cruze-based MPV, known as the Orlando, is a good fit for the US-market. Initially, Chevy debuted the Orlando concept at the Paris auto show, and said it had no plans for a US-market version. Then it was approved for the US ahead of the 2009 Detroit Auto Show, and now, according to Automotive News [sub], it’s off again. The (up to) seven-passenger MPV, built on GM’s “Delta II” compact architecture will be sold in Europe, Asia, and even Canada… just not in the US. Chevy spokesfolks explain:

The best thing to do for Chevrolet is to focus on the brands we’ve already brought to market: the Traverse, Equinox, Malibu and, soon to come, the Cruze. We feel that with those vehicles, Chevrolet has plenty of options for the modern family.

Of course, Chevy sells all three of those vehicles in Canada as well… so how are these three options “plenty” for US consumers, but not for our friendly neighbors to the North?

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The latest Cruze-hyping video from GM shows the forthcoming compact ripping through a test track, as Vehicle Line Director Chuck Russell waxes eloquent about its engineering and reliability. His point is clear: this new Cruze is a truly global product, in contrast to the America-only Cavalier update that was the Cobalt it replaces. And comparing footage of the Cruze ripping through a slalom to that of a Civic negotiating the same obstacles, one is left with the impression that Russell isn’t just blowing smoke. But then, we knew that already. In his review of the European-spec Cruze, TTAC’s Martin Schwoerer notes:

In contrast to the engine, the Cruze’s ride and handling are perfectly acceptable in the grand scheme of things.

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After several years of hype, Chevrolet is releasing images pictures of its US-market Cruze compact in advance of the New York International Auto Show. The Cruze has been on sale around the world for nearly a year now, though the US launch delay has actually been a blessing in disguise, thanks to early transmission problems and a recall for fuel supply pipes. Now that Chevy’s next small thing has had its teething pains, the Daewoo-developed compact is being shown in a dizzying array of trims and packages for the US market. Chevy hopes that the Eco trim level will bring some much-needed enviro-cred to the brand, by offering a 40 MPG (freeway) version powered by a turbocharged 1.4 liter engine. To match that long-established mileage goal, Chevy had to make a number of modifications to the Cruze, including (Read More…)

People buy cars they don’t need with money they don’t have to impress people they don’t like. That’s why hardly anybody in Europe is buying the Chevrolet Cruze, which has been on sale over here since last summer. It’s an affordable car that you might need but you won’t want, and which won’t impress anybody at all, because it’s just not that desirable. Allow me to explain…

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When the Ford Focus first went on sale in the US, it was a rare glimpse for the still-SUV-centric US market at how the rest of the world gets from the Blue Oval. Of course, as time went by, Ford eased away from the Euro-funk of the first generation, first blandifying the model with a mid-cycle “refresh,” before eventually replacing it with the current embarrassment to the nameplate. And it’s not just the current model’s Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers-meets-Pep Boys look that makes it unworthy of the Focus name: the whole idea behind the original Focus was the dream of a world car, that would be sold, largely unchanged, in markets around the world. With the 2012 model, now being previewed before the Detroit Auto Show [press release here], Ford has gone back to the model’s original vision.

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GM’s Lordstown, OH plant was something of a poster boy for all that went wrong with the UAW over the past several decades, reports the New York Times. Poor quality, worker sabotage and crippling strikes led to the coining of the term “Lordstown Syndrome” as a symbol of UAW recalcitrance. Lordstown’s workers were so feisty that they even picketed their own union hall in the 1980s. Now, with the legacy of the Vega hanging over their heads, and the possibility of plant closure only narrowly avoided by securing the Chevy Cruze manufacturing assignment, the members of UAW Local 1112 are singing a different tune. “We were the bad dog on the street at one time,” 1112’s shop Chairman Ben Strickland tells the Times’ Nick Bunkley. “We’ve got 3,000 lives to worry about. The cockiness and the arrogance that we once portrayed — we definitely got a lot more humble.” That, it turns out, is in large part due to General Motors’ spectacular fall from grace.

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Chevrolet just pulled the wraps off the US market Cruze, not that there are any secrets left at GM these days where auto shows are concerned. Plus the Cruze has been available around the world for months already. The big news is that the interior is actually – not pulling any punches – world class. Previously only the French were able to make a cloth covered dash worth looking at, but GM has actually managed to make a press fleet-ready car with one. As long as you pick the top trim level, anyway.

Just because GM has released photos of the US-spec Cruze ahead of its LA Auto Show debut, doesn’t mean they couldn’t pull an Alfa and change that ridiculous name. After all, Cruze will mark the eightieth name used by GM on a mid-sized or smaller car since 1968, according to our in-house historian. And it’s hardly the kind of name you want to build on, or make part of your company’s heritage. But then, given GM’s small-car history, what is?

When GM CEO Fritz Henderson promised Congress he would run the nationalized automaker with complete transparency, we knew he was full of shit. How could anyone expect New GM to do anything but lie, misdirect, prevaricate and obfuscate when the same Bozos that ran it into the ground were still large and in charge? Which GM dealers are canned? Which GM dealers have been resurrected? Why? Who is the GM executive (other than Fritz) who earns more than $500,000 per year—that the company refuses to name? What are the internal targets that GM says it’s meeting? Why did the company overestimate sales of some of its key models in its November press release? Why did Fritz and CFO Ray Young promise a 2010 GM IPO without the Chairman’s approval? And so on. To that list, add this from the AP: “But GM postponed the Cruze’s April build date about three months, said Mark Reuss, GM’s vice president of global vehicle engineering. The company, he said, wasn’t happy with the Cruze’s performance, especially with the six-automatic transmission. ‘No one was thrilled with where it shifted, how it shifted.'” Well that’s the first I’ve heard of that. And while it’s nice that GM is putting our money where it’s mouth is in its desire to ensure the Cruze’s “flawless launch,” what the hell happened? And why wasn’t anyone fired for it? Oh right, GM.