I Bought A Chevy Cruze

[thaicruze]

OP congrats on good looking car. The red looks great, and black leather matches red paint perfectly

Interior looks good. Not for me a massive improvement from the competition, like the Civic, but it's ok.

Front end looks great. My fav angle. From the side it's less impressive, and the back end is a real disappointment. I'd be making sure to be parking it front end in first on the drive!

P.S. Is the material definitely 100% leather? Seems like there is a lot of imitation leather stuff out there, which even comes with a leathery smell. 20k seems cheap is all.

I know a guy that does interior retrims for around $1,000 AUD cost price for seats and door trims back in Australia. So I suppose 20k bht isnt really that much of a stretch, I mean your obviously not going to get the greatest quality for 1k AUD but at the end of the day its for your ass to sit on not a leather jacket.

$700 for the Chevy leather. Seems reasonable to me.

As i said, back in the US, I had a sebring coupe that had leather (came with it new) and this leather is much more comfy.

And yes, it's real leather. May not be the Bently - only gets leather from a certain guy who keeps his cows in a no wire with spikes place so that the cows have perfect skin - leather, but it's leather.

Fake leather = get a taxi tomorrow. Look at the seat.

Edited August 13, 2011 by thaicruze

[thaicruze]

Why is your digital monitor reading 5.5 km/l? You are saying that mileage reading is actually l/100 kms? I hope I'm wrong, but 5.7 km/l is pretty horrendous actually (that equates to 15.7 L / 100 km).

Yes. Impossible. That's what a Hummer gets

Edited August 13, 2011 by thaicruze

[thaicruze]

One of the things I loved about it were the seats. I hate soft seats. I have that now.

If that's an issue, there are plenty of soft seat covers you can use.

and to the other guy's point. I've only seen Thais driving the Cruze. There is a Thai where I live who bought the new Sonata Sport

Not many of those around

Last time I was at the dealer there were 2 families picking up the Cruze. I was the only foreigner in sight.

The Cuze replaces the Optra. There are plenty of Optras around. I can't see why Thais wouldn't get a Cruze. I saw 2 on my way to work this morning.

The Sonata is now a serious contender (in other markets).

Last week I was driving the Grandeur , slightly bigger with a moon roof, fantastic value for the $30,000 they sell it for in Korea.

Yes. New Hyundais are getting great reviews in the USA.

OK. So, I took a picture today at the dealer while I was waiting to sign everything. It's a pretty fuzzy picture, but at least you can see how it looks when you turn a Cloth Cruze into all leather. You have the option to get it 2 tone of course, but I chose all black.

So, the whole cloth thing can be changed if you don't like it. I got the leather almost all free. 20,000 - I only paid 5,000. That was my main freebie. You can negotiate something when you buy a car, especially at the end of the month.

Geez my head is spinning! I saw how it looked with leather interior in the pictures already posted, plus in person.

So you converted it to leather all the way around? So why defend the cloth interior you clearly didn't like? I'm starting to believe that you are just "selling it" any ANY trim regardless..

I like both trims. The cloth is nice. I also like the leather. It is possible to like more than one thing.

I didn't tell them anything. I just said I wanted black leather. That was my plan all along. In the US, when someone puts black leather seats on a Cruze, they will leave the cloth trim on the dash and the doors. I assumed it would be the same. To my surprise they did all of it, and it looks more cohesive.

Not taking anything away from the cloth trim. Looks solid and durable as well. You just go with whatever you want. Point is, if you're Not into one you can go with the other (I wanted to show for those who thought they HAD to have the cloth dash).

Edited August 13, 2011 by thaicruze

[keemapoot]

This is an interesting mass market car. I will wait for the diesel version. Can you imagine the cost effectiveness of buying a 1 Mil Baht Cruze vs. a 320d if performance is somewhat comparable?

[thaicruze]

^

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

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

Edited August 13, 2011 by thaicruze

[keemapoot]

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

Worried about resale value vs. entry level Accord...

Edited August 13, 2011 by keemapoot

[thaicruze]

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?

Edited August 13, 2011 by thaicruze

[keemapoot]

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?

No, but I've been in Thailand many years and owned many cars here and understand Thai perceptions of cars. I'm worried about Chevy to be honest, but believe this one is a home run...

[WarpSpeed]

OP congrats on good looking car. The red looks great, and black leather matches red paint perfectly

Interior looks good. Not for me a massive improvement from the competition, like the Civic, but it's ok.

Front end looks great. My fav angle. From the side it's less impressive, and the back end is a real disappointment. I'd be making sure to be parking it front end in first on the drive!

P.S. Is the material definitely 100% leather? Seems like there is a lot of imitation leather stuff out there, which even comes with a leathery smell. 20k seems cheap is all.

I know a guy that does interior retrims for around $1,000 AUD cost price for seats and door trims back in Australia. So I suppose 20k bht isnt really that much of a stretch, I mean your obviously not going to get the greatest quality for 1k AUD but at the end of the day its for your ass to sit on not a leather jacket.

$700 for the Chevy leather. Seems reasonable to me.

As i said, back in the US, I had a sebring coupe that had leather (came with it new) and this leather is much more comfy.

And yes, it's real leather. May not be the Bently - only gets leather from a certain guy who keeps his cows in a no wire with spikes place so that the cows have perfect skin - leather, but it's leather.

Fake leather = get a taxi tomorrow. Look at the seat.

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 as there'd be nothing to gain otherwise..

Edited August 13, 2011 by WarpSpeed

[thaicruze]

[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.

Edited August 13, 2011 by thaicruze

[thaicruze]

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.

Edited August 13, 2011 by thaicruze

[WarpSpeed]

Yep my Bimmer and Passat used to have the same feature it didn't need to use a full tank to calculate approximate mileage from, it just went from the resetting point.

[thaicruze]

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.

[jay1980]

Is that the new Aveo?

Looks good!

Oh yes. That's what's coming. Videos on YouTube already.

The Cruze was a pivotal change in design for Chevrolet. Cruze is their direction for the future. You can see from the exterior and interior the Aveo is a Cruze mini-me. Very nice. Sporty. I think better looking than the Lacer EX, and better interior too

That image is from Motor Trend. There's an article about it.

Check out YouTube too.

This is one

Basically, they are replacing the Optra with the Cruze and the Aveo with the Sonic

The Aveo/Sonic clip shows a car with a 6 speed manual box and a turbo badge on the back.

Does anyone know if this model would make it to Thailand and any details about the engine being used?

[uwe_rayong]

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!

[thaicruze]

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.

Edited August 13, 2011 by thaicruze

[thaicruze]

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

Edited August 14, 2011 by thaicruze

[rixalex]

$700 for the Chevy leather. Seems reasonable to me.

As i said, back in the US, I had a sebring coupe that had leather (came with it new) and this leather is much more comfy.

And yes, it's real leather. May not be the Bently - only gets leather from a certain guy who keeps his cows in a no wire with spikes place so that the cows have perfect skin - leather, but it's leather.

Fake leather = get a taxi tomorrow. Look at the seat.

Most of the taxis i have been in don't have fake leather, they have cheap plastic vinyl.

Decent fake leather isn't so easy to distinguish from the real stuff. Hence why i wondered...

[rixalex]

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.

[guzzi850m2]

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.

[thaicruze]

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.

Edited August 14, 2011 by thaicruze

[thaicruze]

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.

Edited August 14, 2011 by thaicruze

[thaicruze]

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.

Edited August 14, 2011 by thaicruze

[rixalex]

Well, she calls my wife P also

Understandable. Her job as sales person is to be ingratiating and show as much deference as possible. No reason for you to be calling her "pee" - unless you really are younger than her! In which case i'm envious...

[rixalex]

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!

[thaicruze]

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)

Edited August 14, 2011 by thaicruze

[thaicruze]

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.

Edited August 14, 2011 by thaicruze

[rixalex]

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?

[thaicruze]

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

[thaicruze]

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.

Edited August 14, 2011 by thaicruze