| Road Test Chevrolet Cruze 1.6 LS |
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Not From The Heart
All the same, if you drive a Chevrolet Cruze you might marvel at the fact that Chevrolet is using this car as the basis of its World Touring Car Championship campaign. To say that the Cruze is not something that might be of interest to an enthusiastic driver would be, to say the least of it, an understatement. In fact, there is a more basic problem with the Cruze as far as UK buyers are concerned. We greatly prefer three- or five-door hatchbacks to four-door saloons, but the latter is the only style in which the Cruze is available, and if that situation changes at all it won't be for at least a year. It's not as if luggage space is a problem - there's 450 litres of it - but you don't get the extra facility of being able to open a large tailgate and fold down the rear seats. If you can get past this little matter, you might well find some appeal in the Cruze's price. The 1.6-litre petrol LS tested here costs £12,595, which is less than many Ford Fiestas, and for that you get a reasonable amount of equipment. The entry-level has follow-me-home lighting, electric front windows, fully adjustable driver's seat and steering wheel, six airbags and Electronic Stability Control, and to that the LS adds 16" alloy wheels, air-conditioning, front foglights and rear parking sensors. (For the sake of completeness, I should add that the range-topping LT gets climate control air-conditioning, cruise control, an auto-dimming rear mirror, an upgraded audio system, rear electric windows and 17" alloys, and it's the only trim level for which satellite navigation is offered as an option. But LTs don't come with the 1.6 petrol engine.) The phrase "a lot of car for the money" is drawing close, but although all the above is certainly of academic interest it has to be said that there is not much about the Cruze to gladden the heart. Possibly its best feature is the interior design, which is really quite attractive, but apart from that there's little to shout about. Chevrolet talks about "premium styling and build quality", but to me the Cruze feels like an old-school Korean car. Korean? Yes. Chevrolets are really Daewoos, the name having been changed (not long after I was told it definitely wouldn't be) as a result of a slightly baffling policy decision within General Motors a few years ago, and if you'll excuse a slight digression here I can't help wondering if linking these cars to a brand which had for decades been associated with American muscle cars actually had a noticeable benefit on sales. Be that as it may, the Cruze is as Korean as whatever the south-east Asian equivalent of apple pie might be, but although it undoubtedly feels better than the early Daewoos, which wouldn't be difficult, I think that both Hyundai and Kia have progressed further in the last five years or so. Certainly those other Koreans are, on the whole, much better to drive. The Cruze rides and handles as if it was set up by people who felt that suspension had no other purpose than to join the wheels to the rest of the car. Its potential buyers may be of the same opinion, of course, but I think the Cruze would be both more pleasant and less tiring with a little extra work on the springs and dampers. And the 1.6 petrol model in particular would be much more enjoyable if the engine didn't begin to sound strained at the first hint that it was going to be asked to do anything strenuous. I discussed the Cruze with a few colleagues after driving it, and the general feeling was that it seems to be best suited to people who are not merely ambivalent about cars but who actively dislike them. That may be a slightly unfair assessment, but it feels close to the mark. Fans of the World Touring Car Championship are unlikely to be impressed. Price: £12,595
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