[rangakishen]

Hello fellow Bhp'ians!!
First of all let me introduce myself before I give my report on our BEAST.
I'm Rangakishen. I'm pursuing my bachelor's degree in Mechanical stream. I've been hooked onto Team-Bhp since 2010 and was accepted into the community last year. It's with great pleasure that I'm submitting this report and hope it helps people make a better informed decision!!

Decision making: We (mainly referring to my dad and I) started thinking about owning a car in 2010 August.

Decided to go for a second hand car. I had, then, driven very few cars and one of them happened to be the Ford Ikon 1.6 Nxt. I was sold on it. I didn't have any kind of experience with cars at all. I was enthusiastic about driving but that was still beginning stages because i was just about to turn 18. But even then I could feel it, not describe it, but just feel it. The steering was special. There was just something about it that just connects you to the car. It was just amazing. So I had convinced dad to go for a used Ford Ikon 1.6. Did quite a lot of research and was looking around different websites.

But things just didn't work out and time passed by. Come Feb-March 2011, we decided to go in for a new car. Budget was not really defined. This would be our first car and dad wouldn't plonk more cash into another one anytime soon. So this car would be with us for a LOOOOONG time to come. So dad wanted value for money and a car that would win our hearts and could keep us happy for a long time. Since we were going to own it for a long time we decided to go in for a diesel and set ourselves a tentative budget of around 8 lakhs.

We checked out Hyundai Verna transform, Volkswagen Vento and Ford Fiesta. No TDs, just checking out the car at the showroom. Let me describe the scene to you. We go into the Hyundai showroom, a sales person tends to us. We start checking out the Verna. This is where things got interesting. I was all excited about the car. Going around it, sitting inside, checking out different features etc., Dad waited patiently outside. Then all dad would say is, "Umm.. Not bad. Many vernas on road, so not bad car i guess... Lets see". It was the same with other two and that's how it ended all the time. I was disappointed. Then came the bomb!!

Come May 2011, all the car hallahuh had came down and we would hardly talk about it. One fine day we'd gone towards kasturba road for some work and on the way back home i just pulled into the Sundaram Motors showroom on our humble spendour. Parked it, and proptly took my dad in. He didn't really ask anything and just followed me. Walked straight upto the Cruze and just kept my mouth zipped. Two seconds later dad's sitting inside checking stuff out, asking the SA about the features, power mileage, OTR price etc etc., That itself was significant improvement and I was happy. Dad looked at me. I had what we call a 70mm screen on my face!! smile from one ear to another!! And that was it. Cruze had won our hearts!! We came out. Dad approved the car but told me it'll be a long wait. I agreed instantly!!
Of course we did TD few vehicles from this and above segment but the Cruze had us bowled over!!

So there you have it folks!! Chevy Cruze!!
Chevrolet_Cruze_India_Price.jpg

[rangakishen]

The loooong wait finally came to an end in Feb 2012. We finally decided to take the plunge. We'd chosen Trident over Kropex. Trident had responded promptly everytime we made an inquiry and a request for test-drive. OTR price would be around 15 Lakhs. So we went in for negotiations and then came the shock! No Central Govt. tax waiver in karnataka!! That alone got the OTR price of the car up by 2.5 lakhs!! So we were in a fix. We wanted the car before April. Then we decided to buy and register the car in Cochin, Kerala. Dad works in Cochin so it was not a problem. There the OTR price worked out to be 15.5 lakhs.

Booking and Delivery: On March 6th, dad booked a Chevrolet Cruze LTZ/MT with Geeyam motors. Our sales agent Tojo George was a very polite and helpful fella. We didn't get any discounts as such and paid for the Foot and boot mats. We had asked him not to put any sunfilms, idols or perfumes. I like personalizing my car!! We told him that we would want the delivery by 16th March as we had a tight schedule with me missing classes to go get the car from Cochin. He agreed but failed to meet the time. That caused a bit of tension. I had to re-schedule everything to optimize the classes that i would miss. You see i was VERY keen that only and ONLY I would drive the car for the initial few months. So arrangements were made and dad took symbolic delivery on 19th March. They got the car Temporarily (some problem at the RTO, so no permanent then) registered on 20th.



Immediately after the delivery, dad and SA took the car to global tires and got all 5 tires changed to 225/55R16 99W Michelin PLCs on stock rims!!
I arrived in Ernakulam that evening and was picked up by them at the airport! Odo read 75kms when I took the wheel.
The feeling is indescribable!! 2010 august to march 2012!! One and a half years of anticipation, wait, dreams all in culmination together that evening!! But an even bigger treat awaited me!! I would drive it all the way to bangalore the next day!!

21st March: We left home (Opp Mymoon theatre) at 6am. Got the pooja done and left ernakulam by 6:45.

Kept the RPMs around 1800-2000. Kept varying it. We reached palakkad by around 8:30am and had breakfast!! Took us around 4 hours to reach Coimbatore by-pass. Another hour and a half to reach Avinashi! It was 12 by the time we hit the 4 lane Highway. From then on it was relentless cruising!! Kept the speeds in check as it was in run-in. Was regularly touching 120 but was just oscillating my speeds. Stopped for lunch at around 3 at Sri Krishna restaurant after Krishnagiri. Reached home at 5:30pm. It was a lovely journey. Beast gave us a mileage of 14kmpl. I was pretty happy considering it was still in the run-in.

[rangakishen]

Review

• Comfort:
  Very comfortable for the front passengers. Nothing to complain what so ever. Have driven continuously for 12 hours and no complaints. Well bolstered seats with plenty of lumbar support. Under-thigh support is just a bit lacking. Back seat comfort is good but could have been a bit better. Space is more than enough for our family (avg height is 5'6"). Three can easily be seated at the back with enough comfort to come out of a 450 Km drive without any tiredness or fatigue. On the highway there is nothing to complain about with respect to comfort. Within city the rear comfort could have been just a little bit better.
  Finding the Driving position was fairly easy give the range of the seat adjustment and also the Tilt-Telescope functions! Really comfortable position with good visibility and leg position.
  The NVH is a bit on the higher side. But I like that. Initially it was because of run-in. Now at idle the engine is hardly audible. But when driven hard give a throaty note which make me go CRAZY!!! Tire noise is non-existent.
• Handling:
  I don't really know much about the stock tires. In the test-drive I had, when I pushed on curves the car understeered without even trying to hold onto the line. I had my tires changed right after delivery. I have nothing to complain about really with these soft wider tires. It's not immaculate, but does the job. No understeer at all. Pushed at the same chicane in my car and I went in much harder being used to the car. Tyres were squealing but the car held it's line until the last moment. Braking is good. But suspension should have been better. On the same trip I happened to brake on a slightly (very slight) slope with some bumps and a little bit of curve. It was at around 150 I guess. The tail was not stable. It was squirming around. So contemplating a change to Bilstein B6s.
  Anybody who like a communicative steering wheel will just LOVE this car. The change to wider tires has done the trick. This Servo-Hydraulic unit is a real gem!! I Have driven the Ford Ikon extensively and I can still say this steering unit is amazing (with a mandatory shoe change). In aforementioned fishtailing incident, it communicated soo well that at 150 or so the fishtailing was kept to a minimum using corrective steering.
• Engine:
  Much has been said about it's power and locomotive torque. Same with me as well. A gem of an engine really. turbo-lag is there but it is only till you get used the car and the engine's power band. It pulls cleanly from 1400RPM. Turbo is at full boost at around 1800RPM. It's just a rocket past this. Very rev-friendly. Hits the redline without any hesitance.
  Fuel efficiency is good for a car with this much of power on tap. It has managed to give me around 10 in city with full AC. Have managed 18kmpl on one of my highway drives. But that was only for around 100kms. Those 100kms were purely for mileage checking, driven at around 80kmph and believe it or not, not one single gear change for 100kms!! Throughout on 5th gear!! But couldn't resist after this. Gunned it for the rest of the journey as the mileage dropped by a whopping 4kmpl to 14kmpl!
  EDIT: Managed 20kmpl on the MID on a recent trip so mysore.
• Exterior:
  Immaculate finish. Panel gaps are within tolerant range and uniform through out. Fit and finish is very good. The car is pretty heavy. 1.5 Tons kerb weight. Door shut with 3 way action and a reassuring thud. You feel safe in the car, built like a tank. GC is sufficient for most of the cases. In fact I've never SCRAPED her in the 7000Kms that I've covered so far. But you have to be careful when going over bumps. I have managed to bang (not scrape) the chassis quite a few times when I was not slow enough. When the front wheels descend, I've to be very slow or the car will end up hitting the bump.
  Lights are good. Tail lamps are a bit of a turn off though. The indicators on the mirror should have been swept back till the tip of the mirror. I for one didn't find the one offered attractive.
• Interior:
  Most people came up with COCKPIT to describe the dash!! I agree!!
  Space is a bit short but for an avg Indian family, it is luxurious space!! The plastics quality, fit and finish though is a let down. The silvery waterfall thing on the dash squeaks like low quality plastic stuff. Horrible!!
  Features are aplenty in this car. Starting with the entertainment unit. The OE Speakers(6; 1 on each door; 2 on A & B pillars) are very good and will do the job for the average buyer (me). It supports CD, usb, aux-in and bluetooth (music only). Has very good range of personalization options. The best part is, it reads "These functions are only available when the car is stationary", giving no scope for mistakes.
  The Screen also displays all the main car functions customization options. Starting from Take me home lights to the kind of reaction to remote commands to the sensitivity of the reverse parking sensors, EVERYTHING can be customized here.
  The reverse parking sensors make life really easy. It doesn't let you feel the size of the car. Rain sensing wipers are very nice to have. They not only switch on on their own but also vary their speed according to the intensity of rain. Its very convenient.
  Sunroof is a hit with my sis! She loves it and uses the transparent option during rains. It is a neat feature to have. Electrically folding mirrors are convenient. AND!! They are not at all fragile! They turn in the opposite side as well (about 50 degrees from the open position). Has saved me a couple of times. Have touched the mirror on two occasions while reversing. Both times it just swept back and then when I folded them (electrically itself) they came back to position without a hitch.
• Maintenance:
  This Chevy is fairly easy on the pocket. Have completed two services now. 1000kms RAC and 5000kms service. Both were free so plaid 0Rs. Have had a couple of incidents. Both while parked. In one of them my mirror cap was missing and doors had a couple of deep gashes. Chevy doesnt manufacture the cap alone so was forced to buy the whole assembly costing 11K Rs. Claimed insurance and got the car repaired. Total came upto around 16K. But excluding the accidents the car is very pocket-friendly. No niggles so far.

[rangakishen]

And now for the Pics:







225 Patch rubber.


The T-BHP Stickers!


Engine bay.


Michelin Primacy LC 225/55 R16 99W

[rangakishen]

Interior Pics:



Lord Krishna taming the Beast.


Pardon the pathetic condition.


Sunroof.






Max and Min.

[rangakishen]

Few grouses:
1) Air Quality Sensor/System was silently removed from the models without any indication! Now there is a dummy button in its place which really stick out like a sore thumb.

2) Rear seat no longer have the folding option. Forget split, no folding at all. Was very disappointed when I realized this.

Surprisingly the turbo-lag or the clutch do not feature in this section of my review. I've completely got used to it and enjoy the car thoroughly! Be it stop and go traffic or a blazing highway run.

Conclusion: A beautiful car. It has its share of negatives but the positives faaaar outweigh them. Its a car that you'll enjoy for maaany years to come!

I will keep this thread updated from time to time!!!

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Initial Ownership Section. Thanks for sharing!

[download2live]

Congrats on your purchase.
Drive safe. Great power means great responsibility.

Originally Posted by rangakishen

2) Rear seat no longer have the folding option. Forget split, no folding at all. Was very disappointed when I realized this.

Really? I am surprised. Even Hatchbacks provide the folding rear seats to make more space in the boot. Or did I read it wrong?

[mobike008]

Congrats on the purchase and welcome to the Cruze club.

Your summarization is almost perfect except that I find the handling pretty good after the tyre change. It's not flat on the corner but, its not too bad either and you can take corners at a decent speed without any dramatics.

Another thing your spot on is about the turbo-lag and from the RPM that it starts pulling in. Even I notice it pulls cleanly from 1400rpm at any gear and after 1800rpm, its better i dont spell it out

I am getting a consistent mileage of 11.50kmpl in city conditions and 14kmpl on highways

My maintenance cost till date (29,500kms) is roughly Rs.0.50/km but, expect this figure to drastically change after the 30K service

Have fun and keep updating this thread.

Originally Posted by download2live

Really? I am surprised. Even Hatchbacks provide the folding rear seats to make more space in the boot. Or did I read it wrong?

The earlier Cruze had the seat folding option and 2011 version with cosmetic changes I reckon were done away with this feature.

[rangakishen]

Originally Posted by download2live

Congrats on your purchase.
Drive safe. Great power means great responsibility.



Really? I am surprised. Even Hatchbacks provide the folding rear seats to make more space in the boot. Or did I read it wrong?

Thank you! Can't agree more!!

Yes. I was shocked! Observed it quite late actually. No folding at all.

Originally Posted by mobike008

Congrats on the purchase and welcome to the Cruze club.

Your summarization is almost perfect except that I find the handling pretty good after the tyre change. It's not flat on the corner but, its not too bad either and you can take corners at a decent speed without any dramatics.

Thank you!!

I actually don't find the handling that good. Umm may be it's because of the tire pressure i maintain. I maintain about 32 all round. How much would you suggest.

[eastwind]

Congrats on your purchase. Wish you many miles of happy motoring!

A question though- Did you do the registration in Kerala? With the crackdown in Bangalore for non-KA registered cars, how does that work?

[rangakishen]

Originally Posted by eastwind

Congrats on your purchase. Wish you many miles of happy motoring!

A question though- Did you do the registration in Kerala? With the crackdown in Bangalore for non-KA registered cars, how does that work?

Thank you!

Yes I've got it registered in kearla. I haven't been stopped anytime yet. And my cousin got some info from a TATA SA that any state car is now allowed anywhere in INDIA. Don't know how far that is true though. Nobody has stopped me yet though!!

[drchernish]

Congratulations for the beast. Did you do a comparison of all other cars in this segment? At this price range you have base models Laura and jetta which would have addressed your quality gripes of cruze at the cost of features or Elantra which has both quality and features but at the cost of handling. Anyways you have a hell of a car,enjoy!!!

[rangakishen]

Originally Posted by drchernish

Congratulations for the beast. Did you do a comparison of all other cars in this segment? At this price range you have base models Laura and jetta which would have addressed your quality gripes of cruze at the cost of features or Elantra which has both quality and features but at the cost of handling. Anyways you have a hell of a car,enjoy!!!

Thank you!!

Precisely what you told made me choose this car.
It has good features with a very powerful engine and handles decently. So its got more features than Laura or Jetta (same price variants). More power than Laura MT and Elantra. It handles better than Elantra. It ain't a corner carver but it certainly is better than any Hyundai!!
Jetta was the only competitor. Both my dad and me have this mentality that which ever car we go for, we'd like the top most variant. In Jetta that was almost 2-3 lakhs more expensive. Hence the choice!!

[anb]

Originally Posted by rangakishen

But suspension should have been better. On the same trip I happened to brake on a slightly (very slight) slope with some bumps and a little bit of curve. It was at around 150 I guess. The tail was not stable. It was squirming around. So contemplating a change to Bilstein B6s. EDIT: Managed 20kmpl on the MID on a recent trip so mysore.

Congrats :-). Your observations are very much accurate. My car is running on Bilstein B6. Ride & handling have become much better after the installation of b6. my car doesn't squirm around anymore. I think B6 is the best modification anyone can do to Cruze. It's totally worth every penny. I guess that 20kmpl more to do with downhill driving.