Chevy Cruze Wagon

ransom wrote: In reply to 93EXCivic: A dearth of options lowers standards...

Actually, the one they tested was and LTZ and it's pretty loaded

In reply to Anti-stance:

I agree, but most people get the itch again after the last payment goes out in the mail.... So, after about 4-5 yrs. After that, I can see the numbers being like above, unless it is like here were 87 can be purchased for 3.319/gal or diesel for 3.399/gal....

Ranger50 wrote: In reply to Anti-stance: I agree, but most people get the itch again after the last payment goes out in the mail....

Yeah, that is one thing I didn't take into account. Most people don't buy a car and keep for a long time. Another thing Americans love is a car payment.

Ranger50 wrote: Among all the other damage of smelly fuel, stains, fuel availability, fuel cost to gas, vehicle option cost, etc.... All 80's based junk that still lingers beyond just the crappy domestic built stuff.

No problem up here boss. Diesel is cheaper here and available at ALL gas stations

integraguy wrote: haven't heard any of the VW horror stories (be it the car or the dealers)

I love VW's once you get into the MK4 gen and newer. They really aren't THAT bad, and the nice thing is that VAGCOM will tell you what's wrong pretty thoroughly, even back in the early MK4 days. Whats not to love? I've had worse experiences working on most Cavaliers/Sunfires than VWs/Audis...

HiTempguy wrote: Whats not to love?

When they start barfing up coil packs and you bring your VAGCOM everywhere with you because of:

Anti-stance wrote: Stupid Americans.

My favorite sang.

Anti-stance wrote: When they start barfing up coil packs and you bring your VAGCOM everywhere with you because of:

Ya, well duh. That's why you carry a spare coil with you. I did just that the 2nd trip a group of 20 cars from Alberta did a couple of years ago to Wustefest in Vegas. The shop-owner/dude who knows everything had to rescue his father's TT on the way back, so he split off. A guy with a seriously worked 400whp GTi dropped a cylinder. Not many of them were actual car guys, so they were all freaked out/doom and gloom.

I grabbed a spare coil, swapped it in (with a pair of pliers to remove the bolt holding it in, no tools) and voila! Fixed.

Besides from that singular coil, over 40 cars made that 10,000km trip without a glitch (twice), almost all of them I personally worked on. Not bad IMO.

pinchvalve wrote: I wonder about the diesel option. Let's see...I put gas in my car at $3.17 last week. Diesel was $3.76 at the same station. The Cruse Eco (and other gas cars) get 40mpg under ideal conditions, small diesels get about the same. For comparison sake, let's say gas is good for 37mpg and diesel is 43mpg. With a 15 gallon tank, that's $47.55 to fill gas, and you run at around $.085 per mile for 555 miles. With diesel, the cost is $56.40 to fill, running at around $.087 per mile for 645 miles. Interesting.

from what i read on the internets (so i know its true) the VW TDI will do 65mpg highway once its broken in.

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote:

ransom wrote: In reply to 93EXCivic: A dearth of options lowers standards...

Actually, the one they tested was and LTZ and it's pretty loaded

I mean that we have very few options for diesel cars available to us, so I get excited about a new option (e.g. Cruze) that I otherwise wouldn't care about.

it seems like the diesel car issue is a bit of a self fulfilling prophecy. the manufacturers are afraid of doing it, so they only offer a diesel with the highest option package, jacking the sticker price through the roof. OR, like with wagons, they barely make any, then can them in a couple years because they never sold very many. its like the whole "gotta spend money to make money" logic is lost on them.

maybe its not the consumer's perception of the 80's GM diesel crap that keeps diesel out of the US market, maybe its the GM execs that are afraid of another 350 diesel debacle.

super edit: i had a mini cooper SD rental while i was in the UK two weeks ago, and i was seriously impressed. the power delivery was absolutely un-diesel like, it was amazing. i averaged around 45-50mpg at 70+ mph but the little instant economy meter was telling me that i could get around 60mpg at 60mph, and even better mileage at 50mph. it also had the auto-stop/start feature which was interesting. stop at a light, put the trans in neutral and let off the clutch and the engine shuts off. as soon as you push the clutch back in to put the trans in gear, it cranks the engine back up. pretty neat little feature. the diesel didn't have the legs that the gas turbo cooper S would, but i bet it could hang with it up to 80 or 90 without much trouble.

ransom wrote:

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote:

ransom wrote: In reply to 93EXCivic: A dearth of options lowers standards...

Actually, the one they tested was and LTZ and it's pretty loaded

I mean that we have very few options for diesel cars available to us, so I get excited about a new option (e.g. Cruze) that I otherwise wouldn't care about.

Ahh, Now I gotcha, I read that wrong.

HiTempguy wrote: Ya, well duh.

I forgot to put a in there for good measure.

In reply to Strizzo:

I'm just wondering why they don't attempt to sell a limited amount at first (say 3K-4K), then if they sell all or close to all, add another 2k of cars the next year. It can't hurt, especially if they're already making it. They already have the tooling. Wagons have always been produced in way less numbers than their sedan counterparts. If they don't sell as many, guess what? Don't sell them the next year.

We've watched all the car companies make mistakes when they've brought cars to market that's a one-off model. This particular car has other body counterparts that have the same underpinnings and drivetrains. I can't this being a major loss to the point that they wouldn't sell it here.

Also, they are already planning on selling the 2.0L Diesel that Holden gets here in the States. So there will also be diesel sedans running around; how much of a difference is a wagon going to be?

Anti-stance wrote: What in the berkeley is wrong with this country? No one buys diesel cars when they get better fuel economy and will turn around and bitch about cars not getting good fuel economy. Stupid Americans.

I think most would if said diesels weren't attached to a VW or a pickup truck.

gamby wrote: Hey--who in their right mind would want a car that can haul a bunch of stuff and get 50+ mpg??? Clean diesels were supposed to be headed here after the last fuel crunch in '08 and they petered out the second gas got cheaper. Looks like a great car, BTW.

Gas got cheaper? Huh? Where do you live? Gas is $3.50 a gallon in Michigan.

Haven't see cheap gas since the 90's (Thats a buck a gallon thankyou)

The Cruze wagon would be an ideal car for a lot of people, they just don't realize it.

integraguy wrote: Whether it's true or not, why do folks trot out that argument "...because of those old, smelly, diesel cars GM built in the '70s/'80s...." BUT, that kind of "group think" doesn't stop idiots from buying those POC cars that wear the big VW on the front and back? I mean, why are there STILL, enough folks in this country who SOMEHOW haven't heard any of the VW horror stories (be it the car or the dealers) but there are folks who still believe diesel cars are junk because of GM? In other words...I ain't buying that "it's GM's fault" as an argument any more. Folks don't want diesel cars because they are a pain to fuel, and let's face it, there aren't for sale. CAR COMPANIES believing we won't buy diesels are the real reason there aren't more of them for sale.

i think more people don't like diesels because of the VW Rabbit diesel.. those things were just miserable.. one of my friends had one, and after a year his parents bought him an 85 Citation from a government auction as an upgrade..

that, and the fuel stinks and you'd somehow get an oily film of diesel all over everything..

Gearheadotaku wrote:

gamby wrote: Hey--who in their right mind would want a car that can haul a bunch of stuff and get 50+ mpg??? Clean diesels were supposed to be headed here after the last fuel crunch in '08 and they petered out the second gas got cheaper. Looks like a great car, BTW.

Gas got cheaper? Huh? Where do you live? Gas is $3.50 a gallon in Michigan. Haven't see cheap gas since the 90's (Thats a buck a gallon thankyou) The Cruze wagon would be an ideal car for a lot of people, they just don't realize it.

Back in '08, when it went from $4.10 a gallon down to $2.50 or so in a matter of a few months, yeah--it got cheaper. That happened and all of the clean diesel talk dried up. That's what I was referring to.

It's expensive again, but now everyone's used to it. Plus, there is now a glut of 40mpg cars that didn't exist in '08.

I would buy that car if they brought it here with a stick.

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: In reply to Strizzo: I'm just wondering why they don't attempt to sell a limited amount at first (say 3K-4K), then if they sell all or close to all, add another 2k of cars the next year. It can't hurt, especially if they're already making it. They already have the tooling. Wagons have always been produced in way less numbers than their sedan counterparts. If they don't sell as many, guess what? Don't sell them the next year.

Because the rather substantial costs to certify a car for US sale is the same whether they sell 4000 or 400,000. Each drivetrain combination is certified seperately, so trying to get the costs spread out over the sales of 4000 cars tends to not sit well with the bean counters when dealing with tight-margin, entry-level cars like the Cruze. The costs are easier to absorb in higher price level cars.

So we can't get this at our local Chevrolet dealer? I suppose that 2 door Ford that Ken Block drove all over San Francisco isn't available either?

Gearheadotaku wrote: The Cruze wagon would be an ideal car for a lot of people, they just don't realize it.

sadly wagons still have that "stigma" of the huge old landyachts with the rear facing back seats. The boomers hated that they got stuck in the "way back" and vowed to never do that to their kids.. so they bought HUGE SUVs with a third row seat you can barely get into or even fit into..

They really love having those things called "tall wagons"

Personally, when I saw the cruze wagon.. I thought it was a saab for a moment. The side view looks very swedish

I'll venture to guess that if they came out with it in the US, it would be a complete sales dud.

Otto Maddox wrote: I'll venture to guess that if they came out with it in the US, it would be a complete sales dud.

You're probably right about that. If it did come out here, it would be the first Chevy in years that I'd consider buying.

Ian F wrote:

SyntheticBlinkerFluid wrote: In reply to Strizzo: I'm just wondering why they don't attempt to sell a limited amount at first (say 3K-4K), then if they sell all or close to all, add another 2k of cars the next year. It can't hurt, especially if they're already making it. They already have the tooling. Wagons have always been produced in way less numbers than their sedan counterparts. If they don't sell as many, guess what? Don't sell them the next year.

Because the rather substantial costs to certify a car for US sale is the same whether they sell 4000 or 400,000. Each drivetrain combination is certified seperately, so trying to get the costs spread out over the sales of 4000 cars tends to not sit well with the bean counters when dealing with tight-margin, entry-level cars like the Cruze. The costs are easier to absorb in higher price level cars.

And who said the bean counters make all the right decisions?

Americans don't like diesels, in addition to some of the other reasons mentioned, because there can be limited places to refuel and some of them are nasty. I drive a diesel, and I live in a metropolitan area, and I still have to plan.

That wagon rocks. I wish Ford made a Fusion/MKZ wagon.