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Cruze Diesel Road Trip reveals the good and bad, but no ugly

Most of us have strong opinions on diesel-powered cars based on our perceptions of and experience with them. I used to thoroughly dislike oil burners for their noise, smoke and lackluster performance, and the fact that they ran on greasy, smelly stuff that was more expensive than gasoline, could be hard to find and was nasty to get on your hands when refueling. Those negatives, for me, trumped diesel's major positives of big torque for strong acceleration and better fuel economy. Are any of those knocks on diesel still valid today? I'm not talking semis, which continue to annoy me when their operators for some reason almost never shut them down. At any busy truck stop, the air seems always filled with the sound – and sometimes smell – of dozens of big-rig diesels idling endlessly and mindlessly. Or diesel heavy-duty pickups. Those muscular workhorses are far more refined than they once were and burn much less fuel than their gasoline counterparts. But good luck arriving home late at night, or departing early morning, without waking your housemates and neighbors with their clattery racket. No, I'm talking diesel-powered passenger cars, which account for more than half the market in Europe (diesel fuel is cheaper there) yet still barely bump the sales charts in North America. Diesel fuel remains more expensive here, too few stations carry it, and too many Americans remember when diesel cars were noisy, smelly slugs. Also, US emissions requirements make them substantially more expensive to certify, and therefore to buy. But put aside (if you can) higher vehicle purchase and fuel prices, and today's diesel cars can be delightful to drive while delivering much better fuel efficiency than gas-powered versions. So far in the US, all except Chevrolet's compact Cruze Diesel come from German brands, and all are amazingly quiet, visually clean (no smoke) and can be torquey-fun to drive. When a GM Powertrain engineering team set out to modify a tried-and-true GM of Europe turbodiesel four for North American Chevy Cruze compacts, says assistant chief engineer Mike Siegrist, it had a clear target in mind: the Volkswagen Jetta TDI 2.0-liter diesel. And they'll tell you that they beat it in nearly every way. "I believe we have a superior product," he says. "It's powerful, efficient and clean, and it will change perceptions of what a diesel car can be." The 2.0L Cruze turbodiesel pumps out 151 SAE certified horses and 264 pound-feet of torque (at just 2,000 rpm) vs.

2020 Chevy and GMC HD truck spy shots reveal LED lighting

With Chevy and GMC's 1500 series pickups just starting to roll into dealerships, our attention naturally turns to the Heavy Duty 2500 and 3500 series trucks. We've seen these HD trucks testing already, but thes latest spy photos give us our first good glimpse of the two HD trucks' headlights through some translucent camouflage, and their designs appear very interesting and quite different from each other. The 2020 Chevrolet Silverado HD looks to be getting a striking set of LED lights that flank the grille. A previously released teaser image of the truck shows that the front lighting elements are split by a bulky wing that branches out from a big, upright chrome face, and both top and bottom units seem to incorporate LED slashes. If you look closely at the images, you can easily make out the Chevrolet script cut into the grille's top edge. Amidst a bevy of Chevy test trucks was one lone GMC model in a dually configuration, and the Sierra HD also appears to have some LED accent lighting up front. Unlike the boomerang-shaped Chevy LEDs, GMC's version sports a shoulder-like right angle of light bars. Assuming these are production-level lighting units, it seems the Sierra HD will stick pretty close to the face of GMC's latest light-duty pickup truck. We're still waiting for confirmation on what range of powertrains will be available in GM's next-gen HD trucks, but we're sure there will be both gasoline- and diesel-burning engines on the ordering sheet. We expect to hear official details on the trucks sometime soon. Related Video: Featured Gallery 2020 GM Heavy Duty Pickup Spy Photos View 18 Photos Image Credit: KGP Spy Photography Spy Photos Chevrolet GMC Truck gmc sierra hd chevy silverado hd

Next-gen Chevy Volt will get 1.5-liter, four-cylinder engine

As General Motors gets ready to unveil the new Chevy Volt at the Detroit Auto Show in January, it's starting to reveal a few more details about the updated plug-in hybrid. Today should be fruitful on that front, thanks to an event GM is hosting today that focuses on the new Volt, and we've just had the first bit of new: a bigger engine is coming. Since the beginning, the Volt has used a 1.4-liter, four-cylinder engine as a range extender when the battery runs dry. The second-generation model will instead get a slightly larger 1.5-liter, four-cylinder engine that will be built in Flint, MI. That's a step up from the various engines that have been a part of the 2016 Volt's rumored mills, everything from a 1.0-liter or 1.2-liter three-cylinder to a 2.0-liter turbo. The confirmation about the new 1.5-liter powerplant was found in Automotive News, where we also heard again that GM is going to start building the new Volt's electric drive unit in Detroit, moving production up from Mexico. We will have more information on the 2016 Chevy Volt later today.