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Chevy Cruze SS, Anyone?

GM also Considering “Four-Door Coupe” Model in Effort to “Sport Up” Compact Lineup

February, 2010

Chevrolet is looking at two ways to “sport up” General Motors’ Delta compact platform. The more radical idea involves all new, “four-door coupe”-style sheetmetal on the same platform as the 2011 Chevy Cruze compact. The car would retain the Cruze’s wheelbase, but with a more rakish roofline that would sacrifice some back seat space for a more expressive design.

The idea would be to get a higher profit-margin car out of a relatively humble platform. It’s comparable to what Mercedes-Benz did with its CLS four-door coupe — a car that essentially raised the retail price of an E-Class-based car to near S-Class levels. A Cruze-based four-door coupe would theoretically serve as a step up toward the Camaro.

The more practical solution would be a Super Sport version of the Cruze. That entails suspension mods, of course, plus requisite trim upgrades and a high-pressure version of the 2.0-liter turbo along the lines of the 260-horsepower unit that powered the Pontiac Solstice GXP/Saturn Sky Redline and the coming 255-horsepower Buick Regal GS.

Both the four-door coupe and the Cruze SS could take the larger Epsilon platform’s all-wheel-drive system to mitigate torque steer. We’re not likely to see the SS earlier than the ‘13 model year; the four-door coupe would take even longer. But of course, before either of them hits Chevy dealers, the priority is to do a high fuel-mileage Cruze XFE.



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