Detroit discovers small is beautiful as compact buyers return

by Keith Naughton
Bloomberg
March 17, 2012

DETROIT — When the engine blew on his eight- year-old Toyota Matrix last year, Shane Wilson needed a new car fast and wanted something good on gas.

He shopped the usual suspects: small Honda and Toyota models he’d owned in the past. Then he surprised himself by buying a Chevrolet Cruze…

Small cars, once the Achilles’ heel of U.S. automakers, are becoming a strength.