My new Cruze - the Sand Drift Grey Beast

So I finally got my Chevy Cruze on the day I got my new job. I think it's a good omen. It's a Sand Drift Grey LT model. It was either this colour or black for me. But I've already had a black Honda City so I was inclined towards the Sand Drift Grey. I'm going to follow the "assembly line" format mentioned in the forum rules to make this simple. 1. Alternatives Considered: The usual suspects Civic, Laura, Altis, Cruze and even the Fluence. My budget was 13-16 lakhs. I was primarily looking for good looks and decent performance. I was not too particular about things like power, resale value and availability of cheap spares. I'd probably chose the civic or altis if I did. Civic is way too common. Also, I read on TeamBHP that it was nearing the end of its product lifecycle with a new Civic due in 2012 Laura had some very nasty reviews and the stories of their after-sales service were shocking. I did test drive it though. The petrol variant. I liked it. But the looks are a bit plain, especially on the inside. This is just a personal opinion. Altis was not really in consideration due to the extremely minimalistic looks from inside. Although the new G&G model does come with a 7" in-dash touch-screen player and some other nice features. Fluence had very negative reviews on TeamBHP although i personally think its a stunner I think it had to be the Cruze for me. Its a beast. I love the way it looks. The 2.0 engine and the body shape makes you feel like you're in a tank on steroids. It took two test drives and extreme R&D on this site (and others) to come to this decision. 2. Booking and Delivery Experience: Very smooth and by the book. My dealer was Ashtavinayak in Goregaon. I had a single point of contact there and the sales person was respectful, knowledgeable and competent. I did have to argue for the car cover and the boot mat but that's a minor thing. Overall good experience and timely delivery. They kept their word on every promise. 3.On-road price, Discounts: About 14L + Customizations (more on that later). I got my own insurance and did not buy insurance from the dealer. I did not know I could do that till someone told me about it. 4. Engine type & variant: Cruze only comes with a 2.0 Diesel Engine. I got the LT Variant (manual transmission) 5. KMs Driven and usage patterns: About 500KM driven. Roughly 30-35 km a day with 80% dense traffic and 20% open highway. 6. Exterior Styling: that's what did it for me. I love it. 7. Interior Design and Quality: The design is simply awesome. It's ergonomic and looks hot. However I had read that the quality of plastics and button/knobs are not as good as the Civics and Lauras. But I am reasonably satisfied with them. No complaints as such. 8. Interior Space and comfort: Ranks high on comfort. Not so much on space. I am 6'2" and I doubt if anyone more than 5'4" can sit comfortably behind me in this car. I had read about dismal head room for the rear passengers but I have not seen anyone have that problem in my car yet. Have the GM people changed something here? 9. Other noteworthy interior points: Great air conditioning, powerful headlamps, basic odometer panel cluster, good looking dash. I was not sure if the LT model would play the ipod. But it does and very well at that. Complete integration. You can scroll all the artists, albums, genres etc from the dash controls. Same for a USB drive. The USB drive will only play the first 10,000 songs though. It says so in the manual. 10. Engine performance: Excellent. But the turbo lag is obvious. The clutch recoil does live up to its reputation of being hard. It does get tough during bumper to bumper traffic, but once the road clears a bit, you will probably leave everyone behind. 11.Fuel Efficiency: honestly i have not kept track of it yet. Watch this space. 12. After Sales service: had my first servicing yesterday. Was effortless. Although they sent someone to collect the car, i travelled with that mechanic to the service centre. Have heard nightmarish stories about parts being replaced by fake ones during service. Especially the famous Skoda story on this forum. But no such incidences thankfully. The ordeal was over in 5 hours. Got my car back on the same day. 13. Other points: I replaced the stock tyres and alloys. Out went JK Vectra 205/60R16. In came Bridgestone 225/45/R17. It was a good decision. The ride quality is much better now. The suspension seems more refined, especially for rear passengers. 16" alloys were replaced with 17" BM racing alloys. Model 7527. I hope it's looking good. I personally loved it. Total cost after exchange was about 40K. Have also added the door garnish. Looks cool at night. Cost 6K (bought from dealer). Looked around for a nice ICE with 7" touch-screen but apparently you need to cut and strip the wires to interface with the existing system. That voids the warranty. So I am still looking for a socket which will help me fit the ICE without voiding the warranty. I know that Caska and Mega Audio are options but if I get this elusive socket, I can probably fit in the Sony, JVC as well. Overall it's been a good experience for the first 500KM. Traffic does give me nightmares with the hard clutch and turbo lag but that probably accounts for a 5% negative experience in an otherwise brilliantly crafted car. Lets Cruze !! Attached Thumbnails

URL: