2011 Chevy Cruze vs 2012 Ford Focus

Two automakers are placing their hope in new or redesigned 'world cars' - cars that can be used in markets all over the world and easily adjusted to meet various safety and emissions regulations.  Chevrolet introduced the 2011 Cruze at December's Los Angeles Auto Show. The 2012 Ford Focus made its worldwide debut today at the North American International Auto Show held in Detroit. What makes these two cars unique is they may be small and affordable, but they are far from the typical 'economy car'. Considering this, the Cruze and the new Focus will likely go head to head in the market by early 2011 when both models will be available. The Chevrolet goes on sale in the U.S. late this year, with the Focus following early in 2011.

2011 Chevrolet Cruze

The 2011 Chevrolet Cruze replaces the Chevy Cobalt, which ends production in its plant in Lordstown, Ohio, early in 2010, but this is much more car than the Cobalt was ever planned to be. The Cruze has handsome exterior work, while the interior is impressively good for big people, and the car also looks and feels better than the price should allow.

Cruze Power and Handling

The Cruze the will be found on American roads will use two fuel-efficient four-cylinder options, a 1.8-liter with 136 horsepower and a 1.4-liter turbocharged engine with 138 horsepower. Automatic and manual six-speed transmission are available with both engines. Chevrolet has said at least one of these powertrains will deliver 40 miles per gallon highway mileage. The Cruze as it sits on the new Delta 2 architecture (shared with the Chevy Volt and the next Opel Astra) incorporates lots of lightweight, high-tensile-strength steel. While the new platform's front suspension struts and rear torsion-beam axle are fairly basic work, they are finer than anything experienced under a Cobalt. The Cruze weighs 2,844 pounds with the manual transmission and 2,899 pounds with the auto, so both are lighter than the current 2,991-pound Cobalt.

Design of the '11 Chevy Cruze

The Cruze looks rich, and bigger your mind thinks a small car should. The Cruze will be three different trim levels; LS, LT and LTZ. The LTZ get fitted with 18-inch aluminum wheels. The Cruze is larger than the outgoing Chevy Cobalt and most of the other cars it will compete against.

Cruze Cabin

The cabin of the Chevy Cruze offers modern amenities and plenty of room for a car in this class. The interior has aluminum finished accents and bold use of color. High-quality soft-touch plastics and fabrics are used for materials. Everything fits as it should with clean, even panel gaps. By the measurements, the Cruze passenger cabin tops the competition while also looking swell and managing to keep exterior noise from the wind, tires and motor from pestering occupants. Something that's special about this 'small car' is the room in the rear seating area. The rear seats enjoy over 36 inches of legroom and 54 inches of shoulder room. This is 5 inches more than the outgoing Cobalt sedan, and used to be a competitive measurement for a mid-size sedan. Both ingress and egress are notably upper class for this market segment, with large door openings and an overall height of 58.2 inches, 2.7 inches more than the Cobalt. The trunk of the Cruze is tops in class with 15.9 cubic feet of cargo capacity.

2012 Ford Focus

The new Focus will be slightly larger than the vehicle it replaces and will be much more upscale than the budget-minded Focus currently sold in the U.S. With the Fiesta taking up some of the lower end of the market, Ford sees the Focus graduating to greater levels of sophistication and comfort. The new Focus is shorter of wheelbase by a few inches than Chevy's upcoming Cruze sedan.

'12 Focus Power and Handling

Ford is using advanced engine technologies such as direct fuel injection to simultaneously improve horsepower and fuel economy. The new Focus will be powered by a 2.0-liter four cylinder that produces 155 horsepower, 15 more than the current Focus. This engine uses variable valve timing on intake and exhaust. While the company is emphasizing the new car's reduced NVH, it claims the driving dynamics that have become something of a Focus trademark (at least early in the model's history) have been improved. A six-speed manual transmission is standard. The only automatic is a six-speed Ford calls the PowerShift. The transmission is technically a dual-clutch design similar to those used on sports cars from Porsche, Audi, Ferrari, Lamborghini. Ford claims a 9-percent increase in fuel economy just from the PowerShift technology.

Design of the '12 Ford Focus

The 2012 Focus is more aggressively styled than the Chevy Cruze. The all-new Focus is based on Ford's globally-developed C-Car platform. Ford will begin building two different body styles of the new Focus at a plant in Wayne, Michigan that used to build SUVs.  Ford developed an exterior style they're calling "kinetic design form." 2011 Ford Fiesta is the first Ford to bring kinetic design to the U.S. and the focus will be the second. Overall, the Focus's exterior design is sporty, especially as applied to the five-door hatchback. Predictably the five-door variant is the sassier, sportier of the two models, with a rear that calls to mind a smaller Toyota Venza. More surprising is the sedan, which is expected to be the sales leader here. Unlike the sedan versions of most small cars, the 2012 Focus actually looks like something you might want to drive.

Ford Focus Cabin

The new Focus will get a sporty, sculpted interior. There will be several trim levels, including the range-topping Titanium edition that is already popular on several of Ford's European models. Ford's Sync technology (developed with Microsoft) is optional. In addition to SYNC, the all-new MyFord Touch system that provides special steering wheel controls and a multiple LCD screens designed into the car's interior will also be available.

Summary

The Cruze and Focus are nearly identical in length and height. The Focus is an inch wider, but the body rides on a 104.2-inch wheelbase compared to the Cruze's 105.7-inch spacing. Highway mileage for the new Focus will exceed the current models 35 mpg by a significant margin. Chevy claims that at least one of the Cruze models will get at least 40 mpg, so in the end the two vehicles will get similar fuel economy, with the Cruze slightly edging the Focus. Both models will come standard with safety features to meet new standards. Ten standard airbags provide impressive occupant protection with the Chevrolet Cruze as well as dynamic safety features like electronic stability control, ABS and traction control.

The Focus' advantage is the availability of Ford's new technology MyFord, while the Cruze's interior room, fuel efficiency, and overall design will be a big seller. Ford is loading the Focus with all manner of optional niceties such as keyless entry and ignition, a rearview camera, and a semi-automatic parallel parking system. The new MyFord "driver connect" technology which reconfigures information and entertainment operation with five-way touchpads on the steering-wheel spokes and, with high-end versions, adds an 8-inch touchscreen display.

The Cruze sedan is being delivered to customers in European markets right now, and it has been on sale in Korea as the Daewoo Lacetti Premiere since late 2008. It will also be sold as the Holden Cruze in Oceania. With today's globalized perspective, all this makes the Cruze GM's most significant car ever. Provided economies in key markets pick up in timely fashion, annual worldwide sales of the Cruze could easily top 1 million vehicles. After all the calculations are done, the 2011 Chevrolet Cruze should provide comfort and space and build quality never before seen in this segment at this price, while the Focus will provide an affordable means of owning a vehicle with state of the art technology. A U.S. model of the base Cruze with manual transmission should start with an MSRP of around $15,500, and then about $1,500-$2,000 more will be tacked on for the LS, LT and LTZ trims. The 2012 Focus will range from $16,290 - $18,780. Visit Ford's official 2012 Focus site and Chevy's 2011 Chevy Cruze site for more details and images.