2014 Cruze long term review

[oldestof11]

So I picked up this beauty last night.



2014 with 22k miles, serviced at dealer it's whole life, one owner. Only thing Carfax showed was a 4 wheel alignment when the dealer I bought it from received it.

It has the mocha/cream interior which is sharp inside a red car. No plans on anything as I need it as a reliable DD.

On the way home, battling 30mph headwinds, I had the cruise set at 75mph. I returned 38.9mpg according to the MFD.

So I went to work. This thing is quiet at speed. I found myself doing 70mph in 45mph zones. The torque is unreal. I hate the torque management which completely neuters the car in 1st and 1/2 way through 2nd, then you better hold on.

My route to work is 55 miles county highway with 4 towns then 13 miles through a suburb. This route netted me 47mpg according to the MFD, effectively double what my Subaru returned.

Stickered at $25k new, I got it for $16.4k before taxes. OTD was a little over $18k with me purchasing a 100k mile bumper to bumper warranty for the life of the loan. I'll blow through that in 3 years. One selling point is the dealer I bought it from will drive 75 miles to my house, drop off a loaner, and pick up my car, free. Well, not free as I had to purchase the warranty but they're a large dealer with good reputation.

Looking forward to the time with this car.

[Blueboy]

Nice looking car, has there been any problems with these
since they have been out. I was waiting for any bugs to
be worked out before I looked at them.

[Big Swole]

Did Roy have tons of issues with his?


Nice cars for sure. I'd like one in Silver, but I still have my modded VW Golf TDI and love it.

[oldestof11]

Originally Posted by Big Swole

Did Roy have tons of issues with his?


Nice cars for sure. I'd like one in Silver, but I still have my modded VW Golf TDI and love it.

Roy has one of the first diesels and his is tuned also. Sounds like it's been rock solid lately.

[Big Swole]

Originally Posted by oldestof11

Roy has one of the first diesels and his is tuned also. Sounds like it's been rock solid lately.

That's cool. You gonna stay stock or tune / delete?

[oldestof11]

Stock with factory warranty. Still haven't decided if deleting should be done.

[BRE]

Congrats! We just about picked up an Eco diesel Cherokee couple weekends ago.

[Woosley]

We had alot of issues with emission sensors with Laura's, but it was still under warranty then, and fixed on their tit. There is a service bulleten out, for one of the battery cables grounds out. Her's was cutting off when she turned the wheel one direction. Cato and myself took it to DPC last year, with us, a 68rfe, converter, and some other junk, we got about 44mpg average, doing between 75 and 80 the whole trip. It drove like sh!t in Denver, thanks to elevation, but besides that, the car is peppy and has been dependable, after about 25000 miles.

[TBittner]

66k trouble free miles on ours so far, mileage has been awesome! Display was showing 48 avg on a 100 mile trip this week

[oldestof11]

So I've had it for a week and 1 tank full. Put on a little over 1100 miles at this point.

It needs trans tuning. You roll into the throttle and it locks the torque converter in 2nd gear. Become a little rocket with the torque! Floor it for WOT and it unlocks and doesn't transmit the power it should. This is all personal preference. I can work around it.

Sound system is very nice. Doesn't need to get above 12, out of 40, to be pleasant to listen to.

Very tossable car. My daughter loves riding with me. Put it in manual mode and 2nd-4th gears are a lot of fun. 2nd goes to 45 so you'll hit 75mph real quick.

So between all these fun runs and driving, cruise set at 64mph on the long stretches, the DIC/MFD displayed 41.9 mpg average. Hand calculated to 43.3mpg. That was a nice surprise. If it wasn't for the stop and go I have to do for 15 miles, I think it'd hit 50mpg no problem.

[oldestof11]

One month and 3400 miles update.

Pros:

Found the mileage "sweet spot"
I have never seen a car go 700 miles on a tank before this
The seats, while stiff at first, have conformed to my butt, or vice versa
Torquey! Still love this! 65-100mph happens sooner than is realized
My wife loves it
Stock, standard sound system doesn't disappoint me but I am no audiophile
Really quiet at cruising speed
Using the MyLink BT for phone calls doesn't require me to speak louder than normal even with all 4 windows down at speed.
Brakes are awesome when warmed up

Cons:

Chevy MyLink has a delay to it. Press the steering wheel buttons and it can take a second or 2 before it registers
MyLink while using BT to stream Spotify has a significant flaw. It doesn't always show whats playing, sometimes requires the radio be turned off then on to start streaming the music even though my iPhail says its playing through the Cruze
Brakes suck when cold
Trans shifts weird/early cold


So biggest thing to report is the mileage improvement. I used to run 62-63mph, cruise set. It would get me 43.5-45 mpg over the 4 tanks. Then the last tank I ran 250 miles down and back to see an old friend. I had a 25mph head wind down the 125 miles and a downpour back. Running 80 down and 75 back on the interstate, the DIC showed a 38mpg average. So running to work, I lowered my speed to 57mph. So I kept running... and running.... and running... then filled up. You can do the math too.



49.5 mpg

I also reset my averages when I bought the car. Here are my 25, 50, and 500 best averages. All of these highs were hit in the last week.

25mpg best


50 MPG Best


500 mpg best


Judging by my distance-till-empty and my miles on this tank so far, I could hit a hypothetical 760 miles, which puts me at a 52 MPG average.

Overall, I am happy!

[shadoWBox]

Very impressive with that good mileage. Wonderful purchase man!

[B00ST00]

Any updates?


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[oldestof11]

Yeah I could update. Has 48,xxx

Summer time it got me a consistent 48-49mpg. Seen 50-52 a few times.

In June it ended up in the shop for a month. CEL for an EGT sensor. Tech stripped the threads trying to remove it and I waited for a new SCR.

A few weeks later another CEL for EGT sensor. I ignored it and drove it hard. It went away.

Fuel and oil filter with oil is around $130 to do it yourself. Fuel is $120 list from dealer, $75 from GM Parts guy and Amazon. Oil filter is $12 and GM spec oil is $40 for 5 qts. They're a pain to change. 2 different belly pans need to be removed and a 32mm socket for the oil filter housing.

In the cold it does good. Averaging 42-43mpg now. Needs snow tires. Glow plugs in this are fascinating. When it was single digits the other morning, the glow plug light didn't stay on pass the bulb check. Never has. Car takes an extra crank (sounds like 3 revolutions vs 2) and it fires and purrs like nothing happened.

I bought a Veepeak wifi/BT adapter to use with my iPhone and DashCommand. You can see the overboost mode that gives 280ft lbs torque.

All in all, I love the damn thing.

[TheBac]

You make me want to find one of these damn things and trade the Aurora in...not that I want a car payment again.

[B00ST00]

Thank you for the update. Considering a job change which would require giving up my company truck and commuting. Any plans to delete after warranty? If so what is the associated cost?


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[oldestof11]

It'll be deleted in spring seeing as my commute is going from 68 miles to .5.

You can find higher mileage versions (50-60k) for 10k or so.

[Got Smoke?]

I talked with Roy about his at TS this year I believe, he seemed to have the impression that the majority of his problems lied with being tuned while still retaining the emissions equipment. He mentioned that he may be acquiring parts to delete it from a friend, but I'm not sure if he ever did or not. I know another member on here MWood84(SP?) Matt Wood has one and he upgraded from a VW TDI GOLF to it and loves it. They appear like that may have more interior room over Golf/Jetta diesel counterparts which I'm sure is nice.

[Chris Tobin]

Originally Posted by Got Smoke?

I talked with Roy about his at TS this year I believe, he seemed to have the impression that the majority of his problems lied with being tuned while still retaining the emissions equipment. He mentioned that he may be acquiring parts to delete it from a friend, but I'm not sure if he ever did or not. I know another member on here MWood84(SP?) Matt Wood has one and he upgraded from a VW TDI GOLF to it and loves it. They appear like that may have more interior room over Golf/Jetta diesel counterparts which I'm sure is nice.

We really like ours... We bought it CPO with 4,100-miles on it on April 30, 2016 and have put around 13,000-miles on it since then... It has been trouble free and we have a lifetime average of around 40 MPG and typically see around 40-45 hand calculated on our road trips to and from events. We get worse mileage in town and when using the remote start a lot.

The best 50 mile average we have got with the car is now 58.3 MPG, 62.8 MPG for best 25 mile and 47.4 MPG for best 500 mile according to the MFD. This happened when driving on the flat land from Plain City, OH to North Salem, IN when I dropped of Kyle to cover the Firepunk Dirt Drags and I drove over to IN to cover the Fleece North Salem Sled Pull.

The car is NOT bigger than a Jetta though... It is probably about the same size as our son's Mark 4 Jetta TDI and definitely smaller than the Mark 5 Jetta TDI we had.

On a performance note, I have not had time to test fit them yet, but I think I have sourced the parts to do a front brake upgrade using Cadillac ATS Brembo 4-piston calipers and rotors...

I will post to let everyone know if it works or not. We did the similar Porsche Boxster Brembo Upgrade on our 2006 Jetta and loved the brakes and braking capability of that car!!!

[oldestof11]

Tobin, please keep me updated on those brakes!

I wish I grabbed a pic. Yesterday the battery died trying to start. -8* and wasn't started all weekend. Yesterday finally got above 0 so.my fault for not starting.

My 25 best was 67mpg, 50 was 59 mpg, 500 was 51.3. 60mph to and from work. That 51 best delivered the best mileage hand calc to 52.8mpg.

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