Given my past experiences with CR I wouldn't buy a Cruze. Every car that I've purchased based on the CR review has been a lemon. Cars at the bottom of their list have been really good cars for me.
It's funny, one article they show a Ram pickup having crap reliability when I see the polar opposite every day. Rams have greatly improved, and judging by the one I've been test driving for a few days, they're pretty efficient as well. I've been getting just about 25 combined mpg with the HEMI and 8 speed.
I think there's an inherent problem with trying to predict reliability from such a short time period. The 2017 model year has been on sale for what - 45 days? Hardly enough time to know what the 3 year outlook will be.
I understand the problem - CR needs to get something into consumer's hands before they hit the show room, but still ....
My 2016.5 has already been in service for electrical issues twice already, one took 2 weeks to correct. We've had it since May. I'd have to disagree with CR on this one. Aside from that, mechanically it's been a solid experience thus far... Winter will be the real test. Something annoying usually goes wrong, that a dealer "can't reproduce", crossing fingers.