Chevrolet Cruze

THE new Cheverolet Cruze proves that an economical car doesn't always mean cutting back on the quality.

Anyone who's visited a high street recently will have witnessed the proliferation of pound shops where what the Americans call 'mom and pop' stores used to stand.

My local shopping bunker - a charmless concrete temple to convenience - boasts B & M bargain stores stuffed cheek by jowl with a Poundland outfit and a gargantuan Quality Save.

It's not all terrible. In fact, it can be heaven for the browser with time to kill and at least a quid in their pocket.

There are copious things you hadn't previously realised that you couldn't live without and some of them are quite useful.

Gazebos for a penny less than a tenner, cut-price cat food, sweets, trinkets, all manner of exciting things extruded from plastic and rendered un-pass-by-able by those nice people in China.

Exspense

If there is a rub then it's the fact that value comes at the expense of choice. Poundland is a place where the shelves are filled not necessarily with what people really, really want, but what the stores' buyer can get his hands on really cheaply.

If cars were cheap enough to be sold in Poundland, then you'd most likely find a Chevrolet Cruze blocking the gardening aisle.

Come to think of it, maybe there is a market for an On-The-Road for £11,995 outlet.

It's not necessarily a car that you'd go out shopping for (the list would say things like VW Jetta and Ford Focus) but if you stumbled upon it, closed your eyes and tried it, you'd discover that it's actually good enough for your requirements.

To put that another way, the new Chevrolet Cruze is a little like the can of Shmeinz beans and sausage you buy only to discover that they're only slightly less beans and sausagey than the ones made by Heinz... and much cheaper too!

It's a saloon which marks something of a turning point in motoring - the moment at which something sold for small bucks does a job so reasonable that you really don't need to spend any more.

Chevrolet Cruze

Chevrolet Cruze - Spy Pictures

Chevrolet’s next big launch, the Cruze was caught testing by CarWale’s Editorial Team. The Cruze will replace the currently selling Chevrolet Optra.

The Cruze has been launched in the European market and is yet to make its debut in the Indian and the American market. Chevrolet is gearing up for its Cruze launch. The company is buying back its old Opel models to end the stock of its Optra. The Cruze is expected to hit the Indian roads in August-September.

Chevrolet Cruze

There are two types of Chevrolet. The first, the American ones like the Corvette sports car and Camaro muscle car, are packed with blaring angry V8 engines of at least six litres and have more than 400bhp.

They get through tyres like a politician gets through excuses and they're enormous fun. Trouble is, they're left-hand drive and a bit expensive.

And then there's the other Chevrolets. Modest family cars made in Korea that used to be known as Daewoos.

They don't smoke their tyres unless you take them off and throw them on a bonfire. In fact they don't do anything dramatic except get you from to A to B and not cost you a lot of money in the process.

This is the new Chevrolet Cruze. It replaces the Lacetti, which is the car currently employed as Top Gear's reasonably priced car in which celebrities frighten themselves by trying to drive too fast or through a field. Or a tyre wall.

There's nothing frightening about the Cruze - not least the price. The one we have here is the 1.6i LS which costs £12,595 and apart from the S, which is around 500 quid less, it's the cheapest Cruze that you can buy.

That makes the new Chevrolet almost £2,500 cheaper than the most basic five-door Ford Focus. So in fact the Cruze is a very reasonably priced car.

It is also bang up-to-date because underneath the neither ugly or beautiful (but far better-looking than the bland Lacetti) body is the chassis for the next Vauxhall Astra.
That means lots of safety and strength. The body even passes an American rollover test, but hopefully you will never have to prove that ability.

Inside there's lots of space especially in the back - though tall rear-seat passengers will be short of hat room.