Detroit Auto Show Preview: Chevrolet Gets Busy

Last week, General Motors offered certain automotive journalists a sneak peek at its lineup for the North American International Show, and in an amazing display of restraint, it took a full day before the info started bubbling up into the automotive blogosphere.

But now that the proverbial cat is out of the bag, we know that the biggest news starts off at the smaller end of the market, with the new Chevrolet Spark. This car is set to join the subcompact fray in 2011 and take on cars like the Honda Fit and Nissan Versa, as well as two much-anticipated new entries from Mazda and Ford: the MAZDA2 and the Fiesta. Needless to say, this will be a difficult task for the new Chevy, but the Spark will be much more stylish than the Honda or Nissan, and stylish in a way that's different than the Ford or Mazda. The Spark's aggressive, sharp-angled design should set it far enough apart from other subcompacts to do well in the segment, provided its mechanicals are up to the job.

The Spark should certainly do better with customers than the current Chevrolet Aveo, which remains an under-appreciated option among current subcompacts. The Aveo has somehow gotten a reputation for relatively weak fuel-efficiency numbers, a reputation belied by the actual EPA ratings. The Chevy turns up a 27/35/30 line for city/highway/combined fuel efficiency, just a tad under the Honda's 28/35/31 and better than the Nissan's 26/33/28.

Regardless, the new rumors indicate subcompact customers won't have the Aveo to kick around anymore — but that's because it's being moved up to the compact segment. And here's where things get tricky for Chevrolet and General Motors. As people may recall, GM has spent a few billion dollars preparing another car, the Chevrolet Cruze, to sell in this same segment.

The Cruze, which debuted in its U.S. trim at the recent Los Angeles Auto Show, got the whole global-development treatment and is essentially Chevy's answer to the new Ford Focus, carrying with it the same burden of expectations. Like the Focus, the Cruze also will spawn some significant spin-off products from its platform. For Ford, it will be the new C-MAX, for Chevrolet it will be the Orlando. Both will be seven-seat, European-style "multipurpose vehicles," or MPVs.

These can be thought of as mini-minivans, a segment that's quite popular in Europe but hasn't caught on here yet. The only two vehicles working this part of the U.S. market right now are the Mazda MAZDA5 and the Kia Rondo, with the former selling 1,095 units in November and the latter seeing a mere 425 sales. On the other hand, the coming Ford and Chevrolet products should do much to spotlight a segment that is ripe for some serious growth.

And so should the GMC Granite, which will be the "Professional Grade" version of the Orlando. Now, the info coming out of the press preview indicates the Granite will be aimed at the box family — the Honda Element, Kia Soul, Nissan Cube and Scion xB — which makes me think this new GMC will be well-differentiated from its Chevrolet sibling.

If GM makes this into a smaller GMC Terrain — that is, designs it to be a small, rugged-looking crossover that gets impressive gas mileage — it should have no trouble winning buyers and doing so without impinging on the Orlando's customer base.

Next up, both in terms of Chevy's car portfolio and GM's Detroit debuts, is the Chevrolet Malibu. The current-generation Malibu is an impressive piece of machinery. It was the North American Car of the Year for 2008, and its since-departed Saturn sibling, the AURA, won the award for 2007. Although much of its midsize glory has been stolen by the Ford Fusion, it should be remembered as one of the first American products in recent times that could — and still can — compete with vehicles like the Honda Civic and Toyota Camry.

The fact that GM will be showing an all-new 2011 Malibu in Detroit is a testament to just how competitive the midsize segment has become, and it's a possible clue to how GM may handle the Aveo/Cruze overlap. This is total conjecture on my part, but here's what I'm thinking: The General always seems to have just about the largest vehicle in any given segment. For example, among compacts, the Chevrolet Cobalt is currently a few inches longer than the Civic and Toyota Corolla, and the Cruze looks like it will be slightly longer than the Cobalt.

Perhaps GM is going to bracket the competition with an Aveo that's somewhat shorter than most other compacts and a Cruze that's larger, perhaps even large enough to be considered an entry-level midsizer. The new Malibu would then be slotted as a sort of upmarket midsize entry, which would fit in with the reports that it will be more sophisticated than the current model.

Of course, that made me wonder if the latest Malibu would then be stepping on the toes of the new Buicks, at least until I heard about the Regal GS, also scheduled to show up in Detroit. The word is that this high-performance Buick could end up packing the same 325-hp engine found in the Opel Insignia OPC, and that means it should definitely be able to get out of the way of the Chevy — and a whole lot of other cars, too.