2013 Chevy Cruze LT
When I used to think of Chevys I would think of either big
stupid pickup trucks or the Impala, neither of which are my favorites. I didn’t really care for any Chevys until I
drove two of their smaller cars, the adorable Chevy Sonic and the midsize Chevy
Cruise. I like the Cruise, enough to
look into buying one when I was shopping for a vehicle myself, but the price
tag, although not unreasonable, was too high for little ol’ me. All that nonsense being said, I introduce the
2013 Chevy Cruise LT! As with all of the
cars, this one is intended for use by a rental company, therefore there are no
fancy shenanigans going on with this car, all features are standard.
Like most midsize vehicles the exterior is pretty standard,
pretty cute and pleasant to look at, but it is not flashy and doesn’t stand out
too much – which is probably a good thing because as long as you’re not an
attention whore or a me-monster, I’m sure you don’t want to attract any
unwanted attention from the wrong kind of people aka carjackers.
The Cruise has a large trunk and could probably fit two big
suitcases or two treasures chests for, you know, whatever. The seats are made of leather or pleather, I
couldn’t really tell if it was real leather because of the texture, either way
it is easier to clean than fabric and still looks nice. The back seats can go down, making the trunk
space larger (three treasure chests!), and there is an armrest/cup holder that
can be pulled down between the back two seats.
This is not unusual in a midsize car, but the actual piece is pretty
short making it both adorable in its stubbiness but also pretty useless as an
armrest. One last thing to mention about
the backseat area is a 12 volt AC jack that is located on the bottom of the
middle cubby so it faces the back seats.
There is only one, so if I were you I would make my passengers fight
over it, only champions are allowed in my car.
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| Look at how cute/useless that armrest is! |
Moving towards the front there is a medium sized glove
compartment, similar sized to other midsize cars like the Kia Forte. I had a theory that the smaller the vehicle
the bigger the glove compartment, which held true for many of the cars I had
reviewed so far, but was then broken by the claustrophobic 2012 Ford Focus
Hatchback 4DR, but that might have just been an exception, only time will tell… But I do think the glove compartment should
be bigger because the lidded cubby in the middle is very small, exceptionally
small for any sized vehicle, so if you have a GPS and something that is similar
in size to a GPS (two GPSs? I don’t know you, I don’t know your life, maybe you
have, like, 5 GPSs) then you will not have room to hide both of them away out
of sight so get ready for some smashed windows.
Inside the cubby you will find AUX and USB ports, one of the dumbest
places to put these things. USB maybe
because it’s just a stick, but the AUX is a cord! Why not just put it right by the radio
controls? It isn’t the dumbest best place though, that would be in the glove
compartment like the Ford Focus. But it
still makes it difficult to find, so from the rental point of view it’s just
absurd because you have so many customers who just complain about not being
able to find it. Directly in front of
the cubby is both the parking brake and two “adjustable” cup holders where one
is larger and deeper than the other.
Adjustable meaning that there are pieces of rubber around the cup
holders that allow larger or smaller drinks, a nice little detail that probably
adds to that nice big price tag. Above
the cup holders in another 12 volt jack and next to the jack is a little, for
lack of a better word, bucket that is small and deep, making it a good place to
put coins even though it’s probably hard to get the coins out and it’s definitely
hard to clean, so don’t even think about spilling any soda or coffee or food
crumbs down there. Moving up the middle
console is the shifter, nothing special about it, but above the shifter is
another open space, like the bucket below, but this one is long and narrow, so
it’s good for like… your phone?
Sometimes I wonder why car makers even put these little crevices in cars
that seem so useless, if you put them in at least make them large enough is
hold something. Above the useless space
are the temperature controls, which I like because they are nice and easy to
use and not too clunky, ease of use is pretty important to me, why buy a confusing
car? Instead of the master lock/unlock
button being on the driver’s side door it is on the middle console, next to the
temperature control buttons. Why car makers have decided go move this button is beyond me because I have seen it in other car makes as well like Ford.
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| The red circle is the lock/unlock button, usually found on the driver's side door, and the blue oval is where the long narrow space is found. |
The radio display is touch screen, so you can control it
with the touch screen, but there are still physical buttons that sit below the
display. In this particular model the
touch screen display only controlled the radio/media, not anything else. From some of the pictures I have seen online there
are other Cruze models that have other controls integrated in the touch screen,
but this is not one of them.
The dashboard on this particular Cruze used a mix of plastic
and a fabric that looked like small honeycombs (hexagons for you smart folks),
which does little to nothing for usefulness but I decided to mention it because
it looks pretty darn cool. Something
surprising about the Cruze is that there is no designated holder for your sunglasses. In most midsize and larger vehicles there is
the little compartment by the rearview mirror that you press and it comes down,
creating a nifty spot for your sunglasses.
It is rare, but not unheard of that a midsize or larger car does not
have this feature. What this car does have, though is small, square
compartment that sits on the top of the dashboard and opens by pulling a little
lever on it. I tried to find a picture
of this, but for some reason on the vast internet I could not find one. It is very similar to the one that is on the
Ford Fusion (there is a picture of that one in that review), it is located in
the same spot but the one in the Cruze is a lot smaller, so pretty much only
your sunglasses and an iPod would fit in there.
The dashboard display is pretty straight forward, and
includes both the normal speedometer with the needle and also a digital display
that shows the speedometer and the odometer.
I like digital speedometers, so much more accurate than the needle but
so much harder to try to lie to cops about your speed. I like the steering wheel in this car because
it is not too large for the size of the car (like the Ford Focus) and also not
too small, although I haven’t yet come across a steering wheel that is too
small. Integrated on the steering wheel
are the cruise control settings on the left and the volume controls and also Bluetooth
controls on the right. Since I have
really started to pay attention to the features on the cars, I like how Chevy
has laid out this particular steering wheel a lot. My favorite so far is the steering wheel in
any Kia (they are all the same), but this is a close second. I like that it is not too big (Toyota Camry)
and also not too cluttered (Ford Focus) and it’s also not ugly (Ford
Fusion). The controls are easy to use
and also easy for your thumbs to find when you are driving, you don’t need to
take your eyes off the road. Important things
to think about and that you don’t really get a feel of when you are doing the
short test drive. Two honorable mentions
that I didn’t know where to place are that 1) there are cup holders in the
front doors that are intended for bottles, do not put a Starbucks-like cup in
these if you do not want a big mess, and 2) the seat controls are electric.
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| Close-up of right steering wheel details. |
I really like the way this car drives, the steering is very
fluid (maybe even more fluid than my beloved Kia Forte) and turning radius is
wonderful, definitely not hard to park in this car. It accelerates smoothly with no jerking and it
also drives smoothly, the wheel does a lot of the work and you don’t have to keep
a tight grip on it, which is obviously comfortable for long rides. Although the driving is smooth you do still
feel the road in the pedals, not uncommon for something smaller than a SUV or
full size car, but it does not move up into the steering wheel. The brakes in this car are not sensitive, so if you are used to an
older car with older brakes then no problem, but if you are used to sensitive
brakes then you will really want to make sure you are aware of this, unless of
course you like rear ending people.
All in all, this is a nice midsize vehicle but you will be paying
for the little extras like a touch screen radio, electric seat controls, etc. If you can afford it then by all means go for
it, but if you are looking for the same amount of room with less gadgets then
go for something a bit simpler like a Kia Forte.
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