My Chevrolet Cruze 1.8L 6 Speed. Desicion and results...Work in Progress

[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.

[gone-ot]

...look forward to hearing your "numbers" after the engine has been thoroughly "broken in" (~1,000 miles?). Should be good for 35-40MPG before applying any "hyper-miling" tricks.

[cfg83]

doomz78 -

Didn't think about Turbo$ and in$urance. Very nice price *and* you are Cruze-Eco mode compatible. Keep us posted.

CarloSW2

[ChazInMT]

Block the grill on that thing!! It is ripe for the picking, when I peeked under the hood at the dealership when it first came out, I noticed it would be very easy to do and the frontal area that is open on that car could suck in a battleship.

[gone-ot]

...wonder if the lower air-dam from the Eco will easily "fit" on the LS model?

[doomz78]

I always think of overall cost of operating a car and the initial price.

1. Size of tires. smaller the better. Cheaper to replace.

2. I live in Canada so the smaller tires have cheaper winter tires and rims.

3. Insurance is a consideration.

4. The difference in fuel cost between the cruze eco and my new car yearly is about": 300$ per year if you drive 20000 miles yearly like I do. So it would of taken 10 years of ownership of the cruze eco to pay off the difference. If everything else was equal. Which it isn't. 100$ more per new set of 4 tires for Eco. Ins would of been about 200$ more per year for Eco. So my conclusion is that in reality the Cruze Eco would of never paid for the difference in price even in 20 years of ownership. When you take into consideration The Insurance, tires, and extra initial cost. And lets not forget that you can't engine off coast the Cruze Eco. Engine off coasting will probably save me 200$ per year with my base model.

I will apply a grille block in the winter. As of now im a bit paranoid of overheating the engine. I assume you meant the upper grille??? Its over 30 degrees in ontario as of now. the engine temp was at 216 in the car yesterday according to scan gauge 2. it was 34 degrees however.
You are correct it is a massive grille.

Here is a comparison of both cars estimate of ownership cost bought with 0$ down and financed for 5 years. Here is the 1 year cost of ownership

Cruze Eco

4368$ car payments
2700$ Fuel (Factory number)
240$ extra insurance per year
20$ extra cost of tires divided by 5 years. (17 inch tires) vs base 16 inch
300$ oil changes and tire rotation estimate
-----------------------------------------
7628$ to own for 1 year while financed.

Cruze LS base..

3828$ car payments
3075$ fuel (factory number)
300$ oil changes and rotation
----------------------------------------
7203$ per year while financed.
-200$ a year with engine off coasting
-----------------------------------------
7000$


So lets say for easy figuring 7600$ vs 7000$ per year while financed. Even if the financing was taken out of the equation the Cruze LS is still cheaper to own. With hypermiling techniques the Cruze LS is still 85$ a year cheaper to own when financing is not involved. And engine off coasting is taken into equation. The Cruze LS is the clear winner.

It would cost you 4000$ more to own the Eco over 10 years.

The fuel savings mean nothing at this point. And if you were comparing a hypemiler vs a regular person that gap would widen even more in the base models favour.

And this model could be applied to other cars like the focus vs the focus sfe. And when comparing 2 different cars from different classes. Auto or standard tran. When buying new or used these comparisons must always be done if on a budget like myself. I would rather spend that money on a good steak and beer or on my son or invest the money... Just my 2 cents. If my LS could have the Eco mods with 16inch tires that would be a hypermilers dream!!!! IMO

[99LeCouch]

Looking forward to hearing what your LS can do! I am picking up an Eco 6MT later in the week. I wanted an "MPG queen" car, and so put a deposit on one after shopping the same way you did. The insurance for me is about the same between an Eco and an LS, so that wasn't a factor.

I bet you can dress up your LS with the Eco grille and underbody mods to make it a much slicker car. The only part of the package you might not do easily are the slightly lower Eco springs, and the weight reduction. Although being an LS 6MT already, it's one of the lightest of the non-Eco Cruzes to begin with.

[doomz78]

congrats on the cruze eco. it is a beautiful car. with hypermiling techniques you should hit 450 miles.. maybe 500. small gas tank. Driving my cruze every day i will say that this is the best domestic car I have ever bought.

I got mine in silver and tinted the windows so the a/c can be used sparringly. So far so good.

[Fr3AkAzOiD]

I didn't know you couldn't EOC or bump start a turbo. Any specific reason why?

BTW, Congrats on the new car.

[doomz78]

Well as far as i know. Im not a mechanic. But i think engine off coasting may damage the turbo, or put stress on it after a few thousand start ups. Long term risk. Expensive part also. So the risk vs reward would not be worth it. And a 2000 dollar repair would negate any fuel savings for at least 10 years of engine off coasting.