2018 Chevy Cruze rental

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L_Sludger

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Rented a cruze for my trip to Wisconsin. Thought I'd drop my thoughts here.
Brand new car. Arrest me red. About 1000 miles.

I'll be succinct:

Hits:

Apple CarPlay. Great plug and play way to interface my iPhone with the car. Instantly worked, all I had to do was attach the cable to the USB port, and I was in business. Great feature.

Fuel efficient. I drove the car normally. I got 38mpg in 60/40 highway and local driving. Good engineering to achieve MPG like that.

Handling was responsive. Brakes were good. Suspension was well tuned.

Misses:

The car felt cheap. Bumps in the road were felt in an exaggerated manner. The mold lines on switchgear were felt and prominent. The steering wheel was made from molded material. I wish it was leather. It makes a huge difference.

Headlights didn't illuminate very well. They were the standard halogens.

Steering weight wasn't tuned well for highway use. It was consistently light. I was involved in making the electric rack for this car. While steering lightness was good in parking lots, it was too light on the highway. This is something that they could correct in software if they were so inclined.

The transmission was keen to upshift in regular driving. Good for MPG, but not that great for instantaneous power. It is what it is.

Overall, I would rent one of these cars again. I like the motor. It is engineered well.

My two cents.
 
It felt like it was somewhere between the Corolla and the Camry. Although I haven't experienced a new Corolla lately; the Corolla may have gone upmarket since the 90s.

Thanks for your input gentlemen!
 
Originally Posted By: edwardh1
what Toyota product is its competition? Corolla? Camry?
Corolla is the competition. Cruze is roomy up front but if you have any height at all, the back seats are really bad, no leg room at all. My Camry is worlds better. With the front seats all the way back in my Camry, I'm 6'2" and can comfortably sit in the back seat.

This might be slightly better in the current generation of Cruze, but it's still a small car and I don't see any drastic changes could have been made.
 
Originally Posted By: L_Sludger
Rented a cruze for my trip to Wisconsin. Thought I'd drop my thoughts here.
Brand new car. Arrest me red. About 1000 miles.

I'll be succinct:

Hits:

Apple CarPlay. Great plug and play way to interface my iPhone with the car. Instantly worked, all I had to do was attach the cable to the USB port, and I was in business. Great feature.

Fuel efficient. I drove the car normally. I got 38mpg in 60/40 highway and local driving. Good engineering to achieve MPG like that.

Handling was responsive. Brakes were good. Suspension was well tuned.

Misses:

The car felt cheap. Bumps in the road were felt in an exaggerated manner. The mold lines on switchgear were felt and prominent. The steering wheel was made from molded material. I wish it was leather. It makes a huge difference.

Headlights didn't illuminate very well. They were the standard halogens.

Steering weight wasn't tuned well for highway use. It was consistently light. I was involved in making the electric rack for this car. While steering lightness was good in parking lots, it was too light on the highway. This is something that they could correct in software if they were so inclined.

The transmission was keen to upshift in regular driving. Good for MPG, but not that great for instantaneous power. It is what it is.

Overall, I would rent one of these cars again. I like the motor. It is engineered well.

My two cents.


Which engine?
 
Thanks for the review. I saw one of these on the side of the road recently billowing blue smoke, probably a roasted turbo. Im sure it was just an isolated incident though.
 
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
Originally Posted By: edwardh1
what Toyota product is its competition? Corolla? Camry?
Corolla is the competition. Cruze is roomy up front but if you have any height at all, the back seats are really bad, no leg room at all. My Camry is worlds better. With the front seats all the way back in my Camry, I'm 6'2" and can comfortably sit in the back seat.

This might be slightly better in the current generation of Cruze, but it's still a small car and I don't see any drastic changes could have been made.


They added rear seat legroom in the new Cruze.
 
Originally Posted By: stephen9666
Originally Posted By: Nick1994
Originally Posted By: edwardh1
what Toyota product is its competition? Corolla? Camry?
Corolla is the competition. Cruze is roomy up front but if you have any height at all, the back seats are really bad, no leg room at all. My Camry is worlds better. With the front seats all the way back in my Camry, I'm 6'2" and can comfortably sit in the back seat.

This might be slightly better in the current generation of Cruze, but it's still a small car and I don't see any drastic changes could have been made.


They added rear seat legroom in the new Cruze.
They added it
crackmeup2.gif


They must have been beating their heads thinking "why didn't we think of adding rear leg room in the last generation of Cruze! Duh"
 
Interesting that the OP mentioned Apple Carplay first. For 50% of non BITOGERS that is the MOST important thing and for some the ONLY thing.
 
Originally Posted By: user52165
Interesting that the OP mentioned Apple Carplay first. For 50% of non BITOGERS that is the MOST important thing and for some the ONLY thing.


True.

Personally I could care less about these gizmos.
My car and smartphone are two separate entities...I prefer it this way and probably always will.
 
CarPlay was relevant to my interests in two ways.
1) My neighbor was showing it off to me on his new Ford truck and I wanted to see how it worked. And I'm always interested in new technology.
2) It seamlessly integrated the phone into the car's console, giving me safe, handsfree navigation with instructions piped through the car audio system. And I needed navigation because I was in a completely unfamiliar state going to unfamiliar places. It worked great for that purpose. The touch screen was excellent. It was a shining high point in the car's overall impression for me. And guess what? I represent a large segment of buyers.
 
What does Car Play do that the old integrations don't do? I can plug my GF's Apple device into my 2012 Sonata and it will look for music on her phone. I'm an Android though and I just use Bluetooth and talk to my phone "Ok Google...."

BTW I though the old Cruze was a more substantial feeling car. Been in both.
 
The biggest pro of carplay and android auto integration is the ability to have navigation in a car that doesn't otherwise have it. This is going to kill the mark up and factory nav units I think.
 
I just drove one from Enterprise - it was noticeable quieter than the older models - the on/off thing did not bother me - seems like it started in a split second ...
 
Originally Posted By: user52165
Interesting that the OP mentioned Apple Carplay first. For 50% of non BITOGERS that is the MOST important thing and for some the ONLY thing.


Hahaha, I really enjoy using my phone to stream lectures, books and youtoobe videos while driving......
 
Originally Posted By: user52165
Interesting that the OP mentioned Apple Carplay first. For 50% of non BITOGERS that is the MOST important thing and for some the ONLY thing.



Don't think there are a lot of car media players Apple Car/Android here on BITOG. Based on what is owned/driven.
 
Last edited:
Originally Posted By: CKN
Originally Posted By: user52165
Interesting that the OP mentioned Apple Carplay first. For 50% of non BITOGERS that is the MOST important thing and for some the ONLY thing.



Don't think there are a lot of car media players Apple Car/Android here on BITOG. Based on what is owned/driven.


Right but he said non bitogers.
 
Originally Posted By: L_Sludger
Rented a cruze for my trip to Wisconsin. Thought I'd drop my thoughts here...


Did ya test the acceleration? C'mon, I know ya did... How slow was it?
 
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