This week’s entry is about my current daily driver, notable partly for being a bit of a dying breed. Small cars in general, and small hatchbacks in particular, are not enjoying much popularity in this era of crossovers and SUVs. Which probably explains why I bought it, now that I think of it, just to be contrary.
As with several cars I have owned, my first experience with the current generation Cruze was as a rental car I had for about a week. I was generally impressed with the car – power from the small 1.4 liter turbocharged engine was more than adequate, handling was reasonably agile (even in the small-tired rental-spec version), and interior appointments were good. The car seemed to be well screwed together, even the much-abused rental I was driving. Besides, the car comes with an Ohio connection (sedans are still made in the small-car Lordstown factory that made the Vega and the Cavalier, both probably best forgotten nowadays).
Although I liked the Cruze, that is not to say that I went to the dealer near the end of my Equinox lease with the intention of getting one. I was really heading for the dealer (incentives and GM credit card points firmly in hand) to get myself the new all-electric Bolt, which I was very interested in having. With a more-than-reasonable 200+ mile range and practical (albeit somewhat ungainly) hatchback styling, I wanted to get back into the electric drive vehicle market with something that had much more capability than our Focus (and take advantage of the charging station still in my garage). Chevrolet had also redone the Volt and that was interesting to me as well, given my positive but short-lived experience with my first one.
We started out the negotiations well – the dealer had several Bolts in stock, including one in a rather dramatic orange color that I liked (not for everyone, to be sure) with equipment packages that worked for me. This should be quick and easy, I thought – a quick test drive, work up some lease numbers, and off I go with a Bolt. During the test drive that showed the Bolt to be a pretty spunky performer, I asked the salesperson roughly how much the lease payments would be. The number he quoted made me turn around and head back for the dealer relatively quickly – his ballpark estimate was around what I’d been paying for the last Lexus I had, and more than double the (admittedly cheap) Equinox. He said that the lease payments were so unfavorable that they had a number of early adopters who ordered the first cars off the line turn them down when they found out lease payments were over $600 per month. I wanted the car, but not this badly. I asked about the Volt as well, and their payments were not a lot better. Back to the drawing board.
I had done some inventory checking before I went just to be prepared and knew that they had some Cruze Premiers that I liked, but none in the special orange color that I wanted. I actually wanted one in orange with the special dark brown and black interior (which my wife hated). They did have a dark gray one that seemed to be a good choice so I took that one out for a spin. This one had virtually all the options available save the extra-cost paint – the RS package with 18 inch wheels and rear spoiler, navigation, Apple Car Play, leather seating (with heated seats front and rear), and a suite of safety features including lane departure warning and forward collision warning. The car’s sticker price was a bit eye-popping, coming in at just under $30k. However, I could take advantage of incentives that were piled on the hood of these somewhat unpopular compact hatchbacks to drop that price quite a bit. With my GM card points, the lease payment came in under $300 a month for this car that had all the goodies and was fun to drive to boot, so home it went with me.
Much has been written about the demise of the small car, the inability of American consumers to understand premium small cars after a steady diet of disposable Cavaliers and Escorts with sketchy driving dynamics, and the desire for crossovers that use small car platforms to create tall boxes with lower fuel economy and worse handling than the small cars they’re based on. Having said all that, and understanding GM’s rather unsteady reputation in the small car market, I have been favorably impressed with this car. The 1.4 liter turbo makes 153 horsepower which is more than enough for a car that’s only 14 feet long. One might note that the small block V-8 in my Monte Carlo made about the same horsepower from 4 times as much displacement and half the fuel economy. The handling is very entertaining, but the low profile tires on those special RS wheels make the ride a bit crunchy at times. The premium packages in these small cars bring amenities that usually only come on larger more expensive cars. The navigation system uses the middle color screen in between the speedometer and tachometer to provide the driver with the next step in the trip (turn left in 1 mile, turn right in 1000 feet, etc.), a handy feature when you’re trying to navigate an unfamiliar area. The car includes heated seats (front and rear) and a heated steering wheel. I thought the heated wheel was a gimmick until this past winter – it takes the chill off the leather-wrapped wheel very quickly, which is a nice touch when it’s below freezing.
The advanced safety features are interesting and took some getting used to. The lane departure system uses the electric power steering to make small (but firm) corrections to the car’s path if it senses the car drifting out of the lane. It can make some pretty sizeable corrections and can be pretty emphatic about it. You can override it by simply applying more force to the wheel if you are intending to move across a road line that it doesn’t like. The forward collision warning has been helpful once or twice when cars stopped more quickly than I expected, but there have been more times where it gives me false warnings about cars in another lane or curbs I am passing. The cross traffic monitoring for backing up has been handy – I did avoid backing into somebody I didn’t see in the office parking lot. I’d say on the whole these systems are useful, and I am OK that my car came with them, but I am not 100% sure I’d specifically select them in my next car.
As a hatchback, my car offers a pretty good amount of practicality. I’m not going to be bringing home any 65 inch televisions, but it certainly will swallow some pretty bulky items. Besides, the rear spoiler on the hatchback model makes the car look like a kid with his baseball hat on backwards. Alas, buying the hatchback meant I didn’t support an Ohio business, as the hatches are made in Mexico.
So I have had this car for just over a year and overall have been very happy with it. It hasn’t given any trouble (yet), it looks pretty good and doesn’t feel cheap to me, and gets me around town with some style. If I had waited a bit I probably could have gotten one of the six-speed manual diesel Cruze hatchbacks – an orange one of those would be pretty close to the mythical brown diesel wagon that practical car enthusiasts always claim to want. Maybe next time!
Thanks for this post. That Cruze is probably the most European car Chevrolet has ever made, which is no surprise as it was based on the current Opel Astra K, much more than the previous model (which in turn was based in the previous Astra J).
For once, GM let Opel do their thing without interruptions and they turned out a really nice little hatch. There’s nothing you could ask a Golf (the dwindling category leader) that you couldn’t ask the Astra.
I should know:
Time for a COAL, I guess:
The Cruze isn’t based on the Astra; it just shares a global platform with it.
I was prompted to do a little sleuthing. Compare this photo of a Cruze hatchback with the following Astra. Look at the window shapes and door cut lines. The window trim is different but the actual windows are the same, as are the door cut lines. The front and back doors might be identical. They are almost the same car, if not quite as much as a Buick Regal is an Opel Insignia.
The previous Cruze was not an Astra, although the Buick Verano was an Astra sedan, like a Jetta to a Golf.
Opel Astra hatchback
I really don’t get the sale of Opel to Peugeot. The claim is that Opel/Vauxhall was losing money. But a lot of the platforms if not entire or mostly entire cars and SUV’s were shared with Buick and/or Chevy, and also sold and often built in other markets like China, where Buick is big. So the basic engineering and development and tooling, really big parts of the cost of modern cars, were shared worldwide on a lot of models.
Engineering Opels for the European market probably upped their game.
I’m sure they had their reasons.
Right. But the cars are spawn of the same platform. One isn’t necessarily a derivative of the other. They probably have the same basic bodyshell skeleton, but reshaped for each brand. Even if Opel led development of the D2XX platform, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the Cruze is “based on” the Astra.
The foundation is the platform itself. The cars spawned from it. I know it’s semantics, but I bet the cars have more differences than you think. The Cruze—and I say this as an owner of a new one—is not a driver’s car, whereas the Astra K has been praised for its atheticism and is probably more premium.
I stand corrected. What I really meant was that Opel designed the D2XX platform. In fact, Opel also designed the previous Delta II platform as well, but that one had, for some reason, more differences apparent in the final products.
i.e., the current Cruze and Astra are much closer in feel, looks, drivability and quality than the previous generation.
While I dislike GM as much as anyone, I have to admit that since taking over as CEO, Mary Barra has done a superb job of continuing the recovery of the company. Yeah, the days of big, bottom-feeder discounts might be over, but the vehicles are a lot better, too. Even perennial GM hater Car and Driver has good things to say about the Cruze, giving it generally high marks. Not the class-leader, but still in the running, and a good choice for a daily-driver (I personally really like the hatchback version, maybe even the diesel), unlike the unlamented Cavalier/Cobalt, which were ‘always’ the last choice for anyone but those shopping strictly on price.
Still, it’s a shame the lease rates on the Bolt/Volt were so prohibitive. It would have been great to see a long-term review of what could be considered the most reasonably priced EV with truly decent range, comparable to an ICE vehicle.
GM has offered very attractive lease rates on the Bolt from time to time in those states where they need to meet ZEV standards. The Bolt is essentially a compliance mobile; GM has acknowledged losing some $9k on each one.
Well as the owner of a KDM Cruze, I can’t say I like the styling of the new one. The original stood out in a sea of Kias and Hyundais, the new one not so much.
I know the original has been criticized for being somewhat oversized vis a vis it’s competition, resulting in a somewhat heavy, ponderous feel. All I can say is like it, makes it fell like a bigger car than it really is. My main beef is that’s it’s hard to out of,
and when by backup cam went out I didn’t dare reverse until I got it fixed.
Nice review, and in my case “food for thought” …I know that sooner or later, owning two Mustangs isn’t going to work. At the age of 64 I’m certainly leaning towards leasing vs buying.
Sell my daily driver EB, and pocket the cash ?? A 3 year lease, with the minimal money needed up front ??? The Cruze hatch does check all the boxes for me, as a D.D. Hmmmmm???
The Chevy Cruze hatch is a rare sight up here in Canuckistan . The ones I do see have definetly caught my eye.
The Lordstown Cruze is a great example of how a domestic plant that has seen plenty of worker strife in the past ‘can’ turn out a decent product if engineered properly, as well as management making a serious effort at understanding the manufacturing and assembly process from a worker’s perspective.
A used, two- or three-year-old, off-lease Cruze might be the way to go. The resale value would be less than, say, a Corolla or Civic of similar vintage, but still have plenty of usable life left.
And it wouldn’t be something you’d hate to drive, like one of its predecessors.
I can provide an example of internal strife, of which you speak, at the Lordstown plant. Was making a delivery there about 20 years ago. Was inside with the paperwork for what I was delivering when two supervisors were loudly arguing. One yelled something about “…someone’s going out of here in a body bag!!” I wisely left the building and waited about half an hour before going back inside. Nobody got shot, but I certainly didn’t want to be there in the event something bad went down.
Remembering what came out of Lordstown, these Cruzes are indeed impressive – really the first acceptable small car Chevy has made. I say that having spent penalty time in many a rental Cavalier.
I owned a 72 Vega, and an 82 J2000. I “could,” see myself driving a Cruze if, like you, I could find one at a dealership that wasn’t grey, silver, black or white. I would also like a manual transmission but realize that finding a car so equipped is a lost cause.
I am not completely surprised that the lease payments for a Volt or a Bolt are prohibitive. Not to be punny, but with gas so (relatively) cheap, GM has no incentive to really push electric/hybrid vehicles.
I am currently driving a sedan, I believe that it will be replaced by a sedan or hatchback (though I would prefer a small station wagon), but after test driving a Honda CR-V I can see why other people find them to be an attractive vehicle.
Thank you for what I presume to be either your last or one of your last COAL entries. You have an excellent taste in both classic and contemporary vehicles. And good job picking out a well equipped Cruze. GM seems to be saving decent quality interior materials for the upper trim levels these days, but you clearly avoided that by getting an RS model.
A couple of days ago GM announced that the Lordstown plant will be shedding a whole bunch of jobs because small car demand just isn’t there anymore. My guess is we’ll hear about the factory either being retooled for crossovers or shut down completely. Hopefully its not the latter.
Lordstown used to have such a lousy reputation for quality, so it’s nice to hear it’s become quite a good plant. I hope it doesn’t get shuttered.
I’m concerned about reports the latest generation of GM interiors have taken a step back in quality. GM was really on the top of their game with their interiors in the first half of this decade so I hope they haven’t gotten complacent.
You’ll see what I have to say in my coverage of this year’s auto show, but for now I’ll just say that GM definitely cheaped out on their interiors.
One of the highlights of my cross-country drive in 2016 was seeing the Lordstown plant from the freeway. Well, maybe not in the same category as crossing the Mississippi for the first time in my life, or cresting the Continental Divide at Monarch Pass, but to this former Vega owner it was at least a notable landmark.
I used to roadtrip small highways in my early touring days, one being the old National Road, which I believe Lordstown is on/adjacent to. Going by there at night close to the entrance was spooky, like the gods of industry meeting some American Gothic sodium arc lighted dystopia. This is likely during a time they’d idled shifts as the parking lot was desolate. I soon got pulled over for doing 50 in a 40 on Route 40 and got back on I-70 where I cruised 80 on my way back home.
I also have a Cruze Premier with the RS package and all the bells and whistles, albeit Kinetic Blue with the tan interior (I think they call that color “Atmosphere”). I quite like it. I do wish the forward collision warning had automatic emergency braking, and that there was some level of HID/LED lighting available, since mine is as loaded as they come. It looks like they are adding the latter to the 2019 models.
Ooh, maybe humanity isn’t doomed after all with one of our own experiencing the dark side and actually crossing back over from it to a non-CUV/SUV. I must say I rather like the Cruze hatchback’s shape more so than I like the Cruze sedan of this generation as compared to the original and all dressed up they are very attractive.
I like the looks of the Cruze – both this generation as well as the prior one. One thing I’ll ask, do you find a lot of glare/reflection on the windshield from the various shapes on top of the dash/center console – particularly on sunny days? I had a Sonic up until 2 months ago and there were times when the reflection was so bad that I had to wear sunglasses to cut down the amount of distracting glare on the windshield. Prior to wearing the sunglasses I had considered getting a dash cover/mat but every time I see one it looks like a badly-fitted toupée.
I think modern dashboards look very nice but it wasn’t until I got the Sonic that I realized how much of a reflection they can give off – even on partly cloudy days.
When I bought mine used it already had a dash cover fitted, along with a couple grand (at least) worth of other accessories. Initially I wanted to take it off, but when I saw how many adhesive points there were, I just left it.
The only forward viz issue I have is that the PO installed super dark window tint all around, including the windshield! I have bad night vision as it is, good thing I rarely drive at night any more.
Get the windshield replaced. A darker than standard tint on the windshield is dangerous and probably illegal. Same thing with front side windows.
The Lordstown plant just went from three shifts to one, laying off 1500 workers, if I’m correct. The new Cruze has lost its luster. A thoroughly unimpressive car, in my opinion. I just don’t understand the low take rate for hatchbacks versus sedans?
For what it’s worth, I work (new and used inventory) at a 300 to 400 unit per month Chevy dealership….
They went from two shifts to one.
I was relying on mental recollection; I should have looked that up, just a couple clicks. My mistake. You are correct.
Hatchbacks start at a mid-level LT, the bottom two of four trim levels are sedan-only. The take rate for Subaru Impreza hatchbacks is much higher, they’re offered in all trim levels (the WRX and Crosstrek being separate models).
I rented one almost identical to this on my last trip to Baltimore. I was quite impressed; it felt really solid, performance was very good, as was the handling. And the interior was nice.
I don’t drive a lot of new cars, so I can’t readily compare, but this felt very good to me. A pleasant surprise.
As I mentioned earlier, GM has offered very attractive leases on Bolts from time to time in those 9 states that have adopted CA’s ZEV mandate. As in $299, IIRC. But it’s not a regular thing.
The Bolt is a compliance-mobile, to meet those EV standards. GM apparently loses some $9k on each Bolt, but maybe that’s getting a bit lower as production continues and presumably becomes more efficient.
Toyota lost money on the Prius for a number of years at the start. They were in it for the long game. GM appears to be that serious about EVs. Costs are coming down year by year.
A further thought, it’s a bit unfair to call the Chevy Bolt a compliance car.
The Chevy Spark EV was a compliance car, like the Focus and Fiat, based on a very similar gas car and sold in a few compliance states.
The Bolt is an electric car first and only, and is sold nationwide. Building on the Volt, it indicates GM wants to build leadership in the emerging EV market, as Toyota has enjoyed with the Prius among hybrids.
Ok, that’s a bit too limiting. Let’s say it’s an effort to build a mass-market EV that also does duty as a compliance-mobile. My point is that because the Boly loses so much money, it’s not in GM’s interest to build more than some 30k per year. The demand for the Opel version was so great, especially in Norway, that GM just cut Opel off (this already happened before the sale of Opel), because they had no incentive to build more (and lose more) than their planned annual production.
It’s GM’s experiment in the real-world economics of EV building, and also solves the compliance issue. But they will have to reduce costs considerably before they can expand production and not lose so much per unit.
The point of comparison is Nissan, which has aggressively ramped up to build as many Leafs as they possibly can, from the get-go. That’s not the case with the Bolt and GM. They’re playing it safe, for now.
Part of the Bolt’s problem is that so much of it is built by LG, practically everything except the body and chassis; the whole electric drive and its related components are pretty much all LG built. That tends to show also that they’re hedging their exposure rather than an all-out commitment.
I didn’t know that about LG and I’m surprised. Here’s an article about that. You don’t build superior competence by outsourcing. Another GM DS in the making? Sigh…
Batteries are a huge part of the expense of an electric car, until manufacturers bring them in-house they won’t see a profit off electrics.
The couple of LG microwaves I’ve owned have been more reliable than my Vega was, so maybe that’s a good predictor of Bolt quality 🙂
I’m surprised you would be so impressed with the new Cruze, what with an Acura and Toyota in the Neidermeyer fleet. I get to drive lots of one to five year old models of various make and model. Granted, I don’t drive most of them very much, but when I need a car for a cross town or cross state jaunt, I’ve got too many cars and trucks to choose from to even consider a Cruze. They impress me so little I still get caught calling them Cavaliers…
Yikes, $600 a month to lease the Bolt is a lot. I checked around here and the eastside Portland Chevy dealer is leasing one Bolt (an orange one) for $435 a month for 36 months. So I guess it depends on where you can shop.
As one who drives a small hatch regularly, I can understand the appeal. And it looks like you found a nice one.
I agree with some other comments above which recognize that GM really seems to have stepped up its game. I question whether this would hold up long term as well as my Honda Fit has, but then I also wonder if new Hondas would also.
I suspect the terrible resale value of the Volt and probable bad resale on the Bolt are the reasons the lease rates are so high, unless GM subsidizes them. Its a great time to buy a slightly used green car, 2-4 year old Ford C-Max hybrids and Volts with all the bells and whistles and low mileage are well under $15K, BMW i3 electrics and REX are well under $20K, which is way under 50% of the new price. Probably the best buy are used Leafs, which are way under $10K, although battery life on those seems to be iffy.
Everyone who keeps saying that these EVs have terrible resale/depreciation is missing a critical detail: None off these cars was ever bought anywhere near the MSRP, as they all qualified for the $7500 fed tax credit, and often considerable state credits/subsidies. Comparing their resale value to their MSRP is utterly irrelevant, but this line is typically regurgitated by those with a strong anti-EV bent. It’s not the least bit objective (I’m not necessarily saying you are).
Comparing resale values of these cars with their actual net selling price shows that they’re not that much different than conventional cars in similar size classes. The Nissan Leaf does a bit worse, because its battery tends to degrade a bit faster than average.
For that matter trying to discern depreciation on any car nowadays by using its MSRP is absurd, as the average incentive is in in the $4-5k range, and often higher for certain more expensive vehicles. Use the actual average net transaction price to determine depreciation, please.
If “green” cars need big taxpayer and manufacturer subsidies to sell new, that reflects a lack of buyer interest in them. The fact that used versions sell for peanuts also reflects a lack of buyer interest. I just checked on Autotrader and found several 2015 Volts with leather, etc. (Premier) that were stickering for $40K+ when new, but are selling as used cars with less than 35,000 miles for $17-18K, which is about the same price as similarly mileage 2015 Cruze LTZs, which stickered for about $25K new. I’m sure that both cars had cash on the hood when new, but any way you cut it the Volt has taken a much bigger depreciation hit when 3 year old versions sell at approximately the same price as the much cheaper Cruze.
Again, you are focusing on “sticker” price as opposed to actual net transaction price from the buyer perspective. If Sticker is $40k but you get $7500 in tax credits then the net price is $32,500. If you lived in CO, you’d get an additional $5000 so now it’s down to $27,500. In some areas, Xcel energy was offering another $3000 so now $24,500. If you then moved to CA you would have been able to get into the carpool lanes as a solo driver, which frankly is a benefit that has incalculable value…
Large pickups and SUV’s can easily get even greater “subsidies” if you take into account the section 179 deduction, MANY people end up qualifying. I do. Paul easily could as a landlord doing many or most of his own repairs and maintenance etc depending on how he structures that business. And let’s not even get started on the costs of securing cheap oil as a hidden subsidy.
If the section 179 deduction didn’t exist or went away, you’d see those vehicles affected (which includes some surprisingly small and popular models) either drop significantly in price and/or certainly reduce their sales volume.
Many people would have much less interest in these vehicles when they have to pay the whole ticket vs being able to use the tax structure to their benefit.
You guys seem to need a lesson in finance – the COAL said lease deals were very high for the Bolt and Volt, but much more reasonable for the Cruze. Differences in lease payments are mostly based on expected depreciation, so if a car has unattractive lease rates it means the expected depreciation is very high. And the used prices I quoted are for the Minnesota and surrounding states that don’t have crazy state subsidies on green cars, which I assume is also the case for this COAL article. I have nothing against Volts, or i3s, or C-Maxs, – in fact I recommended them as used cars because they are good cars and depreciate heavily – a nice combo.
Check your VIN. It’ll start with a 3. All hatchbacks are made in Mexico, not Ohio. No Lordstown connection with this Cruze.
A friend of ours who owns a 1st gen Cruze recently married a guy with a late-model Focus, fairly well-equipped. Her husband also has a Leaf for local commuting. He thinks the Cruze is a much better driving car than the Focus, to the point where he just got rid of the Ford.
One thing I have seen in every “professonal” road test of the gen 2 Cruze, but see nowhere in this article or the comments, is any mention of the auto start/stop system, which, iirc, is undefeatable, even temporarily, on the Cruze.
When at the Detroit auto show, I would always stop at the Chevy stand and admire the gen 1 Cruze. Particularly liked it’s relatively low beltline, tall greenhouse and good outward visibility. Also appreciated the relative simplicity of the controls, while Ford was trying to make the Fiesta and Focus center stacks look like cell phone keypads, with rows of identically shaped buttons. The manual shifter on the Cruze suited me more than the VW shifter. Both have reverse next to first, but while the VW’s lockout is defeated by pushing down on the lever, something I could do inadvertently, the Cruze lockout is released by pulling up on a collar on the shifter, something I am far less likely to do unintentionally.
I checked out a gen 2 Cruze hatchback a year ago. Seems to have lost a bit of the great visibility of the first gen, but still better than a lot of the models coming out of Asia.
With the rumor mill having the Sonic be dropped this year, and GM Korea potentially going toes up next week, taking the Spark with it, and Focus production being shut down May 7th, with Foci from China not due in the US for over a year, prospects for the Cruze could be a lot better for the balance of 2018.
Auto stop-start can be defeated by placing the shifter into M-6
Mom asked my what new car I’d buy – told her a Cruz hatchback – after decide I got the Equinox was difficult for her getting in out (she is short and 83 years old – entry/egress is the only reason she was giving up her 2011 Camero convertible.) she went wit a Cruze RS premiere. She is happy with it.
I’ve driven a fair number of miles in it as well and I’d still buy one after the extended exposure. Not thrilled with the “collision avoidance” system as it seems to miss close encounters that I notice while setting off the alarm for non-imminent dangers. I just wish it had a HUD. My last four cars were so equipped and I’ve grown rather used to having that feature. I’d like the idea of having a hatchback again – ‘specially with the tiny mail-slot openeings trunks have these days
My Mother is also very short and 87 years old…when my Father died two years ago his funeral was in another state, and we rented a Cherokee (not my first choice but at least it was black)…she had trouble getting up into it…particularly on that trip, the stress caused her back to go out. We were coming out of a restaurant, I was distracted by something and lost my Mother…turns out there was another Cherokee with the doors unlocked and she climbed into the back seat of that one instead (she’s not very observant, especially pertaining to cars).
I’m a longtime hatchback fan (haven’t owned any other body style since 1981) and have been interested in the Cruz hatchback if I ever get around to replacing my current car, going on 18 years now. My Mother is still driving my Dad’s Impala (she actually shared a Ford Focus with my sister until my Dad stopped driving, and she then took over the Impala)..the Impala is a bit big for her but she handles it OK around town, which is about all the driving she does in it, after several years of long (~3400 mile round trip) drives to visit relatives we did in my car and her car over several years. In fact both of our cars have low mileage for their years, but accumulated in an odd way, lots of miles when young, but very few miles the last 7 years. For example, my car has 123000 miles on it, has been to both Atlantic and Pacific Coasts on trips (multiple ones to Atlantic) and is 18 years old…my miles travelled per year in it has gone way down…and it was my only vehicle for the whole time I’ve owned it…..so maybe it is still to early for me to get a different car.
Wife and I have been thinking about a Cruze hatch after we’re finished paying off our Equinox next spring. I’ll have to show her this COAL.
Glad you’re happy with it.
I’ll say it for the 376th time: a huge reason there were so many GM Deadly Sins, I think, was a question of missed expectations: GM has made some amazing vehicles over its history…well designed, well executed, well equipped, stylish, durable and inexpensive to own relative to in-class competition.
Speaking of which, I have no problem with LG’s involvement with the Bolt. The former GoldStar, manufacturer of deadly sin appliances, has so thoroughly shed those days people are shocked to discover that’s who LG once was. Today their fridges, ranges etc. often rank higher than even premium marques like KitchenAid, Jenn-Air.
Ditto Samsung, by the way.
In its 100th Anniversary TV special, Chevrolet APOLOGIZED – or as close as you’re going to get for a major corporation – for its run of botched small cars, stating what many of us had long suspected: “Our heart wasn’t in it.”
What the Vega could’ve been – should’ve been – but wasn’t, was entirely due to corporate hubris that made no concession to reality until it was too late. I think John DeLorean tried, but the spec sheet handed down from Ed Cole, as if it were Moses with the Ten Commandments, wound up leading to so many poor choices the whole effort was doomed. Shame, the Vegas I drove and the ’72 I owned were a hoot to drive. Entertaining on a level with Peak Honda.
It’s refreshing to see that word, “entertaining,” associated with the Cruze driving experience. As it is with Sonic and as I understand, even the new Malibu.
The Bowtie bunch is finding their way again. May it continue.