Review: Chevrolet Cruze Eco Automatic

Chevrolet has positioned the Cruze as a small car you'll want to drive because it's a good car, not because it's the only one you can afford. That same philosophy is true for the Eco, the Cruze's more fuel-efficient sibling, and it makes for a stylish, engaging car that just happens to be quite good on gas.

For the Cruze Eco, Chevy cooked up a batch of aerodynamic trickery and weight reduction from recipes based on the Volt. If designing the Volt was putting a man on the moon, the Cruze Eco is Tang and a pen that writes upside-down.

For example, GM engineers designed a shutter that reduces drag by closing off the lower grille at high speeds. Together with panels on the underbody, some closed-off vents at the top of the grille, a spoiler and a ride-lowering sport suspension, the changes reduce drag ten percent and improve looks immeasurably over the base Cruze.

With a stick shift, it weighs in at 3,009 pounds, a savings of 214 pounds over a standard Cruze without the Eco package. Sheet metal was reduced 1 mm in thickness in parts, while weld flanges were reduced between 1 and 2 mm in length. The wheel and tire choices saved an additional 21.2 pounds. Sure, we'll take lightweight 17-inch alloys — for the environment, of course.

Having suffered through every Chevy compact from the miserable Monza to the comatose Cobalt, I was less than optimistic while picking up the keys, especially since "weight savings" sounded suspiciously like "cost cutting." However, after a very pleasant week in a 2011 Chevy Cruze Eco, I realized I couldn't have been more wrong.

The automatic Cruze Eco arrived for testing just as gas inched above $3.50 a gallon. Even with a heavier foot than most, I managed 32.6 mpg over 500 miles in a mix of stop-and-go, suburban and highway traffic — close to the EPA estimate of 26 city and 37 highway. You can expect even better mileage from the manual, which is rated at 28 city and 42 highway.

It wasn't just the fuel economy that impressed me, however.

On the road, despite the weight savings, the Cruze feels like it's held together by electromagnetic force. Handling is firm and steering is precise, if a bit numb for spirited driving. On paper, 138 horses might sound tame, but the Cruze doles them out with gusto in a way that no hybrid I've driven can match.

In curves, there's little lean or body roll, and the Cruze makes quick and entertaining work of onramps and highway sweepers alike. On straightaways, the Cruze effortlessly motors along at 80, even in strong crosswinds. Everything about this car inspires confidence, and nothing about it feels like a soulless appliance.

The interior surfaces are pleasant to the eyes and fingertips. A padded, two-tone dash ensconces rows of well-placed controls and a leather-wrapped steering wheel with buttons for cruise control, stereo and phone. All buttons and switches move with a satisfying amount of feedback that belie the car's cost, and even the cloth seats were comfortable after hours of driving. Trunk space is class-leading and the rear seats fold down.

Most of the cutting-edge technology is on the exterior of the car, though our tester featured OnStar, Bluetooth and XM, plus USB and aux-in jacks. It was also equipped with Audio Facebook, which uses OnStar to read and post status updates with a minimum of distraction. I'd see a little more utility in a service that lets you access Twitter, e-mail or texts — or one that converts speech-to-text for status updates — but it's a good start.

What's not to like? Well, the test car took a while to shift out of first gear, and the 1.4-liter turbo displayed a tiny bit of lag when hard-pressed during highway passing maneuvers.

It would be nice to have a cover for the center console cup holders, which accumulated loose change instead of lattes. The storage area on top of the dash can't hold anything that could be damaged by heat from the sun, and the rear seats would be tight for anyone taller than 5'11".

The Volt can be forgiven for hogging the spotlight in the Chevrolet lineup. After all, it's a technological tour de force that redefined the automobile in less than five years of development. However, it's not going to be a volume seller.

That mantle, hopefully, will belong to the Cruze — a spirited, solid car that's as fun to drive as it is painless to fill up.

WIRED Lessons learned on the Volt trickled down to the Cruze. Chevy proves that high-tech and high-mileage don't mean hybrid. You can get a manual with a turbo.

TIRED Other cars in the same class sell for a slightly lower MSRP. Turbo lag. "Eco" trim level sounds cheap, but it's both better-looking and better-equipped than the base model.

Photos courtesy of Chevrolet

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