Non-Update on Killer Queen

"NKato" (NKato) 06/08/2018 at 00:15 • Filed to: killer queen

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Axle is still on its way. The Chevy Cruze is growing on me - that’s bad. I found myself browsing the Chevrolet website and looking at options for the sedan.

You know what? I’m tempted. At $25,000 brand new, the Cruze is nice. But I’m not a fan of keyless ignition systems. Or anything that connects my car wirelessly to anything that can input commands.

I’ll stick with Killer Queen for as long as I can. The new commute to work is 40 miles round trip, so that will gobble a good amount of money.

Picture of my co-workers’ rat rod and Ford Galaxia for your time.

Manwich - now Keto-Friendly > NKato 06/08/2018 at 00:23

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“The Chevy Cruze is growing on me”

Are you sure it’s a Chevy Cruze that’s growing on you and not a tumor?

NKato > Manwich - now Keto-Friendly 06/08/2018 at 00:32

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Heh. Well, it handles good, and the mileage is great. I’m interested in cars that have great MPG, because of the commuting distance.

boxrocket > NKato 06/08/2018 at 00:48

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Pass on it. To quote our service advisor at our vendor Chevy dealership, “yeah, they have a lot of problems”.

Mazda3, Kia Forte, Hyundai Elantra, Ford Focus (with a manual), Corolla iM...

NKato > boxrocket 06/08/2018 at 03:08

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My general view is that any car with a lot of electronics and a turbo is going to clap out a lot.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > NKato 06/08/2018 at 03:59

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Electronics are really not as bad as you think, in spite of the KQs failure (likely due to the way police departments modify them, not due to inherent weakness). The consumer stuff like infotainment scares me the most, as I’ve never needed to replace an automotive computer. One that I know for sure is still fine is 29 years old. Another is ~26. My 1994 Chevy needed a new wiring harness and some power distribution point (luckily paid for by an extended warranty), but it went to a junkyard with 265k miles and the original computers.

I worry about fluids, filters, alternators, spark plugs, injectors, fuel pumps, water pumps, etc, because I have seen so many of each of these go...

Maybe consider a Fiesta or Focus with a manual for a commuter. Kia also makes great cars in this size range. They should all be better than a Cruze (which is itself a huge step up from a Sonic).

boxrocket > NKato 06/08/2018 at 06:48

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Echoing what Eric said, modern electronics and turbos aren’t that bad. Heck, turbos - depending on manufacturer and application - weren’t even that bad 30 years ago. My 1990 Volvo had 174K miles on it when I sold it, and it was on the original turbo (and engine and transmission). Admittedly one of the oil cooler lines had a little seepage, but I just never got around to fixing it.

I have the privilege of working at a very large and diversified used car dealership as a service advisor and have tech experience prior to that. The only cars we see with any regular turbo issues are early Darts. I suspect it’s because they put the powertrain designed for the small 500 into the not-small Dart. That, and Dart owners aren’t known as being the most fastidious about maintenance and checking oil & fluid levels every fuel stop.

With the first generation cruze, I see extremely frequent failures of the thermostat and/or thermostat housing, to where we have an running joke tjoke all cruzes - and anything else with the 1.8L like the sonic - should cone with a spare complete thermostat housing in the glovebox. Radio issues are also absurdly common in the last few generations of gm models, with CUE leading the pack, but any of the MyLink units also being failure-prone, even on new cars (impala and Malibu are the worst of the chevy models for radio issues, in my experience). I also see first-gen cruzes having failed A/C condensers and radiators - cheap welds and half-ass measures where they meet the metal fin assemblies to the plastic housings - which aren’t cheap repairs.

The new ones - admittedly we’ve only sold a few, and almost any service issue goes directly to the chevy dealership next door since the cars are still under warranty - seem to have an appetite for oxygen sensors, and both the cruze and malibu have issues with the stop/start systems (I shouldn’t have had to already memorize P305F, P3055, and P3066, but here we are) especially with the controllers and the cheap batteries that run the systems. At least the batteries are cheap, but I had a customer yell at me so angrily the vein in his forehead nearly burst (and then he called corporate accusing us of selling junk cars, even though the car only had 2k miles on it... Should be the first clue if it’s already used and super-low miles) because I told him the car (Malibu in this case) had two different batteries, and that no warranty except the one we offer for the first month of ownership covers them. Silly reason for getting angry, but apparently the deville - or probably dts, now that I think about it - he had before had an unusual appetite for batteries.

boxrocket > NKato 06/08/2018 at 06:51

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Prius sedan/c/v (I’d choose the V), C-Max, Fusion Energi/Hybrid, Optima/Sonata Hybrid, Mazda3, RAV4 Hybrid, Camry Hybrid, Yaris, iA, iM, Forte, Elantra, Soul, Corolla, last-gen Fit....

NKato > boxrocket 06/08/2018 at 15:12

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I don’t typically want to buy from a foreign brand. I’ve thought about the Fusion hybrid a lot, but since Ford is axing it...

boxrocket > NKato 06/08/2018 at 19:26

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Define “foreign”, though. The Corolla is made in the U.S. The Sonic and Spark are rebadged Daewoos from South Korea. The cruze is made in mexico (among other places).

Ford isn’t exactly axing it, they’re likely going to make it more crossover-like, or kill it and make an Edge Hybrid (which they should have been doing instead of just the Escape and C-Max Hybrids) since it’s based on the Fusion platform. There’s already spy shots of a next-generation Escape Plug-In Hybrid (Energi?), so to stands to reason that electrification will go up the chain.