Call it the pressure from the recently launched Skoda Octavia or the need to tap the increasing demand in the upcoming festive season but either way, General Motors has finally launch the facelifted Chevrolet Cruze in the Indian market. While globally the Cruze got this update at the time the company gave the vehicle a new engine, the automaker refrained from updating the car’s appearance in India for reasons best known to them. However this update to the Cruze isn’t drastic and in no way will it boost sales of the car which has seen a sharp decline in volumes in recent months (only 136 units sold last month).
Read The Chevrolet Cruze Review
On the exterior front, the Chevrolet Cruze gets a new front bumper with a lip spoiler and a new fog lamp housing. The alloy wheels are a new 10-spoke unit instead of the 7-spoke unit found on the old car. The rear bumper is new as well but no changes have been made to the interior design. However GM has now added side airbags, 6-way power adjustable driver’s seat, power operated windows with express up/down feature, Bluetooth audio steaming with improved speakers and a dead pedal. As usual, the words “all new” have been mis-used as the updated Cruze is being called “The All New Cruze”. GM is actually working on the next generation Chevrolet Cruze which will be launched in 2015. The real “all new car” will be bigger and more feature rich.
The Chevrolet Cruze is offered in three variants – LT, LTZ and LTZ AT. The vehicle is powered by a 2.0-litre VDCi diesel engine which belts out 166 PS of power and 380 Nm of torque. The Cruze is indeed the most powerful diesel car in its segment and the ARAI claimed mileage is 17.3 km/l. The Chevrolet Cruze range starts from Rs. 13.76 lakhs and the vehicle competes with the Hyundai Elantra, Skoda Octavia, Volkswagen Jetta and Renault Fluence in the Indian market. The Cruze LTZ is priced at Rs. 15.26 lakhs for the manual variant and Rs. 16.16 lakhs for the automatic version (all prices ex-showroom, Delhi) The Cruze is assembled in the country via the CKD route.
