Australia’s GM Holden Raises ’12 Cruze Prices, Makes Bluetooth Standard

GM Holden raises the price of its popular, locally built Cruze small car in mid-November, when it introduces the ’12 range that includes a new hatchback model.

GM Holden’s popular Cruze.

The sedan and hatch will be priced identically, but the price will increase by A$250 ($262) on CD and CDX variants and A$500 ($524) on SRi and SRi-V models as GM Holden makes Bluetooth standard across the range.

The wireless communication system previously was a A$600 ($630) dealer-fitted accessory.

Marketing Director Simon Carr says the addition of the technology is in response to consumer demand.

“Bluetooth has become an increasingly important feature for many motorists, so it made sense to make it standard on Holden’s second-best-selling car line,” Carr says in a statement.

He says the price changes accompanying the upgrade are minor, and there will be no premium for the hatch over the sedan model.

Retail prices for the Australian-built ’12 models range from A$21,240 ($22,320) for the manual CD 1.8L gasoline model to A$30,740 ($32,325) for the CDX 2.0L diesel automatic.

The Cruze was Australia’s third-biggest seller in August with 3,234 units.