I feel like somethings never change..

2012 Buick Verano Luxury Sedan | Buick

I don't know how to feel about this, its obviously a remade cruze but at a "huge" mark up.
Its like gm is building their own competition again. Which I don't know how I feel about this.
Do you think a buick owner that bought a regal 8 years ago will settle for a cruise now since its in the same price range? Like many owners have had to settle on a downsized car to get the smae brand in the last 5 years.

The drivetrain is interesting since we know cruze stuff "fits"..

I hear ya! at least GM is better these days at keeping the platform sharing in disguise. I'm thinking back to how you could turn a Regal into a Cutlass with just a front facia and rear tail panel. A Firebird could be a Camaro.. I think the Cavalier was the one platform to be spread over all 5 brands.

With the Verano... I suspected it was based on the Cruze, but I couldn't be sure. New manufacturing techniques allow the same 'platform' to be more heavily disguesed and changed and still be as economical to build as the old way of using the same exact body shell for every division.

Even when they were obvious about it...only car-guys and gals understood and cared.. alot of the car buying population would be like "what??" "My Olds is same car as that Chevy? ohh hmm so uh ,what does that mean?"

I think if it's a comfortable car, with the things current consumers want for the price, people will buy. Irregardless of the fact the car is technically a smaller and cheaper than the car they paid the same price for last time.

The thing is: the strategy seems to be working. (At least for some cars.)

The average transaction prices on Ford Fiesta & Focus are pretty high. (Sorry, I'm being lazy and not Googling the numbers). People are apparently willing to shell out the bucks for compact or sub-compact cars with lots of "content".

I do not fall into that category :D

Weird, the verano was supposed to get the cruze drivetrain. But Apparantly they're going with a 2.4 instead....interesting

I thought that too, and thought maybe, just maybe the 2.4 could be a cruze SS engine, someday? But seems unlikely, as the 2.0T or even the 1.6T or 1.8T is more likely.

177hp 2.4L motor....If they were gonna make a cruze SS they'd probably go with the 2.0T...then again there were those Cobalt SS that got a 2.4L motor and auto trans. Who knows with GM