The 2020 Chevrolet Monza Gets Two New Trim Levels In China

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• Compact car success for GM everywhere but in North America. I guess we'll let the Japanese and Koreans take care of that.

  • I Agree Walt, as I am Looking at new Cars and now forced to shop Toyota/ Hundai?? ETC....
    Meanwhile, MY Proud GM Newsletter: is PROUDLY ANNOUNCING the Chevy Monza, Successful in CHINA?
    Well To This I Think: AMERICA FIRST !!!!!!!!!

    • That's what happens when GM and other domestically headquartered brands give up and abandon a market segment. Just like in the early mid seventies when the Japanese had the run of the farm with compact pickup trucks.

    • What about the malibu or Regal sportback with the 2.0t those are great vehicles imho. Not really a compact, but on the smaller side of midsize. I do feel your pain though, my wife bought a Mazda partially because of the lack of offerings from GM. I hoping that in a few years the update for the Sonic or Cruze is dropped. Would love to see something closer to a true hothatch. Sonic SS please.

  • You are right, this car has a China only platform. Go needs to bring in their new. GEM platform based small sedan/hatchback here, and the GEM is a worldwide platform so safety certification is no issue.

• I wish that GM would quit pushing SUV's and trucks down the American buyers throats and spend some of the marketing and design on us with cars. We still want a coupe, sedan or convertible be it compact, medium, full or luxury size, but not a micro-compact. Concentration is on electrics, but until that gives us a full range without a fear of being stuck someplace without any way to recharge.

  I drove through a lot the other day and it was all pickup and SUV's with the exception of 2 cars that would fit in the trunk of my 2020 Caddy CT6 Premium Luxury.the market is tough, but when was the last time we saw an ad for a car from GM. We see them for Toyota, Lexus, Mercedes and Honda. What's up GM...maybe you need a hard reality check again. Does bankruptcy ring a bell?

  • They can't make money producing small cars in the US.
    Or are you suggesting they should import them from China or Mexico?

    • Both Ford and GM import vehicles assembled in Mexico into the U.S. because their labor costs are lesser, but they are still American made cars (Mexico is part of North America as we are). The same apply for Canada. The Asians assemble cars in the U.S to escape import taxes, but they are still foreign brands. So any vehicle that GM assembles outside the U.S. is still a GM and an U.S brand. Therefore, GM imports from China are also U.S. brands. Just as if a child was born in China from U.S. citizens is still a U.S. citizen.

      My past two GM vehicles were assembled in Canada and both lasted over 21 years. My present Ford vehicle was assembled in Mexico. All three are American and U.S. brands.

      • I don't think most people that want to buy American (as in US) brands are doing it to support Mexican workers.
        It probably is the future of American brands though. Offices and design houses here, factories somewhere else.

      • It kills me that it's a problem that a car can be Canadian made and it's no problem but a Mexican-mobile is against "capitalism". Yes more jobs should be available in the US, Mexico can be better security-wise for it's border but not wanting anything from them, do you prefer China?, Mexicans probably buy more American vehicles then Canada and producing American autos as long as them .

      • In light of COVID 19, GM and any other automaker would be wise not to import ANY vehicle from China.

  • I think that GM is shooting themselves in the foot with their cars when it comes to design and features. Take for instance, a lot of the other car manufacturer are putting their best foot forward in design, features, performance and value while, it appears that GM car offerings touch on some of those criterias but not all of them. For instance, GM's Camaro is spectacular on a performance and price value, but they missed an opportunity to design the car better from a visibility perspective and as a daily driver. Also you have to pay either extra for options or the option(s) do not exists.
    Also, as others have stated, GM do not advertise their cars. Trucks, SUVs and CUVs, yes, cars no.
    The silver lining though is that from an EV standpoint GM is better prepared to offer an EV in every variant, compared to other manufacturers and I do like the looks and proportion of the Monza and the Onix, which means that if GM wants to add a car or cars to the North American market, it will be easy for them to do so, but no doubt, it appears that GM have given up on cars here in NA.

  • The Monza is a Cruze! GM only sold 100,000 units in China and seem to be thrilled, if production for North America falls below 250,000 units a year it’s not profitable? Go figure, it’s not logical to discontinue a model in the U.S. market if they have already developed the platform for other markets. Kia sells a few minivans in the states, compared to everyone else. GM abandoned minivans and cars, there isn’t much left in North America. They quit in Europe, Australia, the future doesn’t look inspiring. The new pickups aren’t doing as well against Ford or Ram. Can anyone get Bob Lutz to come out of retirement? I hope things aren’t as bad as they seem. They need to focus on a great midsize car, like they reinvented the Corvette! Make people step back and say wow, maybe GM is back!

  • IMO it’s not that GM can’t sale sedans here. GM don’t want to sale sedans here because they can make more money per vehicle on SUV’s and crossovers. They would rather give up the fight to the Foreigners for the sedans than spend the n money to engineer, produce and promote a winning sedan because it doesn’t produce enough profit. They prefer to take profit over American pride. I would like the to be able to do both.
    There is just too many thing we have given up to Foreigners for the love of money. At some point and time if you don’t give the people what they want then they go elsewhere. Then where does the profit come from. Walla another American company gone. Those of you with a little age think about it. How many things have we given up to Foreigners over your lifetime. Where has the American pride gone?

• So what are the trim levels? You mention engines, you mention an LTZ trim level. What is the full line now? You fail to mention these in this article. And John, I agree with you completely on all points! There's no good excuse as to why we barely have a passenger car lineup anymore, and how the Detroit Three have just given up. They will pay dearly for it. I'd love to see a Monza and compact car return to the Chevy North America stable, though as a far better car than the Cruze ever was, and not looking like a weaker-styled Ford Focus reject.

• Ok, I agree , GM needs to buckle down and get some decent compact cars here , in the sonic and cruze size range .
  Not a issue . tell ya what occured , the Sonic was on a old primarily Opel dsigned platform that went back to 2000 or thereabouts , techjnically obselete but it was a primarily Opel platform , . The Cruze the same thing , a basically Oel platform with some of the still Gm owned Daewoo influence and engineering thrown in.
  Gms new biggest markets are USA, China , Brasil and South Korea (under the Chevy and Daewoo brand names), The GEM
  is the future for GM small platforms . Theoretically its infinitely scaleable so they can scale it up and make a new Malibu
  off a scaled up GEM design platform. Sounds to me they've cribbed Honda here, today the Civic add Accord ride on basically the same platform, the Accord is just a wider scaled up version, But then Our US spec Accord is about 4-5 inches
  wider than the JDM Accord . There were two primary markets for the Wider Accord , here, Canada and Australia.
  I belleive Honda exported US made Accords to Brasil also.

  GM wants to get as far away from anything Opel as they can , in some cases they're currently stuck with the Equinox for
  example which rides on the Opel.Daewoo D2XX chassis , a new Gm/Daewoo chassis will have a couple of years for the
  next gen Equinox .
  GM , if they are serious about electric cars will need a Cruze sized electric and the fact is the only efficient way to produce
  today to have one assembly line , where you can simultaneously as needed make a ICE, ICE/hybrid electric or BEV on the
  same line using basically the same platform.
  I used to a hybrid critic , now I really like the idea , the hybrid I like is the Honda civic based Hybrid , know the name just
  can't recall it right now , seem it and its sharp and it works . Nicely trimmed out also . wouldn't get the top trim level
  , a little glitzy for my tastes . How can you argue with proven Honda reliability and a average of over 40 mpg overall .
  its no issue. Oh just recalled , its the Honda Insight.
  I think the new JDM Honda Fit hybrid would do extremely well here. alos. only gripe I have with the Honda Insight and
  most new Hondas , they're not E-85 compatable , I'd like a E-85 compatable car ideally .
  as far as BEV's goes , those giant batteries they need to have any reasonable driving range are a nightmre, for replacement
  cost , theres been no effective methods developed for recycling the lithium, cobalt and other metals yet, anything
  electrical is a potential fire hazard , those batteries are heavy as hell and need alot of sheilding . Don't buy a BEV on some
  pie in the sky theory about its eco friendly , its totally dependent on the largely natural gas and coal fired power grid
  for recharging , solar and wind are marginal, players .
  Listen up folks , the only green no co2 electric is currently nuclear energy , and thats it till we colonize the Moon and start
  mining Helium 3 .

  • "..its totally dependent on the largely natural gas and coal fired power grid". So does ALL the gasoline that you will ever buy in your life! Did you ever learn that gasoline production needs twice the energy it contains? It has to be stored,transported, and pumped, which uses plenty of energy. Finally, how much energy you spend just traveling to a gas station?

    Electricity is universal since every atom has electrons. An electric motor is up to 95% efficient while any gasoline engine cannot get more than 33% because it loses all that heat. An electric motor has its maximum torque at zero RPM, while a gas engine has to rev up and spend energy just to do that. This is why Teslas have been beating all common sports cars in acceleration. There is a YouTube video where a cheap electric Chevy Spark out accelerates and out races a Chevy Camaro!

    You can get your EV energy just by plugging into a home outlet every night, as you do with your mobile devices. An EV is the ONLY mobile device that carries you!

    Best EV benefit: much less maintenance. Look up the service schedule of any EV, be it Tesla or GM (the Chevy Bolt), and see that its first maintenance is at over 80,000 miles! You will only spend money on tires and wiper blades before that, and soon Michelin will fix the tire problem.

    • Yeah, EV's are definitely the future, but are they the right now? I personally, would be stretching myself pretty thin financing a bolt. I also do not know if my varied schedule and busy lifestyle would be conducive to electric ownership. In a few years, when I anticipate having to buy a new vehicle, perhaps my income will be high enough to finance 30k. I will certainly test drive both ICE and EVs. I have already test drove the Bolt and it moves quick, the styling is just so bad tho.

    • OTOH the Malibu I had was only gas and oil changes, no unscheduled maintenance, I don't think something that small of a cost will matter much.

      Than you have instructure issues, people living in apartments and condos in cities won't have the parking or security from some troublesome neighborhood teens unplug you car at night or worse a natural disaster which you'll have to re-route many times to get out the area and end up out-of-power.

      I'm for EVs but it's still not for prime time.

• GM has always been more of a marketing company than a vehicle manufacturer and it shows in everything they build.

  • Yeah, nobody uses the LS based small block to put in any builds anymore. The Chevy small block is definitely not the most iconic american v8 engine of the last 70 plus years. 🙄

    • If you believe that, you either haven't been paying attention, or you have literally been asleep at the wheel. THOUSANDS of enthusiasts use this engine every day for countless automotive projects. Some are crate engines while others are used engines from pick and pulls, wrecked or other vehicles.

      Google LS swaps in either Youtube or in an internet search. Those are just the swaps we know about from enthusiasts that bothered to share details about their projects

• FWIW, GM did put it's best efforts cars for the past 10 years in Cruze (both gens) , CT6, Impala, Regal, Lacrosse, etc and although some sold decent more people flocked to trucks and SUVs plus the economy was known by big companies to fall at some point.

  With the GEM US may get a version as entry level buyers won't be as plenty as before but the car is still sustained by international buyers.

  Most GM cars at this point will have to appeal to world markets or it won't be built.

• You cant build and sell a compact car for your home market only and make a profit especially with fierce import competitors. The current Cruze should have been designed and built as a world car, just like the Corolla Civic Jetta Elantra and Forte.

  The first gen Cruze was successfully made as a world car and even was introduced to international markets first, this made the old model Cruze globally competitive. The current gen Cruze did not follow that template which worked and was mostly built and sold in GM NA, which was a big mistake. The same problem afflicts the sub compact Sonic which should have been even more so a world car. GM should have made the current Sonic and Cruze as world cars to amortize NA costs.

  So what GM is doing now is going back to their old global strategy of building vehicles in foreign countries for 'GEM' markets. To be fair this move is working out for them as they can sell quality vehicles in those countries at a much lower cost. The new GEM Chevrolet Monza Onix and Trax have been well received in their markets and should be continuously improved during their life cycles.

  *EDIT* Not Trax but Tracker.

  • OK, the trax and related Buick encode are based off a older opel/Daewoo designed platform. The Chinese market monza may be a China market only platform or a derivation of the open designed D2x platform. THE NEW Gem platform is already here, in the new Trailblzaer and Encore Gx. THE GEM Is in Mexico and brazil now as the the New Onix is being made there. I'd like to see Onix here, the hatch could replace the sonic, the sedan the cruze. Question could be does GM NA have a spare plant for. NA production now that Lordstown is dingleberry electric motors or whatever. GM is stupidly cannibalizing assets, in Europe, Thailand. Etc. To pay to develop BEV's no one wants. More than anything I wanna see Us jobs. I wanna see the Onix here as a conventional ICE drive train and a gas/electric hybrid model which will give GM NA a 40 to 50 mpg car.

    • The "new gem platform" is the vss-f. As I have understood it the vss-f will underpin all future US fwd based models. The Onix and it's 1.0t with a 0-60 time of 3 days is not coming to the United States. That GEM platform couldn't handle the driveline United States conumers demand. I hope the next gen compact borrows a lot more from the new trailblazer than it does the Onix. Like how the Trax borrowed from the Sonic... But in reverse order. The question, like you pointed out, is if they can bring some of that production to NA... I bet they will try.