Budget Car News

There were reports about the plan of General Motors that they will be rolling out a two-door version of the Chevrolet Cruze. No one from the company has denied this and no one has confirmed it either.

According to some media reports, the company is preparing their plant in Orion Township, a suburb in the area of Detroit, for the production of the Chevrolet Sonic and the Buick Verano later this year. The top executives of the company did not answer questions about the possible production of the 2-door Cruze.

The insiders clarified that the company is focusing on the production and launching of the Chevrolet Sonic. The company opted to produce the compact vehicle Sonic in Detroit instead of using their factory in South Korea. The setup in Detroit will have the new workers under a 2-tier earning structure.

GM has been building the 4-door Chevrolet Cruze exclusively at their Lordstown plant in Ohio but the successful campaign of the Cruze has the factory up against its production capacity even when the employees work over time.

The Chevrolet Cruze made a mark last May as it became the most sought after compact in the United States. This was the result of the industry survey but you need to factor out the shortage of the Japanese competition like the new Civic by Honda.

The Oriion plant is said to have been upgraded so it can help in the production of multiple models and the GM is still giving strong hints that they might indeed introduce a 2-door Cruze to further improve the image of the Chevrolet Cruze.

You may be wondering if the Aveo brand going to be dropped by Chevrolet.  Not really since the carmaker faces a big issued with regards to their global branding strategy. According to a report recently, the reworked compact vehicle might get a new name as it hits the U.S. market by next year. The car has been at their dealerships since 2003 but the market is just having a hard time pronouncing the name, thus it will be changed.

Although the carmaker did not exactly point it out, but maybe majority of the American consumers have not even heard of Aveo. The sales figures are really bad and advertising back up is not really there. Also, the Aveo does not hold much of an appeal when placed side by side with its competitors.

According to insiders, the upcoming Aveo will create a different story. It will not be marketed as an economy car but will get the standard features like heated side mirrors and air conditioning. It is also expected to have a handling and feel similar to the small cars of Volkswagen.

Chevrolet will also offer the car with a sedan variant and a 5-door hatchback which will be both manufactured in Michigan and other Chevy factories in different corners of the globe.

Overall, Chevrolet wants to tell us the new subcompact will be a different car compared to its older sibling. And this will require a name change. There is a big but to this story though since Chevrolet has a global branding strategy tagged as “One Chevy” and using a different name for the North American market will hurt this direction.

While Cruze is also being sold as Cruze in other parts of the world, and Spark sold as Spark, is there really a dilemma to have the Aveo pushed as the Aveo when it goes on sale in different continents starting next year?