Cruising to milestone

The only small car built across the Tasman has celebrated a milestone this week with production of the 100,000th Cruze at Holden’s assembly facility in Elizabeth, South Australia. The SRi Z-Series hatch is destined for a dealership in Canberra.

Richard Phillips, executive director of manufacturing, says: “The Cruze competes in the most hotly contested segment of the most competitive market in the world, but it’s the only small car made by Holden in Australia. That’s something we’re proud of.

“We put a huge emphasis on build quality and our internal measures show we are building the best-quality cars to ever roll out of this factory.”

The Cruze celebrated its three-millionth global sale in August. It was first produced in sedan form at Elizabeth in March 2011, joining the Commodore on the production line.

However, the Cruze’s Australian ties run deeper than manufacturing. Its hatch, introduced at Elizabeth alongside the sedan later in 2011, was designed by Holden in Port Melbourne. Engineers also played a key role in ensuring the model has a Holden flavour – and is suited to New Zealand and Australian roads and conditions – while maintaining global appeal.

The Holden team has generated more than 20 engineering modifications, which have been adopted globally. These include suspension changes to improve steering, handling, ride comfort, and refining and recalibrating automatic transmission tunes to deliver better drivability across the range. It has also developed rear noise, vibration, and harshness improvements adopted globally by GM.

Most recently, Holden launched the updated model year 2014 range to include the localised introduction of a new 132kW, 1.6-litre turbo petrol engine and second-generation six-speed automatic transmission.