The Chevrolet Cruze, with a new bold look, is certainly a head turner. The question is – can it turn around GM’s fortunes in India?

In an era gone by, Chevrolet enjoyed a great following in India. But those days are long gone. In spite of the fact that the brand has such strong recall in the country, their second coming hasn’t been as successful as General Motors would have liked. The Chevrolet brand hasn’t quite been able to capture the people’s imagination like it did back in the day. Except for the Optra, which is now past its prime, no other Chevrolet passenger car has been able to make a breakthrough.

But all that may change when the Chevrolet Cruze hits showrooms this month. We can safely say it’ll certainly give the established players a very tough run for their money. The Cruze will be in direct competition with the likes of the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, and Skoda Laura. And the ace up its sleeve is a very powerful diesel engine.

There’s no question that the Cruze has to do well if General Motors really wants to break into the top league of auto manufacturers in India. And according to GM insiders, this is just the beginning. GM has a slew of new models lined up for domestic launch in the near future.

From the Outside

I wouldn’t blame anyone for passing off the Cruze as a coupe at fast glance. The roof drops down rapidly from the B-Pillar, and the raked rear windscreen gives the impression of a two-door coupe. Unlike any other Chevrolet car, the Cruze has sharp and rather purposeful lines, which ensure that it should hold its own and stand out in a crowd.

The muscular bonnet, wide headlamps, and big grille, with the gold Bowtie dead center, gives the Cruze impressive road presence. Many of the European and Japanese cars on Indian roads have a low bonnet, which leaves little space for a strong front grille. In the Cruze, however, the big, wide grille is reminiscence of the impressive Chevys of yore.

There isn’t an inkling of flab anywhere on the car. The wheel arches don’t protrude unnecessarily, but maintain the sleek, taut lines that define the overall design of the car. The rear is garnished with wrap-around tail lamps, but they’re not anywhere near as distinct as the front.

From the Inside



GM seems to have carried the good work, in terms of design, into the interiors as well, which are well laid out with good ergonomics. The first thing you experience is the keyless entry-and-start. GM calls this technology the PEPS system – Passive Entry, Passive Start. If you have the key in your pocket, you simply have to pull the door handle to unlock. Once inside, depress the clutch and push the start/stop button on the left of the steering to fire the engine. Cool stuff! But I think it would be more logical to have the start/stop button on the right of the steering – placed next to the headlight knob.

Blue-lit dials with chrome rings are clear and easy to read – and actually look quite special. There’s a screen at the top of the center console that gives you all sort of details, and also allows you to access ‘Vehicle Settings,’ which in turn enables you to personalize a number of parameters ranging from how long the interior lights should remain on when you exit the car, to whether the doors should lock automatically on your exit. You can even choose French or Spanish if you’re multi-lingual, although not Hindi – as yet anyway. With that said, all the buttons on the center console do overwhelm at first. But I must confess, I am somewhat challenged when it comes to electronic gizmos.



The driver fits quite snugly in the drivers’ seat, which can be manually adjusted for height. Plus, the steering can be adjusted for reach as well as rake, so finding a good driving position is easy. The seat itself is a little on the firm side, but very well contoured and comfortable. The adequately padded steering wheel has toggle switches on both spokes – one for the radio, and the other for cruise control. Moreover, this is one Chevrolet where the combination switches are in the right place, with the wiper controls on the left, and headlight switches on the right – just like most other cars in India. All the other switches and controls also fall easily to hand.

In the rear, the seats are once again comfortable and provide ample legroom, but they are a little upright and a tall person could find that his or her head collides with the headliner every time the car hits a big pothole. The steeply raked roof limits headroom to a large extent, but ingress and egress is uninhibited. For your convenience, there are storage places all over the car – including door pockets, the glove box, cup holders, central storage bin and a small bin on top of the center console. This top-of-the-line model also comes with a sunroof, which is a nice touch – though the summer sun may fry you, it will come to good use in winter.

On the road



The Cruze is powered by a diesel engine that illustrates just how close modern diesels have come to the traditionally more refined petrol engines. In fact, this one could well embarrass some of its petrol rivals.

It is a rocket alright – especially if you choose to use all of the 148bhp on tap. The speedo needle crosses to the other side of 150km/h in a flash, and without the car even shedding a bead of sweat. I’m sure if I hadn’t run out of tarmac, crossing the 200km/h mark would have been very easy indeed. High speed stability is good, and is indicative of the fact that the Cruze was engineered from scratch to feel right at home on the back roads and highways of Europe.

There are a few drawbacks however. While the power is explosive, there is a little turbo lag. Despite the fact that there’s a variable turbine geometry turbo, it does strain to propel the car before it hits the 1600rpm mark. Peak torque kicks in early, and you’re away quite quickly, but there is a moment of lag – this is accentuated when you’re in traffic in second gear.

Keeping the Cruze in its powerband will mean frequent gear changes. Good thing, then, that the clutch is quite light (especially for a diesel) and the throws are short – although not as precise as they could be. On the highway, the car should be more than happy to live up to its name and cruise merrily without the need to downshift in a hurry.

The Cruze shares the same 2.0 liter engine as the Optra Magnum and Capitva SUV. In the Magnum, it produces 120bhp and makes do with a traditional turbo. In the Captiva and Cruze, the same engine has a variable geometry turbo and makes a substantial 148bhp. It’s strange then that the Cruze doesn’t feel as explosive as the Optra Magnum. If you delve a little deeper, however, you find that it is in fact faster – reaching 100km/h in 9.6 seconds versus 9.8 in the Magnum. It’s simply that the chassis is so much more composed in the Cruze that it doesn’t feel as quick – it’s actually a credit to the new machine.



On the other hand, the engine does sound better in the Magnum. Like in the Captiva, at idle, this one sounds a bit industrial. Pick up the revs, though, and it does change character and sound quite inspiring – a resonance that’s matched equally by sufficient forward momentum from the vast reserves of power. Plus, at high speed, the engine noise is quite adequately insulated as well.

The Cruze also handles nicely. It’s very light on its feet considering there’s a diesel under-hood. It stays planted and holds its line in a corner – even at relatively high speed. The McPherson struts up front and twist beam axel at the rear make for a stiff set up that inspires confidence, but it does mean that you notice some of the larger pot holes and bumps on our city streets – the chassis is stiff and the car doesn’t get unbalanced, but you do feel it within the cabin. The Cruze is shod with 205/60 R16 JK Vectra tyres that are very predictable and inspire confidence. And while they can be noisy at the limit, they certainly don’t make the sort of racket that the Dunlops on the Magnum used to make.

The steering is light, albeit a little vague, but again it is predictable – allowing you to very safely explore the handling limits of the car, which is reassuring since it doesn’t have any form of traction control. Braking performance is impressive too, with disc brakes all round. This, in addition to ABS, means that stopping power is very reassuring indeed.

At the end of the day, all of this adds up to make the Cruze surprisingly satisfying to drive, and that’s saying a lot considering we’re talking about diesel power here. Add diesel economy to the mix, and you’ll find that this is a real ace up GMs sleeve.

Verdict



The Cruze seems to have a lot going for it: great exterior design, lovely interiors (with the exception of some hard plastics), a powerful and refined engine, and a host of goodies in terms of cabin tech – all of which make for a potent combination.

The price will likely have been made public by the time you read this. However, our estimation of 12-14 lakhs for the various variants should ensure that the Cruze is an enticing proposition, especially when you look at the goodies packed into this model – such as keyless-entry-and-start, an in-dash 6 CD changer with an Aux input, twin airbags, ABS, climate control, cruise controle, and a very useful on-board computer that allows you to personalize a host of settings.

The Cruze might well be the car to change the fortunes of General Motors in India, and firmly push it back into the premier league.