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. While gasoline-powered models have lackluster fuel economy, an efficient turbodiesel engine is also available.
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.
While the Turbo Diesel version had been sold in Europe for several years, it finally arrived in the U.S. for the 2014 model year. We measured 33 mpg overall, which can be matched by some less-expensive gas-powered cars. Its high point is its stellar 49 mpg on the highway, which is among the best we'd seen in any vehicle. With its 15.6-gallon fuel tank, you could drive the diesel Cruze about 760 miles before needing to fill up. With 264 lb.-ft. of torque on tap at a low 2,600 rpm, the Turbo Diesel offers plenty of power for passing, or accelerating on the highway, though it's actually a little slower than the average compact car in our instrumented acceleration tests.