Cruze Owners' Discussion Thread

[VYBerlinaV8]

Yeah, those guys...who I was very unhappy with after our VE SS experience but gave a second chance to this time (as last time it was just the attitude of one particular salesman regarding delivery dates - ie delivery when it suited him, not when it suited me). We got a young bloke this time, pretty new to selling cars but with good product knowledge and a helpful attitude.

Some new blood is exactly what that place needs.

[super coach]

just learnt that the DRL's are not like the ones on the commodore, apparently these are housed within the headlamp assembly and do not replace the fog lights. Kinda disappointed but no one knows what they look like as my order was the 1st all new MY14 to be ordered with daylight running lamps. So am heading down to the dealer tomorrow to look at a malibu and colorado as they have theirs in the headlamp assembly and might look very similar, hope it doesn't look crappy and a waste of a factory option

[Marco]

Delivery of ours now confirmed for Monday. That will make it a day short of 12 weeks from order to delivery. Which, I have to say, is stretching the friendship a bit for a car that, while built to order, was not anything particularly exotic and only had to come from Adelaide. I do wonder if Holden is losing sales from people who are told a few months wait for a Cruze who then wander up the street and can get a Corolla or 3 delivered later that week.

On the other hand my brother in law's family bought one two weeks ago and as they weren't fussy about colour or spec, got a white Equipe pretty much straight away from dealer stock.

Luck of the draw I suppose, and to be fair a Carsales search finds very few manual SRi models in stock. Could just be a demand exceeds supply issue for Holden at the moment on certain models.

[VYBerlinaV8]

Delivery of ours now confirmed for Monday. That will make it a day short of 12 weeks from order to delivery. Which, I have to say, is stretching the friendship a bit for a car that, while built to order, was not anything particularly exotic and only had to come from Adelaide. I do wonder if Holden is losing sales from people who are told a few months wait for a Cruze who then wander up the street and can get a Corolla or 3 delivered later that week.

On the other hand my brother in law's family bought one two weeks ago and as they weren't fussy about colour or spec, got a white Equipe pretty much straight away from dealer stock.

Luck of the draw I suppose, and to be fair a Carsales search finds very few manual SRi models in stock. Could just be a demand exceeds supply issue for Holden at the moment on certain models.

When I was car hunting for my last new car I was told that the Golf R had a 9 month wait, so I didn't even bother driving one.

[Marco]

Our Cruze has arrived! Couple of quick iPhone pics:





First impressions are that it's very solid, very easy to drive and has a high level of build quality. I'll have a good look over it when I wax it tonight at home, but I can recall noting a few immediate imperfections on my VE SS on the drive home; not so with this car.

[VYBerlinaV8]

Looks really good Marco. I'll be in the market for a small/medium car in the next year or two, so I'll be very interested to hear how it goes. Thanks for the info so far.

[super coach]

Very nice, the wait worth it? We have to wait till Dec for ours

[Marco]

So far so good. Drove it home this afternoon and it's good to drive - not thrilling, but gets along nicely and corners well. Doesn't feel like you're wringing its neck to keep it moving. Wife seems delighted with it and kids were excited to see it.

Put some wax on it tonight which gave me the opportunity to go over it in more detail. Build quality is a credit to everyone at Elizabeth; I'm fussy and found only one pinhead-sized paint blemish on the bonnet, plus a trim panel above the hatch glass came slightly adrift at some point (or perhaps was not attached properly to begin with). All panels and interior pieces seemed to line up properly. I think this is the best Elizabeth-built car I've had/family members have had. They've come a long way and I doubt you'd find much better coming out of an overseas plant.

It really is solid too - the side structure in particular is very chunky and looks designed to take a fair sized impact.

I reckon we'll be happy with this car.

[Monaro 327]

The gear box was replaced ,it took 10 days to get back on the road.
Drove for about 1/2 hour gear box is a lot smoother even when the car was new.
Went to start the car nothing worked apart from the guages called Holden the service people came out.
After about 20 mins car started and back to dealer for another 2 days found nothing.
Picked the car up yesterday went for a drive stopped for an hour and again tried to start again no power then the car started after about 20min again?
Battery has checked out ok.
And to top things off I thought Holden road side assist was for 3 years but it is only 1 year.
Was told I could pay now by credit card for road side assist but it will take 72 hours to before I could use road side assist.
I would have thought Holden would have sent a renewal out?
NOT HAPPY JAN?

[Balagtas]

What are thoughts on 1.6 turbo model?

[Waughy]

What are thoughts on 1.6 turbo model?

What would you like to know in particular? I'm enjoying mine very much, even after stepping out of a VZ LS1 Calais. It's the only engine in the Cruze I've driven so can't compare to the others, but I'm quite happy with it and have no complaints so far after 12,000 k's. Nice power, good off the line (when you get the clutch and accelerator working together, lol). I'm getting good economy too, average around 7.3-7.6 per 100 each tank, mostly 80-100 zones and only slowing for a couple of roundabouts to and from work, with some city driving here and there.

[Marco]

My initial impression is that it is a good engine. Has good midrange torque and doesn't feel like it's being flogged. I'd say that you don't get that 'shove in the back' feeling that you do when you give a large capacity NA engine a bootful, but with say 2000rpm on board and above it does feel like it's moving well.

(I say all of this while the odometer on our car is still in the two-digit range so ask me again in 10,000km time when it has loosened up!)

[super coach]

I went across to Melbourne in 2011 with my mate to pick up his brand new SRi-V 1.4 Auto Hatch. We drove it all the way back from Melbourne to Adelaide on one tank of gas – filled up at the Shell Servo on the other side of the West Gate Bridge and didn't have to fill up again till the bottom of the Toll Gate in Adelaide.

It went well along the country roads and we did flog it a few times but the lag (or waiting for the power to hit) was noticeable about 3 secs.

Took and brand spanking new 1.6 SRi-V Hatch Auto for a spin a few weeks ago when we were shopping around for best price and there was a noticeable difference between the 1.4 and the 1.6. The lag time has almost disappeared and when you put pedal to the metal the cruse fly's also the the electric steering is amazing as well as the beefed up brakes.

We then went to another dealer and test drove of the first SRi-V Sedans to come out with the 1.6, had about 4,000km on it (it didn't have the sat nav or voice thing as it was the first one they got) and the engine felt loud and noisy and the steering felt no where near as good as the brand new hatch we just drove. So hope this is not what happens once you start putting km's on the Cruze.

I just put it down to they have made further refinements since making one of the first back in April or May I think it is was up until November this year where hopefully if any bugs that have popped up have been ironed out.

[VXSS346]

Marco, how did you get the coolant temperature readout on the dash?
Maybe this is an SRI thing as the Equipe doesn't show it??
Or is there a special service mode like in the Commodores?

[Waughy]

I'd say a demonstrator with 4,000 on the clock has been well and truly "test driven". My SRi-V was delivered late May, straight off the production line (had to wait 6 weeks for it) and with 12,000 and a bit on the clock it's going as well as it did when I got it. I haven't driven a newer one to compare but I wouldn't call my engine noisy, unless it's revving high like the few times I've gone from 6th to 4th accidentally. The steering is fantastic too, I'm really liking the electric rack, makes it easy to turn without feeling too light, like the few VL's I've owned. So far no issues, very pleased with the car.

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