Chevy Cruze Eco - nice car

[3GMC]

We just made some changes to our vehicle line up, and ended up buying a 2012 Cruze Eco. My wife showed up at home one day with one, and said "Hey, I'm test driving this. Come see what you think of it". I liked the styling, and the dash layout. The clutch and shift gates were seemless and smooth, but positive feeling. The car had great power when the turbo kicked in. I liked it, and told the wife to get one if she wanted. A few hours later she came back home with the new car.

And the best part, here is a photo from our first road trip. The Eco is rated 42 mpg highway, but you can see we did better than that. The top number is the miles since the fuel trip meter has been reset (108 in this case). The middle number is the average fuel economy for those miles. The bottom number is the average speed for those miles, which includes time spent at the gas station refueling at the start of the trip, after resetting the trip meter, and time spent at stop lights before getting out of town on our trip. The trip was mainly two lane scenic highways in the mountains.

[roastem00]

More pics! Wow that's some crazy mpg, hows the speed on the ride with the turbo? Sounds like your wife knew what she was doing when she picked up her ride.

[rkj__]

It seems GM did a good job on these cars. I'm starting to see a lot of them on the roads.

[Rex Kramer]

We bought a 2012 cruze too, the 1.8L (without turbo) automatic, completely base with the exception of the bluetooth radio . So far with 10k miles we're averaging 31 MPG. This includes a lot of city driving so I have no complaints. The ride quality is great.

I've gotten as good as 42 mpg coasting 60mph for good stretches right after fill ups. Of course I wind up back getting stuck at red lights and I get to watch it drop lower and lower.

[roastem00]

I wonder if at times the turbo actually helps get better mileage

[3GMC]

I don't know if the turbo helps with gas milage, or if it is just having a 1.4 liter turbo motor vs a 1.8 naturally aspirated motor makes the difference. The turbo hits at about 3500 RPM, and from 3500 to 5500 RPM in the lower gears this little car flat out rips. It puts you right back in the seat, and I'm impressed with the power when its under boost. If you're cruising on the highway trying to get good gas mileage by short shifting the transmission and lugging the motor, it just feels average. If you let RPM drop too low on a mountain grade, forget about downshifting one gear, you'll have to downshift at least two gears to get it back on the power. Still, thats not all that big of a deal considering the fuel economy you can get when you're trying to drive it conservatively. In other words, you can make it go fast when you want, and you can make it get good economy when you want.

Chevy made some compromises for economy though. The Eco model has a 12 gallon gas tank instead of a 15 gallon gas tank. They didn't want you packing around so much fuel weight, because the extra weight hurts fuel economy. The Eco model also lacks a spare tire as standard equipment, also because of weight savings. A spare tire is available as an option. There are also "ultra low rolling resistance tires", and an aero shudder behind the front facia that closes at highway speeds for less wind resistance.

I really like this little car. GM seems to have done an overall good job with the Cruze Eco.

[97cavy22]

We took out a base cruze 1.8 manual, and a LTZ Sonic 1.4 6spd and liked them both. Your right about the manual trans in those cars, really easy to drive.

Good purchase though, that's some great MPG.