It’s no secret that Chevy is hard at work on the second-generation Cruze Diesel. And as luck would have it, we just caught two units of the upcoming oil-burning Chevy sedan undergoing testing in the Colorado Rockies.
Despite wearing a healthy dose of checkered-style black-and-white camouflage, it’s hard to mistake the testers as anything other than the second-generation Chevy Cruze sedan thanks to the vehicle’s distinctive shape. The tell-tale purr of a turbo-diesel motor immediately gave away what is under the hood.
Set to arrive for the 2017 or 2017 model year, the second-generation Cruze Diesel will utilize GM’s all-new 1.6L CDTI motor known as the Whisper Diesel. Developed by GM’s European subsidiary, Opel, the new engine made its initial debut in the Euro-market Opel-Vauxhall Astra, which shares the D2 platform used by the 2016 and newer Chevrolet Cruze. In the Astra, the new 1.6L diesel mill makes roughly 140 horsepower and 240 pound-feet of torque.
By comparison, the first-generation Chevy Cruze Diesel was powered by a 2.0-liter turbo-diesel engine rated at 148 horsepower and 258 pound-feet of torque while returning 27 MPG city and 46 MPG highway and 33 MPG combined. We expect that the second-generation model seen here will deliver even better fuel economy figures thanks to the more efficient 1.6L turbo-diesel engine powering a vehicle that will be significantly lighter than its predecessor.
Further Reading
- Second-generation Chevy Cruze information:
- First-generation Chevy Cruze information:
Comments
My next vehicle. Though please work out the bugs before hand? My 2014 Cruze diesel has been less than trouble free.
Yep – ours has been great – up until about a month ago when we took it to the dealer for a CEL (which my code reader couldn’t read), which turned out to be four – indicating a bad O2, NOX1 and NOX2, as well as the DEF heater. The dealer estimated $2k to repair, because somehow, on a 2 year old car with 40k miles, something like that is not covered?
About a week and a half ago, the DEF heater code did what I feared it would and transformed into the “Service Exhaust Fluid System. See Owners Manual Now. 99 Miles until 65mph Speed Limit”. Car has been parked in front of the house ever since (we have other vehicles my wife can take, luckily). I bought a new DEF reservoir assembly (which contains the heater, because of course it isn’t a separate part) to hopefully resolve the speed-limiting code, but I also have opened a case with GM about this, though I don’t know what that will accomplish just yet.
In a perfect world, GM should, as a goodwill gesture, replace these parts free of charge, as we’re kind of “beta testing” the whole diesel car thing for them – and these are some first-gen parts (for a car, not a truck). Failures will happen, that’s totally understandable (I’m an engineer, so it’s definitely okay) – but to not cover them? Come on.
Wow, that really sucks to hear, MP81. Are the DEF system components not covered under the 5 year/100,000 mile powertrain warranty?
They are not. They are covered under the minuscule 2 year/24,000 mile Federal Emissions Warranty, and potentially under the 3 year/36,000 mile B2B warranty.
Bah. That’s right, forgot about the FEW warranty… which is technically a joke.
If you can, please keep us updated as to how the claim with Chevy Customer Care works out 🙂
Two updates:
First, on our ’14 CTD: GM Came through huge and we only ended up paying about $170. Dropped the car off Monday, got a free ’16 Malibu 1LT (with heated leather) loaner, which was so fantastic my wife was hoping her car took a long time so we could have the Malibu longer, haha. Picked our little girl up last night, and she’s running great.
They replaced O2 #1, NOx #1 and the DEF reservoir/heater. They cleared the NOx #2 code, test drove it about 20 miles and it didn’t come back. We’ll see if that stays the case or not – but it wouldn’t surprise me if it was related to the other three issues. If it comes back on, they’ll probably replace it for free, since that was the original intention of the case.
I need to call back our case handler (she called a couple days ago and I have not gotten a chance to return her call, unfortunately), but everything really worked out great.
Second update: We definitely followed a ’17 CTD for quite some time on our way into work today (we’re in Metro Detroit). It was in full camo, and I could tell the exhaust was noticibly larger. Also, it had the characteristic “whooshing” diesel cruising tone.
Same issues my cruze had. Between 22,000 and 25,000 miles almost all the parts you listed had to be replaced. It’s been fine for the last 1000 miles so, here’s to hoping there will be no further issues for some time to come.
@jason, you don’t want a nice used Volt instead??
A Volt is not out of the question but, probably not.
Ah. Yea they seem to be very reliable, under $20K used. The generator isn’t terribly efficient but electric drive
Can we get the diesel in the cruze hatch/wagon in the US?
NH — that’s a very good question. Take a look at the section under body styles on this page:
http://gmauthority.com/blog/gm/chevrolet/cruze/2017-cruze/2017-cruze-diesel/
Why Chevrolet don’t add the 2.0 diesel engine. The global Cruze diesel 2.0 develop 163 hp, that’s better than 140 hp and the 2.0 diesel could develop more horse power.
The engine compartment seems smaller on the new cruze. Maybe it would not have fit?
That’s not good
Two words: fuel economy.
That’s the reason the smaller 1.6L is being used in the second-gen model. The new 1.6L will have similar power output as the outgoing 2.0L TD while being more efficient. Remember, the purpose of putting a diesel motor in the Cruze in the first place is not to make it a speed deamon… that’s the purpose of the possibly-forthcoming high-performance Cruze. No, the purpose of the Cruze TD is to deliver the highest levels of fuel efficiency in a non-hybridized setup.
As for the engine compartment: the 2.0L will fit. The platform supports it, since the Euro-market Astra on which the new Cruze is based will have a high-performance variant with the 2.0L Turbo LTG.
OK for fuel economy, VW has the Golf GTD with a 2.0 ( I don’t know if sold in USA but we have it in North Africa). So, why not a Cruze high-performance diesel???
No reason for it – the car is a few hundred pounds lighter, you don’t need as much torque to get the car going – and also, the 1.6L Diesel is aluminum – it in itself is lighter.
If you want a high performance car on the Cruze platform, the new Volt is pretty quick especially at low speeds. The new Bolt, quick at high speed acceleration too (but not based on the Cruze AFAIK).
I’m ready to switch from my F150 to something with better gas mileage, but I’m worried about all of the kinks. The Chevy dealership near me, Clay Cooley http://www.claycooleychevrolet.com/, says that they’ll be worked out before launching. Fingers crossed!
Plugin hybrids is the best choice as your next vehicle. Buy used so it doesn’t cost too much for you. Electric motor torque > diesel if the controller is tuned right.