So GM of all people is giving us a diesel, 6-speed manual hatchback

http://www.autoblog.com/2016/10/12/2018-chevy-cruze-hatchback-diesel-manual/

Mind. Blown. I knew the Cruze hatchback was coming, but didn't expect a diesel. And today they confirmed the diesel will have a manual option.

Huh. Thats unexpected

Somebody there got so tired of reading the comments they decided to put the brown, diesel, manual transmission wagon out for sale. If it bombs, they are going have their marketing interns jump in every single forum discussion everywhere and post the sales figures.

Color me VERY interested!

Color everyone here VERY interested, just as soon as they can find 5-year-old used ones

In reply to Brett_Murphy:

I WISH it was a wagon! not quite long enough, still a hatch IMO. And look at that, the lease on my wife's focus is due to end roughly the time those will become available...

Edit: if it were scaled down like 15% of the all-dimension modern-car-bloat, and then lengthened a foot or two for wagonage, it would seriously be perfect.

It definitely has potential. I know from the TDiClub forums, a lot of TDi owners are diesel fans but have no loyalty at all to VW in particular and would be more than happy to jump to another brand if the car meets their needs. I don't spend as much time there as I used to - and hardly any since Diesel-gate started - so I doubt that attitude has improved...

In a way, the manual option is not surprising. They probably looked at how many manual transmission TDi's VW sold and realized there is a market for it. Diesel owners tend to be rather crusty and prefer to shift for themselves.

Agreed about the wagon desire... but baby steps...

The hatch is a bit shorter than the sedan, but not a lot. So it's definitely not a wagon, but there's still pretty good room. The sedan is getting the diesel and the manual as well (9-speed auto for both). Spent today driving the (gas) hatch, and it's pretty good. The auto is slow to downshift (what isn't these days?), so the manual is a nicer choice.

wagon is a pipe dream, i think this thing is awesome even wagon-less. In fact, if they just wagon the thing up as-is even with the new-car bloat, they can pretend it isn't a minivan at that point and i'll still throw all my money at it. My brother works for chevy, too, so discounts! I still will check it out and probably throw money at it. Our focus is great and all (SE 5-speed without infotainment crap), but it isn't all that great. Focus is kinda meh. It would also make for my 3rd new-car stick shift, gotta show the companies what we want, and they only listen to money!

Interesting, wasn't aware they were continuing the diesel option into the new generation. We did just receive our first Cruze hatchback at work. It's not bad looking and the interior is definitely a step up. As long as they didn't do anything to effect the reliability of the 1st-gen Cruze, should be good.

Brett_Murphy wrote: Somebody there got so tired of reading the comments they decided to put the brown, diesel, manual transmission wagon out for sale. If it bombs, they are going have their marketing interns jump in every single forum discussion everywhere and post the sales figures.

But on the used market they will sell out no problem!

Automkaers just need to figure out how to sell worn out ten year old cars in bulk, or something.

+1 on the hatchback design, it's very sharp.

+1 on the manual trans option.

+10 on offering the two above items together in the same vehicle

As for the diesel, meh, I just don't understand the love of them. Not a fan.

That's one issue towards it's success and it's in house, the bolt. That being said if you want a small, efficient hatch the Chevy dealership is the place to go. If you want one that's fun to drive, stop by ford. If you want to question where small cars went and if they even still exist, Dodge.

captdownshift wrote: That's one issue towards it's success and it's in house, the bolt. That being said if you want a small, efficient hatch the Chevy dealership is the place to go. If you want one that's fun to drive, stop by ford. If you want to question where small cars went and if they even still exist, Dodge.

This is true. Seems like GM is actually trying to make some decent stuff these days.

And?

None of the people who cry for these types of cars will buy new, so it will be a flop and we won't see another one for decades.

Price matters a LOT to the buyers in this segment. The engine premium has to pay for itself in fuel savings. All of the people I know who buy new diesels are good at math.

Even the gas model gets pretty excellent MPG, 42 I think. I'm still quite surprised to see GM going all-in on diesels.

I do see some serious cross-shopping going on between the Cruze hatch, Civic hatch and 3 hatch when the time comes to replace my Fit in a year or two...

pointofdeparture wrote: Even the gas model gets pretty excellent MPG, 42 I think. I'm still quite surprised to see GM going all-in on diesels.

This. Last I checked, the diesel is more expensive to fuel than the gas car most places in the US. The mileage they get is very similar, only gas is cheaper. Add the up front cost of the diesel on top of that and its an option almost nobody will take.

Also, that hatch looks tiny.

I like the idea, I hope they learned from their past and of most recent VW's debacle.

ProDarwin wrote:

pointofdeparture wrote: Even the gas model gets pretty excellent MPG, 42 I think. I'm still quite surprised to see GM going all-in on diesels.

This. Last I checked, the diesel is more expensive to fuel than the gas car most places in the US. The mileage they get is very similar, only gas is cheaper. Add the up front cost of the diesel on top of that and its an option almost nobody will take. Also, that hatch looks tiny.

Longevity is another selling point for diesels, but now that gas engines last forever, I wonder how many people want a car to go 300,000+ miles?

pinchvalve wrote: Longevity is another selling point for diesels, but now that gas engines last forever, I wonder how many people want a car to go 300,000+ miles?

Exactly. Look in a junkyard, how many cars there have a working engine? Most of them. What kills most cars is neglect (which will kill a diesel as well), interior issues, body issues, accident damage, etc.

The average gas engine from 30 years ago should go 300k without much issue, but I don't see many make it there.

I think the new Cruze hatch is one of the best looking small cars GM has ever made. In fact, I think it's the best looking small car since the Monza Mirage! The manual diesel option is an epiphany from the masters of "we'll make this cool engine but saddle it with a lame transmission".

I wonder what they will cost?

Also, since that hatch is such a looker, can we get a Cruze SS please?

ProDarwin wrote:

pointofdeparture wrote: Even the gas model gets pretty excellent MPG, 42 I think. I'm still quite surprised to see GM going all-in on diesels.

This. Last I checked, the diesel is more expensive to fuel than the gas car most places in the US. The mileage they get is very similar, only gas is cheaper. Add the up front cost of the diesel on top of that and its an option almost nobody will take. Also, that hatch looks tiny.

At least here in MD, Diesel tends to be about the same price as regular guess, if not a tiny bit cheaper.

Chevy seems to be cranking out quite a few cars that could be cross shopped by commuters or people looking at small, fuel efficient hatches.

There's the diesel Cruze here, which will likely get over 40mpg.

The gas Cruze is rated at 40mpg highway.

The Sonic gets 38mpg.

There's the Volt, that gets 53miles of electric range, and then gets 42mpg on gas.

And the Bolt, which has 230+ miles of all electric range.

Not exactly the same market niche, but they've got tons of options for people looking for efficient, small cars. It will be interesting to see which ones end up selling.

ProDarwin wrote:

pointofdeparture wrote: Even the gas model gets pretty excellent MPG, 42 I think. I'm still quite surprised to see GM going all-in on diesels.

This. Last I checked, the diesel is more expensive to fuel than the gas car most places in the US. The mileage they get is very similar, only gas is cheaper. Add the up front cost of the diesel on top of that and its an option almost nobody will take. Also, that hatch looks tiny.

Around here diesel is usually between the cost of 87 and 89, so barely more than what most people would be feeding the gas version. And I'd be surprised if the diesels don't get around 10% - 15% better mpg than the gas ones (due to diesels having better light-load efficiency). The dieselgate-era VW wagons with a diesel / 6spd reliably turn in mpg well into the 40s and you can see 50+ without working too hard for it, so there's no reason this shouldn't be able to do the same (especially if the chassis is good enough to get 40+ in gas form).