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95 Octane (and higher) is available in the US but is sold as racing fuel and generally isn't street-legal.
https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/25/ford-to-stop-selling-every-car-in-north-america-but-the-mustang-and-focus-active/
That's kind of amazing. But perhaps a good business decision.
I used to joke Chrysler might be good at making a better Big Mac than McDonald's, but they sure can't compete with the cars I like.
Car I saw looked just like this one:
https://www.dunningmotorsales.com/new/Chevrolet/2018-Chevrolet-Impala-cambridge-oh-82e5cda00a0e0ae70c244e03e42dc21b.htm
I know it's smarter to buy a one-or-two-year-old one, but I still like new, for me. LOL
I wonder when the Tesla tax break will run out, this year?
Saw an A3 e-tron in traffic today.
This is a local story, just about new car sales in Houston for the last month. Not sure if it indicates anything, or just an anomaly.
Every Single American Car Brand Is on the Bottom Half of Consumer Reports' 2018 Reliability Rankings
https://jalopnik.com/every-single-american-car-brand-is-on-the-bottom-half-o-1829974713
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
Problems with small turbocharged engines and new automatic transmissions with more speeds joined the ever-present sore spot of infotainment controls as leading offenders.
Domestic automakers suffered from “a bunch of new vehicle introductions,” Fisher said. “New transmissions and small turbos were the big culprits.”
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2018/10/25/unreliable-new-vehicle-technology/1760387002/
We'll see how it lasts, got it for such a good deal that I won't care to much if we have to dump it when the warranty expires. So far no issues, but it only has 6,500 miles on it. I am a bit concerned as she doesn't drive much and most of her trips are to school related functions that equal driving a couple of miles at a time. So I did change the oil much earlier than required/recommended.
I do see infotainment issues being a problem for reliability surveys, sure, these types of problems won't leave you stranded, but they'll drive you nuts.
I still have my 14 Ram 1500 Laramie. 115k miles and only one real repair (exhaust manifold bolt) that was fixed under warranty at 99k miles. FCAs Uconnect system does work well and I've had very few issues, the biggest being the latest update has seemed to overwhelm the processing power in my unit. It's just not as responsive as it was pre-update.
I'm ready for something new, but don't know what I want.
My '17 Cruze is an excellent car, and vaunted CR put it back on their list of 'Recommended' vehicles just recently, while removing two Hondas. We rented a Corolla a year or so ago and even my wife said "this feels crappy compared to the Cruze". The interior excels in the Cruze IMHO, with a huge back seat, chrome trim inside and cloth on the instrument panel, and no silliness like center instruments.
I know that compact cars are slim-profit-margin vehicles, and I guess when GM invested in the one Mexican plant that builds the same Cruze sedan Lordstown builds, and also the Cruze hatch which Lordstown never built, that should've been a sign.
Personally, I won't buy a Cruze built in Mexico.
Sad to me that Lordstown only built one model, in one bodystyle.
I remember when they opened in 1966 and were building America's best-selling car, the full-size Chevrolet, in four series, and six bodystyles. Sigh.
Lordstown being over 50 years old probably didn't help.
I have to believe tarriffs affected the closing of Oshawa, Ontario, which was announced simultaneously. That plant opened in 1953. I remember Chevelles and Monte Carlos from there at our local dealer in the seventies.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-gm-restructuring-idUSKCN1NV1NB
GM is killing the family sedan, too
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/gm-killing-family-sedan-185838368.html
Built at the three aforementioned plants are the Chevrolet Cruze, Impala, and Volt, the Cadillac CT6 and XTS, and Buick LaCrosse. Barra said that the loss of production would lead to the discontinuation of the models in North America. Meanwhile, ther Chevrolet Sonic, built at Michigan’s Orion Assembly, is living on borrowed time, as is the tiny Spark, which hails from GM Korea. That leaves the Chevrolet Camaro and Corvette, the upcoming Cadillac CT5, and the current Buick Regal to satisfy traditional car buyers.
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2018/11/the-fallout-asinine-suggestions-and-legitimate-pain-greet-gms-announcement/
Barra said the Cruze would no longer be sold in the U.S. Production would stop March 1.
https://apnews.com/3e51216360e14053ae3e4b3461db615b?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=APBusiness&utm_campaign=SocialFlow
Signed...Old Soul and Proud Of It.
The old GM would have heavily discounted the Cruze and other models to keep them alive, Autotrader analyst Michelle Krebs said. But that would have compromised profits, which are ultimately critical to keeping the company alive and thriving.
"They just don’t do that anymore," Krebs said. "They have shown a lot more discipline since the Great Recession."
In the first nine months of 2018, U.S. sales of the Volt fell 15.9 percent to 12,664 units, compared with a year earlier. During the same period:
• Cruze sales fell 26.5 percent to 109,662.
• Impala sales declined 13.4 percent to 43,952.
• CT6 sales fell 10.6 percent to 7,240.
• XTS sales rose 15.9 percent to 12,664.
• LaCrosse sales fell 14.2 percent to 13,409.
Altogether, during the first nine months of the year GM sold 199,591 units of the vehicles to be discontinued.
That's less than half of the Chevy Silverado, GM's most popular model.
"The actions we are taking today continue our transformation to be highly agile, resilient and profitable, while giving us the flexibility to invest in the future," Barrra said in a GM statement. "We recognize the need to stay in front of changing market conditions and customer preferences to position our company for long-term success."
Sure, part of GM's new plan is $6 billion in annual cost savings by 2020, and it is dealing with extra commodity costs from tariffs on steel and aluminum.
But the company made the point that among other advantages from the production reordering, its new plan will allow it to share technology across all vehicles more easily, reducing the time and labor it takes to build cars.
And that's just one important aspect of the ultimate truth here, which is: Barra is taking a big axe to the GM we all once knew, and it's the appropriate tool.
Pruning ruthlessly now will give America's biggest automaker -- and still one of its iconic companies -- the best chance of avoiding the General Electric syndrome and of flourishing in a new future that promises to be much different than the past or today.
The Cruze, Malibu, and Impala resembled each other in a familial way, just on different scales. Ford got out of the Malibu's segment by dropping the Fusion.
As a longtime GM owner, and fan, and knowing people for decades who have worked at Lordstown--I think the 'people' side of this story is sad. I never gave a damn about any sports team, but my whole life, new models at Lordstown or anything else there was local TV news. I'm sad today, particularly since I think they were building a very competitive product there. I actually own two Cruzes; my daughter drives a 2015.