9th May 2010, 09:05

I just saw one of these cars ("the Cruz") this morning when I happened to be driving past a sales garage. My eye were automatically drawn to two things in-particular.

1) The car itself with nice lines, bold styling and decent looks.

2) The price ticket (wow... I mean; come on people, let's be realistic and look at what you get for your money. It's a good deal when you compare to other makes like Ford, Honda, Mazda, Kia... etc.. etc.. etc.)

Anyway, I came home and logged onto the web to check the car out more (reviews, images, videos, price) and I truly have to say it's a good deal all round and decent mixture of quality materials and price. I'm really tempted and have ordered a sales brochure from Chevy! Ideally I want an LS spec minimum, to ensure the goodies like front fog lights and the decent added touches that makes for a nice car.

Enjoy your new car :-)

20th Oct 2010, 12:42

Thanks for your review! The Cruze was just released here in the U.S. last month. Haven't seen any on the road yet, though. As for the engine options, we've got two... the 1.8L (built in Mexico for the U.S. market) and a 1.4L turbo (will eventually be built in the U.S. but sourced from Austria for now).

I have a 2008 Saturn Astra (built by Opel in Belgium for the U.S. market) with the 1.8L/4-speed automatic... not the fastest, but not a bad engine overall. I bet the 6-speed auto will help, though! It would be nice if we could get hatchback/wagon versions in the U.S. but those body styles aren't as popular here.

21st Oct 2010, 10:44

I actually test drove the turbo version of the Cruze at an event here in the US. From what I was told, the North American Cruze is built in Lordstown Ohio. It's a global car made in factories all over the place, using the same platform, the GM Delta II platform.

My impression is that this is maybe the first GM small car that can actually compete with other small cars from Ford, Toyota, Nissan, and Honda. Additionally, the car was actually well-done. Nice interior, not so much of the awful plastic interiors GM used to make, and at least for the turbo version I drove - FAST!

I've been a Toyota owner my entire life, and this is maybe one of the first GM products I would possibly consider. Maybe for once GM got something right. Time will tell if they fall apart, or are actually really good cars.

5th Nov 2010, 05:51

Just an update (I'm the original poster) : We've had ours for a bit over a year now, and it's been a great experience. The car is holding up really well - no issues whatsoever (knock on wood). I put about 15'000km on it, and just got it back from the first maintenance - everything's fine.

No rattling noises, no issues of any kind - so far, this has been an entirely pleasant experience.

12th Jun 2012, 09:07

Your reviews have been great! I'm also getting converted to try one.

To the original poster, I'd like to find out if your 100km/7.5l average consumption is strictly city driving, or a mix of both city and highway.

What is your typical city consumption?

My only put-off is the presence of that cloth material on the dash-board. It has the potential of inviting and actually being visited with kids food, particles, dirt, and of course grease and other workshop contaminants from mechanics.

6th Jul 2012, 23:58

Hi.

The 7.5l is the average mix. I do lots of city driving (I live in Switzerland - you're basically always in cities here :-) so I'd say it's more city than highway.

As for the materials used: the cloth isn't the problem. It's very durable and easily washable. I personally (as I stated before) somewhat dislike the choice of cheap(ish) plastics that scratch very easily. After having driven it for almost 3 years, the car is all scratched up on the inside. I would guess that using some sort of special plastic polish would make it look nice again, though. I fail to see the logic behind putting in that cheap plastic stuff into an otherwise well-built car.

We didn't have a single issue with it - still runs like on the day we got it. No electronic problems (except for the fact that we accidentally put it into showroom-mode once and thought that the whole car had gone haywire :-) ), no mechanical problems, it just keeps going.

Apart from that: our lease is coming up this October, so it'll be time to say goodbye to the Cruze. I briefly thought about buying it, but decided against that. We're not keeping it, because we have the sedan version and we're having problems getting the baby stroller into it. We're considering getting a Cruze hatchback or an estate, though.