Long-term wrap-up: 2010 Chevrolet Cruze

Long-term wrap-up: 2010 Chevrolet Cruze


Our 2010 Chevrolet Cruze long-termer has left the building, having served as our primary mode of transport for the past month. It was practical, efficient and easy to manoeuvre around cramped city streets, so it was the car of choice many times over our Jeep Grand Cherokee, even when the occasion required us to make a good first impression. The Cruze looks upscale enough, with its angry face, big 17-inch wheels and relative rarity.

There isn’t much else left to say about our mid-range car. It is as spacious as you’d want a compact car to be, it is as frugal as you’d expect it to be based on your driving style, and it has just enough gizmos to make your life more comfortable, with the cruise control, the ABS, the tiptronic gearbox, the four power auto-down windows, the electric mirrors and the fuel-tank position on the right helping you to avoid long lines of Japanese cars at the petrol station, most of which have their tanks at the left.

So looking into the future, there seems to be some interesting developments in-store for the Cruze. A 1.4-litre turbo version is already on sale in the U.S. with similar power, more torque and better economy. If our current 1.8-litre version sells well here, we might get that turbo here in the future. Also, a sporty version is a distinct possibility, as the U.S. version can also be had with a body kit, and that turbocharger wouldn’t be too hard to tune for more power. And then there is the electric version that is already testing in Korea. The Cruze EV is equipped with a 31-kWh battery that generates 150 kW, or about 201 hp. It has a range of upto 160 km and is quicker than our petrol car, with the ability to be charged via a household 220V outlet. Considering the Chevy Volt is already undergoing Middle East tests, an electric Cruze could make it here too if the trials are successful.

As for now, the standard 140 hp 1.8-litre engine will remain the torch-bearer for the three-model 2010-2011 Chevrolet Cruze range.

Original Mileage When Borrowed: 13,337 km
Latest Mileage To Date: 14,810 km
Latest Average Fuel Economy: 10.6 litres/100 km
Cost of Latest Problems: Dhs 0
Cost of Latest Maintenance: Dhs 0

Total Non-Fuel Running Cost Since Borrowed: Dhs 0

Read all 2010 Chevrolet Cruze long-term updates

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Comments

  1. Mash, riding a car for odd 1500 kms is not ‘long term review’. Give it any bloke doing DXB – AUH – DXB daily and he will complete that mileage in 5 days flat. Instead, would love to see a real world review for 12K – 15K odd kms.

  2. Author

    It is long-term in that I gave more detailed input on its features, more so than what I’d fit in the regular review. Stuff that one notices only after keeping the car for 30 days, so mileage is irrelevant. Going into this much detail is not possible with my usual 3-day reviews. I can only do real mileage reviews with cars I own for years of course. And I’d say I do these limited long-term reviews better than the magazines. It helps actual buyers.

  3. I say good job bondhu !!

  4. this seems 10.6 litres/100 km really high numbers to me.

    My Alitma 2.5S has 10.1/100 on trip computer
    My Ultra 3.7 has 12.4/100 on trip computer.

    either u drived it really bad or it’s thirsty considering its origin 😛

  5. Author

    ^As I said, I wasn’t trying to save fuel. The car is so annoyingly slow that I pounded on the accelerator more than usual, since I try to reach the speed of traffic quickly when I jump into a main road, instead of waiting around.

  6. if im to choose/compare between the serato, elentra, civic, corolla, and this…. what basicaly should i be aware of?

  7. Hey Mash, I’ve had the car for two days, and so far I’m loving it! Quick 2 day ownership notes:

    Cons:
    – Poor interior plastic, marks far too easily, especially near the door foot areas.
    – Inferior mid range torque
    – Anti-theft LED not working, will check.
    – Ride a bit harsh over bumps, will lower the tire pressures a bit.

    Pros:
    – Nice low end torque, great to be among the first out of the traffic lights @ less than 3000rpm.
    – The sound of the doors locking in automatically once the car starts moving.
    – interior @ night, blue is back.
    – The steering feel is very upscale, my test drive impressions stand corrected.
    – got the velvet red, and personally, I don’t think there is a better looking compact around.

    Loving the car so far, will let you all know of faults if I find any.

  8. Author

    ^good update, dude. I can relate. I feel the gearing is spaced oddly, so it feels slow at mid-range, while first gear is short, so you get that initial jump. Can’t help the foot wells marking in any car I drove.

  9. I agree, but the markings are so prominent on the dark colored plastics, it hurts.

    I know this would void my warranty, but I’d like your honest opinion on the chip tuning–> (http://bit.ly/dC0txm) for this car, an increase in 16 Nm torque isn’t much, but i think this would correct the gear spacing issues over the mid and high range.
    Or would you not recommend this over reliability issues?

    (P.S: or should I move this over to the forum?)

  10. ^ remove the last ” / ” from the link above, sorry.

  11. Author

    I wouldn’t recommend it simply because it is always debatable how much power you can gain on a NON-turbo car with ECU tuning, since they know you’ll never do an expensive dyno run to check. Not worth the price, but would’ve been worth a try IF it were cheap.

  12. Guys I want to BUY. I like it for design plus they offer me LS 1.8L,ABS, with 6 speed transmission, Cruise control.
    all other options are there except
    1)rear parking sensors
    2)No Keyless Entry, engine start.
    3)Interior synthetic Cotton(for 3900 leather offered)

    Is worth to go on LT option??? please suggest.

  13. HI.. I HAVE PLAN TO BUY CRUZE.. IS THIS GOOD CAR? WHAT’S MILAGE OF THIS ONE? ANY MAJOR COMPLAINTS FOR THIS ONE.. WHATS NORMAL CHARGES FOR SERVICES?

  14. 15k kms so far and it’s been fine for me excluding the bit where the battery died before 14k kms. Cheverolet roadside assistance picked up the car and replaced battery free of charge. Good value for money, especially if you like good looking interiors.

  15. Guyz Im planning to buy Cruze LS. Any issues so far to those who already bought this car? any idea about the service charges?

  16. I had my cruze since 2010, Love the design & looks, drive is good (but not that wow!) Cruze does very good in highways, pretty settled and floating comfort. I have driven up to Salaleh (Oman). Drive at 150+ shows the real built quality. It would go easily up to 190 kmph. Fuel economy is 9.2 average with moderate city & highway combined. Cabin & boot Space are outstanding.

    Few negative i have noticed so far:
    Service in Abu Dhabi is below average standard, every time you have to leave the car atleast 4 days with them.
    Although they claim your car is under warranty, it’ll cost you atleast Dhs 700 @ every 10000 kms.
    A/C is so bad and not responsive, until it taken own time to cool up.
    @ 20 km per hour speed, the car has a viberation (should be during gear shift) which Chevrolet confirms will not affect the car, but really annoying.
    Wind noise is severe, may be really bad for the region. (It says Cruze has the best noise sealing in the class).

    Over all, the car is much and far better than Corolla or Civic for UAE.

    • Author

      Our test car had a wind noise issue too. It isn’t there when the car is new, but with your feedback, I now suspect it develops over time.

  17. If the servicing the bad and it takes 4 days as mentioned; it would be really difficult for one who travels daily from auh-dxb.

  18. Hi All,

    I have been Reading all these comments about the Chevy Cruze.would love to buy one ,2012 model.

    this will be my first car in UAE as I’m new here.
    Can anyone tell me about the service costs and etc for Cruze as I’m little bit concerned about cost factor .

    Many thanks

  19. It is a good, spacious powerful 6 speed South Korean make car.

    Good for DXB-AUH and city trips also.It also has an impressive boot space, interior blue lightning, angry looking front headlights and fog lights, but the A/C is simply horrible and will not cool the front passengers let alone the rear seat ones.

    Though it is a good choice for a small family for long trips also.

  20. Hi everyone,
    I am planning to buy this car in 2013 but one of my major concern is the A/C. I don’t know how it performs so can someone please tell me actually how i performs?
    And is it worth buying this car over a toyota corolla?
    Thanks

  21. Oh i see. But is the A/C so bad that i should not consider buying the cruze ?
    I feel corollas interior is very boring and plus its slower than thecruze

    • well..the a/c is average..interior materials may look better than corolla, but is actually cheaper in quality and starts creaking sooner, while that in the Corolla will hold up for quite some time..if you dont want Corolla, then for the same price range of the Cruze, check the Hyundai Elantra, top-spec Kia Cerato, used Honda Civic, the basic Ford Focus or even the VW Jetta if you stretch a bit – all these are well put together cars with good a/c.

    • I bought a 2012 model Cruze this June, have driven it extensively through summer and never felt anything wrong with the A/C, its decent enough. Even in hot afternoons it performed pretty well. Only gripe is that the car is not fast enough in relation to on-paper specs. But when you consider the price, its a pretty decent deal.

      Other cars considered were:
      Corolla – gr8 resale value, but no cruise control and it looks very boring inside and out.
      Elantra – awesome value for money, resale value is almost same as Chevy, interiors feel plasticky and rear seat felt claustrophobic.
      Civic – extremely expensive for what it is.
      Lancer – good car, but heard service is not great.

    • Cruze and elantra were my options..but i ended up with elantra. Got scared when they said that a/c is bad. but those that i asked all have the 2011 cruze. so maybe 2012’s a/c is better. I picked elantra because of the value for money. more features at lesser price. but yeah, interiors are indeed “platicky”. and hyundai badge still has that cheap image. I believe it will change thru time though. cruze i think has better interiors but i already noticed during test drive that its slower than elantra. i think its because it so conservative in choosing the gears that u have to press the gas more than u shud compared to other cars for it to change to higher gears. but hey, if u can afford it, go with the midsize sedans like kia optima, altima, civic, mazda 6, etc..and is it worth it compared to corolla? well, my answer is yes. majority will definitely agree that corolla is boring. but if ur looking for a car that ur going to be with for the next 10 years (or even 20), go with corolla. service cost is much much cheaper. and people may not notice that its 10 yrs old because they may not change the exterior even at that time 🙂

  22. Would anyone recommend buying this car in black colour or not since the car could heat uo quite often?
    I want to buy the orange/black leather interior so i think it’ll look awesome with black exterior. If black exterior could cause problems then please recommend a colour that would look nice with the leather interior i mentioned

  23. I forget to ask one more question. This test car is a 2010 model, so since the gear spacing etc is odd, will the 2012 model have some improvements even though shape is changed? As in better gear spacing and a/c et ?

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