[jblackburn]

On a Cruze? Not worth it.

On something like a Focus ST? Sure.

 

[jblackburn]

Ever drive a diesel Cruze long? Those things are desperately clawing for traction on dry pavement with the traction control turned off. And you don't even have to be an overly aggressive driver. Never drove a gasser Cruze so I can't compare.

The crappy LRR Eco tires aren't doing it any favors - flooring a gas Eco from a stop achieves tons of wheelspin too.

I had a FWD car with about the same torque output as the CTD, never really felt that it needed one at that power level. Having driven a tuned one making 320 ft lbs and 280 hp, I felt that needed it, and they did indeed offer it in the higher performance variant of that car, before going to an AWD system.

 

[jblackburn]

It's an unnecessary added expense to economy cars which have already become more and more expensive than they used to be 10 years ago. Electronic traction control via brakes is much, much cheaper and can do the same job, and can actually be tuned quite well and let you have a bit of fun with it if the engineers bother (again, Focus ST example).

The price of vehicles these days is ballooning out of control for their respective classes. $29K+ for a loaded Cruze with a LSD and <200 HP? No thanks.

 

[jblackburn]

I'm actually reasonably happy with how the TC works on both of our cars - certainly much better than it was in my 1998 model year car where it was practically useless. The Cruze will let you squeal tires or spin a little bit in snow in first gear before it kicks in. It does cut back, HARD, in 2nd gear on the throttle, though, which has run me out of power on gravel roads. Dropping back to first gear just spins tires in gravel.

The Camry actually seems to have an even better TC system that will allow you some wheelspin, but brakes the spinning tire without cutting power back very much. Climbed it out of a snow-covered parking space it was stuck in pretty good by turning TC back ON last year. With the system off, all it did was spin. With it back on, the front brakes were throwing a fit, but it climbed right out of it with very little drama. Works well going forwards too.

 

[jblackburn]

I haven't driven my CTD in snow, but while a LSD would be nice, I have in 3.5 years never been in a situation where the TC wasn't sufficient.

The other day I was travelling at 110kph with cruise control on while it was raining heavily, when I hit a puddle of deepish water on the freeway. The car pulled slightly to the left, nothing problematic, and the cruse switched off. I have never had this happen before so I suppose it was the stability cutting in. All was good when I turned it back on, anybody else have this happen?

Not on the Cruze, but my Volvo would cancel the cruise control if one wheel slipped too.

 

[jblackburn]

If it were even offered as an option with any of the existing engines, they'd probably sell about 10 of them because people wouldn't pay the extra price. The rest of them would sit on lots unsold, and then it would go the way of the 2LT 6M and fade into nonexistence.

Give a Cruzen more power, like the Cobalt SS (likely won't happen), sure, it becomes a viable option that really helps it put down power in corners. My high powered FWD constantly lit up the inside tire exiting corners when the turbo spooled.

 

[jblackburn]

its marketing, if the salesman says " hey you drive in icy conditions?" well then maybe this traction package that adds a lsd might be right for you, its an extra 600$ but when your pushing the car hard or in bad slippery conditions it will help keep you under control. im sure people would buy it, all the nay sayers here are saying no because of price, well a lsd option will not jack the price up 5,000$ here. maybe just maybe 600$ more and again its a option

Yep, but add $500 to the cost of a fully loaded Diesel, and you're well into AWD midsized/crossover territory if you drive in snow/icy conditions, usually with more interior room and power under the hood as well.

The market the Cruze competes in is ENTIRELY about price and bang-for-the-buck in features compared to other cars. Between something like a Ford Fusion SE AWD and a Cruze Diesel with LSD, I'd take the Fusion.

I'm not against LSDs - I just think they should be put in appropriate vehicles. Trucks (the 2WD Colorado/Canyon have a high take-rate where it is offered as an option) and sports cars, for example.

 

[jblackburn]

Was an option on the Cobalt SS. The Malibu SS was a dumb excuse for a SS car, they stuck an Impala 3.9 in it and called it good.

The Impala SS with the FWD V8 SHOULD have had one, as it did nothing but spin the sh!t out of the front tires when you got on the throttle.

 

[jblackburn]

How do you figure that a lsd diesel will be in the awd midsize market? not one of those cars gets 46 mpg so the cruze still stands out so for the $ you get a lot and better mpg. the cruze sells a lot of sport cruzes or known as the RS pack, 80% of the gasers are RS that have " Sport suspension" and sporty looks down here in Florida.

i could have afforded the cars you mentioned but i like the cruzes dimensions and not many offer its size thats just right with a diesel

From a price standpoint, you're well into either of those arenas. MPG isn't a huge selling point right now as it was a few years ago since gas prices are low, but MPG on most cars is getting a lot better.