Chevrolet Cruze Test Drive Review

Chevrolet – a General Motor company with the help of the newly appointed distributor Naza, has launched a all-new 4 door compact sedan in our Malaysia market. Named as Chevrolet Cruze here and most of the country. Chevrolet Malaysia has brought in the CBU ( from Korean) 1.8 Liter Chevrolet Cruze LT with a 6 speed automatic transmission gearbox.  Our Cruze is built in Korean and if you ever wonder why – GM acquire Daewoo about 10 years back, since then certain Daewoo vehicle has been rebrand as Chevrolet in other countries. As for the Chevrolet Cruze in Korea, it is known as Daewoo Lacetti Premiere.

The front of the Chevrolet Cruze looks aggressive, muscular with it’s distinctive Chevrolet’s bow-tie which gives the car a whole continental class of looks. The Chevrolet Cruze design looks significant as compare to other previous Chevrolet models. The company claims Cruze will drive the new styling strategy from the company. Cruze is the first instance utilizing the new GM’s Delta II platform, which will be share too in the upcoming new Opel/Vauxhall Astra. The details front headlamp is designed to jive together with the front fascia styling of the Cruze. Although it does lose out a little bit in terms equipment when compare to continental cars, as it’s not a projector lamp neither with HID. However, the overall front styling of Chevrolet Cruze has compromised that.

Chevrolet Malaysia picked up the blue with black, 2 tone interior for the 1st variant of Chevrolet Cruze LT. The most unique part of the interior would be the blue wrapped fabric on the dashboard.  I couldn’t recall any car in this class range has this idea in interior styling. It’s not something expensive to deliver but it is something special on this Cruze. The seats and door panel are also 2-toned to complete the overall blue matching black interior look. The center console panel design is properly design with sense of futuristic but without over doing it – it reminds of the pre-painted Iron Man suit. Chrome dials on the far left and right air con vents and also the meter gauges give the Cruze a little of  classy-european styling. We were told there might be a full black interior or a grey/black interior in the future, but we thinks that this blue with black styling is distinctive.

Everything seems to look fine as we look through it and we went to find out more about the Cruze when it’s alive. We got the remote and at 1st thought, we mistaken it as a keyless entry remote. The Bow-tied remote has a foldable-flip key within it and we notice here there’s also trunk release here. As we drove the car i can’t help by molesting the Cruze interior because it was the 1st time i experience with a fabric dash. Everything else was properly build and in-place. The ride was quiet & comfortable as we cruise around. The 3 point – steering design is nice and equipped audio controls. As we turn into corners, there was abit more body roll than the Honda Civic. In straights, we floored the pedal to see how well the Cruze can perform.

The Cruze LT is equipped with the 1.8 liter ECOTEC ( Emission Control Optimization Technology) with DCVCP ( Double Continuous Variable Cam Phasing) & VIS ( Variable Intake System) engine. Claimed to produce 140Hp and 176Nm of torque at 3799 rpm and it can climb from 0-100km/h in 11.5 sec on the broshure. We floored with 4 people onbroad, first impression was – it has really smooth gear change. The gearbox type it’s a Electronic Controlled GM Hydramatic 6T40 with a SIX-speed automatic transmission and shiftronic too. Although the engine seems to be responsive but it was not lively enough as we compare to other 1.8L engines around. However, Chevrolet target for the whole technology part of the engine is optimize to give best performance and fuel efficient balance.

There’s auto climate for the air-condition system and the switches feels a little bit fragile. If you are looking where’s the headlights controls are, it’s below the driver’s air-con vents instead of usually mounting near the steering together with the left/right signalling. The headlights  projection level can be control manually here. The steering is tilt & telescopic to suit your best driving position. There’s no pedal shift on the steering.

Focusing on the speedometer gauges, the chrome edges gives the more classier look, the fonts of the speedometer are modern and with blue illuminance lights. Information such as average fuel consumption, estimate distance left are viewable & customizable here with a touch of a switch. For the audio system, there’s a aux-in and in dash 6-disc CD changer. There’s also 6 audio speakers in the Cruze. If you feel to play with the 6-speed gearbox on your drive,  just touch the gear lever to the left and start playing the up(+) , down (-) gear shifting. The Chrome parts continous to the exterior of the Chevrolet Cruze – the door lever it’s in chrome as well.

The rear of the Chevrolet Cruze was doesn’t not stand out as much as the front, the rear lights reminds us it’s just reshaped of the the pre-facelift Toyota Camry rear lights with the same red part of top and transparent area bttom of the rearlights. Again, chrome finish between the two rear light and the bumper it’s just normal. The Cruze LT is equppied with 205/60 tyres & 16 inch wheels. It also comes with standard front/rear disc brake with all the  safety features included, such as ABS, EBD and also Transaction Control. The side mirros are electronically retractable and surprisingly quiet as it flips. The line profile running from the side signal at front running to back giving the Cruze more stronger,muscular profile styling. The GM Executive Director of Exterior Design also mention that they move the Cruze prototype by millimeters in the wind tunnel to have a best aerodynamic they could for fuel efficient. Chevrolet is giving it’s best on this vehicle in every aspect, Cruze is given a big interior space, it’s even slight roomier than Honda Civic and definitely bigger than the Mazda 3 Sport or Toyota Corolla Altis. The rear boot space are about to fit a 450 liters of luggage capacity.

Sun glasses holder are placed in the top of driver’s side window. There are 2 cigrattes outlet, one front and one back for you to charge your electronic devices (we don’t encourage smokers here) . Cup holders are built together with the rear arm rest for rear passenger. The Chevrolet Cruze comes with dual air bags in front. There are total of 8 colours to choose from with interesting names, which area Carbon Flash, Olympic White, Pewter Grey, Moroccan Blue, Misty Lake, Switchblade Silver, Super Red and Velvet Red. The fully imported Chevrolet Cruze is going for an OTR price of RM101.550.30 . As summary for the review, we would say the Cruze would be a good buy with a budget near RM100k price tag, it will be better if Chevrolet Malaysia distributor - Naza could provide a more powerful 2.0 liter engine. The 6-speed gearbox is smooth and we’ve got not much to complain in terms of the interior when paired with the pricing. Chevrolet put alot of effort in this Cruze to grab some market share in the mid-size sedan market, How well will it sell in Malaysia ? – that’s up to you now.

If you are interested  to test drive the Chevrolet Cruze please contact, Zack from Chevrolet Showroom along federal high below are the contact details.

Zack

Phone : +6016 236 0341

Email : shark8998@yahoo.com

Enjoy our Chevrolet Cruze Test Drive Shots in the Gallery Below.