MY14 Cruze

[Pickles]

Sometimes I just don't understand GM.....RIGHT FROM THE START, the major "complaint", sometimes the only one, was...the lack of a decent engine....and the same comments are still being made here.....with good reason.
Geez, why didn't they put in a decent engine from the start?......anyway, if a bigger, more powerful engine is coming, that will be good news.
Cheers, Pickles.

[redvxr8clubby]

Funny, I logged on here after just reading the Drive review of the Cruze wagon. Kinda think the Cruze wagon is a waste of time in this day and age, GM need to stop mucking about and build a Cruze based SUV, that's what the market really wants. Holden desperately needs a smaller/cheaper SUV to slot in at a mid $20K's price and be smaller than the Captiva.

In mentioning the Cruze, I wonder how a modern version of the old Suzuki based Cruze micro SUV from 10 years ago would sell today? Rather well considering the modern love of all things SUV I suspect. Perhaps the Cruze micro SUV was, conceptually, ahead of its time. (I'm not saying I think the old Cruze was a great car, just the idea of a micro SUV)

Cheers, Matthew

On the contrary I think the Cruze wagon should have its place. There are almost zero small wagons on the market today unless you spend over $30K on say a Peugeot. Unfortunately from what I've seen with the Cruze you are looking at nearly $30K, and in CDX there is only the 1.8 petrol, CD has Diesel and 1.8 petrol available, no 1.4 turbo available. I think they would be making more sales if there was a CD model for not too much more than a CD sedan sedan or hatch, if CD sedan and hatch is say $21,000 da, I can't see a wagon selling for near $30K.

Edit - adding to this Holden is currently selling 2.4 Captiva with sunroof, 18" alloys and front and rear park assist for $25990 Da, I don't get why a Cruze is near $30K.

[planetdavo]

People need to keep in context the comments relating to the "need" for more powerful engines. Obviously, a forum like this makes things like of the highest importance.
If you are in the market for this sort of car, and you value performance over other things, then you have a valid point, and Holden has lost a POTENTIAL sale. If you were never in the market for one then your opinion is purely your opinion, and not likely to cause any loss of sleep to Holden product planners.
Comparisons with Golf GTI are of limited value. Cruze SRI-V is a good bit lower in price than GTI. Golf GTI is good...but reliability is not always so good. Even if SRI-V had equivalent performance to Golf, it would never sell as well as Golf. That, cough, "prestige" badge gets them plenty of sales...
Oh by the way, that orange SRI-V is definitely a MY14 built with an A16LET 1.6 turbo engine, as fitted to some of the latest Astra's.
Finally, with all this talk of the "need" for a high performance Cruze, it might be time to remind a few that the highest selling individual Commodore model to private buyers is the SV6. Most buyers are more than happy with "sporty", rather than "high performance". It's an important difference.

[VYBerlinaV8]

Yeah. Not that the Golf GTI is as awesome as the motoring press would have you believe.

Had a ride in a friend's GTI DSG last week. All I can say is that I was surprised: it was nowhere near as good as I thought it would be. I reckon my WRX is much quicker.

[Jag530G]

On the contrary I think the Cruze wagon should have its place. There are almost zero small wagons on the market today unless you spend over $30K on say a Peugeot. Unfortunately from what I've seen with the Cruze you are looking at nearly $30K, and in CDX there is only the 1.8 petrol, CD has Diesel and 1.8 petrol available, no 1.4 turbo available. I think they would be making more sales if there was a CD model for not too much more than a CD sedan sedan or hatch, if CD sedan and hatch is say $21,000 da, I can't see a wagon selling for near $30K.

Edit - adding to this Holden is currently selling 2.4 Captiva with sunroof, 18" alloys and front and rear park assist for $25990 Da, I don't get why a Cruze is near.
$30K.

Don't forget the Cruze wagon comes with standard auto, a $2k option in the rest of the range.

[Marco]

Had a ride in a friend's GTI DSG last week. All I can say is that I was surprised: it was nowhere near as good as I thought it would be. I reckon my WRX is much quicker.

I drove a manual one about a year ago. Don't get me wrong - it was a nice car but that's all I felt about it: "nice". Not wow, not awesome, not "I want one" just "yeah, this is a nice car". Nice wouldn't be enough for me to hand over $40k.

[aratic]

I reckon my WRX is much quicker.

Probably because it is - 5.5 vs 6.9 for the 0-100 sprint

[Plenty]

I don't know about anyone else but it really pisses me off that the Cruze gets the same colour palette as the "hero" models of the Commodore range, i mean those colours used to be the sole domain of the SS and it was a part of exclusivity to have the "cool" colour but now the small hunks of crap have the same colours, kinda takes the hype out of the Commodore!

[Plenty]

Yeah. Not that the Golf GTI is as awesome as the motoring press would have you believe.

Nope but the Renault Megane R.S. 265 is......

[calais190]

People need to keep in context the comments relating to the "need" for more powerful engines. Obviously, a forum like this makes things like of the highest importance.
If you are in the market for this sort of car, and you value performance over other things, then you have a valid point, and Holden has lost a POTENTIAL sale. If you were never in the market for one then your opinion is purely your opinion, and not likely to cause any loss of sleep to Holden product planners.
Comparisons with Golf GTI are of limited value. Cruze SRI-V is a good bit lower in price than GTI. Golf GTI is good...but reliability is not always so good. Even if SRI-V had equivalent performance to Golf, it would never sell as well as Golf. That, cough, "prestige" badge gets them plenty of sales...
Oh by the way, that orange SRI-V is definitely a MY14 built with an A16LET 1.6 turbo engine, as fitted to some of the latest Astra's.
Finally, with all this talk of the "need" for a high performance Cruze, it might be time to remind a few that the highest selling individual Commodore model to private buyers is the SV6. Most buyers are more than happy with "sporty", rather than "high performance". It's an important difference.

I agree that everyone on this forum would think the cruze is slow due to us all being naturally bias toward performance and quick vehicles. However, MANY people who know absolutely nothing about cars, and simply do not care about cars have told me "the cruze is a very nice car, but it has no guts". A guy who drives a Hyundai excel every day (by choice, not by financial position) was telling me how slow and useless the cruze feels.

I don't suggest Holden should produce a performance cruise (I don't think anyone would buy it anyway) but I think a model that offers modest-medium power like a 2L turbo, say a 150kw, 300nm kind of engine surely wouldn't be overlooked when in that level of the car buyers market...

I believe a hell of a lot of "small car" buyers won't buy a car because it is too slow.

[white lie]

My missus loves hers apart from the fact that it's so slow. It doesn't need a lot more poke, just a half decent amount of torque down the bottom. It makes a hell of a lot of noise because it has to rev so high and still goes nowhere!

[planetdavo]

Straw polls amongst a few people mean nothing. Cruze has been out for a fair while now, yet it remains a very popular small car.
Clearly, "most" people don't put higher performance at the head of the list of needs. One thing that's far more important to most buyers, and something Cruze is MUCH better than most small cars at, is it's inherent quietness when cruising, and the solid feel of the car.
You can't please everyone all of the time. Wouldn't matter if it had a 200kW engine. Some would still complain that's it's front wheel drive, or it's a "Daewoo", or it doesn't have a snob badge like Golf, or you can have a (noisy) Mazda 3 for similar money, or whatever other whinging you can think of...

[Jag530G]

My missus loves hers apart from the fact that it's so slow. It doesn't need a lot more poke, just a half decent amount of torque down the bottom. It makes a hell of a lot of noise because it has to rev so high and still goes nowhere!

Straw polls amongst a few people mean nothing. Cruze has been out for a fair while now, yet it remains a very popular small car.
Clearly, "most" people don't put higher performance at the head of the list of needs. One thing that's far more important to most buyers, and something Cruze is MUCH better than most small cars at, is it's inherent quietness when cruising, and the solid feel of the car.
You can't please everyone all of the time. Wouldn't matter if it had a 200kW engine. Some would still complain that's it's front wheel drive, or it's a "Daewoo", or it doesn't have a snob badge like Golf, or you can have a (noisy) Mazda 3 for similar money, or whatever other whinging you can think of...

Hopefully the 1.6T will boost the low end torque. If so the fuel economy might actually improve because the downside of what PD talks about, the Cruze's quietness and solidity, is weight and the Cruze is pretty porky. A bit more low end torque will mean it doesn't have to thrashed as much to move around town.

From personal experience with my wife's 2009 1.8L auto Cruze. Yes its pretty gutless, but I actually find it is OK around town. I find it annoying on the hilly Bruce Freeway driving down from Noosa to Brisbane. When I have the cruise control set the speed varies quite significantly before the cruise control reacts (slowly) and gets it back to the set speed. My old 1.8L TS Astra was miles better on cruise control (although it was a manual so that may have helped). As for handling I've always found it surprisingly good. When I took it for a test drive before buying it I must admit I was expecting Korean Car levels of understeer but it holds its line through the curves very well.

Cheers, Matthew

[duke5700]

My missus who is on the opposite end of the hoon scale to me test drove an SRI hatch 1.4T, her first comment after she came back and said to the salesmen, it just isn't zippy enough and seems lost with the gears when you are trying to enter traffic. This coming from a girl who was driving an auto 2002 Corolla.

Everything else was fine, car felt nice, rode well and looked good in the red it was wearing. Took her for a test drive in a VW Jetta with the 1.4TSI and she was sold. In her words, the car was effortless.

I believe it would sell better with a better engine combination.

[falcom]

Gm/Holden really blew a great opportunity with the Cruze.

If I ever talk to a Cruze owner I always ask them what they think of the car and the answer is always the same. They always comment on how underpowered it is.

I really believe the Cruze would have been a top 2 car if it had a decent engine. Unfortunately even if they do put in a decent engine it will take time to repair the brand damage this 1.8 has caused.

Also why is the Cruze so much heavier than the opposition ? The answer seems to be because of the extra safety built in but the opposition cars are also 5 star cars but 100kg lighter. The weight only exaggerates the problem with the 1.8.