Chevrolet Cruze Coming Soon

The Optra has not had as much success in the country as GM would have liked. First it was the Corolla and now it’s the Civic that has been giving it a hard time. Even the introduction of a diesel engine and a SRV front end has not helped much. So the next best thing to do is to get in a fresh model. Enter the Cruze.

The car in the pictures is the Chevrolet Cruze that will go on sale in Europe next year. So it should be available in India by late next year I suppose. The engine options on the European version will be 16 valve 1.6 liter and 1.8 liter petrol engines making 112 bhp and 140 bhp respectively. Also available will be a 2.0 liter turbo diesel making 150 bhp and a very impressive 320 Nm of torque. A five speed manual and a six speed auto will do the duty of transferring power to the wheels.

As far as the design is concerned, the Cruze is not going to win any beauty pageants. Not a bad looking car, but not a great looking car either. GM are doing the four door coupe thing with the Cruze, which most often than not results in reduced headroom for the rear passengers. On the inside the Cruze has the ‘twin cockpit’ thing going on, supposed to be inspired from the Corvette GM says.

When it does come to India, expect it to sell along side the Optra, taking on the soon to be launched Altis and the segment leader Civic.