Chevrolet Cruze Review

Stylish and fully-loaded sedan for the urbane Indian




Chevrolet Cruze is the new baby (?) added to the Chevrolet's fleet of vehicles. The four-door high-end interiored sedan from the General Motors proves again that big things do come in small packages. General Motors expects that the Cruze should be leading the mid-size sedans. The compact sedan offers more metal per every rupee it costs which means more comfort. The Chevy Cruze is pitted against Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, and Skoda Laura. Chevy Cruze is also the first model in the 300 series and has the best things General Motors could offer and is designed to overcome any and every set backs of predecessor sedan Chevrolet Optra. In fact, the company has taken utmost interest to prove its worth in the India auto world through the Cruze.

This handsome and amazingly spacious sedan hasn't compromised on features exterior and interior. The design team in Korea took over 2 years to come up with stunning interior and good exteriors. Chevrolet Cruze comes with diesel and petrol powered engines and the trims available include LT and LTZ and LTZ AT.

Chevrolet Cruze LT: Base variant and comes with some standard features but wants the luxury stuff.

Chevrolet Cruze LTZ: It is the high-end Chevrolet Cruze variant and offers features including chrome-finished door handles, electric sunroof, leather upholstery, 6-CD changer audio system and electric folding and heated ORVMs

Chevrolet Cruze LTZ AT: Chevrolet Cruze LTZ plus auto transmission

The petrol version Cruze runs on a 1.8-litre in-line 4 cylinders engine and there is 2.0-litre VCDi in-line 4 cylinder diesel powered engine for the diesel version and helps the Cruze achieve as much as 16 kmpl on the city and 20 kmpl on the highway mileage (with a standard 5-speed manual transmission) and 11 and 18 kmpl (with 6-speed auto transmission). The powertrain of the Chevy Cruze also comes with 5 year limited warranty. The 5-Speed manual transmission offers high performance of the engine and produces maximum power of 150bhp @ 4000rpm with a peak torque of 320Nm @ 2000rpm. The high power and torque gives superb acceleration and Cruze clocks 9.7 seconds to touch 100kmph speed with a top achievable speed of 184kmph.

Cruze was reiterates the concept of a compact sedan - a mid-sized sedan can be spacious with no compromise on the amenities. The Cruze rides on 18-inch alloy wheels and can be stopped by four-wheel disc brakes. Standard comforts include leather seating surfaces, leather-wrapped steer wheel and the gearshift knob.

The entertainment features include Bluetooth connectivity, USB port with the audio interface. The audio controls are steering wheel mounted. The audio system is an upgrade Pioneer one with nine speakers and an XM radio. Can we say cruise control and remote-controlled vehicle starting feature also come in the entertainment or conveniences package?

The baby looks diminutive though but the Cruze has got some cool high-end equipment, automatic climate-control AC, the ultrasonic parking assist are going to remind you what a concept sedan will be like. You will find that the Chevrolet Cruze has interiors made with grained leather, not-so-glossy trim panels and soft-touch components will give quality that is not so common in the segment. Visually too the dainty sedan looks striking and sporty.



Safety is paramount on the agenda of this petite so you will see a package of safety features such as couple of airbags, engine immobilizer, collapsible steering, children-safe door locks, stability control through 4 wheel ABS brakes and tyre pressure monitoring system, keyless entry feature, anti-theft alarm system, adjustable ORVMs, rear window defogger, variable and intermittent wipers.

As regards the drive we can say thumbs up for the car dimensions gives it amazing maneuverability. Due to its engineering, Cruze gives ride and handling pleasure you get in a bigger-sized sedan. However, the sedan doesn't live to the ARAI's mileage but touches the two-thirds of those figures comfortably. Young and upwardly mobile class families trying to upgrade from hatch to sedan and those who can't fit into CRV like or Nissan X-Trail like lifestyles, can ideally cruise into the Chevrolet Cruze drive.

Price and colors
Chevrolet Cruze comes in six colors: Velvet Red, Light Gold, Atlantis Blue, Olympic White, Misty Lake and Caviar Black in the price range of Rs. 11,92,602 lakhs and Rs. 14,32,570 lakhs for the three variants.

Why deny the Cruze
The Chevy Cruze still has some let downs: low head room, ground clearance of 165mm (Honda Civic and Ford Fiesta come with a clearance of 170mm) and turbo lag (although it wouldn't be that irritating to cruise in the city traffic).