# Maintence Cost on Owning a High Mileage Chevy Cruze



## rrivas2011 (May 23, 2015)

Hello, 

I am thinking of possibly purchasing a Chevy Cruze as my next car, I am looking at a couple of LTZ with high mileage 80-95k to purchase. I currently own a 06 Bmw 330xi with high miles and I am selling it because I am looking to cut my maintenance & gas cost since I now have a longer commute to work now. I have searched the forums but cant find a clear answer, What should I look for with the purchase? Any major defects to these cars? and Does anyone know what maintenance cost I will be looking at within the next 2 or 3 years (I drive about 20k miles a year) Thank you in advance!


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## Beelzebubba (Apr 3, 2015)

I've long found that GM cars will run longer with something broken than most cars will run. :laugh:

The condition of the LTZs you are looking at matters more than the small difference in mileage. It may be worth your while to pay to have a mechanic put it up on a lift and thoroughly check it.


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

rrivas2011 said:


> Hello,
> 
> I am thinking of possibly purchasing a Chevy Cruze as my next car, I am looking at a couple of LTZ with high mileage 80-95k to purchase. I currently own a 06 Bmw 330xi with high miles and I am selling it because I am looking to cut my maintenance & gas cost since I now have a longer commute to work now. I have searched the forums but cant find a clear answer, What should I look for with the purchase? Any major defects to these cars? and Does anyone know what maintenance cost I will be looking at within the next 2 or 3 years (I drive about 20k miles a year) Thank you in advance!


Expect to have to use synthetic oil to keep the turbo happy long-term, and premium fuel to keep the engine from bogging down with AC under high heat weather. 

Expect it to cost a lot less at high miles than a BMW costs at high miles. Everything is inexpensive on this car, even the turbo (relatively speaking). 

If buying used avoid 2011 models. Get a 2012+ model. The following are common failures:
Water pump: now covered for 10 years/150k miles by GM
PCV Valve Cover: They seem to last 25k-75k miles for people. Covered under 5yr/100k powertrain.
Transmission cooler lines on the automatic transmissions leak. Not covered under powertrain. 
Door speakers occasionally go bad after 3-4 years. Mostly reported on 2011 models. 

Honestly, I wouldn't buy an automatic transmission Cruze at that mileage as you don't know when or if that transmission fluid was ever serviced, and you don't know how well it was maintained. Turbos are a bit sensitive long-term to good maintenance, and at that mileage, you don't have much powertrain warranty left.


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## iedgar10 (Sep 25, 2014)

When I was looking to purchase my car, there wasn't much of a difference between a cruze at 40k than 80k. I don't know if that'll vary from region to region and time of purchase. The difference between a similarly equipped model with half the miles was about 1k. For that many more miles and PT warranty life, I thought the 1k was worth it. Another thing to consider: you're looking at the LTZ model, what specific features do you like about the LTZ? You could probably save a lot of money or get a car with less mileage if you get a lesser model. As for the Mylink system, a lot of the features are paid for. Such as XM, weather, traffic, gas and OnStar. Had I known that most of the features were paid for on my car, I probably would have saved a some money and gotten a lower trim and added some of the things I wanted...like a fancy touch screen radio... Between my car with mylink and leather seats to a model without there were a few thousand in savings...

ps- the turbo went bad on my car @ 50kmiles. I didn't notice a difference in the way it drove except for an oil leak. I don't know if the turbo went bad as a result of previous maintenance or if it's "normal" for them to last that long. Moral of the story, personally, from what I gathered from my car, unless I know 1000% of the previous maintenance, I wouldn't buy a car with such short PT warranty.


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## rrivas2011 (May 23, 2015)

Thanks for the quick response and great info guys! Im used to premium everything so none of that maintenance seems like a lot in comparison lol 

@iedgar10 - the reason I wanted the LTZ is honestly for the leather interior most other models I've seen for sale in the NY area don't have that option


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## Pajoas (Jul 24, 2013)

Consumer Reports worst used cars to buy in 2015 includes Chevrolet, Nissan and Volkswagen - Newsday


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## ChevyGuy (Dec 13, 2014)

Pajoas said:


> Consumer Reports worst used cars to buy in 2015 includes Chevrolet, Nissan and Volkswagen - Newsday


They seem to put a lot of faith in the problem report. _Known_ problems are not that big a deal if a fix is known and if there's extended coverage for the issue. Multiple random stuff is what makes for a crummy car.

On the plus side, that does drive down the price for those wanting to buy one.


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## XtremeRevolution (Jan 19, 2012)

rrivas2011 said:


> Thanks for the quick response and great info guys! Im used to premium everything so none of that maintenance seems like a lot in comparison lol
> 
> @iedgar10 - the reason I wanted the LTZ is honestly for the leather interior most other models I've seen for sale in the NY area don't have that option


The 2LT is available with leather and a manual. 

All Cruzes are available with aftermarket leather.


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## spacedout (Dec 7, 2010)

Unless it was an exceptional deal I would not buy a used cruze with that many miles. Especially when you can get a new one for so cheap, remember the all new 2016 models will be starting to roll out in august, so the dealers will want to clear the lots of 2015 cruze. 

You can buy a year old 2LT or LTZ cruze with 30,000 miles for the price of a new 1LT(around $20K) at any dealer in my area.


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## ls3c6 (Oct 15, 2011)

I own a real unreliable e90 bmw, a modded 335i. The 2012 ltz we have at 55k miles have proved even less reliable. Do not sell the 330, you have been warned.


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## ace2123 (Jan 17, 2015)

I bought a certified 2014 2lt with 19k on the ODO for less than 17k. And it has almost everything equipped... even leather.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

A conversion from years ago, and mean years ago.

I want to buy a new car.
Why, what's wrong with your present car?
Nothing, just bored with it, want something new.

A conversation from today,

I want to buy a new car.
Why, what's wrong with your present car?
Everything, the repair cost is running up my credit card bill.

People are keeping their vehicles a lot longer today than ever before, because the trade-in is nothing, and the cost of a new one, getting kind of outrageous.

I can go back to 1965 when I purchased a brand new Buick Electra loaded, everything, leather, AC PW, PB, PS, power seats. All chrome, etc., for $3,000.00. At the same time a 20" color TV set was around 700 bucks.

Today even with inflation can get a 24" flat screen with a remote for a little over a hundred bucks. Why? Because the technology has changed, no more hand wired vacuum tube circuits or a fancy wood cabinet, all plastic.

So why is the automobile any different. Much of that hand made mechanical stuff was also replaced by dirt cheap circuits, and that fancy stainless steel and chrome also has been replaced by plastic. Every possible old cast iron engine part has been replaced by plastic, and cast iron had to be machine. A heavy steel frame was hand welded together by skilled workers, also took skilled workers to grind camshafts and crankshafts, today these are spit out by automated equipment.

Heavy brass and copper heater cores, radiators, and condensers were replaced by plastic and aluminum foil, nuts and bolts by plastic snap-ins. Rugged frames by unibodies that are designed to crush and are made out of tin.

Also back then, a lot of people were able to do their own maintenance, today either too complicated, many special tools are required, no special tools back then, and locking up the firmware that is very much a part of your vehicle as the engine itself. 

So why aren't are vehicles following the same route as a TV set? Not saying the same ratio, but in the less than $5,000 price of a new one seems a lot more reasonable than what we are getting. 

And if this isn't even enough, back in those days, all these components were made in the USA, today, imported duty free from China.

It's no wonder why people are keeping their vehicles until they are just too darn expensive to repair. One example, back then anyone could make a fuel pump like brand new again for a buck. Today, that POS plastic one made in China for the Cruze runs well over 250 bucks!

There are exceptions to finding a good used car, always exceptions, but not the general rule. But most of time, buying someone else's problems. 

If that TH-400 went bad and it never did, was made out of heavy cast iron, a rebuilt on cost only 125 bucks. Try *$2,312.50 *for the Cruze today, plus labor if you can't do it yourself.


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## money_man (Feb 25, 2014)

Yup, th-350 and th400 were amazing and like you said never died. Someone decided 6+ gears is a better idea though and now they're so complicated that you have to sell your first born to fix them. 

Used to be able to hold serious tq as well, never worried about adding an extra 75-100hp because you knew the transmission could handle it, now we're worried about killing a transmission or clutch from a little extra power. 

I'm torn as to what my next vehicle will be, if I could find a mint square body gmc then I would run that and accept the fuel mileage, at least it would be insanely reliable with no computer gadgets. 


Sent from the sexy electrician


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## Beelzebubba (Apr 3, 2015)

That was a good read. I enjoyed it and agree for the most part.

But not everything was better.

Those trucks welded and assembled by skilled workers weren't really as good as we remember them being.

Let's take the C-K 10/15 for instance. If you were lucky, you had let's say a Heavy Half/ Big 10 with an almost emissions free 49 state LT9 with 4 bolt mains. 180 hp at 4000 rpm/240 ft-lb at 2500 rpm.
Compare that to the current EcoTec 4.3 V6. 285 hp / 305 ft-lb at 3500 rpm.

We won't even mention fuel economy.

Plus, that hand welded heavy steel frame had a tendency to collapse wherever it wanted to. Usually just behind the cab causing the bed to crush the passenger compartment. And there are no friendly surfaces in that cab to collide with.

And then there's the whole side saddle tank issue to deal with.

I don't think they are necessarily more reliable. It's just easier to figure out what is broken, easier to fix it when it does break, and there are less components to break.

Remember that they only had 5 digit odometers (+ a tenth). It was a major milestone to rollover the odometer at 100,000 miles then. You probably saw a few repairs along the way. Now it means, "Aww....it's time to change the sparkplugs."


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## money_man (Feb 25, 2014)

That exterior frame mounted fuel tank was only for a couple years. The entire drivetrain was bullet proof other than little issues


Sent from the sexy electrician


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## spacedout (Dec 7, 2010)

money_man said:


> That exterior frame mounted fuel tank was only for a couple years. The entire drivetrain was bullet proof other than little issues


Only a couple years? 1972-1987.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

Beelzebubba said:


> That was a good read. I enjoyed it and agree for the most part.
> 
> But not everything was better.
> 
> ...


My main point about the frames, were far more labor intensive to build. With Unibodies, feed in a roll of steel, push a button, and 45 minutes later have a complete body, frame and all. Could have talked about a voltage regular, girls were hand turning those coils, than a lot of hand work to assemble. My last budget for a voltage regulator was 69 cents. Where today a buck is only worth 13.3 cents. 

Technology is making a huge difference in manufacturing cost, but not seeing this an an automobile. Another example was pay 35 bucks for a Craftsman single speed 3/8" electric drill back in 1964, yeah a nice polished die cast cast. Recently purchased a DeWatt plastic drill, reversible and variable speed for 42 bucks that if I dropped it, will bonce back up. Again technology and automation. That old Craftsman would shatter like glass if you dropped it.

An electronic ignition module is actually cheaper to manufacture a set of points, would practically last forever, lucky to get 10K miles out of a set of points. 

A good exercise would be for someone to go to gmpartsdirect.com and add up all the parts cost for the Cruze, wouldn't be a bit surprised if you came up with over a quarter of a million bucks. And all parts are this way today, outrageous, and we have government crooks pushing recycling down our throats. 

Just happen to look up the price tag on a 2015 Cruze 2LT, and looked at one, cheapened up quite a bit from my 2012, but with a sticker price of over 3,000 bucks more! But even at this, still cheaper to buy a new vehicle than try to repair an old one due to this huge escalation in replacement part cost.

Could do this in 1983 with my first kid needing a car to go to college, found a nice body and did some mechanical work to it, dirt cheap. But not with my seventh that graduated two years ago, parts cost are outrageous, even doing all the work yourself. Completely out of the question if you have to lay out 85 bucks for labor.

And none of this expense to and from work or school is tax deductible, so add your FICA, federal, state, and sales tax to this. Forget about putting this on your credit card with easy payments. Really get screwed hard to the wall. 

Would say, they got us where they want us, and we are 98% of the people, but Hitler did the same thing, so why are we being quiet?


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## money_man (Feb 25, 2014)

spacedout said:


> Only a couple years? 1972-1987.


What!? I would've gambled my left nut that it was something like 1980-1983


Sent from the sexy electrician


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## Beelzebubba (Apr 3, 2015)

NickD said:


> ...
> An electronic ignition module is actually cheaper to manufacture a set of points, would practically last forever, lucky to get 10K miles out of a set of points.


:laugh:

The 49-state 4 blade GM HEI control module was pretty good....it needed to be. It was a pain to strip the distributor to replace.

The epoxy potted 49-state blue grommet Ford Duraspark was 10X bigger and lasted 1/10th as long. But it only took a minute or two to replace.

I don't remember replacing many 5 pin Chrysler ECUs....if you don't have spark for a '75 Chrysler, it's the ballast resistor.

You have no spark? Coil wire is intact? (if you have a Ford or Chrysler) It's almost certainly the Control Module (or ballast resistor) No codes to scan, no cam sensor, no crank sensor....

Like I said, not more reliable, but easier to repair.


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## bostonboy (Apr 8, 2015)

NickD said:


> My main point about the frames, were far more labor intensive to build. With Unibodies, feed in a roll of steel, push a button, and 45 minutes later have a complete body, frame and all. Could have talked about a voltage regular, girls were hand turning those coils, than a lot of hand work to assemble. My last budget for a voltage regulator was 69 cents. Where today a buck is only worth 13.3 cents.
> 
> Technology is making a huge difference in manufacturing cost, but not seeing this an an automobile. Another example was pay 35 bucks for a Craftsman single speed 3/8" electric drill back in 1964, yeah a nice polished die cast cast. Recently purchased a DeWatt plastic drill, reversible and variable speed for 42 bucks that if I dropped it, will bonce back up. Again technology and automation. That old Craftsman would shatter like glass if you dropped it.
> 
> ...


Nick I love your posts. My only question about this post ^^^ you have 7 kids? If yes god dam god dam good for you.:eusa_clap:


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## spacedout (Dec 7, 2010)

money_man said:


> What!? I would've gambled my left nut that it was something like 1980-1983


Yep it was the entire run of box style trucks, 1972-1987. Had a family friend who had a 1972 since new, GM gave him $1000 check for the defect. At work we bought a 1987 1 ton dually crew cab with a 454, after we got it realized not only did it have the side saddle tank still, it only came factory equipped with a single tank. It may have been 25 gallons, but not near enough for the always thirsty 454. While towing think we got 5-7mpg at best! Not fun stopping every 75-100 miles to get gas.


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## NickD (Dec 10, 2011)

According to Kelly's Blue Book, a 2012 Cruze LTZ is worth $11,000 with 120,000 miles on the clock when purchased from a dealer.

In my neck of the woods, rare to find any used car on that lot listed at fair retail, everyone adds more than a couple of thousand to the Kelly price, and even takes a lot of haggling to get the price down to the Kelly value, this is more than half the price of a brand new one!

And forget about getting a 36 month BB warranty, more like 30 days with a 50-50 price to that dealer for repairs. If you think you had your share of problems the first hundred thousand miles of driving, wait until you hit that second hundred thousand miles of driving, everything is falling apart at this stage. And I don't care if it is a Cruze, or a Honda or a Toyota. 

Ha, on cars like this would maybe offer $3,700.00, at times literally kicked off the lot or they will take it, used car prices go a lot more by year than anything else, and you can expect to do a lot of work on these. 

5-7mpg in towing what, a 5th wheeler? 13,500 GVW motorhome with a 454 will give me 15 mpg if held under 55 mph. If you know how to tune it.


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## Beelzebubba (Apr 3, 2015)

money_man said:


> That exterior frame mounted fuel tank was only for a couple years. The entire drivetrain was bullet proof other than little issues
> 
> 
> Sent from the sexy electrician





spacedout said:


> Only a couple years? 1972-1987.


Yeah, it was the whole run. Later models had a shield of sorts added in that really didn't do much.

Still safer than the in cab predecessor. Side collision got you a gas bath.

And my 180 hp high nickel block 4 bolt main LT9 example was extremely rare. Like Dodge's Little Red Express. Most are so emissions choked/low compression that you are lucky to get 150 at the crank.


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## Pajoas (Jul 24, 2013)

NickD said:


> According to Kelly's Blue Book, a 2012 Cruze LTZ is worth $11,000 with 120,000 miles on the clock when purchased from a dealer.
> 
> In my neck of the woods, rare to find any used car on that lot listed at fair retail, everyone adds more than a couple of thousand to the Kelly price, and even takes a lot of haggling to get the price down to the Kelly value, this is more than half the price of a brand new one!
> 
> ...


you wouldnt 5k for that here Cruzes have no resale value there's just too **** many of them around to hold there value combined with consumer reports saying its one car you should not buy used.


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## oilburner (Jun 13, 2013)

NickD said:


> A conversion from years ago, and mean years ago.
> 
> I want to buy a new car.
> Why, what's wrong with your present car?
> ...


how old are you Nick ??


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