"Whenever I drive in Germany I'm struck by the number of wagons on the roads, writes Brian Byrne. It's possibly linked to their love of the outdoor lifestyle, which requires lots of stuff to be carted around, but estate versions of every car model that offers them are abundant.
Compare and contrast with Ireland, where the estate is a quite small proportion of the car variants sold, anywhere between six and nine percent, depending on brand and model. Premium makers tend to have a higher percentage of estate buyers.
But maybe there's a hint of a change. The wagon versions of mainstream family compacts like the Hyundai i30 and Kia's cee'd are all selling above average against the standard hatches. Partly, I suspect, because they look more like slightly longer hatchbacks than the vanny traditional estates which used to be offered in the genre. In other words, sportier, not like the favoured vehicle of yore of what used to be called a commercial traveller.
Such thoughts were prompted over the last few days at the international press launch of the Chevrolet Cruze SW. It won't be available in Ireland until sometime towards the end of the year, but it could also help to reshape the Irish perception of the estate car.
Chevrolet is only beginning to get moving here again after a few years of hiatus when the Irish importer disengaged and a new arrangement was made with the UK-based Chevrolet subsidiary of GM Europe. Ten dealers have been appointed, six more applications are being evaluated, and plans are progressing to give the Chevrolet brand a good push for the 2013 market.
My experience with the Cruze SW has been my first extended run with a Chevrolet product since the new arrangement was finalised a couple of months back. I wasn't surprised to find it an encouraging one.
We haven't had the Cruze here until now. It’s very similar to its cousin Opel Astra and is a very successful compact model in the US and Australia, and showing promise in European markets where the Chevrolet brand is one of the few on a growth run (the others being Hyundai and Kia, coincidentally also from Korea where most of the Chevrolet products sold here are built).
The connections with Opel models are clearly visible in the interior, such as the sat-nav and other instrumentation. The SWs I drove over the last couple of days were well trimmed, with close-woven fabric on sections of the dashboard providing a nice textured lift to the plastic.
The estate elements add more cargo space and flexibility, which I'll explore further when the car actually goes on sale in Ireland. Suffice to say for now that there’s some 1,478 litres of cargo capacity with the rear seatbacks folded.
I had the chance to try two powertrains, a 163hp 2.0 diesel, and the 140hp 1.7 diesel which will be the mainstay motor in the Irish market. Both seem very good, but I preferred the smaller one even though it did require more gearshifting to keep it at the top of its game in the scenic and twisting hilly roads above the Rhine. The 6-speed gearbox managing both was pleasant and crisp.
I was expecting the car to handle well, and I wasn’t disappointed. In this configuration, it isn’t ever going to be called on to perform like its WTCC namesakes, but the composed attitude on the launch routes suggested the possibilities of a little fun where safely doable.
On the highway at the speeds permitted in Germany the Cruze SW is a steady and competent vehicle well able to keep up with the powerful travellers in the faster lanes.
It isn’t a great time to be selling cars in Ireland, and it’s an even more difficult one to be relaunching a brand virtually from standstill. But the Cruze in its various forms is certainly a valid proposition in the key compact family market. The segment is competitive, but so is the car.
This will be worth watching.
