A male driver of a rental Chevrolet Cruze was involved in what can only be described as a nightmare scenario for any road user when an 18-wheeler truck loaded with cardboard boxes flipped on its side and landed on top of the compact sedan.

The accident took place in the northbound lanes of the Dallas North Tollway in Texas in the late morning hours of Thursday.

The large rig also knocked over the concrete center barrier and hit another vehicle, a black Volkswagen Touareg, hurling it over the median and onto the other side of the road.

When it comes to diesel technology, Europe is king and all for good reason as diesel-powered models account for roughly half of all sales across the continent.

Therefore, it's no wonder that General Motors tapped its European operations for the development of the diesel engine to be offered on the North American market Chevrolet Cruze sedan.

The Detroit automaker tells us that the new diesel unit is being developed by the powertrain engineers at GM's diesel center of excellence in Torino, Italy, with the help of their counterparts in Pontiac, Michigan, while Opel's engineers in Russelsheim, Germany, are also supporting the program by developing the accessory drive, acoustic cover and other specialized components.

We've been hearing rumors about the possibility of GM adding a third body style to the range of its Chevrolet Cruze for quite some time now.

Well, there's no need to speculate any longer as this morning, the Detroit automaker officially revealed the all-new Chevrolet Cruze Station Wagon ahead of its global premiere at the 82nd International Geneva Motor Show early next month.

In 2011, General Motors reclaimed its crown as the world's largest vehicle manufacturer from Toyota, which was hit hard by the Japanese Tsunami and the Thailand floods, and as a result, dropped into third place behind the Volkswagen Group.

Overall, GM's largest market in 2011 was China with 2,547,203 vehicles and an 8.3 percent increase over the previous year, followed by the U.S. with 2,503,820 sales, up 13.0 percent.

And the good news doesn't stop there for the Detroit carmaker, which announced today that the driving force behind its success, the Chevrolet brand, recorded its best sales year ever in 2011 delivering 4.76 million vehicles around the world.

Launched at the 2008 Paris Motor Show, the Chevrolet Cruze hasn’t been on the market for that long as it actually went on sale in Europe and Australia during 2009 and the U.S. and Canada in mid-2010.

That said, we were somewhat surprised to see this single scoop picture of what is claimed to be a facelifted version of the Cruze, and which was sent to the Czech website, Autoforum, by one of its readers.

While models like the Corvette or the Camaro usually make the headlines with their performance numbers, looks or Nürburgring lap times, “bread and butter” models that sell in high volumes are those that matter the most to companies like General Motors.

The Cruze, which has sold more than a million units less than two years after its global launch and is currently the second-best-selling small car in the U.S. trailing the Toyota Corolla by 4,000 units, is a prime example.

That’s why halting production on Monday at GM’s Lordstown, Ohio plant where the Cruze is manufactured, must have been quite a blow for the Detroit company.

What present do you bring to a 100-year old company for its birthday? It depends: in Chevrolet’s case, the fact that the Cruze reached 1 million sales this week, less than two years after its global launch, is perfectly adequate.

Chris Perry, vice president of Chevrolet global marketing and strategy, also believes that this is a happy coincidence for Chevy’s Centennial: “I can’t think of a better birthday present”, he said. “Cruze’s combination of style, comfort, fuel efficiency and safety is a hit across the globe. Our customers know a winner when they drive it.”

General Motors is counting on its revised portfolio of small cars to further increase its sales in North American, and at next week's SEMA aftermarket show in Las Vegas, the Detroit-based automaker will showcase the personalization possibilities for its sub-compact Chevrolet Sonic and the Cruze sedan with a plethora of concepts.

For the time being, GM has shared some initial details on some of the concepts it will display in Las Vegas along with a handful of pictures of two customized Sonic hatchbacks.

Following the confirmation on the development of a diesel-powered version of the well-selling Chevrolet Cruze sedan for the American market earlier this year, General Motors revealed today that the car will be built at its plant in Lordstown, Ohio, with sales to begin in early 2013.

GM spokesman Tom Mock told The Detroit News that the company will invest $5.5 million to upgrade the plant's body shop and general assembly line. The same factory also produces the gasoline variants of the Cruze, which has proved a big success for GM outselling everything in its segment including the Honda Civic and Toyota Corolla.

Is a weak dollar a good thing? If you’re asking the U.S. car industry, it most definitely is. Imported car prices have reached their highest point in the last 12 years, thus driving some of their prospective buyers away.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, in August the average price of an imported car reached a record high of $31,536. That makes the price difference between a comparable domestic-made car $7,614, which is the largest since December 1999.

Add to that the severe supply issues faced by the Japanese manufacturers, who are only now starting to recover from the aftermath of the March 11 earthquake, and it’s easy to see why more and more American car buyers are choosing domestic brands instead.

The 2011 SEMA Show in Las Vegas this November is gearing up to be a busy event for the crew over at Tjin Edition.

Only two days after announcing their partnership with Ford for the customization of a 2012 Explorer SUV and a Mustang 5.0 GT, Tjin Edition revealed that it has also partnered up with Honda for the development of a bespoke 2012 Civic Si and GM for the creation of a decked out Chevy Cruze sedan.

In the same warehouse where the Ark of the Covenant is purportedly stored, all of the world’s missed opportunities are held in a sort of limbo, no doubt waiting for sweet release at the hands of Irina Spalko.

What you may not realise until the last twenty seconds (assuming you’re seeing this ad for the first time and didn’t look at the title of this post) is that it’s a TV commercial for Chevrolet’s European arm.

Perhaps one of the most memorable movie quotes from all time came from The Blues Brothers when Elwood (Dan Aykroyd) turns to his brother Jake (played by the late John Belushi) and says, "It's 106 miles to Chicago. We've got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses." Jake simply responds, "Hit it".

It's been more than 30 years since the music comedy film hit the big screen, but The Blues Brothers has achieved a cult status and still remains kick-ass to today.

So much that, in celebration of Chevrolet's 100th anniversary, the firm's British arm decided to pay tribute to the legacy of The Blues Brothers by crafting a special one-off model of its Cruze sedan named the "Cruzemobile" that echoes the look of the famous "Bluesmobile".

This year's edition of the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) show in Las Vegas is a still long way off but some tuners have already begun teasing their custom creations.

This strange photo of an unnamed project car appeared on a dedicated SEMA show page on Facebook. There are no details about the build other than it will appear at the show in first week of November.

While it's evident that the five-door hatchback model sports the face of the Chevrolet Cruze, we're not sure about the body (and no, it's not the Cruze hatch). If you have any ideas or thoughts, skip the jump and head over to our comments section to share.

The Chevrolet Cruze was the best-selling compact car in the US in July, with 24,648 deliveries, while in June, Chevy’s compact sedan beat not only its segment rivals like the Toyota Corolla and the Hyundai Elantra, but also all cars irrespective of size. Read more »