Its original--and safe--design mimicked the leaders in the midsize car segment, the Toyota Camry and Honda Accord.
Designed as a midsize car for global markets, it will be sold in Europe as the next-generation Mondeo.
Renault manufactures the Pulse small car, Scala midsize car and Duster SUV at the plant, which opened in May 2010.
WSJ: Renault, Nissan Expanding Capacity of India Joint-Venture Plant
Now, the automaker has winners in the minicar, small car, midsize car, small SUV, midsize SUV, minivan, and large pickup categories.
In addition, the company assembles the Fluence midsize car from parts imported from South Korea and the Koleos SUV with parts brought from Romania.
WSJ: Renault, Nissan Expanding Capacity of India Joint-Venture Plant
What was once a forgotten midsize car, the Kia Optima was completely redesigned for 2011, with sales up by nearly 150 percent over the first seven months of this year, leaving dealers clamoring for inventory.
With the drapes pulled tight, they spent the next six hours hashing out design features for a slew of new Fords that could be sold globally, including the next-generation Focus and a midsize car, and a small crossover utility vehicle (a combination of a car and truck).
The message is unmistakably aggressive, arguably arrogant: Ford just redefined the midsize-car market.
If the effort succeeds, GM can save its shrinking midsize-car share, now 29% (see chart, left) in the U.S., from an unrelenting assault by Toyota's Camry and Honda's Accord.
So that's why the company will build up to 800, 000 midsize cars and car-based crossovers off of one common chassis, saving billions in engineering costs.
But Buick sales fell 3 percent, and sales of the Impala full-size car and Malibu midsize sedan plummeted more than 30 percent.
For parents who can't afford a new car, the IIHS recommends buying a used car--midsize or larger--with as many modern safety features as possible.
Here in the United States, though, midsize pickup sales have languished and other car makers have abandoned the segment.
General Motors Co. will make another attempt to get Buick to appeal to younger buyers with freshened up versions of the Regal midsize sports sedan and the LaCrosse large luxury car.
The new VW Golf and Audi A3, for example, are the first of about 40 new small and midsize models that will be developed using the small-car tool kit.
Still, a four-cylinder Honda Accord leaving a sports car in the dust does say something: Despite being grossly out of its element on a racetrack as shown by how much the car leaned when changing directions this midsize sedan is so well engineered that it maintains poise even when being flung about.
The Cruze represents the new breed of conventional compact and midsize sedans that brands are launching to raise average new-car efficiency to 35 mpg by 2016, and to 54.5 mpg by 2025, as required by federal rules.
应用推荐