2010 NAIAS Report: Chevrolet and GMC

A few days ago, I reported on the showing Buick and Cadillac made at the 2010 North American International Auto Show. Now, it's Chevrolet's and GMC's turns.

This year at the NAIAS, Chevrolet's big announcement had to do with a small car: the Aveo RS concept, to be precise.

It was impressive. Considering the vehicle it's replacing, though, impressive isn't a very high bar to clear. The current Aveo actually began life in 2002 as the Daewoo Kalos. When GM scooped up Daewoo, amidst a massive financial/CEO embezzlement crisis in 2003, the Italdesign Giugiaro-penned Kalos was a decent product. For the 2004 model year, Chevy decided to plug the subcompact hole in its American product line by putting a new front fascia on the Korean-made sedan and 5-door hatch and selling them in America as the Aveo we've all come to know and...well...

Offering the new small car in America also meant that, when it came time to replace the ancient Cavalier, GM could move its replacement, the Cobalt, up in price and therefore make a better profit margin from it.

Aveo sales started off well enough, and GM updated it a bit along the way. But it wasn't enough to move the needle because, in the meantime, Nissan and Honda jumped into the market with the Versa and Fit, Hyundai redesigned their Accent, Kia their Rio, and Toyota replaced the ECHO with the Yaris. So Chevy's smallest car was quickly left behind.

The new Aveo RS concept is not exactly what we'll get in the production version, but it's extremely close. With quad headlights in round pods, nestled within slit-like recesses astride an aggressive, gaping grille, the front of the new Aveo means business. From the side, the surface detailing attracts your eye to the wheelarches, emphasizing the car's athletic stance. The reverse-angle rear pillar and hidden rear doorhandles  underscore that the new Aveo isn't going to be a penalty box, but has some sporting pretensions. And from the rear, quad round taillights coordinate well with the fronts. The way the design is executed is a massive improvement over the current Aveo and makes it look more like a purpose-built Chevy small car, and far less like a re-grilled Daewoo.

Inside the concept, the eye is instantly drawn to the unique gauge cluster behind the steering wheel. To the left sits a traditional round gauge housing the tachometer. To the right of the tach is a digital computer readout that sits in a rectangular housing. The effect evokes thoughts of sports watches and again drives home the point that this is as much an athletic car as its predecessor is workaday.


So, from the looks of things, the new Aveo should go from segment wallflower to, if not homecoming queen, then the royal court, at least. And not a moment too soon. Ford, Fiat, Mazda, Mitsubishi, and Suzuki are all in line for the subcompact dance, as well. But the Aveo will have one big advantage in the American market: it'll be the only subcompact car built in the US. Its competitors will all be built in Mexico, Japan, or South Korea. That's good from a "Made in USA" marketing standpoint. It's good for jobs in the Detroit Metro Area. And it's good from a financial standpoint since the car won't be as beholden to currency fluctuations as its competitors are.

Also on the small car front, GM showed the latest version of its A-segment Chevy Spark, which is even smaller than the Aveo. When the US-spec Spark debuts, it'll should be one of the 3 smallest cars sold in America, behind Smart ForTwo, and close to the US-spec Fiat 500.


The exterior styling is an instant turn-off for me. Too many amorphous surface details show up on this car, making it look too tall, too skinny, and terribly overstyled. Every line finds itself sweeping back, until the rear corners of the little car are absolutely cluttered with all the different lines, bulges, shapes, and materials. And the bright roof rack rails only add to the Spark's visual height and narrowness. While the rear doorhandles are hidden near the C-pillar, the conventional front doorhandles appear to have been stuck at some random spot on the doors, with little regard for the way the myriad lines flow and how far the handle is from the trailing edge of each door.

As might be expected, GM is still tweaking this new small car, so don't expect to see an exact copy of what appears here at a dealer near you. For example, older press photos showed the front fender-mounted turn signal repeaters with clear lenses, mounted just above the peaks of the front wheelarches. They looked like cancerous growths protruding from the car's already misshapen front fender flares. The Spark they showed at NAIAS had amber repeater lenses, mounted behind the front wheelarches, just ahead of the leading edge of each front door. The NAIAS version is a much better-looking solution.

Inside, the Spark has a generally pleasing interior with plenty of clever little storage bins and areas that are color-keyed to match the exterior paint. The overall presentation is good, even though the materials on the instrument panel are hard, shiny, and cheap-feeling. Considering this car is going to run at or very near the $10k mark, though, the material quality is just fine. It's certainly better than what the last Cavalier or pre-facelift Aveo had to offer.


Even though the car is very small, the styling is garish, and the interior is fairly cheap, I appreciate the Spark. It shows that the Chevy brand is willing to take risks. It shows that GM is serious about offering not just a token small car, but a whole cohesive line of them, and isn't afraid to give them a little bit of flair. And the Spark is the exclamation point at the end of that line.

Moving up the size scale, GM showed its new compact sedan, the Cruze at NAIAS, as well. The replacement for the current Cobalt, the new Cruze is supposed to do battle with the Toyota Corolla, Honda Civic, all-new Ford Focus, and Hyundai Elantra. GM is very excited about the new compact and expects that in 138hp 1.4L turbo form, the car will blow past the competition on fuel economy, with an EPA highway mileage figure in the low 40s.


While GM is pitching the new Cruze as a compact that is moving up to offer midsize room and features, the Cruze is actually 2" shorter overall than the Cobalt it replaces. However, the new car isn't quite as new as you'd might think. GM has been around the world with it, having introduced it in 60 countries already, the first of which was South Korea in October 2008.

According to Chuck Russell, the vehicle line director for the new Cruze, it's taken two years for the Cruze to go on sale in America because Chevy has been busy fine-tuning the American version to make sure it exceeds our expectations. The interior certainly does. Its attractive, high-quality instrument panel shows off Chevy's latest Corvette-inspired "twin cockpit" theme. Uplevel models will allow buyers to choose between two-tone or cloth-upholstered trim on the fascia of the panel itself. The Cruze's interior is quite spacious and will feature 10 different airbags to ensure occupant safety. And out back, a torsion-beam rear suspension is augmented by a Watt's Linkage, to help the car take corners as happily as it saves its corporate parent money to make.


The issues with new the Cruze are few, but notable. First, Chevy's choice of using the Cruze name in lieu of Cobalt means that lots of money will need to be spent to raise awareness of the new car's new name. Civic, Corolla, Sentra, and even Elantra are known commodities because with each passing generation, the new car continues its predecessor's name. The Cruze throws away whatever public awareness there is of the Cobalt, which itself had to be established when it replaced the Cavalier. The difference this time is that the Cobalt name was affixed to an altogether decent vehicle, so there's no baggage that comes with the name.

The second issue has to do with the car's exterior styling. While certainly tasteful, and in places downright attractive, the 2011 Cruze already looks a little dated next to the 2010 Mazda3 and 2012 Focus. This may be because the car's styling debuted elsewhere in the world two years ago. So the new compact Chevy isn't so new. It'll need a mid-cycle update in the next two years, lest it age too quickly and drop from people's consideration lists. Especially since a new Honda Civic is coming soon. And for that mid-cycle update, Chevy will definitely need to jettison the black plastic triangles that poorly finish off the sloping rear window line at the C-pillar.

Chevy also had the upcoming Volt on display at the show. Scheduled to enter limited prodution this coming November, Chevy announced at the show that its revolutionary new electric car will go on sale first in California and Southeast Michigan. It'll roll out gradually to the rest of the nation before too long thereafter. Just before the show, GM held a press conference at the Volt's battery plant in Browntown, MI, where it showed the first of the preproduction fleet batteries rolling down the line. Engines will be made in Flint, MI, while the entire car will come together in Lordstown, OH, meaning that the Volt will be able to stand proud with a "Made in USA" label.

The rest of the Chevrolet line stood pat, although the new 2010 Equinox stood on a pedestal, no doubt in hopes it would be the one to win the 2010 North American Truck of the Year award. Unfortunately for GM, it was Ford's Transit Connect compact commercial vehicle that took the prize instead.


GMC had plenty of new metal to show, too.

Most of that new metal fell in behind the blingin' front fascia of the new Acadia Denali. Since 2007, GMC's full-size Acadia crossover has been winning fans with its all-around excellence. A more spacious and practical replacement for the old Envoy XL, and a more fuel efficient alternative to the standard Yukon, the one thing it didn't inherit from either of its linemates was the availability of an upscale Denali package. Until now.

Besides adding a second national park shout-out to the side of the big crossover, the top-line Denali trim level offers customers mahogany interior trim, a monochrome body kit, illuminated aluminum door sill trim, HID headlights, 20" chrome-clad wheels, and the traditional chrome honeycomb Denali upper and lower grilles. On the outside, the Denali repertoire is a bit heavy-handed. Inside, it's more tasteful. But, with 50% of Yukon sales being in high-zoot, high margin Denali trim, GM sees sorely-needed profit potential in adding the treatment to the excellent Acadia line.

The bigger GMC introduction at the show involved the smallest vehicle in history to feature the three red letters. Built on a shortened version of the Chevrolet Cruze platform, the GMC Granite concept is a 4-seat active-lifestyle compact hatchback box powered by a 1.4L turbocharged four with 138bhp. The same basic size as the Scion xB, which founded this vehicle's segment, the GMC Granite differentiates itself from the Scion, as well as the Nissan Cube and Kia Soul competitors by featuring strong, architectural design that doesn't scream "Young people will love me because I'm horrendously ugly".

The Granite isn't ugly at all. It's powerful and confident-looking, with highly technical styling features and hospitable design attributes. The car's "coach doors" open wide to ease entry into the rear compartment. With some modification, they're also production feasible, since GM Europe's Opel Meriva features them, as well. The right front and rear passenger seats flip and fold to accommodate a standard-size bicycle. The huge wheels nestled within deeply flared wheelarches drive the point home that this vehicle is a step up from its boxy competitors. It should appeal to people, young and old, not because it's some marketer's idea of what young people will like, but because it's an attractive vehicle that happens to be practical and accepting of lifestyles both active and average. And the vehicle design community agrees. At the NAIAS Eyes On Design event, vehicle designers from all the major manufacturers around the world came together to name the Granite  "Best Concept".

The Granite serves as a breath of fresh air, not just to the compact vehicle segment, but to the GMC line, as well. GMC has long traded on its "Professional Grade" marketing slogan by offering beefy trucks and SUVs. But the Acadia and Terrain crossovers, with their decidedly passenger car-like mechanicals, have expanded the brand, applying its macho image to vehicles that appeal to people who want something more efficient. And rather than bastardize the GMC brand, the compact Granite Concept's uniquely GMC styling, its non-derivative layout, and its practical features underscore the GMC brand values, while extending them to still more new customers.


If GM greenlights the Granite for production, and they should, their plan is to eschew typical TV-based marketing campaigns and rely on the internet to get the word out to all interested.

All in all, the General Motors area of the 2010 NAIAS showed that company is bouncing back from a catastrophic 2009 with great design and an emphasis on practicality and efficiency. In many ways, they've shown that they're coming out of bankruptcy fighting, with great products and fresh ideas. Questions remain about the direction Cadillac is heading, as well as what Chevy's strategy is with the larger end of its passenger car lineup.


But GM has shown that they're up off the mat and they're deeply focused on the road ahead.


Coming soon: Ford and Chrysler at the 2010 NAIAS.