Chevrolet’s new compact will be called the Cruze

It has been announced today that the new mini car that Chevy has been trying to keep under wraps will be called the Cruze.

The name is the derivative of the word Cruise. The car is the replacement of the current run of the Cobalt. The Cobalt has been Chevy’s latest best selling vehicle since being introduced in late 2004 as a 2005 model. The current Cobalt model sells an average of 200,000 vehicles annually.

A production version of the Cruze will be shown at the Paris Auto show this fall with production to begin in mid 2010 as a 2011 model. The Cruze will be built in the existing Cobalt manufacturing facility in Lordstown, Ohio.

The Cruze is built on GM’s Delta compact car platform and will be powered by a 1.4 liter turbocharged global engine, which was recently announced in Europe. The engine itself will be built at the Flint, Michigan engine plant.

The powerplant will put out 120 to 140hp, with efficiency exceeding 40mpg. It will be initially introduced as a sedan, with no word yet on a coupe version.

The Cruze according to insiders is aimed to compete with the Honda Civic, Volkswagen Jetta and Ford Focus.

For the latest news on the Cruze, please visit www.CruzeChat.com

Whenever we think of new technologies, we think of medical, electronics… bla bla bla. We almost never think of incorporating older technologies with newer ones.

Sometimes we think of ourselves as explorers, incorporating new techie things into cars like aftermarket computers etc etc etc…

Then once in a while something comes along that truly shocks people. One such item today that shocked me was a perfectly mint EF civic with a K series swap. Individual throttle bodies.

I saw it at this years CSCS season opener in Cayuga. It was interesting, because it’s the first time i’ve seen a K swap with ITB’s in person in an EF hatch. It ran 11.8 at I don’t remember what mph.

You can see the pic at the bottom. If you wanna see the rest of the pics follow the link : here