Cruze-ing Along

MANILA, Philippines - Just minutes before they issued the DNR (Do not resuscitate) order for GM Philippines, the Covenant Car Company, the successful folks behind Volvo, Hyundai and Universal Motors Corporations, came up to the plate to bat for the embattled American firm, and made a last-minute bid for the Philippine distributorship of Chevrolet and rescued the brand from a dreadful, yet inevitable life of obscurity.

A few insiders scratched their heads though, and wondered why. This was a company plagued by poor reviews and poorer publicity, that saddled themselves with a limited and dated product line that was doing very little to divorce itself from its highly publicized global financial meltdown.

A fair comment, of course, but only if you saw the glass half empty.

Anyone who looked at it half full saw it as the Philippine automotive industry’s equivalent of the now defunct Honda F1 team that poured in hundreds of millions of dollars for a fruitless campaign only to watch in horror as the new owners scooped up both world championships on their maiden year. All it needed was a little more brain and the brawn to back it up.

Well the Covenant car company seems to have both, and plan on launching the all-new new Cruze later this evening – although I have a feeling that the Cruze will be the one launching the new face of Chevrolet.

It represents everything that the new management stand for, and the timing couldn’t be more perfect. This could be to Chevrolet what Pulp Fiction was to John Travolta – but at the risk of sounding skeptical, I needed to try it first hand to see how it performed without the smoke and mirrors of a fancy launch and a well written press release.

First impressions are: it’s big. Very big. Big enough to confuse it for the Camry class. My test unit was fitted with 17 inch rims, and it still looked like it could take an inch or two more without looking bling’ed up. Inside, there’s plenty of room as you would expect, and most of it is felt around the shoulder area. There’s full leather seating with telescopic steering to help give you a perfect driving position and a Corvette inspired dual cockpit design with a three-gauge instrument cluster all elegantly lit in clear Ice Blue LED.

This is a far cry from the Optra’s interior, which in fairness wasn’t that bad in its day, but the difference is that this can hold its own against the class leaders in this segment. There’s a fabulous six speed Hydramatic transmission that does its job better than anything else in its class, although a set of steering wheel paddle shifters could help really seal the deal and hammer in the point.

At 1.1 million, the Cruze is not about to set off any price wars, but it does come well equipped. Aside from a large center LCD display that throws up the usual info like outside temperature, date, time and music information, it comes standard with a moisture sensitive wiper system, power retractable side mirrors, programable power door locks and headlight delay system. There’s also the mandatory (read: you suck if you don’t have it) Aux input and USB connections, plus a nifty battery rundown protection system that shuts off any lights that have inadvertently been left on. This is priceless if you happen to have a three-year-old boy.

There’s also very handy and cleverly designed bottle holders in the door that can take up to a 750 milliliter water bottle and rear seat pockets big enough to fit a laptop; but the biggest news here is the trunk. I fit in my full size mountain bike without disassembling anything except removing the front wheel. At a whopping 400 liters of space, it is without question the largest in its class. You could almost fit in the Spark back there.

On the road, the Cruze is only let down by its power to weight ratio. All that space asks a lot from the 1.8-liter Ecotec engine and the trade off is acceleration and fuel consumption if you get frisky with it. It is not a deal breaker by any means, but as they say, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. Put bluntly, this is not the car for street racers.

But if you’re after a comfortable, spacious car with some of the best NVH levels in the business, this one should hover at the top of your shopping list. Not just does it claim the best torsional stiffens in its class, which dramatically reduces scuttle shake, squeaks and rattles, but it also uses hydraulic ride bushings and a four point engine mount system to insulate it from engine and road noise, plus five layers of thermal fiber headliner and triple layered sealing system for the doors, as well as another 5 layer thick walled acoustic lining around the trunk, 14 ounce think carpet, and composite wheel liners to absorb noise and vibration.

The main difference with the Cruze is that it has been designed, engineered and manufactured globally to establish a new benchmark in the global compact car segment. This is not just another re-badged Daewoo; attention to detail is unlike anything we’ve seen on their product line up and now complies with the euro standard fit and finish of 3.0 mm gaps or less from door- to-door, door-to-fender, hood to-fender and lamp-to-fascia.

It also manages a 5 star euro NCAP safety rating, and is the only car in its class to offer a safety diagnostic module with side impact sensors to determine the impact location and severity so that it can decide whether or not to deploy airbags or seatbelt tensioners.

The Cruze marks a new era for Chevrolet. The company has been through a lot recently, but the good news is there’s only one way to go and that’s up. As they say, every cloud comes with a silver lining. Or in this case, a golden bowtie.