[ChevyGuy]

If it's anything like the North America Cruze, the lights are LEDs. I'd guess that you have a bad connection. You can try inspecting the connectors in the dashboard. I've not heard of this being a common problem.

 

[ChevyGuy]

The problem is this, my dash lights other than the DIC and Radioscreen which both stay bright 24 hours a day are not lit during the day no matter what I do. The dimmer control has no effect. The automatic feature works fine switching from day to night modes

I'm having a bit of a problem parsing the sentence. Yes, the DIC and Radio are on all he time, but should react to the dimmer at night.

The dash lights will be off during the day, but will be lit and dimmable at night.

The US Cruze comes with automatic light control, so the lights switch automatically between DRL mode (day) and headlights mode (night). I'm not sure if the Canadian Cruze is automatic or not.

I do recall that the radio dimming in reaction to the light sensor - not necessarily in reaction to the headlight control. So you may have to observe what the car actually does day/night and not try to simulate it.

 

[ChevyGuy]

The problem is that the dash lights are off during the day making the gauges impossible to read because they are recessed so deeply into the dash.

I believe off during the day is normal. I've not had any problem reading the gauges. The only time I've had problems is when the sun hits the chrome rings and causes glare. I'm not aware of anything changing between 2013 (my car) and the 2016.

I can see the gauges in both of your shots, although with the first one, the low sun angle in the windshield makes it less than pleasant.