We Hear: GM Delays Chevrolet Cruze Redesign

The compact sedan segment has been hot recently, with numerous redesigns and strong sales across the board. Despite its age relative to the competition, the 2013 Chevrolet Cruze has enjoyed a surprising amount of sales success, boasting its best-ever sales month in June and coming out on top in the compact class. A new report from Reuters, though, claims that GM has pushed back the Chevrolet Cruze redesign by a year to 2015.

Reuters cites unnamed GM sources in saying that the next Cruze, which was set to debut in late 2014, will now be delayed until late 2015. The Canadian Auto Workers union allegedly announced the delay to workers in a supplier plant in Stratford, Ontario. The Chevrolet Cruze is currently manufactured in Lordstown, Ohio for the U.S. and Canadian markets, and GM has said publicly that the next-generation North American Cruze will continue to be manufactured in Lordstown.

Reuters presumes that the model’s recent uptick in sales numbers has allowed GM to take its time on the redesign – important, as GM needs to ensure the new model will be competitive in the rapidly evolving compact segment. The Chevrolet Cruze was introduced to the U.S. market in 2009. Since then, nearly every other major compact competitor has been redesigned, including the Ford Focus, Honda Civic, and Hyundai Elantra in 2012, the Nissan Sentra in 2013, and the upcoming 2014 Toyota Corolla which debuted last month and will go on sale later this year.

We spotted a camouflaged mule of the new Chevrolet Cruze testing earlier this year, and the visible styling cues seemed to take from the smaller Sonic sedan and hatchback with its narrow headlights and vertical grille. It could be that GM is taking this test mule back to the drawing board to rework components of the updated Delta platform, which will also underpin the next Volt and Equinox, or the rumored nine-speed automatic transmission that is also under development in concert with Ford.

Chevrolet did recently introduce the 2014 Chevrolet Cruze diesel in the U.S., and the North American Cruze should also receive the mild facelift that debuted recently in South Korea. Until 2015, though, don’t expect to see an all-new Cruze, most likely as a 2016 model year vehicle.

The 2014 Chevrolet Cruze starts at $17,995 and is available with the choice of a 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine, a 1.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder, or a 2.0-liter turbodiesel.

Source: Reuters