By Peter Bleakney, Special to the Star - You may not want to hear this, but what we're currently experiencing at the gas pumps might well become the "good old days" sooner than we think.
Wasn't it just yesterday when predictions of gasoline reaching a buck-a-litre had us in a panic? If gas dropped back down to that price, we'd be in a panic all right -- to fill up every container we could find.
Fuel economy is on the minds of most buyers, and a question I'm fielding a lot these days is: "How's the mileage?"
In the case of the 2011 Chevy Cruze Eco I recently tested, the answer was "Pretty freakin' good."
Chevy's four-door compact sedan arrived in Canada last fall and the LT model promptly took the whole ball-of-wax at AJAC's TestFest, winning its category and later being named 2011 Canadian Car of the Year. It impressed with its smooth ride, big car feel, upscale interior and efficient 138 hp, 1.4L turbo four.
Since then the Cruze Eco has come along -- a model tweaked for increased fuel economy. As I was looking at a 180-km daily roundtrip commute for the month of May, I booked one for a week.
With a very un-hybrid base price of $19,495 for the six-speed manual equipped car, the Cruze Eco posts some impressive fuel economy numbers. Rated at 7.2 L/100 km city and 4.6 L/100 km highway, it betters every one of its competitors in both categories save for the Hyundai Elantra that ekes out a 6.8 L/100 city rating.
Fit the Cruze Eco with the optional six-speed automatic and its consumption rises to 7.8 city and 5.1 highway. For comparison, the "non Eco" LT with six-speed auto posts 8.5 city and 5.5 highway. All Cruze variants run on regular grade fuel.
So it looks like my manual-equipped Cruze Eco is the highway champ among this crew of compact sedans. Perfect for my mission.
As the engine is unchanged from the Cruze LT (the base $14,995 LS gets a less efficient naturally-aspirated 138 hp 1.8L four), the Eco's increased efficiency comes from taller gearing, low rolling resistance tires on lighter forged 17-inch alloys, and an aero package that adds underbody panels and a clever shutter system in the grill that closes off airflow to the engine and radiator when not needed.
As a weight saving measure, the spare tire is ditched for a tire inflator kit. Perhaps one of the best compliments a car can receive is it looks and feels more expensive than it is.
This was the case with the Cruze. Everyone who rode in the Eco was surprised to hear of its 20 grand sticker. This impression comes largely from its exceptionally quiet cabin, refined ride and quality interior.
In conmparison, the Hyundai Elantra's ride is harsh and noisy, and the refreshed Honda Civic's cabin is a sea of hard plastic.
Another deciding factor here is the smooth power delivery from the 1.4L Ecotec turbo. While the 138 horses are down from some rivals (Elantra 148 hp, Ford Focus 160 hp, Mazda3 148 hp), it's the Cruze's turbo torque that does the talking, giving a class-leading 148 lb.-ft. of twist at only 1850 r.p.m. No high-revving thrashiness needed here.
I found the front seats a bit saggy for my tastes, but as for the rest of the bits where your body interfaces the car, all is well. The Cruze's European roots shine through in the well-placed shifter with reasonably short and positive throws. Clutch take up is smooth (albeit long) and the steering wheel is nicely contoured, transmitting a decent amount of information.
This is an easy manual transmission to operate. Helping you along in the quest for better mileage is an upshift light that coaxes you into the next gear very early.
While we usually equate manual transmission with sporty driving, the gears are so widely spaced in the Eco's cog-swapper there's a dramatic drop in revs with every upshift. So you're not really inspired to play girl/boy racer here.
The payoff, of course, is a super tall sixth gear that has the mill spinning a lazy 2200 r.p.m. while cruising at 120 km/h. Thanks to the low end turbo torque, the Eco never feels flat-footed.
So I chose well for my week of motorway commuting. The Cruze Eco is a stellar highway role -- tomb quiet, rock solid, and again, showing a level of big-car maturity that belies its price point. Fuel mileage came in at 5.8 L/100 km.
Remember, this was 80 per cent highway duty and the Eco's mods are largely in place to benefit this type of motoring.
The only option on this tester was the $745 Connectivity Package that adds Bluetooth, six months of OnStar, USB port, steering wheel audio controls and up-level driver info centre.
As you have probably deduced, the Cruze Eco is no sportster. A Mazda3 and Ford Focux dish out more drive involvement but, that said, throw the Cruze into a bend and the chassis shows good balance. It just doesn't inspire you to do so.
While EVs and hybrids are getting all the green ink these days, it's cars like the Chevy Cruze Eco that will be doing more real world duty in delivering fuel consumption.
It's all about incremental steps, and the Eco is a good example of how a few tweaks here and there can make an already fuel efficient car just that much better.
Yes, you'll do better with a VW Jetta TDI or Toyota Prius, but the Eco's price tag puts it in reach of a lot more buyers.
Wasn't it just yesterday when predictions of gasoline reaching a buck-a-litre had us in a panic? If gas dropped back down to that price, we'd be in a panic all right -- to fill up every container we could find.
Fuel economy is on the minds of most buyers, and a question I'm fielding a lot these days is: "How's the mileage?"
In the case of the 2011 Chevy Cruze Eco I recently tested, the answer was "Pretty freakin' good."
Chevy's four-door compact sedan arrived in Canada last fall and the LT model promptly took the whole ball-of-wax at AJAC's TestFest, winning its category and later being named 2011 Canadian Car of the Year. It impressed with its smooth ride, big car feel, upscale interior and efficient 138 hp, 1.4L turbo four.
Since then the Cruze Eco has come along -- a model tweaked for increased fuel economy. As I was looking at a 180-km daily roundtrip commute for the month of May, I booked one for a week.
With a very un-hybrid base price of $19,495 for the six-speed manual equipped car, the Cruze Eco posts some impressive fuel economy numbers. Rated at 7.2 L/100 km city and 4.6 L/100 km highway, it betters every one of its competitors in both categories save for the Hyundai Elantra that ekes out a 6.8 L/100 city rating.
Fit the Cruze Eco with the optional six-speed automatic and its consumption rises to 7.8 city and 5.1 highway. For comparison, the "non Eco" LT with six-speed auto posts 8.5 city and 5.5 highway. All Cruze variants run on regular grade fuel.
So it looks like my manual-equipped Cruze Eco is the highway champ among this crew of compact sedans. Perfect for my mission.
As the engine is unchanged from the Cruze LT (the base $14,995 LS gets a less efficient naturally-aspirated 138 hp 1.8L four), the Eco's increased efficiency comes from taller gearing, low rolling resistance tires on lighter forged 17-inch alloys, and an aero package that adds underbody panels and a clever shutter system in the grill that closes off airflow to the engine and radiator when not needed.
As a weight saving measure, the spare tire is ditched for a tire inflator kit. Perhaps one of the best compliments a car can receive is it looks and feels more expensive than it is.
This was the case with the Cruze. Everyone who rode in the Eco was surprised to hear of its 20 grand sticker. This impression comes largely from its exceptionally quiet cabin, refined ride and quality interior.
In conmparison, the Hyundai Elantra's ride is harsh and noisy, and the refreshed Honda Civic's cabin is a sea of hard plastic.
Another deciding factor here is the smooth power delivery from the 1.4L Ecotec turbo. While the 138 horses are down from some rivals (Elantra 148 hp, Ford Focus 160 hp, Mazda3 148 hp), it's the Cruze's turbo torque that does the talking, giving a class-leading 148 lb.-ft. of twist at only 1850 r.p.m. No high-revving thrashiness needed here.
I found the front seats a bit saggy for my tastes, but as for the rest of the bits where your body interfaces the car, all is well. The Cruze's European roots shine through in the well-placed shifter with reasonably short and positive throws. Clutch take up is smooth (albeit long) and the steering wheel is nicely contoured, transmitting a decent amount of information.
This is an easy manual transmission to operate. Helping you along in the quest for better mileage is an upshift light that coaxes you into the next gear very early.
While we usually equate manual transmission with sporty driving, the gears are so widely spaced in the Eco's cog-swapper there's a dramatic drop in revs with every upshift. So you're not really inspired to play girl/boy racer here.
The payoff, of course, is a super tall sixth gear that has the mill spinning a lazy 2200 r.p.m. while cruising at 120 km/h. Thanks to the low end turbo torque, the Eco never feels flat-footed.
So I chose well for my week of motorway commuting. The Cruze Eco is a stellar highway role -- tomb quiet, rock solid, and again, showing a level of big-car maturity that belies its price point. Fuel mileage came in at 5.8 L/100 km.
Remember, this was 80 per cent highway duty and the Eco's mods are largely in place to benefit this type of motoring.
The only option on this tester was the $745 Connectivity Package that adds Bluetooth, six months of OnStar, USB port, steering wheel audio controls and up-level driver info centre.
As you have probably deduced, the Cruze Eco is no sportster. A Mazda3 and Ford Focux dish out more drive involvement but, that said, throw the Cruze into a bend and the chassis shows good balance. It just doesn't inspire you to do so.
While EVs and hybrids are getting all the green ink these days, it's cars like the Chevy Cruze Eco that will be doing more real world duty in delivering fuel consumption.
It's all about incremental steps, and the Eco is a good example of how a few tweaks here and there can make an already fuel efficient car just that much better.
Yes, you'll do better with a VW Jetta TDI or Toyota Prius, but the Eco's price tag puts it in reach of a lot more buyers.
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