Chevy builds a surprising Jetta TDI rival
by Luke Vandezande

Few details distinguish the latest addition to the Chevrolet Cruze family. In fact aside from specific 17-inch five-spoke alloy wheels and a little “2.0 TD” badge on the deck lid, it looks the same. But twist the key and that all changes.

That’s because the newest version wears the same skin as a Cruze but is otherwise a different car.

TORQUEY 2.0L DIESEL A WELCOME NEWCOMER

Cutting right to the chase, a revised version of GM’s European diesel engine hides under the hood to offer 151 hp and 264 lb-ft of torque.

More notably, 250 lb-ft of that torque kicks in at 1750 rpm to give the car plenty of pull from a dead stop. Finally, jamming your foot to the floor activates an overboost feature to offer 280 lb-ft for 10 seconds.

Don’t forget, Chevrolet’s unabashed aim here is targeting Volkswagen Jetta TDI buyers. In other words, this car needs to feel like a German car if it hopes to succeed. Does it?

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Hi folks,
Two summers ago you guys helped voteoncars.com as we searched for the very best car available for less than $17K base MSRP. Thanks so much for representing Cruze so well. Anyhow, we've come full circle. Last month we took eight of our "regular guy," grassroots, peer-to-peer car reviewers to a local dealership to explore, test drive and review three Chevrolets — Spark, Sonic and Cruze. They turned out really good and some of them are HILARIOUS!!!. Anyhow, we're releasing a new video every night to our website. I'd love to get your take on how they turned out. Here are a couple links to our Cruze videos.

Andrew's Video

Laura's Video

Scott's Video

You'll find the other 9 we've posted so far on our site.

Have a great day,

StuntMatt.

Set to launch this year, the diesel powered Chevrolet Cruze will offer better highway mileage than any non-hybrid passenger car in America, with a rating of 46 mpg.

Chevy says that rating will deliver up to 700 miles of range or roughly 10 hours of driving.

The Cruze Diesel comes equipped with a 2.0-liter turbocharged diesel engine making 148 hp and 258 lb-ft of torque with an overboost function that can deliver up to 280 lb-ft for short bursts of power. A 0-60 is estimated at roughly 8.6 seconds.

Pricing will start at $25,695 including a $810 destination fee with a long list of standard equipment including 18-inch wheels, leather seating, Chevy’s MyLink infotainment system as well as a 100,000-mile limited powertrain warranty and two years of free maintenance.

“We harnessed generations of diesel expertise to adapt our world-class global engine for the North American market,” said Gary Altman, chief engineer of the Cruze Diesel. “The Cruze Diesel is the best diesel passenger car out

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