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Next-generation Cruze comes home
By Kalea Hall
LORDSTOWN
You could see the Blue Me Away-colored next-generation Chevrolet Cruze shining before those who will soon build, deliver and buy it.
You could feel the pride.
“Today’s about us,” Glenn Johnson, president of United Auto Workers Local 1112, told the crowd at the local unveiling of the next-generation Cruze.
“It’s about you. The reason we are having this [celebration] is because you come to work every day and you put your blood, sweat and tears and care and compassion into building the Cruze. Each one of you should be extremely proud of the work you do every day.”
On Thursday, workers, GM leaders, UAW leaders, supporters, cheerleaders and others formed a crowd around the new Cruze – many seeing it for the first time.
“It’s finally good to see it home,” Johnson said. “It makes us very proud.”
Fabrication plant workers and assembly plant workers both celebrated the car.
“[There’s] definitely a lot of excitement because we have been talking about it for a couple of years now,” said Robert Morales, president UAW Local 1714. “We believe as soon as we get [the next-generation Cruze] out, our success will continue.”
General Motor’s best-selling passenger car with more than 3.5 million global sales cruised into the Lordstown plant five years ago.
Ken Lortz, director of UAW Region 2-B, was there five years ago when the first-generation Cruze was launched, and he returned for the second-generation local debut.
“I am going to thank all of you for your hard work and sacrifice and everything you have put into making today happen because these things don’t just happen,” Lortz said. “The quality that you put into every vehicle that leaves this complex is what makes things like today happen and what brought us to the opportunity to have the next-generation Cruze.”
GM has invested millions to build the 2016 Cruze. An additional $250 million was invested in the Lordstown plant to build the next model. To date, more than 1.3 million Cruzes have rolled off the Lordstown assembly line. It is a part of the more than 16 million vehicles built there over nearly 50 years.
“A lot of times we have been written off for dead, but one thing we did was survive,” said Tim O’Hara, vice president of Local 1112.
The Cruze’s success over the past five years has led the plant to survive and thrive. A third shift was added in 2010 and is still sustained.
“We are counting on the support of all of you [for] making this next-generation [even] more successful than the last,” said Steve Notar Donato, Lordstown plant manager.
To be more successful than today’s model meant GM had to enhance all the features from style to safety.
The new Cruze is larger, with 2 inches more in rear legroom. It is 250 pounds lighter to enhance its performance with the 1.4-liter turbocharged engine. The new Cruze is expected to go 0 to 60 mph in 8 seconds.
The fuel economy of the new Cruze exceeds that of the previous model with 40 mpg highway compared with 35 mpg highway in today’s model.
Connectivity also is enhanced with the availability of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. As for safety, the new Cruze comes with 10 airbags and some crash-avoidance technologies that are typically kept for more-expensive vehicles.
The style of the next-generation Cruze shows influence from the 2014 Impala and the new Malibu. It has a longer, leaner appearance. With these and other features, GM anticipates it will exceed the compact-car competition in the most-competitive segment globally.
“We enter a segment not to compete, but to win,” said Sam Coomes, U.S. Chevrolet marketing manager for the Cruze. “I hope you will agree this car sets standards.”
While continuing to build the current Cruze model, workers will prepare for the launch of the new model.
Members of the launch team went to Germany for several months to build some of the early Cruzes with other global partners. The next-generation Cruze will be offered in more than 40 global markets in 2016.
“We have been waiting for this day for two years,” said Michele Lambert, plant launch operations manager. “Now is our execution phase.”
The Cruze launch is early next year with the expectation of the new model hitting showrooms next spring.
Customers also attended the local unveiling.
Jon Kuznicki of South Lyon, Mich., drives a 2012 Cruze LTZ. He was in the market for a smaller economy and traditionally always stayed true to Ford.
“I like the Cruze,” he said. “It all seems to click. It does what I want it to.”
Kuznicki, who is a part of the cruzetalk.com forum, was also at the June 24 global Cruze debut in Detroit, where he said he was blown away by the engineering of the new Cruze but not so much the styling.
“Looks-wise, I really like the older Cruze more,” he said. “This one is growing on me more. The amount of engineering they put into this car to improve upon an already great car is incredible.”
U.S. Rep. Tim Ryan of Howland, D-13th, commended GM management, designers, engineers and UAW members on their hard work.
“It is a sleek design that is impressive and functional in today’s car market,” Ryan said in a statement.
U.S. Sen. Rob Portman, a Republican from the Cincinnati area who is co-chairman of the Senate Auto Caucus, called the unveiling of the next-generation Cruze exciting.
“Lordstown continues to produce world-class vehicles, and we’re proud to begin production of the next-generation Chevy Cruze,” he said in a statement.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat of Cleveland, said the new Cruze represents “the best of Ohio’s workers.”
“All Ohioans should take pride in the tradition of manufacturing being continued at this facility as we celebrate the newest Cruze ...” he said in a statement.