Would you buy a diesel-powered Chevrolet’s Cruze wagon?
If you think the diesel version of the Volkswagen Golf Wagon needs some competition, read my post at MSN Autos Canada's Passing Lane blog. Full post after the jump.
By John LeBlanc
If you want to buy a compact station wagon in Canada, new car buyers only have one choice: the Volkswagen Golf Wagon. And if you also want your small hauler to be powered by a diesel, once again, the VW wagen is the only game in town.
Now, just imagine if buyers had a choice? And if that choice was available at their local Chevy dealer? Those are the questions posed by the announcement this week that a station wagon variant (above) of the popular Chevrolet Cruze compact will debut at next month’s Geneva auto show.
As you may know, the compact Cruze four-door sedan has been an unqualified sales success in Canada and around the world. The General Motors brand says it’s sold over a million copies since the car went on sale in 2009. In its first full calendar year here, 2011, Chevrolet sold 33,900 Cruzes—only a few hundred less than the number-ten best-selling car in Canada last year, the Toyota Corolla.
Not to let the air out of your balloon too soon, but for now at least, the Cruze wagon is for foreign markets only. Just like the four-door Cruze hatchback (left) that’s also not for sale in Canada. But the planets may be aligning for a Cruze wagon to be sold here.
For starters, Chevrolet recently confirmed that the Cruze sedan will be available in the North American market with a diesel engine starting sometime in calendar year 2013. That motor is expected to be the 2.0-litre four turbo diesel already available in the Euro Cruze, making 148 hp and 236 lb-ft of torque—nearly identical to the 2.0 turbo diesel found in the Golf.
What if Chevy could take that diesel mil and put it into a North American version of the Cruze wagon? Wishful thinking? Perhaps. The biggest obstacles maybe where the car would be built.
Right now, the Cruze sedan is built in the U.S. If either the hatch or wagon body styles were to be sold here, they would also have to be built in North America somewhere (Hello, Mexico?) to avoid currency fluctuations and overpriced European autoworker salaries.
Who knows if Chevrolet executives are even mulling over this possibility. But would you buy a diesel diesel-powered wagon variant of Chevrolet’s Cruze? Especially if Chevrolet could sell it for less than the $27,025 the Golf Wagon TDI starts at?