future of optra magnum diesel after launch of cruze

i want to buy a new chevy either optra magnum or the new cruze.i like to buy magnum but i fear if it is going to be dicontinued soon as the new cruze has been  launched.can anyone plz tell me what will GM plan for this beautiful magnum.

thanks

Optra has an aura of a D segment car, and at the rates it is available, it could still be an attractive option for a staid Lala/Maalik type of person (No offense meant, I just wanted to indicate that the car has a prosperous, rich look).

Aveo, on the other hand, is lost in the crowd of options that are fantastic on one parameter or other, so it is the Aveo that is in a real danger of losing a face.

I am personally glad that the Optra Magnum LT Diesel will now cost less to whosoever was yerning for it for so long.

Am I making sense?

There may be a price reduction for Optra Magnum in future to bridge the gap between Aveo & Cruze . I doubt it will be discontinued in future . Cruze is a segment higher . Also Optra is competing with Linea & City where as Cruze is against Octovia , Laura , Corolla Altis & Civic.

As far as Aveo is concerned , yes it is loosing its face although having so many virtues. New face lifted Aveo will come in 2010 & Aveo diesel is also coming to India , may be at the end of 2010.

Ashish, I think Optra is already price reduced on account of Cruze - they reduced it from 10.5L+ to ~8.5L, which brings it squarely in the same court as verna/City/Linea and all those yuppy cars.

If this is the case then Optra is real VFM & GM should start promoting it aggressively . I wonder why GM is not aggressive for their Optra & Aveo promotions. They have got good products with good prices.

All their products are compteting with cars a segment lower, see Spark, UVA, Aveo, Optra, all of them. If they had priced Optra like this a year ago, I would have definitely bought one.

I too would second that thought. The reason I did consider Optra while buying SX4 was that it was too costly. However, in current pricing I think Optra is a consideration to a prospective SX4 or New Honda City buyer. It is a touch costly to SX4 but cheaper than the NHC. At the same time both SX4 and NHC are having more feature rich as compared to Optra.

Given the fact that it is amongst the oldest models in this segment, I think people would still prefer SX4 and NHC or even the new Fiesta, over Optra. in the deisel version, it will have serious difficulty in competing with Verna, Linea or even Skoda Octavia. these are cars that are better in terms of economy (intial price + Mileage i.e. Linea and Verna) or are better in terms of performace (octavia).

Chevy must do some kind of rebranding for Optra or else peole with money will move to Cruze or Skoda or NHC and those with tighter bugets would go to Maruti or Hyundai or Fiat. Optra doe snot fit in eighter of the two spaces.

Chevy would be happy if the buyer buys the more expensive cruze. Did not get the logic here.

Chevy would be extermely happy if people only upgraded to Cruze.

However, My point was that a section of buyers will move to other cars like Octavia, NHC and Cruze (if fact you can even add Corolla Altis to this list). The second segment of buyers will move to other other cheaper options from Maruti or Hyundai or Fiat.

So Chevy would be loosing out on customers rather than upgrading them to a new level. Only a very small number of those customers would buy Cruze. Rest will move to other brands.

If we go by sales numbers GM has done pretty well this month as compared to other brands. But this was due to the excitement of a new launch and reduction in Optra prices. Typically sales remain very high in first few months of a launch and then cool down to a more sustainable number. I am afraid that in few months the total sales of Cruze + Optra would drop down significantly.