The Cruze is a solid and substantial-feeling compact car. Its taut, steady and controlled ride makes it one of the smoothest of the small sedans. Inside, it's also one of the quietest small sedans we'd tested. Gasoline-powered models have lackluster fuel economy.
Inside, the nicely-finished cabin offers roomy front seats. Taller drivers have plenty of space up front, but the Cruze is very tight in the rear. Upright styling provides good driver visibility and controls are mostly easy to use. The Cruze also handles well overall, with decent steering feedback.
Several powertrains are available. The base model gets a 1.8-liter four-cylinder engine that's noisy and has to work hard to keep things moving. Most Cruzes get a 1.4-liter turbocharged four cylinder that doesn't feel quite as overworked as the 1.8, but it still had to rev a lot to keep up with traffic. With either engine, gas mileage is an unimpressive 26 mpg overall. Both gasoline engines use a six-speed automatic transmission that shifts smoothly and responsively, an improvement over earlier Cruzes with balky transmission performance.
Paying extra money for the Cruze Eco version coupled the 1.4 with some aerodynamic aids and higher gearing to boost fuel economy to 27 mpg overall and 40 on the highway. While the Eco is the highest-scoring version of the Cruze we've tested, paying for the Eco package makes more sense if you drive on the highway a lot