2014 Chevy Cruze diesel

[regfootball]

Tested 2014 Chevy Cruze diesel automatic. (Despite the dude at the one chevy place last week saying they would not hit lots until fall)

HIGHS:

Walks like a Cruze, talks like a Cruze, and this one is loaded. Feels great with the tan leather on black.

Snappy acceleration. Possibly the fastest Cruze they sell. Peppy off the line and good kickdown for roll on acceleration too. Mostly behaves like a gas car.

Fun to see instant mpg readings in the 60's, 70's, and 80's.

Is heavier than a standard Cruze but does not feel overly ponderous or lazy or anything in that regard.

Feels hefty on the road. Ride and steering very middle of market and will feel quality to most, which is geared to ride softness and light, pleasant steering.

Quiet ride except (see below).

No indication to the masses that this car is a diesel in ride and drive or noises. Almost completely devoid of diesel personality. The only diesel rattle you hear is outside the car and even then it just isn't a fully committed rattler.

Would be a fantastic eat em miles road commuter car. Would even be a good daily in town commuter too.

All of Chevy's latest content updates for the Cruze, this is possibly the most luxurious Cruze available

With leather included you can almost justify the price.

A very successful effort at mainstreaming the diesel for a non diesel market.

LOWS

Walks like a Cruze, talks like a Cruze. Bears some of the cheapness that the Cruze and Chevy's in general have (cruise control and other steering wheel controls, etc.)

No indication to the masses that this car is a diesel in ride and drive or noises. Almost completely devoid of diesel personality. Someone who wants a diesel will miss the diesel sound and personality.

Transmission has some weirdness, perhaps all the powertrain fine tuning is not done. Early upshifts, some hunting, delays in action, clearly they tuned this to max out fuel economy testing numbers.

Clearly the need to have a different suspension to deal with the extra weight needs a bit of tuning yet. Does not feel sporting, is tuned a bit soft / mushy. Flops a tish in corners. Steering is tuned more for set and forget than involvement. (hint, a diesel with a sport package would be a nice combo).

Using the throttle at all really dives into instant fuel economy. Makes one wonder how well the mpg will be with lots of city driving or stop and go.

Engine and powertrain noise is very well hushed. The problem is there is some unfamiliar road and tire noise that is too apparent in the car. I believe the source of a lot of that might be the tires (good years are often crap) but if it has the same tires as the Eco manual, then I am not sure what gives. Sad if they spend all that effort in tuning out the powertrain but still have other noises present.

Engine does not rev with the immediacy of some of the frenetic wind em up and let em loose DOHC gas engines.

Some buyers don't need all the luxury, leather etc.

The other Cruze's are such a good buy it's a hard pill to swallow the price on this diesel.

SUMMARY

It's a completely regular Cruze, and it's a diesel too. Quite possibly the finest available Cruze on the market today. Should be interesting to see who bites. I think it must have some incentive money built into the MSRP, but it will probably it need that. Either way, Chevy keeps putting fine cars out. In the last two weeks I have driven two Chevy's with alternate powertrains (Volt and Cruze diesel) and both have been excellent in execution. GM clearly has the engineering prowess to push new technologies, now they just need to market and sell them into the masses and lead in this regard.

The mission with the diesel is tricky because they also sell LS and LT1 Cruzes that have more of a budget car personality. The diesel's personality transcends those quite a bit to the point where it almost feels like a different car. To some degree that is probably why the car has leather and all the goods. It may be hard for Chevy to market the Cruze as an uber quality piece with so many coming in for the cheapest payment.

A- for the way they mainstreamed the diesel, it would be an A once they fine tune some of the powertrain, noise, and ride things to make it bank vault german solid. I would totally drive this car, only hesitation is it's not sporty, it's a cruiser. If i want a cruiser, maybe a heavily discounted Chrysler 200 Limited is a better use of funds.

Now, GM, can we haz Impala 2.3 diesel?

Edited June 22, 2013 by regfootball

[2QuickZ's]

I really hope this does well for GM. I also really hope the TD Grand Cherokee and TD Ram 1500 do well for Chrysler. I would really like to see the light duty diesel market expand in this country. Unfortunately, the extra cost penalty to go diesel is a long payback when diesel fuel prices are 10 - 20% more than gasoline unlike Europe where diesel is taxed less.

[David]

Excited by this car, but wish Diesel prices were not so punishing. I hope this car sells well for Chevy and they finally move forward with small displacement diesels in their Full size Trucks and Especially their SUV's. Course if they would just build a CNG SUV for the mass, I would be very happy with that.

[2QuickZ's]

The more I think about this the more this car intrigues me. I think I'm going to have to take a test drive soon. I just want to see if I like it in case I can talk the wife into one in another year or two.

[PurdueGuy]

GM, put a manual trans in it!

[Paolino]

I've watched a review on the Cruze diesel... I think this is an awesome step in the right direction for GM. Get some small diesels out there in your cars. You don't need to reinvent the wheel with all of your small DI engines, turbos, mixed with low resistance tires and start/stop this, active air shutters, etc. I feel that the diesel does better than the Cruze ECO with like half the tech (granted the ECO doesn't have start/stop tech). Not only does it do it well, it does it with a ton of torque.

[regfootball]

I tried to scam an Impala test drive today but they were sold out? So I tested the diesel again, and right after, an LT1 automatic.

The diesel powertrain has a little more smoothness and refinement for cruising. The gas car has more snappiness in throttle response and actually acquits itself pretty well in comparison as far as acceleration. The gas powertrain feels a little cheaper though.

Sales guy was doing everything to push the cheap leases on the gas car and just stopped short of not even wanting to talk about the diesel at all. They do not want to promote the diesel because the cost difference in lease and buy is so much. The diesel needs to be priced close enough so those conversations can take place.

Overall in some cases the diesel feels faster and stronger and in some cases the gas car does.

[regfootball]

Test drove one again today. No different impressions. Too bad the price is so high.

[smk4565]

Diesel fuel is cheaper than premium gas around here.  That is a good sign for those that want a diesel.  A friend of mine has a diesel BMW 535, he gets about 31 mpg average in mixed driving, mostly commuting into the city or driving in the suburbs, about 38 on the highway.  So there is a pay off, he had an older 535i gas and got like 21 mpg in that.

[regfootball]

One thing I will edit from above. The LT1 manual which I also drove today, definitely feels snappier off the line than the diesel automatic. Maybe the diesel is not the fastest. I will need to go back through car and driver's test data.  Lease number for the diesel was way much more than the LT1 .  Hundred bucks more basically.

 

Has anyone driven the Eo manual and LT1 manual side by side enough to tell a major diff in acceleration??  I know the LT1 revs rpms a fair amount more on the highway.

Edited July 14, 2014 by regfootball