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Cruze sells, but numbers down

WARREN — Not at all unexpected since General Motors shuttered its Lordstown assembly plant, sales of the discontinued Chevrolet Cruze nearly have fallen off the board, according to the automaker’s latest numbers.

GM reported for the second quarter of 2020 there were 277 Cruzes delivered, a precipitous 98.3 percent decline from the same three-month stretch in 2019.

And so far for 2020, there were 682 Cruzes delivered, also a 98 percent decline from January to June 2019.

Cruze sales for the quarter — April, May and June — were better than only the Chevrolet Volt, GM’s plug-in hybrid the automaker also stopped producing in 2019. GM delivered 39 Volts.

It’s also no surprise trucks and SUVs make up the top five selling Chevrolet models. Consumer preference has shifted back to the larger vehicles away from sedans, and GM’s closure of the local plant coincided with its plans to focus production on trucks, SUVs and electric vehicles to meet driver demand.

The best-selling Chevrolet vehicles for the quarter were Silverado LD, 89,465; Equinox, 50,798; Silverado HD, 31,279; Trax, 22,466; and Traverse, 22,314.

Meanwhile the new Chevrolet Trailblazer, which many local union officials, workers and other plant supporters argued could have been built in Lordstown, but instead it’s produced in Mexico, had sales of 6,699 for the quarter and 6,702 for the year.

Other lingering bitterness surrounding the Trailblazer is GM announced its plans to build it south of the border the same day it shed the plant’s second shift in 2018, a move that affected as many as 1,200 workers.

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