The Grover Wheel

REPOST: Originally published this in the Grove City College Collegian. It is presented here in un-retouched format from March of 2011.

I am going to come out and start this review with a confession: I am not a Chevy man. The last Chevy that really excited me was the 1955 coupe driven by Harrison Ford in American Graffiti. So when I had the opportunity to test drive one of Chevrolet’s new small cars, the Cruze, I went into the drive with mixed emotions.

The Cruze is the replacement for the dull-as-dishwater Cobalt. GM has a lot riding on this small car, and has clearly put a great deal of effort to make the Cruze a real competitor in its class.

For a start, the Cruze is bigger than its rivals like the Ford Focus and Honda Civic. It’s really edging into midsized territory and that extra girth pays dividends in interior space and a cavernous trunk.

Previous entry-level Chevys had woeful interiors with terrible plastics and lousy seats. The good news is that the Cruze has an excellent interior. The base car gets tasteful dark plastic trim and all the buttons have a well-weighted feel. Inside, the instrument console is well laid out and has the overall appearance of a small Buick. Given that GM makes both Chevy and Buick, this resemblance is likely no mistake. However, given Buick’s recent sharp styling improvement, this is a complement.

In an odd twist, the higher spec versions receive a slightly different interior trim that actually is far less appealing than the base car’s black tones. Top-spec LTZ models replace the appealing black wave of plastic that flows from the dash to the shifter with a shiny-silver  faux-weave plastic that looks and feels much more low-rent than the base model.

Electronic gizmos and gadgets abound in all trim levels. Following a trend in small cars with big luxury options, the Cruze is available with goodies like park distance sensors and satellite navigation. All models come standard with stability and traction control.

Safety is another area where the Cruze excels.  It has earned top marks from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and even their Top Safety Pick for 2011. The airbags—all ten of them—coupled with ABS and stability control mean that this car is worth a serious look for anyone with a family to protect.

So it seems like Chevy has finally done it: a well-built car that is relatively competitively priced (it runs within a few thousand dollars of its competitors), safe, and with an excellent interior thrown in.

However, this car is not perfect.

My first little gripe? The base model has manual door mirrors. Manual door mirrors. Come on Chevy, this is 2011; even Fred Flintstone had power door mirrors. And another thing, with all the available options, why is the ‘upgraded’ stereo a Pioneer? I had a chance to listen to this ‘premium’ system and at $455 my advice is: save your money. It’s a real shame that the sound quality is so poor, because the radio controls have a really nice feel to them and are quite pleasant to use.

The real issue I have with the Cruze is with its driving feel. Granted, its competitors like the current Focus and Corolla are nothing thrilling, but with the European Focus arriving at our shores sporting driving dynamics that already have car lovers salivating, I had hopes that the Cruze would kick things up a notch.

Make no mistake; the Cruze is a competent handling car with good brakes and a decently powerful engine. However a suspension that is tuned soft, and an automatic transmission that has all the shifting speed of a geriatric snail, means this is no driver’s car.

In the end, the Cruze fails to be all things to all men. However, that does not detract from the fact that it is a quiet, well-equipped, spacious car with excellent safety features, an upscale interior and projected fuel economy that can get close to 40mpg. And with a starting price of just under $17,000 for the manual and $21,000 for the automatic, the Cruze is also good value for money.

Final verdict? If you are looking for a good small car and aren’t looking to feel like Michael Schumacher, take a look at the Cruze. If you want funkier styling and eager road manners, take a look at the Ford Fiesta or wait a few months for the new Ford Focus to make its way over from Europe later this year.

We want to extend our thanks to Troy Allan Chevrolet of Slippery Rock for providing this week’s test vehicle.