The Chevrolet Cruze Clean diesel is one of the most efficient non-hybrid vehicles you can buy. Seriously, we got 817 miles of range between fuel stops when we drove it, more than 100 miles more than the estimated range from Chevrolet.
Drive something a little less fuel efficient, say a 1972 Cadillac Eldorado, and you might not have as much time between fuel stops. In fact, something that thirsty might have you stopping at the pumps so often the attendant starts to know you by name.
Chevrolet’s latest ad the Cruze diesel is clever and creative. “Stan” is apparently at the gas station so much, the whole town knows him by name and has seen him there. The Cruze Diesel driver on the other hand, is such a stranger to the locals, the gas station regulars look like they’ve seen a ghost when he walks in.
Check out the ad just below and let us know what your thoughts on it are in the comments.
Comments
This ad has been showing quite regularly lately and I like it. Good one Chevy.
I want to see a commercial where they take 4 or 5 cars show them all fuel up at a gas station next to a freeway have all the cars start driving on the freeway in a line at the same speed and see how far each car will travel on a single tank!
Lately Mary Barra and other big timers at GM have labeled Volt as a niche vehicle, that didn’t
meet expectations at the dealer. GM goofed up so many times from the awful advertising to
dealers untrained and unwilling to sell the car like they should. Look to all the car sales websites
online that quote Volt’s mpg as “40mpg”…. Stupid!
The Cruze diesel is a shot at VW’s TDI, but the TDI itself is a niche vehicle. Diesel is not any answer
at all for consumers who want an efficient car to avoid gas stations where NOBODY KNOWS YOUR
NAME. Why? The United States doesn’t refine much diesel. Over 80% of all the crude oil re do
refine goes to gasoline. It’s not like a refinery can just retool in a month and convert to refining
diesel. It takes years for that to happen. So far, oil companies have not increased diesel production
here , it’s a European thing. They went diesel whole hog, we went gasoline. Some may not know
that the U.K. actually exports gasoline to the USA! They have no need for it – or very, very little.
Turn that upside-down and you have our passenger vehicle need for diesel. Most of our diesel
production goes to commercial and military use. When times are tough ( like 2008 ) diesel prices,
which are already higher than gasoline – go through the roof, $5.00/gal+! Some like to quote
the veggie oil guys. They say they can buy a few hundred dollars worth of equipment or use
an old water heater and chemicals to make their own diesel from used veggie oil copped free
from restaurants. Not so. In 2008 – these folks got a harsh reality check. There was a run on
used veggie oil and restaurants give it out first-come-first serve. This equaled – no veg oil
for diesel homebrewers! Go to Costco and buy new veggie oil and pay more than a gallon of
gas costs! So lets get all messy and use caustic chemicals for what? It’s a big waste of time.
Back to the Cruze diesel. Why does it exist here? So GM can send VW a message that it can
sell a few here at prices rivaling some discounted Volts sitting on dealer lots? The Volt actually
makes sense for people who want to out-econ Prius owners and drive on electricity to be
clean and frugal. Diesels just show that GM has no clue what to do to battle Toyota and
others who actually make decent hybrids.
The Volt was GM’s moonshot. It’s like they made it halfway to the moon and gave up.
Shades of EV-1. SparkEV is a compliance car sold in 2 states with zero plans to expand
it’s scope. ZEV credit seeking GM is just as lame as other automakers doing the same.
I know this is a GM fansite and people will boo and hiss. I own a Volt and love it. I wish
people would enourage GM to build a gen 2 Volt and stop this diesel nonsense. For
trucks, diesel makes the same bad case here in the USA, and an EREV truck like the
VIA makes the most sense. Ford can make anything it wants out of aluminum, but a
stock Silverado with a lithium battery pack and V-6 range extender would make
Ford look stupid.
GM can do it – VIA with Bob Lutz IS DOING IT. Only GM could make EREV trucks that
get 70 MPGe and do it in mass volume to bring down costs.
Ditch the diesel nonsense. Let Audi and others tout diesel to uneducated Americans
who think diesel is the insurance against skyrocketing fuel costs.
If you don’t ever build a volt then you can never go forward with advancements of the technology
True. Case in point, Audi isn’t putting all their eggs in the diesel basket.
Google ‘E-Tron’.
Sometimes you have to try things and see if they work! It’s called taking a risk!
That, and it helps promote the image that the company is actively seeking new and better technology with which they intend to be the first to bring to market. Buyers want to be on the cutting edge just as much as the company does. It works for Audi and I would like to see Cadillac take a similar approach.
Being first only means something to a few people the masses could care less! The masses is who the cars are sold to not the few!
So coming to the market first means nothing if
It’s offered by the rest of the industry the next year!
These (Audi and Cadillac) are luxury cars. They are ALWAYS sold to the few and the discriminating; the few that are willing to pay more up front for bleeding edge technology and features.
The masses shouldn’t concern themselves with luxury cars and their features. They can’t afford them, but they will aspire to own them.
The fact remains that whoever brings the technology to market first gets the credit and accolades. Kia’s can be be had with LED headlights, but nobody will say that Audi didn’t make them something to be desired by being the first.
Google ‘the Penalty of Leadership’.
Yes the penalty for being first is everybody copies you then nobody remembers who was first after every company offers it
You think nobody will remember?
That’s why the company is to CONTINUOUSLY churn out new technology. Then everyone will know the company is a leader in tech. The reputation will precede them, as it works for Audi, but it will never for Kia even after they start to offer LED headlights.
Luxury leads. The masses follow.
Do you think most people remember who came out with the first 3 door truck?
People today could care less! All they care about is does the car or truck I’m interested in today offer it!
Plain and simple!
So all that work by the car maker years ago does nothing today to sell cars and truck!
“All they care about is does the car or truck I’m interested in today offer it!”
Exactly! It really is that plain and simple! You get my point!
If you’re the first to bring the technology to market, you’re the first to stirs consumer interest; be it LED tailights or suicide doors on a pickup.
I doesn’t matter if the first truck with 3 doors was a Ford or a Dodge, that fact is that some company was first, and that company got the sales and the PERCEPTION OF MARKET LEADERSHIP in the eyes of those consumers. You can’t be a technology leader by not innovating or by not bringing anything new to the market.
Also, it’s COULDN’T care less, not ‘could’. If you could care less, you would.
Do you think my grandmother cares who and what came first? Or my parents that are in their 60’s?
People walk into a dealership and ask do you have a car with this feature if so then their happy if not they go to the next car maker!
They don’t ask was this the first car with it!
Remember we are the 1 percent ers! The few that follow and remember what happens in the industry most people wouldn’t have a clue!
If this was a college term paper I would care but it’s not now is it!
Go get a life!
Nobody should care about the elderly, or your aging mother. They’re not on the cutting edge of technological achievement, and never will appreciate it. The elderly simply don’t matter in the luxury car market.
Also, people walk into a dealership AFTER they’ve been exposed to news about a car that has a feature they want or need. As you’ve already stated “All they care about is does the car or truck I’m interested in today offer it!” and if it does because they’ve learned of the feature, it serves to draw them closer to a sale.
You’re deliberately confusing yourself, when you’re trying to downplay the need for automotive technological advances in spite of the needless worry about ‘what happens if the competition gets ahold of it’. Reverse engineering should blow your mind as it’s completely legal.
Remember, you can’t innovate with taking a necessary risk. If you continually take those risks and the public knows you’re an innovator, they will listen. To do otherwise is to become Lincoln.
Finally, it’s doesn’t have to be a college paper to show how wrong you are with the phrase ‘could care less’. I know you use the same phrase at work and never consider why it sounds wrong, or why you’re STILL in a dead-end job.
Yea go ahead and forget about the old people who have the money to buy these expensive cars
That’s right. Because they don’t have the money, and they are grossly outnumbered by younger, wealthier people.
Luxury is for the wealthy who are spending money today, not when they are in their 80’s when they’ve “made it”. Some people are “making it” in their mid-20’s, and if they demand luxury cars, they buy them today, not 60 years from now.
The Sloan Ladder is dead; your last car isn’t a Cadillac. The elderly demographic doesn’t decide the direction of luxury cars and they never will.
watched the video and I’ve seen the commercial. Are all Chevy Cruze owners dickheads that cut in line at the gas station counter? Why would that be “celebrated” in a commercial?