[doomz78]

After debating on buying these cars . My proiorities were
a) Manual trans.
b) Cheap
c) Safe (good crash test scores)

I became the dealers worst nightmare. Picky, asked 1000 questions, Played dealers vs dealer. Told GM I wanted a 10 year warranty cause I bailed them out.. lol

1.Cruze Eco Six speed manual.. Awesome car but I was concerned with not being able to Engine OFF coast cause of the turbo. 19000$ CAD

2.Hyundai Sonata 6 Speed manual. Great car. No turbo. Mid size. Not as fun to drive but more mature and classy. 22700$ CAD

3) I also test drove the focus base model. And I loved it. Awesome handling. Made me want to drive fast. Kind of like the Mazda 3. But the cruze is about 300lbs more and in an even crash I think the Cruze would bulldoze many of its competitors. Hate saying that but probability and physics are a *****. The New Elantra was also really nice. Not as tight feeling but cheap and overalll loaded with features. This compact car segment is insanely competitive. It stressed me out picking a car. They were all very good.

And the Winner..............(Safety and Price sealed the deal for my needs)

4.Chevrolet Cruze 1.8L w/6 speed manual. This ended up being the winner. I think my reasoning was well researched and makes sense. The car doesn't have a turbo. Insurance company likes that. Cheaper to insure in Canada. I can engine off coast with this car. Bump starts work well. And the car cost me with the GM employee pricing thing. And also has top safety crash test scores. It did exceptionally well in all the tests. 15550$.

After 600 miles I am at 35.22 mpg. In the trip fuel computer (better then the eco EMPG)
My scan gauge 2 sometimes burps when I engine off coast and the car bumpstarts and the mpg goes a bit squirly. The Scan Gauge 2 tells me 34.97mpg. So we will say 35mpg for easy figuring of mixed city/highway driving. The suggested mpg rating is 30mpg on this car. So Im beating this by 14.2% already.

So very simple. Speed limit. Drive with load. Engine off coast when safe or descending massive hills. Pump up those tires!!! Im only at 41 psi now. Gonna go to 45psi. Max tire on these firestone OEM tires are 44psi. When I got the car from the dealership they were at 35 psi. Those wimps.

So the moral of my story is that I paid very little for the car. Im beating the mpg readings of the upper level model. 2500$ more. My insurance is cheap. It's an iihs top safety pick. I enjoy driving this car. Much beter then the Civic Or Corolla IMO. Those cars are soul less. Although very reliable. The Chevrolet Cruze is the best car GMC has ever built in my opinion. (In this price range) Maybe overall value king. The Mazda 3 and Focus and Elantra may be just as good.. Maybe better in some respects. Fun to drive and options. Overall I really like this car though. It is good at everything. No glaring flaws. It beats the competition in competence and quietness on the freeway. And it can be hypermilled very well. If this car holds up well in the next 5-10 years it is perfect. Few flaws it has... The seats could be a bit better. Not brutal but pretty average. And the 1.8liter is only good with manual. trans. I cant see this engine being any good with an automatic.

As the car gets broken in I will update my numbers. I may also slip a few ECO Cruze Mods on it. As time goes by. For now; let's see how going from 41 psi to 45 psi affects my MPG. I went off on a bit of a Rant and reviewed about 6 cars. Sorry. (; Tks for reading.