Borrowing cues from Ford and Honda Chevy brought to our shores the hatchbacked version of the Cruze. I like it. Strong lines, nice proportions and a decent enough standard turbo charged 1.4l Four that will return good performance and great mileage.
I really want to like this car for a lot of reasons. When the manufactures go toe to toe and up the bar we all win. That's the rub I see with this car and I'd love Chevy to prove me wrong. Shown here in the RS trim package, its just that a trim package. Where Ford has the ST and RS versions and Honda with its hot hatch STi coming why would Chevy settle for meeting the bar for standard issue cars and not go out and wow us with a hot hatch as well? Makes no sense...they have an amply powerful 2.0l turbo used elsewhere in the GM family, that would be the power plant to stuff into the Cruze and make it a competitive hot hatch as well. I can dream can't I?
Let me get off the rant about not having a hot hatch as part of the Cruze line up. This hatch as stated earlier is really nice looking in person and will have amply more room in the back seat, especially head room than the standard issue sedan. Add in the muscular good looks, great ergonomics inside this car is certainly competitive with its mainstream counterparts and that's a good thing.
All pics by me from my time at NAIAS aka the Detroit Auto Show. More pics for the show in my flickr album.
Details on the car from the press release after the jump.
