# First long trip driving impressions



## Ashokan1 (Dec 31, 2013)

Took a 250 mile roundtrip drive in the new Cruze yesterday from Woodstock to NYC. The drive varied from hilly country driving, highway cruising and NY city traffic jams. The conditions varied as well with snow and ice, clear highway, rain, fog and black ice on the return. I can only say the car performed beautifully. I am more and more impressed by the way the car feels on the road. The handling and command of the car in all conditions was impressive. The ride was very comfortable for myself and two adult passengers. 

Some criticisms I have may have to do with my own inexperience with operating some of the features on the car. The climate control seemed to be always in need of adjusting. The windows would fog up or it would get too warm and then too cold. Never was i able to find a good balance between heat/cold/defrost that didn't need adjusting but it was a very wet night out with temps hovering around 30-40 degrees.

The navigation system very accurately got us to where we were going by voice command after we typed in the address. But the map visuals were clumsy to control and especially trying to find ourselves on it if we moved the screen around to see alternative routes. If you went off screen it was hard to find yourself again. Maybe there is or should be a button the puts your car's location back on the screen. It seemed a bit of a monster to try to work out while driving and even my passenger had a difficult time understanding how to best operate the visual aspects of the system. But admittedly we were winging it. Did anyone receive a separate manual for the navigation system with your cars? It indicates in the car manual we were to have a separate navigation manual but we didn't receive one from the dealer. 

The car no has about 750 mile on the odometer. The trip averaged about 33.5 MPG and I drive aggressively. I'm hoping this number rises as the engine breaks in. Otherwise I am a very happy CTD owner.


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## spacedout (Dec 7, 2010)

Ashokan1 said:


> Some criticisms I have may have to do with my own inexperience with operating some of the features on the car. The climate control seemed to be always in need of adjusting. The windows would fog up or it would get too warm and then too cold. Never was i able to find a good balance between heat/cold/defrost that didn't need adjusting but it was a very wet night out with temps hovering around 30-40 degrees.


I would say I had this complaint for the first year, especially when wet outside. In temperatures 30-40F I usually have the cold/hot dial above 1/2 way, never past 3/4. With just me and one passenger I usually use fan 2 or 3 and defrost only. If I want to use the feet settings with wet floors, I usually crack a window to allow the condensation moisture to escape.


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## Aussie (Sep 16, 2012)

I have Climate control on my Holden Cruze diesel and just set the temp to 22C and don't have any of the issues you mention regardless of outside temp. Although I believe you call what I have automatic climate control and it is standard on the CDX model Cruze here.


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## ehousel (Nov 1, 2013)

my car fogs up in cold weather as soon as i turn the defrost off cracking a window does help though


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## titanman2789 (Oct 27, 2013)

This car doesn't really need a break in to achieve good fuel mileage. We took our Cruze diesel on a similar length road trip when it had even less miles than you do. Averaged 54 mpg and that is in Colorado with lots of hills too. Your aggressive driving is costing you

Sent from AutoGuide.com Free App


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## Ashokan1 (Dec 31, 2013)

Yes, probably the aggressive driving, at least 45 minutes in bumper to bumper traffic, snow tires all around and winter fuel all contributed to the lower MPG average. Today I drove it less aggressively and got 35 MPG in mixed traffic for 50 miles. I'd love to get over 50 MPG at some point.


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## chevycruzeassembler (Aug 20, 2013)

titanman2789 said:


> This car doesn't really need a break in to achieve good fuel mileage. We took our Cruze diesel on a similar length road trip when it had even less miles than you do. Averaged 54 mpg and that is in Colorado with lots of hills too. Your aggressive driving is costing you
> 
> 
> Sent from AutoGuide.com Free App


The 45 mins in bumper to bumper is whats costing you the most. This cars gonna be around 26 27 mpg in stop and go traffic its a heavy car so if in a lot of traffic ur gonna see lower numbers. And also we will see better mpg numbers as the engine breaks in. you got to rememer diesels are still breaking in at 100,000. Way to soon to think about that.


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## Ashokan1 (Dec 31, 2013)

@titanman2789 - Just curious, does Colorado altitude play a factor in your good mileage?


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## KpaxFAQ (Sep 1, 2013)

Ashokan1 said:


> @titanman2789 - Just curious, does Colorado altitude play a factor in your good mileage?


A diesel does not get better fuel economy at altitude, BUT it performs much better than a gasoline engine due to the fact that it doesn't operate on a strict fuel-air ratio like a gasser. The turbocharger helps as well being able to draw more air in as well to compensate essentially creating it's own environment. If you go high enough it will eventually have a noticeable performance loss because the turbo can only boost so much to compensate. 

Personally, the best I've ever got on Pennsylvania highways was 47MPG on a 200+ mile round trip to Pittsburgh at 70 MPH. If you check the DIC, my best 50 mile stretch during the trip was 51. (This was in summer of course). In the winter I only got 44 on the same ride. I noticed 70MPH is the fastest you can go in this car before mileage starts to suffer if you're on a highway with grades. If I bump it up to 75 MPH, it really sucks the fuel to keep he flying when going up a long steady hill and mileage will drop from 44avg on my winter trip to below 40MPG avg. I've never been patient enough to drive 65MPH or slower on the highway to see how much better you could do...


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## Gator (Jul 14, 2013)

I drive 63 mph on the interstate and avg. 48 mpg through the winter. Summer I was get in the high 50s. Yes it seems slow on the interstate but that seems to be the sweet spot.


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## obermd (Mar 3, 2012)

Ashokan1 said:


> @titanman2789 - Just curious, does Colorado altitude play a factor in your good mileage?


I don't know about the Diesel but having driven my ECO MT to New Hampshire and back I can definitely say no for the ECO MT. I suspect the answer is no for the CDT as well. We do need our turbos more however since the air needs to be compressed.


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## Merc6 (Jun 8, 2013)

I always had issues with defrost especially in a full car in -18*F weather. Once car warms up to unbearable temps then you can defrost more. 

Pa turnpike from Ohio to NJ for me was 49.9 MPG @ 75-77 mpg but it required some coasting and drafting. 

Stop and go as stated is a killer depending on how hard you leave the line. Diesel is the heaviest of the line IIRC but you make that back up when you get on the freeway if you can. Modify routes is what is ECO gassers did to Achebe better mpg results. The shorter route to my job doesn't allow me to use DFCO


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## Diesel Dan (May 18, 2013)

On long trips the car is pretty good. 
That said the seats really are not that comfortable. The most comfortable bucket seats we have in our fleet are the one in the 2000 pickup. The material used back then is so much nicer than what they have today and there is lumbar adjustment as well(air bladder). Recently we took the truck on a 700+ mile road trip and both were commenting on how nice the seats were compared to the Cruze.


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## ParisTNDude (Oct 7, 2013)

It only gets better from here. Chevy has a winner in this diesel Cruze. You know the Cruze diesel is named on of Ward's ten best powerplants for good reason...enjoy your Cruze!


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## diesel (Jun 8, 2013)

I have seen some pretty extreme variations on fuel economy in mine. I have been as low as 15.9 MPG on the 25 mile loop and as high as 77.5. Stop and go, idling and aggressive driving will get you below 20 MPG.


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## Blue Angel (Feb 18, 2011)

Ashokan1 said:


> @titanman2789 - Just curious, does Colorado altitude play a factor in your good mileage?


Technically speaking, altitude does improve mileage. Since the thinner air is easier to push the car through there is less aero drag. This effect will be fairly minimal at the low altitudes we terrestrials drive at, so whether you will notice a change is debatable. This is the principle reason that airliners fly so high... thinner air, less drag, better mileage. Many people claim they get better mileage at higher altitudes.

Tire pressures also increase as you travel to higher altitudes which reduces rolling resistance, but this is a very minimal change.


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