Going For a Cruise In a Cruze

         The Chevrolet Cruze is the third cheapest car out of the Chevrolet lineup. It’s been around since 2011 and has been on the top ten of the best selling cars in the U.S for the past year now. Therefore, it is safe to say that Chevrolet did something right with the vehicle. I unfortunately had the misfortune of being chauffeured around in a 2011 Chevrolet Cruze LS for the past week. I was not a fan of the vehicle and here’s why. 

Looks play a large role in a vehicle for me. It has to be good looking, or else why buy it? When a handsome car has some faults, they’re easy to over look. But when an ugly car has faults, it’s just easier to kick it to the curb. The Cruze is an in between for me. I don’t find it attractive, but it’s not ugly. It’s that girl across the bar that you keep staring at because you’re unsure of their looks. One thing is for sure; the more you drink the better she looks. The same holds true for the Cruze. On another note, never drink and drive, ever. 

The interior of the Cruze portrays its low cost. It’s riddled with hard plastics, cheap fading leather and a dimly lit informational screen. The cloth seats were mahoosive and easily swallowed my entire body with ample room to spare. They were comfortable to sit in and were easily the best part of the interior. The rest of the interior was on par with its class. Hard tacky plastics and obviously cheap leather made for terrible touch points. Everything you touched inside in the car felt cheap and ready to melt. In fact, with roughly 35,000 miles on the clock I was expecting more durability. Right underneath the windshield and directly in front of the steering wheel laid fake leather, which was starting to fade from black to white.  

Chevrolet states that the Cruze LS comes equipped with a six-speaker audio system, which is a fact and that’s what the car came with. But by golly it was one of the worst audio systems I have ever heard. Music came out muffled, the volume never increased and forget about tuning the speakers because bass, fader, etc. were utterly useless. No, not even Coldplay could make this sound system play magic.

The ride was surprisingly comfortable. It handled bumps and potholes with ease. However, the aged interior was shrieking with squeaks and joints craving for oil. Some of you may be saying – impossible, the Cruze is a well-built car and yours was probably beat on. While you have a point let me say that the car had just 35,000 miles on it. The interior may have been decomposing, but the suspension appeared to have just started to break in. 

The Cruze LS came equipped with the ECOTEC 1.8L four-cylinder engine. The engine was uninspiring to say the least. I’ve driven a stock 07 Honda Civics that has more grunt than the Cruze. In fact, my friend’s 96 Acura Integra has more grunt. It did the job of moving the car, so there; it wasn’t the worst engine ever. But it was leaking a lot of oil. And by a lot I mean enough for me to check after every single trip to the grocery store. I’m not sure if that’s normal for the Cruze, but it’s not for me.

The rest of the car (transmission, ease of use, trunk space, etc.) was average. Again there are other cars out there that have more trunk space and controls that are easier to use, but the Cruze is average for all of the standard equipment. Average is the perfect word to describe the Cruze.

Obviously from this description of my time with the Cruze, I am not a huge fan of the vehicle. The truth of the matter is, I’m not. The only positive thing about the Cruze, besides its seats, was its miles per gallon average (mpg) of 33. Pair the mpg figure with the 15.6-gallon tank and the Cruze was able to travel approximately 500 miles in one tank. Not all is bad with the Cruze, but the majority of it is.

           

My driver for the week is the happy owner of a 07 Honda Civic. I have driven the Civic on many occasions and was not impressed by it. But I did respect it for its ability to act as mass transport. Not everyone can have a fun car, or have a loving relationship with their car and that’s why a lot of people buy the Civic. The Cruze should be placed within the same tent as the Civic – mass transport. At the end of the week, the Civic owner was happy to see the Cruze go. She liked the Civic’s throttle response, stronger brakes, reliability and ease of use better than the Cruze. Hard to believe that the Civic would be associated with terms like these, but oh well. I was happy to see the Cruze leave too; the Civic is easier on the eyes.