Recently I've been on the hunt for something slightly more luxurious than my base Prius, but without too big of a MPG hit. I bounced between the CT200h, ES300h, briefly considered the 335d, and most recently I've been eyeballing the Cruze diesel.
Only manufactured for 2 years here in the U.S., which likely means a small knowledge/support base. Looks like a tune puts them over 250wtq while still pulling 40+MPG on the highway, which sounds great on paper...Great idea? Terrible idea?
I have no Cruise diesel knowledge other than Chevy offered a Equinox diesel also for a slightly larger choice.
Upscale from a Prius, I tend to look at the MKZ Hybrid as an intriguing combination of lux and economy. Mostly attracted to their heated and cooled seats.
I doubt a Cruze is much more luxurious than a Prius based on my strictly rental-based experience.
I assume you're asking about the second generation 2016+ cars, as the first generation diesel wasn't supposed to be very good. I honestly didn't know a diesel made it into the short run of US second gen cars. I think the equinox engine was identical.
My mother had a Cruze diesel for a handful of years, luxurious it was not.
In reply to Erich :
The ones I'm targeting have leather, heated seats, backup cam, and sound deadening. All things my Prius C lacks.
Also, a bit more googling and I stand corrected. Apparently you can get a 2.0L diesel in '14 and '15, as well as a 1.6L diesel in 2018
edit: Added the 2017 Volt to the list. Also open to any other cars I'm missing that won't eat me alive in repairs
I looked at them as well - there is a reliability difference in the engines, but I dont recall which is better. I see a lot of them with 200K miles on the clock & not much wear and tear on the interior.
A Volt would be the same platform, but possibly more upscale? and considerably more efficient.
My Dad got one after VW bought back their wagon. Its an 18 (I think) hatch RS with a stick, leather, heated seats and all of that. I have only been in it a couple of times, and I am not sure how many miles are on it but he has had no issues and really likes it.
Didn't the gas Cruze Eco knock back really impressive numbers that made the diesel largely irrelevant?
IIRC one of the mainstream car rags did a comparison and came away with the opinion that the diesel was destined to be an orphan because its thunder was stolen by the Cruze Eco.
You're better off with the real Prius, not the C (nor the Cruze). Deezel prices are not friendly, so no money will be saved.
pointofdeparture said:Didn't the gas Cruze Eco knock back really impressive numbers that made the diesel largely irrelevant?
IIRC one of the mainstream car rags did a comparison and came away with the opinion that the diesel was destined to be an orphan because its thunder was stolen by the Cruze Eco.
Looks like the 1.6L diesel trounces the eco. My suspicion is that it's probably significantly faster as well, thanks to torques.
In reply to calteg :
You can't just compare straight MPG numbers though, you have to look at fuel costs and consider other more abstract things like parts availability and total cost of ownership.
FWIW, the Eco uses a commodity powertrain that has been in tons of other stuff (and is well supported by the aftermarket) while the Diesel is more of a unicorn.
Not saying the Diesel isn't what you want but I would personally be hesitant because GM isn't known for supporting its stuff that was only made for a year or two very well. I swore off relying on quirky/unusual vehicles as daily drivers a while ago, it has always been a losing experience for me.
In reply to pointofdeparture :
All valid points. Oddly enough, the stick shift Eco is .3 seconds faster 0-60 than the 9 speed auto diesel. Wow.
Buying a lower power diesel like that is a quick education on how much "because torques" doesn't matter. Its a heavy 140hp car, diesel or gas.
Here's a quick google result. A 2.0 Diesel with a tune, running a 16.5:
If you want a modified car, you can get over 250 "torques" (whatever those are. Ft-lb? N-m? Stone-furlongs?) from the 1.4 gasoline engine, too. 93 octane and Diesel are at about parity right now, not sure what the future holds.
In reply to Pete. (l33t FS) :
Personally, I don't get out of bed for diesels putting down less than 5,000 stone-furlongs.
(My napkin math is probably off but I'm calculating a stone-furlong as like, less than 1/10th of a lb-ft.)
I read somewhere a while back that the Volt had the highest customer satisfaction rating of any GM product they ever took data on. So they of course discontinued it. I drove a few and came very close to buying one, then COVID. Free charging at work and $20 downtown parking didn't matter anymore. Based on this and the handful of Cruzes I've driven I'd say it's a good step up.
I agree that Volt is probably a better answer than Cruze. I was really impressed with the fit and finish of the few Volts I've been in. Cruze, not as much (though they're all multiple orders of magnitude ahead of the J-body era stuff).
How about a Caddy ELR?
In reply to m4ff3w :
I like the idea, they tend to be around $25,000, Ideally I'm looking to be in the $15,000-20,000 range
I have no idea, because I refuse to have anything to do with the devils fuel, but I would make sure that it doesn't suffer from Tempo Diesel problem, which involves $50+ worth of oil filters every oil change. Yes, filters.
ES300h would be my choice for gas mileage and comfort/luxury. I had a CT200h long term loaner and yes it's nicer than a Prius, but...eh. Would not want to own that either.
I would rather spend my time in a Volt over a Cruz. I would also rather a regular Prius over a Cruz.
I'll be the odd man out, I guess, because if I had to buy a newer car it would probably be a Cruze, silly name and all. Priuses are nice but too cheap Toyota-y for me, and have Toyota rust issues being a big Corolla, and the Volt suffers from the same cramped interior that CTSs have with a giant center console.
I like how basic they are and they seem to be decently reliable, with decent interior quality, and they drive well with the common 1.4t/6sp auto combo. They used to make them with a naturally aspirated 1.8 but stopped, probably because the 1.4t was the same power but better economy.
The later 1.5 engine is also nice but the direct injection makes some things difficult, like replacing the valve cover gasket properly requires a $2000 tool to lift the injectors out without bending anything. It can be done without by by carefully lifting the rail off, but there is a risk of getting stuff in the injectors...
No specific comments about the Cruze diesel, other than to note that IDParts carries parts for them. A quick look on wikipedia suggests that depending on the engine, there's good crossover with Hyundais and Opels (and even Hondas?!) in Europe. The 1.6 in the pre-2016 comes is a descendent of an Isuzu engine series, split off in the early 2000s. So despite the comments about GM's constrictive support, I think there's a good chance the engine at least will have decent parts availability -- a call to IDParts may be worthwhile to see where (and with what difficulty) they're getting their parts from. IDParts has been awesome to me and my friend, but they really excel at diesel specific parts and selection, other places tend to carry more generic parts cheaper (which makes sense).
I do agree with your complaints about the Prius, however: It's just not a good car to use on the highway. My gf has one and I love it around town, but on the highway it doesn't feel good in any way. That said, it's beating my 2002 ALH Golf on cost per mile these days, now that diesel is back up to a ~50 cent premium over regular, and I've convinced my parents to replace mom's 2014 Impreza CVT with a 3rd gen Prius. When 50% of all trips are under 3 mi, it's hard to argue with the logic of a hybrid, especially the plug-in model. That said, if you're mostly doing long highway trips, you're just not going to get 40mpg mixed from any gasser luxury car.
It's definitely tough, fuel economy hasn't traditionally been a trendy feature to have on luxury vehicles, so most vehicles offering it catered to more "economically" minded customers who'd tolerate poorer highway manners. I find diesels to be a nice in between, providing good mileage, passing ability, and cruising comfort. But there's no free lunch, modern diesels are very complicated with lots of big money items to fail, and older diesel are, well, old. For me personally, I'm looking to make lifestyle changes to just have to drive less (Including moving to Europe), and in the interim driving a loud stinky beater as some weird form of rebellion about the whole situation.
This would probably be my shopping list:
The Toyota and Lexus will be the most comfortable, and luxurious. The Gen 2 Volt is EV Light and will have super low running costs (the more you can drive on EV the better). The Cruze diesel hatch with manual is a unicorn. It's going to be the hardest to find and cost the most to operate. It's probably got higher potential for expensive repairs. It's the only one with a chance of being entertaining behind the wheel, but that's not guaranteed.
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