Седан Malibu станет флагманом Chevrolet

Chevrolet планирует начать продажи седана Malibu в Европе как флагмана своей модельной линии. Среднеразмерный седан Chevrolet  Malibu появится в Германии в следующем месяце. Стоимость модели составит от  29 990 евро. Первоначально Chevrolet  Malibu будет предлагаться с 2-мя вариантами моторов: 2-литровым дизелем (мощность 160 л.с) и бензиновым 2,4-литровым (мощность 167 л.с.).
Malibu построен на платформе GM Epsilon II, также используемой Opel Insignia. В Германии Chevrolet  Malibu будет стоить на 500 евро меньше, чем Opel с одним и тем же дизельным мотором. Однако при этом, за те же деньги “Малибу” получит больше опций.
В стандартной комплектации, Chevrolet Malibu будет иметь кожаный интерьер, навигационную систему с “тачскрин” дисплеем и бесключевой доступ в салон.
Сейчас эта модель уже находится в продаже в Швейцарии и Австралии. В ближайшее время автом выйдет на другие европейские рынки.

Стали доступны первые снимки нового Chevrolet Spin.

В сети стали доступными первые неофициальные снимки нового компактвэна Chevrolet Spin. Новая модель выполнена в том же стиле, что и последние автомобили американского производителя. Передняя часть машины схожа с пикапом Colorado. Производство модели Chevrolet Spin будет налажено на заводе General Motors, расположенном в Бразилии.


По имеющимся данным новый автомобиль будет располагать двумя двигателями: 1.4 литровым на 102 лошадиные силы и 1.8 литровым на 108 лошадиных сил. 1.8 литровая силовая установка будет работать в паре с шестиступенчатой автоматизированной коробкой передач.

Так же предполагается, что в салоне нового Chevrolet Spin будет иметься три ряда сидений, на которых сможет поместиться 7 человек. Кроме этого в комплектацию модели войдут такие устройства, как Bluetooth, USB-порт, кондиционер и электропакет.

Подробности о концепте Chevrolet Spin

Компания Chevrolet официально представила концепт глобального компакт-вэна Spin, который будет реализовываться на всех рынках, за исключением Европы и США. Будут ли поставки этой модели в Россию, пока не известно.
Габариты концепта Chevrolet Spin:

• Длина – 4343 мм
• высота — 1651 мм
• ширина — 1727 мм

Модель будет предложена в 5- и 7-местном исполнении, причем задние сиденья для перевозки груза или для увеличения свободного места можно будет вынуть.
В Бразилии Chevrolet Spin будет предлагаться с 1,8-литровым 4-литровым двигателем, который способен работать на обычном бензине и на этаноле. Мощность мотора будет 106 и 108 л.с. соответственно.
В Бразилии Заказы уже принимаются заказы на Spin. А в следующем году выпуск данной модели начнется в Индонезии

2014 Chevrolet Corvette Stingray: Everything there is to know

2013 is shaping up to be a frantic year for Chevrolet, with over a dozen reveals and launches on its calendar. New iterations of the most financially and emotionally important vehicles to the brand are launching little more than a few weeks apart – the 2014 Silverado (financially) and the 2014 Corvette (emotionally). Better than any other models, these two lines form the bedrock for the Bowtie's identity and bookend its portfolio. The pickup is the backbone of the brand's profits (and indeed, those of General Motors) and the Corvette is its spiritual core and flagship.

The 2014 Corvette Stingray will slay a few sacred cows.

It's fair to say that upon first impression, the new Silverado didn't exactly bowl over the assembled media – or the Autoblog commenteriat – with what many see as largely incremental improvements. (This, at a time when rivals are rewriting the book on what it means to be a full-size pickup). By contrast, the 2014 Corvette Stingray will slay a few sacred cows along the way to what is its arguably its biggest model-over-model change in decades. And at least at first glance, the Vette appears all the better for it.

We'll get to the specifics of its genetic makeup and appearance in a minute, but for now, you'll want to focus on these key bits: The all-new LT1 small-block V8 holds on to the same 6.2-liter displacement as the C6, here producing 450 horsepower and 450 pound-feet of torque backed by either a seven-speed manual or a six-speed paddleshift automatic. And although GM has yet to release the car's weight (we only know it won't be under 3,000 pounds as previously rumored), it's promising a better power-to-weight ratio than the Porsche 911 Carrera and Audi R8. In fact, Chevy pledges the C7 will run from 0-60 in less than four seconds and Z51 Performance Package examples will achieve cornering grip of over one g right out of the box. Further, 60-0 braking distances are said to be consistent with that of the outgoing Grand Sport and so are its lap times – impressive for a standard model.


Aesthetically, the car seen here is a big departure, though from most angles, it's still quite clearly a Corvette. About the same size as before, the C7 should nevertheless look significantly smaller in person thanks to its shrink-wrapped sheetmetal (err, fiberglass), which is much more angular. The front end is pure Corvette, with more detailed HID headlamps and much greater surface definition and tension in the hood, which, like the roof panel, is rendered in carbon fiber to shave weight. For reference, the C7 looks to be about the same size dimensionally as the 911, albeit with a significantly longer 106.7-inch wheelbase than the rear-engined German.

The biggest change to the C7 is its rear end, which is unlike any Corvette before it.

The C7's profile is the same basic view that's been around since the C4, with one big exception – the institution of a secondary side window, something not seen on a Corvette since 1962. The move was necessitated by air intakes mounted atop the rear fenders that feed the rear-mounted heat exchangers on automatic or Z51-equipped models (more on both in a moment). The ducts also mean the backlight is no longer a wraparound piece of glass, it's more flat and tapered. Otherwise, the side view is the same long dash-to-axle layout, albeit again, with more muscled contours to the skin, particularly in the body's lower third.

The biggest change aesthetically to the C7 is undoubtedly its rear end, which is utterly unlike any Corvette before it. It's likely to be the new design's biggest source of controversy, as well – there's no getting around it, the unusual taillamp treatment is going to be the crux of most styling discussions. Not only are the quad lenses not round, they are clustered together tightly, angular and have real depth and interest thanks in part to their lens internals and because they are surrounded by unusual new vents. There are new vents in the extremities of the blacked-out bumper, too, all part of a massively reworked aerodynamics strategy that has been "blatantly lifted from the C6R" racecar. Combined with the new side window and roofline, we almost see a bit of Nissan GT-R in the shallow rear three-quarter view, but there's plenty here that's distinctive, including four Howitzer-sized exhaust outlets.

2011 Chevrolet Camaro SS Convertible

Muscle cars have never coped well with having their tops clipped. Losing the roof rarely does a vehicle any favors in the rigidity department, but the high-horsepower, high-torque coupes of the last four decades took fiendish delight in twisting themselves into pretzels after a few enthusiastic throttle plunges. To make matters worse, frumpy, awkward-looking soft tops were never as attractive as the original tin. When it came time to design the fifth-generation Chevrolet Camaro, the engineers at General Motors specifically aimed to avoid those pitfalls by drafting the chassis to field both coupe and convertible duties.

Long before the first test mule ever turned a tire, this coupe was designed to go topless, and the result is one of the more stable convertible platforms out there. With a little help from the minds behind the Chevrolet Corvette soft top, the retractable lid even offers the same sleek profile as the Camaro Coupe. That's not to say all is right in this cruising kingdom, though. Tough top-up visibility, a bulging waistline and an overly extroverted interior all work against the drop head. Even so, this is still a vehicle soaked in summertime. And whatdayaknow? The sun's out.

Part of the appeal of the fifth generation Camaro is the vehicle's concept-car aesthetics. With a low-slung roof line, high hip and plenty of sharp creases, it should be lounging under auto show lights instead of sulking in the Costco parking lot. The designers at Chevrolet managed to retain most of the coupe's presence thanks to the fact that both vehicles wear identical sheetmetal from the window sills down. Up above, a long, arching soft top still holds true to the profile of the coupe when in in place. The piece can be had in black or tan cloth as the buyer sees fit, and for the most part, the design is free of any odd bulges from protruding bows.



Put the top down, and the Camaro Convertible takes on a much more swept look than its fixed-roof kin. The steeply angled windshield becomes more prominent without the burden of anchoring the top and the muscular hips over the rear fender arches define the vehicle's profile. It looks good, even if it is the size of a small river barge. At 190.4 inches long and 75.5 inches wide, the 'vert matches its coupe twin for length and girth, resulting in a vehicle that feels larger than life, even at a glance.

That theme continues on indoors. Thanks to a surprisingly wide cabin and a tall dash, it's hard not to feel like you're 12 years old sitting behind the wheel of your uncle's new car. That high hip line translates into a window sill that isn't made for resting your elbow, at least not without losing blood flow to your arm. Our 2011 tester also came with the highly-stylized but not overly comfortable steering wheel of the 2011 Coupe. General Motors has fixed that issue with a parts-bin piece on 2012 models, however.

The rest of the cabin feels much like the Camaro we know, with the notable exception that the rear seats are now significantly easier to access. With the top down, two adults had no problem sinking into the rear buckets, though the tight seating made for bruised hips on the side of the seatbelt buckle. Though legroom is cramped for rear passengers, there's enough space for young people and flexible adults. Our cabin came awash in some impressively obnoxious orange plastic trim and leather seating surfaces, though we do appreciate the attractive orange contrast stitching on the door panels.

Unlike the Corvette Convertible, which relies on a button tucked well below and to the left of the steering wheel to operate the retractable soft top, the Camaro Convertible leaves its button out in the open and right beside the large center latch. Undo the mechanism, press the button and listen to the whir of electronic and pneumatic wizardry as it pulls the top into the trunk cavity. The whole process takes around 20 seconds, which sounds brief enough until the skies open up on all that orange leather. Once the top is stowed, an optional toneau cover can be folded in place for a clean, finished look, though the piece is an aggravation to install. Check out the Short Cut below for a look at the top in action.


Those who thought rearward visibility of the coupe couldn't get any worse need only to throw the convertible into Reverse with the top up to see just how wrong they were. The infamously lengthy C pillars of the hard top have somehow swollen in the convertible, and while the back glass looks large enough, its angle and height make for a narrow field of view.

GM equipped this particular SS-branded beast with a 6.2-liter LS3 V8 engine with 426 horsepower and 420 pound-feet of torque mated to a six-speed manual transmission. The duo is the most desirable engine and gearbox combination available and is borrowed straight from the coupe. There are some mechanical differences between the two, however. Engineers added additional bracing in four key areas to give the Convertible as much of the rigid feel of the coupe as possible. A sturdy aluminum strut tower brace, a transmission support reinforcement brace, an underbody tunnel brace and front and rear underbody V braces are all tacked in place to combat torsional flex. The company says that all of the work helps give the Camaro Convertible the same stiffness as the BMW 3 Series convertible.



While we didn't have the pleasure of putting a 335i Convertible through its paces against the big Bow Tie (probably a good thing), we will say that the engineering work paid off. Typically, wrenching the roof off a coupe leads to dreaded cowl and column shake as the chassis contorts over rough road surfaces. The typical engineering response is to soften the springs and dampers to the point that the effects are less pronounced. GM is proud to remind us that the Camaro Convertible uses the exact same spring and damper rates as the hard top, which results in an incredibly similar driving experience. Under most normal circumstances, there's little telling the two apart. Only under some serious thrashing did we notice even a hint of column shake during a deeply-cambered downhill right – a situation that the vast majority of Camaro Convertible buyers will never find themselves in.

While the standard Camaro is no great pantheon of handling, the fact that its large, topless sibling can come close to matching pace is pretty impressive. Unfortunately, the convertible is lugging around a substantially larger curb weight, which colors the driving experience accordingly. According to GM, the Camaro SS Convertible tips the scales at 4,116 pounds in our tester's spec. That's a full 267 pounds heavier than the SS Coupe, with most of that weight lodged over the rear axle. As a result, acceleration feels somewhat dulled even though GM claims that the vehicle can get to 60 mph in 4.9 seconds – two-tenths of a seconds slower than the hard top. The convertible simply feels heavy to drive, with braking, cornering and straight-line grunt all taking a hit.

But the Camaro Convertible does well as a comfortable cruiser and there's no denying how good it looks cruising through town or rolling down a deserted highway at dusk. The optional high-intensity discharge headlights of the RS package on our tester are appropriately threatening with their halo ring and the long, lunging hood is unmistakably Muscle. With an as-tested MSRP of $42,995 including the $850 destination fee, the exterior was covered in a black vinyl stripe package, while the loud orange interior accent package rang up an additional $500, with another $1,200 for the RS package.

GM doesn't seem to be trying to convince anyone that the figure is a small price. In fact, the company calls the BMW 3 Series convertible its chief competitor instead of the Ford Mustang GT Convertible. The latter will cost you $38,310 plus destination for a GT Premium Convertible while the German commands a lofty $46,450 plus destination for the significantly less powerful 328i Convertible.

So where does that put the Camaro SS Convertible? Buyers seeking the near irresistible nostalgia of the coupe combined with the joy of being able to put the top down will find exactly what they're looking for. It easily trades its performance credentials for cruising machismo, and in a machine like this, that's no slight.