Bye bye powertrain warranty!

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My Cruze hit the big 100K night before last. Bought it new exactly 4 years ago and it's been good to me since.

One set of front pads/rotors (88K)
One set of tires (50K)
One set of plugs (60K)
Coolant outlet (92K?)
Two trans. fluid changes w/Amsoil

Original turbo, original clutch.

Usual OCI since 6,000 mi. (one free OC from the dealership) has been Synpower at 5K intervals, but there were two 5K's with M1 and two 7,500 mi. intervals of Schaeffer's 9000. Oil level never changes.

The 1st gen Cruze got a bad reputation but mine's been a dandy little car.

Carry on.
 
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Sounds like it's been a great car. My powertrain warranty ended 4K miles ago, but I'm not worried.
 
Thanks, all. The Cruze got a bad reputation for failure of turbos, water pumps and other cooling system components, really sluggish performance, even the manual trans. had problems with the 5th/6th gear shaft bearings going out due to underfilling from the factory... but I think a lot of that is due to the mindset of most drivers that do the bare minimum as seldom as possible, but most cars will tolerate it. Cruze just won't, but if you only do a couple things right it'll keep up with pretty much any other.

Originally Posted By: aquariuscsm
That's a sweet looking dash!


I like it. Symmetrical, round gauges not unlike a lot of 60's cars but a design that, in retrospect, seems to have been on its way out of favor in '13. The same can be said for the exterior styling, and part of why I bought a Cruze - straightforward, symmetrical sedan styling in a time of angular, insect-esque lines and steeply raked body and window lines. Mine has the red & black cloth interior, and I wanted 1LT trim because I liked those wheels best and the RS package for the few trim/chrome goodies and as a nod to the '67 RS Camaro my mom had when she was young. (Though as it turns out, the rear Z-link upgrade was probably a good thing, too.) My family isn't one to buy new cars often so when I made the decision to buy new, I bought what I wanted within the limitations of what I could afford. It's not a collector muscle/sports car but I may very well pass it down to my kids or just always have it as the daily gas sipper and watch the odometer roll as many more times as the body will tolerate.
 
I know a few people with Cruzes, they like them and seem to hold up well. I've ridden in them, seems like a nicer car than expected in the segment. One is an LTZ and it is really sharp, nice rims, leather, nav.
 
Originally Posted By: macarose
Well, I wrote this a couple of years ago.

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2015/10/chevrolet-cruze-success-failure/

I'm sure you're going to make that Cruze a keeper for a very long while. Congrats, and all the best!

Steven Lang


I have a Cruze eco and the turbo engine is my least-favorite part of the car. I wish I could have bought the exact same car (eco trim with manual trans) but with the 1.8.

GM really cynically options the Cruze. They option it in a way to force people into the 1.4. On the Cruzes like mine, you can't get the 1.8 manual with cruise control. That's a must-have item for me because of my commute.

I like the driving dynamics, quiet cabin and overall quality of my Cruze. But I'm tired of the poor reliability, poor hot-weather performance and other foibles associated with the 1.4 turbo.
 
Do most cars in the US have the kilometer per hour scale on the speedometer? Seems a bit pointless, unless you're driving to Canada...
 
Originally Posted By: hpb
Do most cars in the US have the kilometer per hour scale on the speedometer? Seems a bit pointless, unless you're driving to Canada...


And many Canadian cars have MPH in small scale too.
Just the way it is here in N. America
 
Originally Posted By: stephen9666
Originally Posted By: macarose
Well, I wrote this a couple of years ago.

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2015/10/chevrolet-cruze-success-failure/

I'm sure you're going to make that Cruze a keeper for a very long while. Congrats, and all the best!

Steven Lang


I have a Cruze eco and the turbo engine is my least-favorite part of the car. I wish I could have bought the exact same car (eco trim with manual trans) but with the 1.8.

GM really cynically options the Cruze. They option it in a way to force people into the 1.4. On the Cruzes like mine, you can't get the 1.8 manual with cruise control. That's a must-have item for me because of my commute.

I like the driving dynamics, quiet cabin and overall quality of my Cruze. But I'm tired of the poor reliability, poor hot-weather performance and other foibles associated with the 1.4 turbo.


I picked the 1.4T on purpose - better mileage and power, no timing belt, etc., and a lot of its quirks were mitigated by how I was going to treat the car no matter what it was: 89 octane, keeping a close eye on spark plug condition, oil changes @ 30% OLM, etc. I absolutely acknowledge the 1.4 isn't a Toyota 22R from a reliability standpoint, but as I've already said I've experienced very few of the problems and the benefits have substantially outweighed them. I, too, wish it was still like the old days where even small cars came with any number of engine options (i.e., late 60's Nova with a 153-4 or a 350HP 327) but I don't consider the inability to get a 1.8 in more models one of the worse instances of that. I do all the maintenance on the car myself, and the gas savings of the 1.4 this last 100K vs. the cost of a pending timing belt replacement if I had a 1.8 looks pretty good to me right now.

Now, the 2.0 TD only coming with an automatic a 2/3 trim level is a different story...

I also think, in a fantasy world where available options were more like they were in the 60's, a Cruze SS with the Impala 3.6 would be much fun.
smile.gif
 
Originally Posted By: hpb
Do most cars in the US have the kilometer per hour scale on the speedometer? Seems a bit pointless, unless you're driving to Canada...


They both have had the two scales since the late 1970's. MPH predominant in the US, KmH predominant in Canada, and the other marked in the smaller scale on the inside of the curve.

With the majority of the nations (all of South, Central America, Mexico, Canada) using Km and the US using Miles you do need both; you can drive from above the Arctic Circle to the tip of South America if you want.

I'm sure UK cars have the same thing. You can drive from above the Arctic Circle to the tip of Africa there as well, and the UK is Miles, everyone else in Europe is Km, and there could be places in Africa that are both Km and Miles (former British colonies like Egypt come to mind as possibilities).

Oz? Not much point, really, where can you drive that uses Miles?, so it's not there. An interesting tidbit is for the year before the change from Miles to Km in Australia, speedos were dual indicating, but it's the Metrification Law, not automakers, who force the Km-only markings in Australia. Marking dual units on Speedos in Oz is illegal for OEMs but allowed by the owner.
 
Ours is at 95k - can't complain - it's comfy enough - got leather (all of mine do - just prefer it) ...
Just changed the composite valve cover cause PCV is part of it - dealer paid for that and some of the associated "tubing" ... I'm doing oil around 6k-7k (20% OLM) - doing ATF 20k-30k to be conservative - only takes 10 minutes more during oil change to get a fresh gallon D6 in there ... decent car so far ...
 
Originally Posted By: Alex_V
My Cruze hit the big 100K night before last. Bought it new exactly 4 years ago and it's been good to me since.

One set of front pads/rotors (88K)
One set of tires (50K)
One set of plugs (60K)
Coolant outlet (92K?)
Two trans. fluid changes w/Amsoil

Original turbo, original clutch.

Usual OCI since 6,000 mi. (one free OC from the dealership) has been Synpower at 5K intervals, but there were two 5K's with M1 and two 7,500 mi. intervals of Schaeffer's 9000. Oil level never changes.

The 1st gen Cruze got a bad reputation but mine's been a dandy little car.

Carry on.




What kind of spark plugs you put in???
 
Originally Posted By: Alex_V

I picked the 1.4T on purpose - better mileage and power, no timing belt, etc., and a lot of its quirks were mitigated by how I was going to treat the car no matter what it was: 89 octane, keeping a close eye on spark plug condition, oil changes @ 30% OLM, etc. I absolutely acknowledge the 1.4 isn't a Toyota 22R from a reliability standpoint, but as I've already said I've experienced very few of the problems and the benefits have substantially outweighed them. I, too, wish it was still like the old days where even small cars came with any number of engine options (i.e., late 60's Nova with a 153-4 or a 350HP 327) but I don't consider the inability to get a 1.8 in more models one of the worse instances of that. I do all the maintenance on the car myself, and the gas savings of the 1.4 this last 100K vs. the cost of a pending timing belt replacement if I had a 1.8 looks pretty good to me right now.


It's fine that you like the 1.4. You're welcome to your opinion, but I think there's another way to look at it.

An engine that gets slightly lower fuel economy, but can run properly on 87, can actually have a very similar fuel cost on a cost-per-mile basis.

I also do all my own maintenance. If I had the 1.8 I'd be doing the timing belt myself. I think people here get their undies in a wad over the word "timing belt" when in a lot of cases it's not a bad job.

After owning the 1.4 turbo, I'd just prefer the simplicity of an n/a engine in this car.
 
Originally Posted By: Lolvoguy
Originally Posted By: hpb
Do most cars in the US have the kilometer per hour scale on the speedometer? Seems a bit pointless, unless you're driving to Canada...


And many Canadian cars have MPH in small scale too.
Just the way it is here in N. America


We grew up on the border, we crossed over weekly into canada and every car I have owned has had kilometers per hour on it.
 
Originally Posted By: Ram02
Originally Posted By: Alex_V
My Cruze hit the big 100K night before last. Bought it new exactly 4 years ago and it's been good to me since.

One set of front pads/rotors (88K)
One set of tires (50K)
One set of plugs (60K)
Coolant outlet (92K?)
Two trans. fluid changes w/Amsoil

Original turbo, original clutch.

Usual OCI since 6,000 mi. (one free OC from the dealership) has been Synpower at 5K intervals, but there were two 5K's with M1 and two 7,500 mi. intervals of Schaeffer's 9000. Oil level never changes.

The 1st gen Cruze got a bad reputation but mine's been a dandy little car.

Carry on.




What kind of spark plugs you put in???


Factory/stock Delco iridiums. 40K on this set and 50K on the last one with nary a problem - .028" gap.
 
Originally Posted By: Johnny2Bad
They both have had the two scales since the late 1970's. MPH predominant in the US, KmH predominant in Canada, and the other marked in the smaller scale on the inside of the curve.

Or, with the digital ones, metric on one function, U.S. (not Imperial) on the other.
 
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