thaicruze

Just get a brio or a march.

Don't think about it. Just check them both and buy the one you like the most.

Wow.

I had my crappy 2005 City until last week and it never gave me any sort of vibrations or anything. Changed the pads a couple of times and the rotors once at the advice of the dealer.

I never did anything other than regular maintenance.

Just out of interest thaicruze, how does someone who doesn't work do a 100km commute every day?

I don't work?? Who said that!!?

I took it as a given when you said about being on a marriage visa, although you seem to have since edited that comment out.

Oh you're right.

I'm here on an iPhone and everytime I reply I have to scroll all the way down. I guess instead of adding something it took it out.

I can't edit it now again, but yes. I have a Marriage visa.

I've had that since day 1. I don't want a school handling my Visa and I certainly don't want my being here dependent on whether I have a job or not. Never done a visa run and never will. I do the visa myself. That's MY business. Then u give a copy to the school and they take care of the work permit. No "teacher" visa for me, thanks. No way.

Just out of interest thaicruze, how does someone who doesn't work do a 100km commute every day?

I don't work?? Who said that!!?

Its almost exactly 85km from my house to my job (round trip). My wife's school is on the way, so I just stop for 30 seconds and keep going. But then on the way back, we have to go off course for errands, eating and such, so right around 90-100 daily.

I just didn't work Friday because it was Mother's day.

Defensive? Nah

I figured people wanted to know about it, so I think I gave a good play by play.

Nothing more to say.

Happy car shopping everyone.

And with that said, I'm going to take a walk outside and see of the prick with the 200 year old Corona smashed into my brand new car.

(waiting for the wife to get out of a teacher's seminar)

Ah. No. It's an old VIOS. Never mind. Ok. Guy hasn't moved. Good.

On the other side I had a TAENA. That's a nice big car.

Also, someone mentioned it being black and heat.

So I just opened the car. Been out there now for almost 4 hours under the sun. It's hot, but it's not any hotter than my tan silver City. I am guessing 3M film works better than Lamina (City had Lamina). My City could get extremely hot. My car I can sit and touch the wheel no problem.

So, I'm guessing, get 3M, not Lamina.

I will wait for my first night drive and see how the lights work. If i need more, I may ask them to install the fog lights. 6,000 baht. The switch is already in the car and the fog light covers pop right out. Should be an easy install.

Fog lights are for driving in fog. Man i hate the drivers that drive around with them permanently on for show.

I don't put them on during the day, but I did use them a lot at night on really dark roads. My eyesight is not good. But probably the City's lights weren't that great so I needed it. I probably wont now. We'll see. I never used them in my Sebring, just the City they were on all the time at night.

So, the thing that really sealed it that I had to get a new one now was because they were giving me 300,000 for the City. I just couldn't pass it up and risk the car's price to go down further in the coming years, so i did it.

I think you would have found, in fairness to the City, that at 300,000 its price had pretty much bottomed out and that you could have kept it another 3,4 or 5 years and got the same sort of money for it. Anyway, by the by.

Well. The tents are selling mine for 379,000. My City was the cheapest one. iDSI engine, no anything. No abs, no airbags, nothing. The bottom of the bottom. I couldn't see them giving me 300,000 for mine at over 10 years old. Actually, the first couple of offers were 290,000, but I stood my ground and they offered 300,000.

And I couldn't see myself in that for another 5 years. Enough already. I can afford better, so why not

I agree that if the car was in the same condition a few years from now, just for being a Honda, it wouldn't have gone down that much. BUT, if 2 years from now the transmission goes or something happened to the engine i wouldve been in deep crap paying out my ears for that thing. Not worth it.

Last thing that happened were the ignition coils went. Sputtering everytime I would hit the gas.

Lately, it was doing this weird thing when I went in reverse. I would almost feel like the car wanted to go into a stall. Weird.

Ah well. After 162,000 KM, I'm not complaining.

Really? Darn. They didn't give me crap. I bought mine in 2005. They brought it out and told me to <deleted> off. And i paid cash that time.

A 2005 City? Now that was an ugly beast. Can understand better why it has left you scarred.

You seem a discerning buyer. Why did you opt for that trollop?

This is my City the last night it was at my house. I was cleaning it out

I always thought it was kinda cute.

At the time we just had to get rid of the Accord and we wanted something small, simple and that I could pay cash. I didn't want a loan.

So I paid something like 360,000 cash and the rest was the Accord. We walked out with a new car, no payments.

It gave us a pretty trouble free 6 1/2 years. But the years aren't kind to little tin cans. It was getting rough to commute on this every single day 100km per day.

So, the thing that really sealed it that I had to get a new one now was because they were giving me 300,000 for the City. I just couldn't pass it up and risk the car's price to go down further in the coming years, so i did it.

I gave another 200,000 cash, for a total of 500,000 down, which meant I could pay 8,700 a month for 48 months. That's exactly what I am comfortable with paying for a time that's not too long. 4 years is long enough. The shorter the loan and the more you can put up front the less you'll pay in interest in the end.

So the plan worked as I wanted.

Granted. I can afford to pay more per month, but I also want to keep my lifestyle. I got a friend doing 15,000 a month for 6 years for a Civic and he is now regretting it. He is sick of it.

So now I'm at 47 payments of 8,700 = 408,000 baht = Total - 908,000 baht = 33,000 in interest. Not bad at all. That's $1,000 bucks. I can live with that.

I will call the girl again and ask her how much to order the cargo buckets for the trunk. Se gave me the "tray", which is great because you can take it out and take a hose to it, but I also want the buckets.

I will wait for my first night drive and see how the lights work. If i need more, I may ask them to install the fog lights. 6,000 baht. The switch is already in the car and the fog light covers pop right out. Should be an easy install.

I know this has nothing to do with anything, but there's a bakery here at the hotel and they had blueberry muffins.

Boy. That's a good muffin

I'm nervous. That new car thing where you don't want anyone to breath on it.

It's parked at a hotel next to a 100 year old Toyota Corona. I bet he stops his door with my car. Let's see.

Oh. I almost forgot to show you my favorite part of the whole experience.

They sure know how to kiss your ass. Honda never did that for me.

Thought you were talking about the skirt!

Actually as far as the bow goes, think you'll find they all do that, Honda included. When did you buy your Honda?

I remember even getting a bow on a Wave!

Really? Darn. They didn't give me crap. I bought mine in 2005. They brought it out and told me to <deleted> off. And i paid cash that time.

I bet you didn't get no flowers though! (I know English teachers. It's a double negative on purpose)

Oh. I almost forgot to show you my favorite part of the whole experience.

The day I picked up my car, they had it in this room, with a big bow on it and they even gave us a huge wreath of yellow flowers.

They sure know how to kiss your ass. Honda never did that for me.

Sales girl is P-Nung. She is awesome. And very tall.

You call her Pee? You must be very young!

Anyway, i reckon shaving off that moustache and throwing on a skirt might help with hitting her sales target.

Well, she calls my wife P also

In her defense, that's not a mustache. It's that I had the HDR-ON in my iPhone so her face came out with the ghosting double thing because she was moving.

I can't use HDR indoors. I've come out with 2 heads before.

If you can, zoom into her face and look at the outline of her face. You'll see her face came out double. So, what looks like a mustache is actually her mouth on top of her mouth.

The more I read about the more I like it, and Thaicruse's reports make me even more enthusiastic about it. Thaicruse can you tell me if you also will go on long trips in it, yes I know you first got it yesterday. but the reason I ask is that I am looking for a replacement for my City 06 and I don't really know what to buy. We only have one car in the household, so it is used for everything, mostly shopping trips around Pattaya but also trips up North East. I find the City comfy enough, but lets admit it, its a tin can and I have an infant son on board too, so safety is very important to me.

I been thinking about getting a Mitsubishi Pajervo sport or Chevy Captavia, but honestly we only drive max 12K km a year, so buying one of those seems a bit "overkill" and I don't want to have 2 cars in the house hold as I don't work in Thailand but overseas so that would be a waste of money.

I suggest you take a weekend to do what I did. First, check out and test drive the Civic. It'll take about 15 minutes. They make a copy of your license and that's it. Ask them to open the hood (but you lift it or close it so you can feel the build quality) same with the trunk. Turn off the radio and shoosh the sales guy. I want you to hear the noise inside. Feel the seats and the ride quality.

Leave

Go to a chevy dealer and repeat the process with a the 1.8 Cruze (LS/LT) the test vehicle will most likely be the LT, but stay in the showroom for a while and repeat the checking process of te Civic with the Cruze.

You'll never think about getting another Honda.

Then go test drive it. Shoosh everyone. Listen to how quiet it is and how much smoother the ride is compared to a Civic

SOLD!

Then get out of there. You'll be sold. Get the brochure so you can read about the safety features, etc. But don't commit. Resist.

Then go to Ford. Check out the Ford Focus (keep in mind the new one is coming soon and it's even better than the one now. ) just for a comparison repeat the process with the Ford. Hmmmm. Now you have a choice here. The Focus is similar in many ways, test dive that one too. Hmmmm. Now is the time to start talking to the sales people.

What can they offer you?

Walk out.

Repeat the process with the Mazda 3 and the Lancer EX.

Sleep on it and decide.

Take your time at the dealer and look at everything. Do things like runs your fingers through the center console. Wiggly buttons? Do they sound plasticky when you push them? What about the surfaces where you put your elbows? Hard plastic or soft surface?

I didn't take a pic of it but the Cruze has a very nice fuffly leather piece right on the door where you would rest your right elbow. Same with the passenger.

Little things like that.

But to answer the question, my life is a long commute. That was my reason for getting rid of the City

I do about 100km every day, except maybe 1 day in the weekend.

Once every couple of months we have a long drive to another province that we visit.

Other than the sound proof stuff all over the Cruze including the glass in the car BTW (the Cruze has acoustic laminated glass), it offers you things at 875,000 baht (which is mine) that the Civic offers you but at 2.0 liters at 1,050,000. For example, my Cruze's ecotec engine is a DOHC engine, while a similarly priced Civic is a SOHC. you have to go to the 2.0 inthe Civic for a DOHC engine. And things like electric power steering, again, only the expensive 2.0 civic offers that. So, I'm getting a lot for the money.

More on the fuel consumption

I'm at a hotel today and it's Sunday morning so the road was empty. Today I changed to the actual KM/L in real time

I snaped this one quickly so it's a bit out of focus. But

I was doing 105km/h. Fuel consumption was 16.5km/l when I snapped the pic (38mpg). At a constant 100-110 it does between 15-19km/l. Depends. You can see the fuel picture and the 16.5 but the flash covered the km/l. Ah well.

If I stop and gun it it'll go down. If I slow down going uphill and punch it it'll go down to around 8km/l, then back up again.

If I go DOWNhill and let the car coast at 60kph the fuel consumption shoots up to the maximum of 99.9km/l. As soon as I step on the gas, it'll go again to hover around 15-19km/l.

Anyway. Good overall. The other stat on the average l/100km I will ignore for the time being, I've only driven the thing for a day.

So. That's it. Nothing more to report.

In the end I'm glad I bought it. We're happy and enjoying the commute.

Oh, and the radio has 6 pages of favorites. So you can program 42 stations. Just careful if you program page 1 and not page 2 if you keep pushing up it'll go to the next page. I thought it was losing the stations

All three cars can run on E85? What kind of cars here in Thailand can use E85?

The new Captiva does.

I go to PTT. Always has Gasohol. Worst case I put Gasohol 95 if they run out. Plain ole' benzene is just too much. Gasohol 91 is already 35.04. Not that long ago it was even higher. I think benzene 95 was at 40 no?

I am guessing they have to do something with Gasohol.

Gasohol 91 is at 34.44 today

Benzene 91 is at 41.84

The lower price would put Benzene 91 at the same price as Gasohol 91? Doesn't make sense.

BTW, gasohol 91 at 34.44 from 35.04- that means I save 40 baht filling up my Cruze. Yeepee.

Hi Thaicruze

Congratulation on your new ride. I like the Cruze, it is a good looking car. For me it is the first car sold by Chevrolet Thailand that I would consider to buy.

The Optra was a very boring and also somewhat cheap looking car, especially inside.

You can get real leather for a sedan like the Cruze at prices start around 13000 Thb. Installation takes not more then a day, bring it in the morning and drive home late afternoon.

I have used this company 3 times, here with an example of work on a Cruze:

http://www.kinsauto.com/vip-detail.php?id=112000069

The new car smell is away once they installed the leather, there is a smell of the glue for a couple of days which is annoying.

After the glue smell is gone you have the leather smell.

Kinsauto is quite a big shop near Bitec, around 60 girls sewing the leather. They install 20-30 cars every day.

Regarding fuel consumption, I think you can consider yourself lucky if you manage an average between 8-9 liter on 100km.

Happy motoring!

Hey thanks for that.

If I punch it the Cruze will do as bad as 8.1/100km and if you go at the speed limit it will hover at 7.8/100km like the manual said. I'm happy with it.

The slower I go the better it gets.

I checked the link you posted. It seems it's good work, but not the original stuff. Seems like a 3rd party kit for the Cruze. Oh and, you know how dealers are. An oil change takes 5 hours, so a leather conversion will take a week.

Anyway. Here is the one from Kin's

Kin's - the stitching on the panels and the dash is strange. Personally I wasn't into it when I saw it (the guy who told me the leather wad 9,000 baht. He had a similar kif installed). This one here has red stitching, the one I saw was white stitching. It's weird especially on the dash. It's a big piece.

Original

Mine

As you can see mine is the same, Kin's isn't. So, I think the dealer just waits for Chevrolet to send the kit and then they install it. I could have chosen the smooth thin texture like the original, but decided on the rougher thicker one.

This is us at the dealer picking the texture of the leather.

Sales girl is P-Nung. She is awesome. And very tall.

Apparently, Yingluck and her cronies are going to lower gas prices a LOT. For no longer than 1 year. 91 by as much as 7 baht.

Anyone know if this will affect gasohol?

My Sebring got like 20mpg. So 30-36 for me is amazing.

My City of course was the best, but the downside with the little cheap cars is that the ride is not that awesome, so I may end up paying 2,000 baht more a month, but boy I'm going to enjoy my commute now. Well worth it

And I hear Yingluck is going to lower benzene 91 by 7 baht, so, maybe Gasohol will be cheap for the next year.

For those wondering about the KM/L reading.

This is straight from the manual. It's in the section about the on board computer and what the different readings mean

Chevy Manual

Average Fuel Economy

The Average Fuel Economy display shows the approximate average miles per gallon (mpg) or liters per 100 kilometers (L/100 km). This number is calculated based on the number of mpg (L/100 km) recorded since the last time this menu item was reset. The fuel economy can be reset by pressing the SET button while the Average Fuel Economy display is showing.

It's the same in every Chevy.

This morning it showed a very low number. 5.7 is about 56mpg. That's because I was running at about 30kph on a back road. Driving very slowly. If I drive slowly this number will be about 5.1-5.7. When I get on the highway and do 110kph the number will go up to 6.8 and keep going to 7.8 or even 8.0. If inslow down to about 60kph, it'll be about 6.5-7.0. So, it's close to what the manual said I would get.

[quote name=WarpSpeed' timestamp='1313248382'

There is a product called Pleather been out a few years now, that looks and feels exactly like leather but much less cost and very difficult to tell the difference just by feel or look.

I am impressed though that you can get anything resembling leather for a price installed in your new car here.. If it were back home it would be prohibitively expensive to do such a thing you might as well step into the next level of model and have it factory installed and financed..

I can only go by the sales girl. There is a choice of fake letter if you want, but she gave us the same thing that was in the showroom for the LTZ. We picked from leather samples and you can choose 2 tone from there if you want to. The fake leather I saw in another Chevy dealer. It looked, well, fake. Wasn't the one that comes with the LTZ. That guy was giving us the leather for "free" and said it was 9,000 baht. We told this to our sales girl at our dealer and she looked puzzled. She said it was impossible to put the leather that comes with the car for 9,000 baht and that she couldn't do it for free, but that she can do 5,000 (I assume I paid for labor).

But Insaw many LTZ Cruze with factory installed leather and can say 100% for sure it is the exact same kit they have on the LTZ. Wether Chevrolet is going with Plether for all Chevy Cruze in thailand to keep the price down, then that could be. But, I know mine is the factory installed leather. I spent time looking at it because I wanted to see if what she said was true. She said it would be the same as in the LTZ. I didn't believe her so I made note of it, and she is right.

The Cruze leather here in Thailand looks different than the one in the USA. So, you maybe right.

All I know is, it was only $150, and you can see from the close up, it looks nice, and it feels even better. I'm glad i did it. Elevates the car 50,000 baht for a 5,000 baht price.

Yes, I am in Thailand but would like to wait for reasonable pricing on the diesel...

Maybe you can get one used at some point.

Have you test driven it yet?

And have you any idea why a couple of guys who are not even interested in the car are busting my balls?

^

If you're in Thailand you can get the diesel now.

It'll end up costing about the same as an entry level Accord.