New Cruze 1.4T

[Underpaidsamurai]

Hi 

 

I went down to the showroom and went for a testdrive on the new Cruze 1.4 turbo. Frankly, I was very impressed.

 

My previous ride was a Ford Mondeo which I am scrapping.

 

The low depreciation, very attractive pricing and overall ride is really tempting me.

 

I have not owned a Chevrolet before and was wondering how is the service from Alpine Motors? 

 

Anybody can shed some light on this? 

 

 

[7hm]

Last I heard, Alpine is just about okay with service, nothing special. Chevvies are actually engineered in Korea by the team that was formerly Daewoo, but Cruze has been a fairly good car in SG so far.

 

Have you considered the latest Mondeo though, since you are coming from one?

[Underpaidsamurai]

Last I heard, Alpine is just about okay with service, nothing special. Chevvies are actually engineered in Korea by the team that was formerly Daewoo, but Cruze has been a fairly good car in SG so far.

 

Have you considered the latest Mondeo though, since you are coming from one?

I won't get another Ford. The cost was high and the service from Regent left a bad taste in my mouth.

[Hamburger]

Got thread on this already, go read.

[Cheefarn]

Hi 

 

I went down to the showroom and went for a testdrive on the new Cruze 1.4 turbo. Frankly, I was very impressed.

 

My previous ride was a Ford Mondeo which I am scrapping.

 

The low depreciation, very attractive pricing and overall ride is really tempting me.

 

I have not owned a Chevrolet before and was wondering how is the service from Alpine Motors? 

 

Anybody can shed some light on this? 

Alpine svcs is quite OK, but like the other bros here said, nothing special. Reg oil and fluid changes are pretty standard. The car is reliable enough not to warrant any extra attention other than scheduled regular svcs.

 

Only thing is that they tends to take a long time for svcs... strange considering they have few cars to svcs on any given day as compared to say, Toyota and Honda.

 

You can always go outside for svcs to keep the cost down. Google around for Chevy parts stockists in SG. The parts $$ are on par with Japs makes.

 

And being an American model, you have the whole internet, youtube and Amazon to back you up in terms of svcs and troubleshooting. Also, the Cruze is sold in China as well. As such you have tons of parts to choose from at taobao. Whether they are real or OEM quality or not, its a trial and error excercise lor.

 

I am a Malibu owner....  If I don't feel daunted owning a super rare car in SG (we have less Malibu in SG than lambo and Ferrari), so should you la. Cruze is fairly common in SG already. GM parts are surprsingly durable... and I mean real GM USA models, not rebadged Daewoos eg the old Epica, Optra, Aveo and Daewoo Mati.

[Watwheels]

The 1.4L TC is on older tech compared to the trend now of direct fuel injected TC engines. It's still MPI(multi-point fuel injection), single scroll turbo. The CO2 emission doesn't give you that CEV rebate(which I think is a good thing) and the claim FC is not as good as its competitors that are using direct fuel injection.

 

The pros are proven older tech and reliability, simpler to troubleshoot.

Cons will be not as fuel efficient and powerful as the competitors.

[valian]

As what @Cheefarn has mentioned, servicing takes awhile but prices are surprising not as high as compared to other ADs. Bring your own engine oil, they will deduct $60 off the service price.

 

Parts and accessories are readily available with cruze being a global model. 

 

As for driving the 1.4T, nearing 8000km now for mine, FC is about 11km/L, but i'm on a 85% city route weekdays. Overtaking on expressways is good, power on tap on our legal speed limits anyway.  

[KoreanLover]

I have also shortlisted Cruze as my next car. Test drove last month and was impressed with the handling. 

 

Deep inside I am looking for a SUV, so I will see how it goes when I bring my family to test drive with me in the near future.

[Mikelcy1963]

High percentage of gearbox issues in the previous 1.6 Cruze. Part of the problem is rapid wear of the ATF. Drain the ATF at 20k km and you will see how bad the ATF has become. ATF used is already the highest grade (GM Dexron VI). Could be inherent overheating. Not sure if it is fixed in the 1.4T

[Cheefarn]

The 1.4L TC is on older tech compared to the trend now of direct fuel injected TC engines. It's still MPI(multi-point fuel injection), single scroll turbo. The CO2 emission doesn't give you that CEV rebate(which I think is a good thing) and the claim FC is not as good as its competitors that are using direct fuel injection.

 

The pros are proven older tech and reliability, simpler to troubleshoot.

Cons will be not as fuel efficient and powerful as the competitors.

 

Like I said in the Malibu thread, my 1.6ton Malibu can do ard 11km/L on average according to the trip computer too (reset device at every fill up). Such figure are comparable to my ex FD1 Civic... Rem Civic has a higher tech 1.8 iVTEC and weighs just 1.3tons. High tech doesn't necessary mean high fuel economy. 

 

And Malibu LE9 engine is damn smooth and quiet, despite having modest non-DI, dual VVT heads only. GM do have proper high tech engines for the Malibu (2L DI Turbo, 250hp) , but GM doesn't want this engine to be on export models... sigh.... 

[7hm]

The cost was high and the service from Regent left a bad taste in my mouth.

 

Hmm. They have told me that routine servicings are similar in price to what Mazda quoted me for routine servicing.

 

However I haven't had any problems with mine as it's still new. The 1.5L Mondeo at around $120k or less now, offers continental engineering, a great yet comfortable drive and some high technology. I'll have to see what it's really like when I go in for my first servicing... the sales experience was admittedly not that great. The people I've spoken to on the workshop side though have so far being friendly.

Don't blame you for wanting to try something new. Cruze is still a good choice.

 

 

 

I do wanna point out though, the Cruze you looked at, is it just the facelifted one, or the all new model?

I checked the Chevy pricelist and it looks like it's just the facelifted one which is a bit awkward looking imo. You ought to wait for the new one:

Edited March 2, 2016 by 7hm

[Cheefarn]

Hmm. They have told me that routine servicings are similar in price to what Mazda quoted me for routine servicing.

 

However I haven't had any problems with mine as it's still new. The 1.5L Mondeo at around $120k or less now, offers continental engineering, a great yet comfortable drive and some high technology. I'll have to see what it's really like when I go in for my first servicing... the sales experience was admittedly not that great. The people I've spoken to on the workshop side though have so far being friendly.

Don't blame you for wanting to try something new. Cruze is still a good choice.

 

 

 

I do wanna point out though, the Cruze you looked at, is it just the facelifted one, or the all new model?

I checked the Chevy pricelist and it looks like it's just the facelifted one which is a bit awkward looking imo. You ought to wait for the new one:

Bro that pic u included... thats the North American all new Cruze. Thats the Civic look alike Cruze 

 

Unfortunately all export market Cruze continues to be the existing model. GM keeps their latest offering to their own turf first. 

 

Just like my Malibu. We should be getting Gen 9 Malibu liao but all export markets carry on with the existing Gen 8 for 2016 model year. 

[ksekar]

Hmm. They have told me that routine servicings are similar in price to what Mazda quoted me for routine servicing.

 

However I haven't had any problems with mine as it's still new. The 1.5L Mondeo at around $120k or less now, offers continental engineering, a great yet comfortable drive and some high technology. I'll have to see what it's really like when I go in for my first servicing... the sales experience was admittedly not that great. The people I've spoken to on the workshop side though have so far being friendly.

Don't blame you for wanting to try something new. Cruze is still a good choice.

 

 

 

I do wanna point out though, the Cruze you looked at, is it just the facelifted one, or the all new model?

I checked the Chevy pricelist and it looks like it's just the facelifted one which is a bit awkward looking imo. You ought to wait for the new one:

The marketing materials are a bit misleading, the one sold in Singapore is a placeholder facelift model with minor changes to front fascia and rear. It comes with plenty of chrome, leather upholstery and fancy features like cruise control, keyless entry, etc...

 

There is not much info on changes under the hood. Both 1.6 and 1.4T seem to be engineered by Opel and appear quite different from the earlier. I purchased 1.6 and the specs suggest horsepower is slightly lower than outgoing model. I was given older model for test drive (per SE) and noticed some minor differences. The gear changes was apparent and slightly jittery in older model and buttery smooth in facelift model. Not sure it was due to wear and tear or abuse. Also I didn't feel 1.6 to be underpowered 90% of the time. It is adequately powered for my needs. My expectations are probably more realistic.

[7hm]

Bro that pic u included... thats the North American all new Cruze. Thats the Civic look alike Cruze 

 

Unfortunately all export market Cruze continues to be the existing model. GM keeps their latest offering to their own turf first. 

 

Just like my Malibu. We should be getting Gen 9 Malibu liao but all export markets carry on with the existing Gen 8 for 2016 model year. 

 

Yeah, I'm aware that it's the North American one, but if @Underpaidsamurai has enough time till his/her scrap day, it might reach here by end of 2016.

Doesn't seem like a Civic look-alike to me, seems more like a smaller Malibu G9, haha. I still think they are trying to woo customers who were impressed by the Fusion.

 

[Underpaidsamurai]

The SE who took me on the testdrive (his name is Joseph) told me this is the new model Cruze for 2016

[7hm]

The SE who took me on the testdrive (his name is Joseph) told me this is the new model Cruze for 2016

 

it's a facelift of the old car. But it might be using the latest version of the EcoTec engine family.

 

The Chevrolet NavTrak software is based on Galactio though, if I'm not wrong. It looks suspiciously similar to the one used by Marbella GPSes.

 

The front face is almost the same but with DRLs but the tail lights are new.

 

 

 

 

 

 

the new backside reminds me of the Volkswagen CC haha

Edited March 2, 2016 by 7hm

[Sopskysalat]

It was once of my shortlisted car then before I went on to get MPV, so I did some reading up on this model and drivetrain.

 

Its TC engine albiet "older tech", it is not short of power compare to other DI engine. Honestly, do we really care so much about CO2 emission? It is up to the government to drive this green initiative. For FC, I read from other thread that no matter how you drive, it delivers at least 12km/l which to me is excellent. What is letdown here is it is paired to the Aisin 6sp auto which can be dumbwitted in its decisiveness when come to gear change. This MPI injected turbo will probably face less carbon buildup issue experience by Direct Injection engine due to fuel injected directly into the chamber instead of through intake valve where it cleans the top of the valve.

 

Antoher bro has pointed out that since it is GM car which relatively good history, you can really find tons of online support with many ECU tunes which you can purchase online that fit to the model. Google trifecta tune and voila! You got yourself a +44HP and 40NM more of power at the crank! It appears that the tune can improve on gear changing speed too!

 

Having say all these, we have to agree that for the same amount of money (not sure how much it cost now), there are other options too. and the car is dated in look and feel too.

 

It's your call!

The 1.4L TC is on older tech compared to the trend now of direct fuel injected TC engines. It's still MPI(multi-point fuel injection), single scroll turbo. The CO2 emission doesn't give you that CEV rebate(which I think is a good thing) and the claim FC is not as good as its competitors that are using direct fuel injection.

 

The pros are proven older tech and reliability, simpler to troubleshoot.

Cons will be not as fuel efficient and powerful as the competitors.

 

[valian]

Antoher bro has pointed out that since it is GM car which relatively good history, you can really find tons of online support with many ECU tunes which you can purchase online that fit to the model. Google trifecta tune and voila! You got yourself a +44HP and 40NM more of power at the crank! It appears that the tune can improve on gear changing speed too!

 

 

If anyone if having issues with Cruze's gear changing, I can confirm that Trifecta really does help on gear change speeds.