The Chevrolet Cruze was created under the leadership of Tevan Kim. General Motors presented this car as a replacement for the Chevrolet Lacetti. At the heart of the car is the new global platform "Delta II", on which the Opel Astra J. is built
In Russia, hatchbacks and Chevrolet Cruze sedans were produced at the company's plant in St. Petersburg (Shushary). With a station wagon body, cars were produced at the Avtotor Kaliningrad plant. Officially, the model was present on the Russian market from 2009 to 2015.
Reviews about this car are somewhat controversial, especially in the Russian automotive community. Some owners almost do not see any flaws in it, and some argue that the car is "crumbling". In this article we will analyze the pros and cons of the Chevrolet Cruze.
Characteristics
First of all, consider the main characteristics of a car. Available in the back: sedan, station wagon, five-door hatchback. Drive - front. In Russia, it was produced with P4 gasoline engines with a volume of 1.4 liters (power - 140 “horses” with a turbocharger), 1.6 liters (with a capacity of 109 and 124 hp), as well as with a capacity of 141 hp. and a volume of 1.8. The pros and cons of the Chevrolet Cruze are associated primarily with the checkpoint. It is either a five-speed manual or a six-speed automatic. The fact that there is a “machine gun" in principle is a plus. His moodiness is, of course, a minus, but the automatic transmission will be considered in more detail below.
Restyling
There were only two, but both were not very significant. In 2012, manufacturers updated the grille and headlights. There were also changes to the ventilation holes located around the fog lamps. New alloy wheels became available, and the “filling” was supplemented by the MyLink entertainment system, which is added to the package as an option. In 2014, the radiator grille was redesigned. Now it has become an angular shape, similar to the style of the Malibu models.
Leaving the Russian market
Now the car has left the Russian market, remaining only in the secondary. There is an opinion that it was in connection with the political situation in the world that the Korean concern General Motors stated that it would no longer sell its cars in Russia. Meanwhile, the direct ancestor of the Chevrolet Cruz is more or less successfully sold under our name Ravon Gentra (Gentra).
Comparison
Consider the pros and cons of the Chevrolet Cruze. Compared to its predecessor - the "Lacetti" - the car does not suffer from "diseases" of optics. It does not fog up and does not melt, and light bulbs live much longer. The rather weak mounting of the bumpers causes dissatisfaction among many owners, since the plastic part can move away from the fixation points, even if you just “inadvertently” support “the snowdrift during parking. After 4-5 years of operation, many cars of this model have a trunk release button that fails.
If we talk about the pros and cons of the Chevrolet Cruze, then the first, of course, should be attributed to a thin paintwork, poorly opposed to chips. However, many modern cars have this drawback. In defense of Cruz, one thing can be said: although the paintwork is unstable, the anti-corrosion treatment is at its best. The owners say that even after two or three years, the chips do not rust.
We disassemble the "iron"
General Motors, releasing this model, expected a lot from it. Chevrolet Cruze, with its pros and cons, whatever they were, wanted to take the place of the best-selling car in the world. But it's hard to create something perfect. Cruz is available with two transmission options: mechanical and automatic. Both have their drawbacks.
The mechanical five-speed gearbox D16, in particular, has such a drawback: leak drive seals. This can often be observed in the offseason, when temperature extremes are especially unpredictable. Sometimes owners have to change the seals twice a year: in autumn and spring. This "feature" in the list of minuses "Chevrolet Cruise" can be called the brightest. It was she who greatly spoiled the reputation of the car as a durable and reliable car. Maybe the Korean concern did not adjust for Russian weather?
To make the gear shift of the Cruise manual transmission more clear, experts advise almost immediately to replace the factory oil in the gearbox with any good analogue. In order for the box to serve as long as possible, the oil needs to be changed every one hundred thousand kilometers. This advice is even more relevant for the owners of the Chevrolet Lacetti.
And what about the "automatic"?
If we talk about the pros and cons of the Chevrolet Cruze, then a decent share of the latter will have to experience the owners of Cruises with an automatic transmission. Automatic transmission "General Motors" Series 6T30 / 6T40 is rather capricious. The most obvious problem is various vibrations, as well as jerks during switching, which occur quite quickly, sometimes even by thirty thousand kilometers. The unit has frankly weak points that have a very small resource of work. These include the valve body and its solenoids, a control unit that is built into the automatic transmission. A lot of problems arise because of the brake drum retaining ring, which, falling apart to one hundred thousand kilometers, falls into the gears of the planetary gear, bringing the repair price to decent amounts.
Also, the box is different and leaks. Most often, cooling pipes flow to the heat exchanger and the gasket between the half-shells of the box.
Is treatable?
Is it possible to "equalize" the pros and cons in the operation of the Chevrolet Cruze? Mechanics claim that frequent oil changes will help to slightly increase the service life of an automatic transmission of this type (approximately every 40-50 thousand kilometers). However, the help from this will not be as substantial as we would like. Some owners "treat" this automatic transmission by installing an additional radiator to cool the box. Specialists involved in the professional repair of "automatic machines" believe that with ordinary driving such an upgrade is just a waste of money. Additional cooling will be useful in extreme conditions, but will not be able to "cure congenital diseases."
Suspension
Both the pros and cons of the Chevrolet Cruze are present. This also applies to the suspension, which, however, is very good. Cruz has a platform in common with Astra J, but there is no Watt mechanism in the Cruise rear suspension. It is equipped with a conventional elastic beam without additional rods. The design is very simple, so there’s nothing to break.
The front suspension has one minus - it's the rear silent blocks of levers. They "live" up to a maximum of one hundred thousand run. Other elements have a much longer work resource. Engineers also claim that the Cruz has all the nodes more massive than the Lacetti. These pros and cons of the Chevrolet Cruze relate to 1.6 liters and 1.8 liters. An expensive turbine repair can be added to the turbocharged 1.4 engine, which will probably have to be done after 100-150 thousand kilometers.