[888]

The rear brakes disintegrated on the TDI thursday evening without a lot of warning, I had the parts so I was breezing through the process till I discovered I was missing the special tool needed for the VW rear caliper piston and was stuck trying to find one. So it's up on blocks while I hunt down the special tool. I also noticed that the front control arms were making a little noise since the car had been up on the rack for the turbo oil line repairs, which kinda sucks.

All things considered, I decided to get a new car this weekend. I have projects I want to wrench on (67 VW beetle, 72 VW bus) that go untouched while I'm keeping everything else running. Plus I have a bathroom that has been apart since New Years. Enough is enough.

As most of you guys probably know, I was planning on waiting till the decontented diesel was released but with no firm news on whether that will happen, the uncertainty over the actual new design when the car moves to the new platform, I decided to go drive the gas turbo version with the manual transmission. I was really concerned about the response of the car because I am used to driving diesels and having all that torque down low.

I can tell you that the 1.4 turbo gas car with the manual is pretty lively, compares favorably with my TDI. Peak torque is available at 1,850 rpm which is good and turbo lag seems minimal to the point of invisible, but I don't beat on cars so I may not feel it like someone else. I have a friend whose brother in law has this same car with an automatic and he gets mid 30's beating on it pretty hard so if this car gets anywhere near the sticker claim of 38 mpg, the differential in diesel versus gas prices should make this a wash.

All things considered, I liked the driving experience, fit and finish was good, the car had minimal electrical crap and chrome tacked on, and it was one of the colors I liked. There was a healthy rebate, my uncle is a GM retiree, so the price was right. I had them throw in a set of all season Monster style floor mats and bought it. Take delivery in a day or two, whenever I can get back to the dealership and they get it cleaned up.

Here's a link to the car:

2014 Chevrolet Cruze for sale in Beavercreek - 1G1PD5SB2E7295690 - Langs Chevrolet

Here are photos:

I haven't had a car payment in a long time but I guess it will probably be worth it not to have to spend time wrenching on the TDI. I guess this means I have to move to the gas side of the web site, haha. I hope you guys have good luck with your diesels, it's been tough to think about getting a gas car after all these years driving diesels but I don't see a huge downside to the gas version of this particular car. Time will tell.

 

[888]

Hey, you bought my car!

Welcome to the 1LT MT club...they seem to be few in number...and mine was pretty hard to find


2500 on the manual (auto is 1850). You feel the engine really wake up around 2000 RPM, and start to pull hard by 2200. They're spunky little fellas, but keeping the RPMs below that magic 2000-2200 number will keep your MPGs up.

If you have seen the threads here on the copper spark plugs or checking/resetting your gap to at least .028"-.030", that will make low-RPM drivability on the 1.4 much, much better.

For the record...you wouldn't be the first I've seen to be fed up with an older VW, TDI or not.

If it wasn't an MT, I wouldn't have bought it, it's that simple. They must be hard to find, there were only 2 on each of the lots I looked at, and there had to be 30 or more Cruzes in each location. The dealer uptown hasn;t had a manual for

Thanks for the correction on the torque. I haven't done any digging on the plugs yet but thanks for the info. I did see where people are retrofitting the plastic underbody floor panels from the diesel and ECO models to the gas cars, other than that, I haven't looked for details other than reliability related stuff, this was a pretty spontaneous purchase.

I woke up Saturday, took a look around at everything on my list of things to do, and subtracted one TDI from the list. It's a good reliable car for a VW TDI and it should sell relatively quickly. Unfortunately, my son has my other TDI and it's been a thorn in my arse but he loves it and it's a rare color so he wants to keep it forever. Wish I could subtract that one, too.

 

[888]

Welcome to the forum and nice car! Let me know if you did not get floormats with it(I did not see floormats in the pic). I have a set that I replaced with Husky floor liners and the old mats are just taking up space in the garage.

I did get fabric mats, they were in the trunk and not installed yet. I talked them into throwing in a set of all weather mats, too.

 

[888]

You're going to like this car. I get compliments all the time on ours...black granite. The cost of fuel will probably be a wash as you said and you got the manual that you wanted. Good luck.

Yeah, that's a nice color. I found a number that were red, one ice silver, one Atlantis Blue, and mine. the blue car was an option but it didn't have the My Link option and I think that may be nice down the road.

 

[888]

Congrat's and Welcome

Thanks

 

[888]

Nice car! And btw the special tool can be rented at most auto parts stores

Sent from AutoGuide.com App

Thanks. And yes, I know I could go rent the tool but I'm just tired of running into this special crap needed to work on VW's. I have a $300 toolkit to change timing belts on my TDI's.

 

[888]

Nice car you will enjoy it , I see you have some chevy pin striping looks pretty cool

Funny you should mention them, they are the first thing I was planning to remove when I got it home. I'm not too much of a fan of the stripes.

 

[888]

The transition back to gas for me would be tough, at least for a daily driver. Congrats on the new car, and enjoy!

I thought the same after all this time driving VW diesels but that's why I made a point of saying it compared favorably with the TDI's. I'd recommend anyone with a diesel drive the 1.4 gas turbo with an open mind. I knew I was buying the car so I didn't beat on it (there were no others on the lot to beat on, haha) so I don't know if it pulls to redline like a diesel but what I felt in normal driving was very good for a gas turbo car.

It's a good manual transmission option, I can't speak to what it's like with an automatic, I didn't bother to drive one because I knew I'd never buy one.

 

[888]

-J, Penelope has her spunk back with these Eco wheels!

Speaking of wheels, what is the bolt pattern on the Cruze and is it the same as anything else FWD GM makes? Maybe the Malibu? I love the wheels on my wife's 11 Malibu.

What color is that?

Cosmic Green, about the color of an old school glass 7UP bottle. I'm told VW made 1,200 total Jettas this color and very few were diesels.

 

[888]

Sweet cruse, now go and break the bank with mods

Haha, maybe after the warranty period is up and I see how it hangs together in stock mode.

 

[888]

What trim on the Malibu?

And no, the Cruze does have a unique bolt pattern. Sonic wheels should fit, but aftermarket options are limited. Even the diesel's wheels are a different bolt pattern due to the larger brakes.

http://www.cruzetalk.com/forum/12-wheels-tires-brakes-suspension/47993-cruze-oem-wheel-options.html

Interesting, I don't think I've ever seen that color on a Jetta before. Probably think it was custom if I did. Makes sense that it's so rare.

I believe the Malibu is an LT1 or LT2, has nice 17" 5 spokes on it. Figures on the bolt pattern being different, I'll find a set of OEM wheels in a junkyard down the road, I favor these:

or these:

Here is the Jetta back when I bought it from the PO. The fenders were new due to a recall for rust, but no one bothered to paint the hood.

 

[888]

That first one will be a tough one since it's so rare. But you may as well start looking now because those 1LT 16" Firestones aren't known to last real long.

So your 'bu must have these, if you like that general design: Image Sheet

Kenny's Auto Wrecking up in Lima might have a set of those you're looking for, asking $320 for the set.

Yes on the Malibu wheels, funny you should mention the Firestones. That is the only problem I had with the Malibu. It developed a vibration in one of the wheels, I thought that my wife had pegged a pothole and popped a weight or bent a rim so I moved it to the back and eventually decided to have it dealt with. The dealer said that the tire was cupped on the inside because I hadn't had it aligned. I took the car back to the dealer for every recommended maintenance, did everything they recommended, and an alignment was never recommended. The tires were always inspected and had less than 1/32" of even wear at 32k miles. I complained nicely about the situation and the dealer sold me a set of other tires at cost and I kept the $100 rebate, they mounted/balanced/aligned for free, and I went on down the road.

I planned on the Firestones being junk when I saw them on the car. If I find some 17's, I'll put Blizzaks on the 16's and scrap the Firestones in a year or two. I usually get Yoko Envigors when I need all season tires but tire threads can be like oil threads so I probably shouldn't go there.

 

[888]

Welcome to the forum! As J said the spark plugs will also give you some more life. How is the 91-93 prices down there? If you was going to spend money on diesel prices the 93 shouldn't be to big a hit on you. Up here I also had issues finding a 1.4 manual in the color I wanted. All they had was DGM Eco to pick from. The rest were LS models.

Thanks. How/what are the factory plugs? AC Delcos? Coppers? It's been so long since I had to mess with plugs, I hardly know what's out there. I run NGK's in my aircooled VW's and anything else that needs plugs, Bosch stuff has gone to Hades since it's not made in the EU any more.

 

[888]

I really, really like those tires - had a set on my old car and that was the best it ever handled - stuck to the road like it was on rails. But the tread life is just atrocious.

Really? That's odd. I installed a set on a Volvo wagon some years back that has been through three owners and ended up next door to me. Still has the same Envigors and they got the guy through the winter from h*** this year. they don't appear to be worn hardly at all. Aren't there different speed ratings on those? Maybe that's the difference.

 

[888]

Haha, mine were V-rated on a Volvo S70. Granted, I drove that car pretty hard...and 30K miles in a year, but I don't think I got more than 25-30K out of a set of em. Reviews from Tire Rack all said that's about the expected lifetime as well.

And I'm surprised he got through snow with them. Those were absolutely useless in snow, especially compared to the Conti DWS's I had on there...also one I was very impressed with.

Haha, I put them on a Volvo 850, same car, earlier version. Go figure.

 

[888]

They're AC Delco (NGK) Iridium. They seem to not do well at handling heat in the turbocharged engines and can cause pre-ignition at low RPMs that make the car feel like it's falling on its face at times. Add to the table that most 2011-2013 models came from the factory with plug gaps all over the place.

A lot of us have switched to NGK Copper plugs (same heat range) or Iridium (colder by 1 heat range) with great results in drivability. There are several threads in the 1.4T technical discussion section.

Okay, I guess I'll have to move to the 1.4 forum now!