As the company itself had officially announced in the middle of last year, General Motors has just ended production of the Chevy Cruze in Argentina.
The automaker manufactured the last units of the second-generation Chevy Cruze on Friday, December 29th, 2023 at the GM Alvear plant located in the city of Rosario in Argentina, according to Infobae and several other sources familiar with the company’s production plans in the South American country. GM Argentina thus officially ended the Cruze’s career just before the end of last year as scheduled.
Notably, the GM Alvear complex was the company’s last facility worldwide still manufacturing the Chevy Cruze in its two body configurations, the four-door sedan and the five-door hatchback. As such, the production end of the Chevrolet compact vehicle at the Argentine plant represents the definitive discontinuation of one of the Bow Tie brand’s most successful and recognized nameplates globally.
Following a notable investment of about 740 million dollars in the industrial complex of the Argentine province of Santa Fe, production of the second-generation Chevy Cruze began at the GM Alvear plant during the second quarter of 2016 as the star model of the company’s so-called “Phoenix project.” This manufacturing plan included local production of the vehicle in its two body styles along with its turbocharged 1.4L I4 LE2 engine.
Thanks to this, the Chevy Cruze managed to achieve a good level of popularity both in the Argentine market and in some of the region’s other countries such as Brazil – which was the main volume market for the vehicle in all of South America. In fact, this caused the Argentine plant to maintain production of the D2 platform-based Cruze after three other GM plants in the United States, Mexico and China abruptly ended manufacturing of the model.
The production end of the Chevy Cruze in Argentina closes a long manufacturing cycle of almost eight years and an important chapter in the history of Chevrolet, as it is its first global product that, for several years, was the brand’s best-selling vehicle in worldwide. It should be noted that GM previously announced that it will continue producing parts and powertrain components for the Cruze at the Argentine factory for the next 10 years.
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Comments
dumb move by GM…only oversized suvs and truck, no mid or smaller sized cars. Not everyone wants a bus to drive..its going to be interesting when all these fools that buy these huge trucks, and suvs with huge payments and insurance, start missing payments. I worked in the industry in the last down turn. We couldnt pick them up fast enough, and send them to auction. Dont know why all the companies are not making cars, again no choices from GM, I wont be buying another GM product. Dont want a truck or an SUV bus, and dont need them. Good luck when the crap hits the fan.
GM’s P/E for it’s shares is extremely cheap because investors do not think the company will last much more than another decade. The next big recession will put them under. No one will buy 70k+ vehicles when their job is in jeopardy. The US will be a country that has given away their auto manufacturing and will mostly import it by the middle of next decade. Women and young adults have pretty much excluded American manufactured vehicles from their purchases, unless there’s a foreign badge on the hood.
Not really.
I’m keeping my Chevrolet Spark for as long as I can! Hey GM , I don’t see myself driving a big ass SUV! I guess GM doesn’t care about me as a customer anymore, the whole automotive industry, all the car brands doesn’t care about me as a potential client. In Europe, many car brands still do care about me !
We’ll have to import little cars from Japan, Europe if we want small cars because the automobile industry do not care about us.
Here in North America, there will be a time when you won’t be able to drive between two lanes because your car will be too fuc..ING big!
I had a 2017 cruze hatchback and really enjoyed it. (I sold it to my youngest son that needed a car).
If it would still be available in Canada I would have ordered another one this year, but instead i ordered a 2024 Trax.
(Still waiting for it.)