Archive for Chevrolet/Daewoo

GM has surprised us all amidst rumours that its hopeful Chevrolet Cruze compact car has been postponed - quite far from it in fact. The car has actually already been launched in South Korea as the Daewoo Lacetti Premiere. It will compete with the Hyundai Elantra, the Kia Forte, and the Honda Civic in the increasingly competitive C-segment sedan market in South Korea. So perhaps only its US debut will be delayed.

The Daewoo Lacetti Premiere measures 4,600mm long, 1,790mm wide and 1,475mm tall with a 2,685mm wheelbase. It rides on 17 inch wheels wrapped with 215/50R17 tyres. Under the hood is a 1.6 liter ECOTEC engine that produces 114 horsepower at 6,400rpm and 152Nm of torque at 4,200rpm. No sight of the 1.4 liter ECOTEC Turbo yet.

On the interior, it seems that the dashboard can be colour coded to match your two-tone seats. Thus you are able to have your dashboard have either blue or red trim if you get black-blue or black-red combination seats. Apparently the various sensors in the car communicate with the ECU via something called GMLAN. It seems to be a trend to give your in-car databus a funky name these days, such as FlexRay.

The car actually kinda reminds me of a smaller Toyota Crown. Prices range from 11,550,000 won (RM32.300) for the cheapest SE manual version up to 17,700,000 won (RM49,500) for the 6-speed automatic CDX version. 6 colours are available - white, silver, silverish blue, grey, blue and black.

Look at more shots of the Chevrolet Cruze/Daewoo Lacetti Premiere after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Chevrolet Cruze finally launched as the Daewoo Lacetti Premiere in South Korea!

Various officials from within the government have been calling for Proton to continue looking for a foreign partner. The national automaker previously had failed talks with PSA Peugeot Citroen, Volkswagen and General Motors.

The Volkswagen deal would probably have gone through if it were not for Khazanah Nasional pulling out of the talks at the last minute, saying it had to give Proton more time to turn around before any equity/partnership deal could be cemented to ensure a fair deal for Proton.

Bernama reports today that General Motors’ Southeast Asian operations president Steve Carlisle (photo on the left) is willing to restart negotiations with Proton Holdings Berhad on taking up a stake in the company.

This comes just after GM announced it will invest US$445 million in Thailand to build a diesel engine plant next to its existing assembly facility. The new diesel plant will supply inline-4 diesel engines for GM’s trucks in Thailand and global markets.

When contacted, Proton Holdings informed Bernama that it had not been approached by General Motors for any negotiations. Proton also said that since any possible partnership would most likely involve talks of a share transfer, any interest from GM should be directed to its majority shareholder Khazanah Nasional instead.

So there we have it ladies and gentlemen. GM says Proton can come talk anytime, Proton says GM can come talk to Khazanah anytime. Who will make the first move? If talks do restart and a partnership involving stakeholding happens, GM may designate Thailand its truck production center and Malaysia its passenger car output center for cars like the upcoming Chevrolet Cruze.

The spyshot above showing a dashboard with a Daewoo logo on the steering wheel has been widely accepted as being snapped from a Chevrolet Cruze. The upcoming C-segment sedan will replace the Cobalt and the Optra and will eventually find its way into our market replacing the Optra Magnum as GM has designated it a World Car.

The Malaysian (or rather ASEAN) will most likely lose some of the nifty stuff like the large LCD screen and perhaps have the center dash area simplified with manual air conditioning knobs and losing alot of other buttons in the process, but I think on the overall it’s quite good looking and reminds me alot of a Honda.

Look after the jump for two artist impressions from this month’s Autocar India based on the image of the Chevrolet Cruze exposed in GM’s presentation.

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The world got a preview of the upcoming Chevrolet Cruze compact sedan during GM’s press conference earlier this week as both front and rear three quarter views of the new Cruze done up in a flashy red paint were flashed on the presentation screen.

The new Chevrolet Cruze is a C-segment sedan and it will be a world car, replacing both current C-segment cars that are in GM’s line-up - the low-cost “emerging market” Daewoo-based Chevrolet Optra and the more expensively-built Chevrolet Cobalt for the American market. This means we can expect this to eventually replace the Optra Magnum facelift that was unveiled here earlier this year.

GM will fit a series of turbocharged 1.4 liter engines into the Cobalt, which GM says will allow it to hit a fuel economy target of 45mpg, or 5.2 liters per 100km, which truth be told is rather ambitious, small engine or not. The 1.4 liter Ecotec turbo will come in various stages of tune from 120 PS (equivalent to a 1.6 liter normally aspirated engine) to 150 PS (equivalent to a 2.0 liter normally aspirated engine), with plenty of torque.

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Hicom-Chevrolet Sdn Bhd unveiled three cars today - the Chevrolet Aveo notchback sedan, the facelifted Chevrolet Optra Magnum sedan and the facelifted Chevrolet Optra Magnum Estate. Continue reading about the cars after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Hicom-Chevrolet launches Chevrolet Optra Magnum sedan and estate, Chevrolet Aveo notchback

Chevrolet has released this kitted up Chevrolet Captiva in the European market, and it is called rather predictably: the Chevrolet Captiva Sport.

The Captiva Sport is basically your run of the mill Captiva mechanically, with a bodykit slapped on consisting of new 18 inch wheels, a trunk lid in body color, dark headlamps and smoked clear taillights, new dual exhaust tips, Chaos Black bumper and side moldings, Light Silver finishing and a new front fascia.

On the interior, the leather upholstery is done in red and black leather with red stocking, while trims are now feature black carbon accents.

Since the Chevrolet Captiva has been launched in Malaysia, those who have decided to book one will have ready inspiration in making their Captiva different.

More photos after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Chevrolet Captiva Sport unveiled in Europe

Hicom-Chevrolet Sdn Bhd unveiled the Chevrolet Captiva’s Malaysian line-up yesterday, and although exact prices have not been determined yet, we now at least know a price range as well as spec levels of the different variants. It’s a sexy SUV with an appealing design that reminds me somewhat of a smaller Audi Q7.

The Chevrolet Captiva (essentially a Daewoo Winstorm) will come in four flavours on our local soil - a 2WD petrol, a 2WD diesel, a 4WD petrol and a 4WD diesel. The petrol option will be a 2.4 liter 4-cylinder iron block E-TEC II engine putting out a relatively low (for it’s displacement) 136 horsepower at 5,000rpm, and a decent 220Nm of torque at a surprisingly low 2,200rpm. This engine was definitely tuned to make all of its grunt at low RPMs, good for an SUV. The diesel option is a 2.0 liter turbocharged unit with Bosch direct injection making 150hp at 4,000rpm and 320Nm of torque at 2,000rpm.

Both engines are mated to a 5-speed automatic transmission with Tiptronic. For the 2WD models the power goes to the wheels via the front wheels, while in 4WD versions the system runs mostly with the front wheels, but sends torque to the rear wheels as needed up to a 50:50 split. The 7-seater Chevrolet Captiva uses a monocoque chassis (long wheelbase GM Theta platform) and rides on a MacPherson strut setup on the front and a multilink suspension at the rear, so comfort and handling should exceed competing SUVs that use a ladder frame chassis and rear coil spring setup.

It will be priced from RM138,000 for the cheapest 2WD petrol variant to RM155,000 for the most expensive 4WD diesel variant, which will include premium safety features such as ESP stability control, and Descent Control.

Two launches in one year by the new Hicom-Chevrolet joint venture - what’s next? Perhaps the Asian-market Chevrolet Colorado (a rebadged Isuzu D-MAX)?

More photos and a video after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Chevrolet Captiva unveiled in Malaysia

[ UPDATE: Hicom-Chevrolet has launched the Chevrolet Captiva in Malaysia. ]

We previously saw the Chevrolet Captiva parked near the JPJ building in Putrajaya, so it should be launched pretty soon. HICOM-Chevrolet managing director-designate Yukontorn Wisadkosin (probably from GM Thailand) says it will be launched by the end of 2007 and it will be offered with a 7 seat configuration.

HICOM-Chevrolet is the the new 51:49 joint venture between General Motors and DRB-HICOM formed when GM signed an MoU with DRB-HICOM last year regarding taking up a stake in the Chevrolet business here in Malaysia.

Related Posts:
Chevrolet Captiva sighted in Malaysia
GM and DRB-HICOM sign stake transfer MoU

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[ UPDATE: Hicom-Chevrolet has launched the Chevrolet Captiva in Malaysia. ]

We first saw the Chevrolet Captiva in near production concept form in 2004 as the Chevrolet S3X Concept. Soon it went into production in 2006 as the Chevrolet Captiva and the Daewoo Winstorm, powered by a 2.4 liter petrol (142hp@5200rpm, 220Nm@4000rpm) or a 3.2 liter V6 (225hp@6000rpm, 302Nm@3500rpm), or a GM-VM Motori 2.0 liter turbodiesel (150hp@4000rpm, 310Nm@2000rpm).

The long wheelbase of 2700mm allows the Chevrolet Captiva to fit up to 3 rows of seats for a maximum capacity of 7 seats, although the SUV is also available as a 5 seater.

After looking at the Captiva only through the internet and magazines, suddenly we see it in Putrajaya at the JPJ building thanks to reader akmal… first the new Chevrolet Aveo notchback and now this - is Hicomobil on the roll again?

Related Posts:
2006 Chevrolet Captiva
Chevrolet Captiva unveiled at Geneva Motor Show
GM Daewoo Winstorm

The new Chevrolet Aveo hatchback is called the Aveo5 now in the Malaysian market as the nameplate is now also being used by the new Aveo notchback. The hatchback variant has been updated recently with new styling although essentially pretty much the same car. Engine options now consist of an 84 horsepower 1.2 liter engine and a 98 horsepower 1.4 liter engine - a big improvement over the current Malaysian Aveo5 with a 1.5 liter engine that produces only 83 horsepower.

The interior has also be substantially enhanced. The meter panel is now a sporty 3-pod design with meters that are backlit with red. The door panels are now more conventional in design, an improvement over the current Malaysian Aveo5’s which has a GEN2-like circular door opener lever.

The new Chevrolet Aveo five-door hatchback model will first hit European showrooms in March 2008, followed by a three-door hatchback model a few weeks later. No news of when this updated Aveo hatchback will be available in Malaysia, but one thing’s likely: the 98 horsepower 1.4 liter engine will probably make only 95 over here, as the same engine in the Aveo notchback only produces 95.

More images after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of New Chevrolet Aveo Hatchback Details