Fuel efficiency has been slipping to the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze even before its North American debut. A couple years ago, then-General Motors chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner announced the vehicle would achieve 42 mpg highway having a manual transmission. Since then, GM officials have toned that down just slightly, to "about 40 mpg" on the EPA highway loop. Whatever the actual mileage, the Cruze will accomplish it having a 1.4-liter turbo four. But that new engine will likely be an option over the base 1.8-liter typically aspirated 4 that powers the European-market Cruze already on sale.
Enter the Unique Project, GM's high-fuel-mileage model from the Cruze, fashioned after Chevy's Cobalt XFE and Silverado XFE. Engineers reassigned from GM's Performance Division are tweaking the one.4-liter turbo and the Cruze's six-speed automatic with the aim of achieving 44 mpg in EPA highway-mileage estimates. A Cruze XFE would better take advantage of your Volt's halo and would put some additional distance between itself and also the 2010 Malibu, which is rated 33 mpg highway (22 mpg city) using the base 2.4-liter Ecotec 4 and six-speed automated.
IMPALA WILL GO EPSILON II
We hear Normal Motors has green-lighted a new Chevrolet Impala, which remains front drive and will share its long-wheelbase Epsilon II platform with the 2010 Buick LaCrosse. Chevy is updating the '13 Malibu to the short-wheelbase version of Epsilon II so as to make room for that new Impala.
Thus, the Impala-Malibu relationship will probably be a lot like the new LaCrosse's towards the upcoming Regal, also on that shorter Epsilon II wheelbase. We expect the all-new Impala in 2013, for the '14 model year. That means the present Impala is going to be fairly a relic for the next four model many years, even though a mid-cycle facelift is around the way.
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