Penelope Cruze, Tom Cruze, Chevrolet Cruze. The first two you can't buy, the third has just been officially launched by Chevrolet Philippines. The car has the famous Chevrolet bowtie on the crossbar of its Chevrolet "family face" but it's no more an American car. Luckily, its now built in Thailand and not Korea.

The 2nd Gen Chevrolet Cruze will definitely rock the sedan market leaders namely the civic and focus. The pricing and specs are very attractive and competitive. I've seen the units yesterday at Chev Alab and first impression is "wow".

Here are my observations... The manual stickshift is a short-throw model with the lift-up reverse euro mode. The size is big and as quoted by one of the SA, the Cruze uses one of the thickest sheet metal around (65% high strength steel). The front fascia/side/rear looks is an attention grabber, fuel lid is ala-city, the rear end lights is ala-civic, the cockpit is very accord-ish with triple info graphic display, the seats are very comfortable and supportive, the dash is very cool and so is the left/right stalk levers with programming capability. Radio and A/C controls/display are now integrated and has a big 10" LCD screen with all the INFO you need. Euro NCAP, ANCAP, C-NCAP and KNCAP all gave the Cruze 5-stars ! You can also pop up the trunk using the remote.

The difference with the base L model (808K) and LS (858K) model is about Php 50,000. I think the 50k is worth every penny since it adds a very long list of items - fog lamps (front & rear), brake assist, traction control, rear disk brakes, passenger airbags, safety belt load limit, safety belt pretensioner, ultra-sonic rear park assist, front seat armrest, headlamp control auto on/off, deck lid - touchpad without lock as base, 6-disc in-dash CD changer with MP3 capability, audio control on steering wheeel and keyless entry!

The only bad news i see with the Cruze is the power to weight ratio. With a kerb weight of 1520 kgs (280 kgs more than civic), which was totally omitted in the brochure, and a 138 HP engine, this should affect acceleration and FC. As from other reviews of the cruze, the FC is around 9.5 to 10 Liters / 100KMS. 0 to 60 mph is only around 10 to 10.5 seconds. I guess you can blame the weight with all the features of the car and hopefully a very good sound deadening material to give very low NVH levels. I think the base L model would be much lighter since you dont get all the heavy add-ons and in return gives better FC and accel times + you save 50K for fuel :-)

Next to do, a full-blown test drive.

Lamborghini is right in saying that the first hurdle that GM has to fix is the cust impression on their Optra owners and would-be owners. Here is a quick comparison from the entry level 5MT models of the sedan market. I did not include the altis due to price >1M and the Lancer since it only have a 2.0 engine and an entry level price of almost 1M.

Cruze Civic Focus HB
Price 858.888K 858K 799K
Power, hp 138*6300 140*6300 123*6000
Torque, Nm 176*3800 177*4200 165*4000
Weight, kgs 1520 1205 1325
Wheelbase 2685 2700 2640
Length 4597 4540 4481
Width 1788 1750 1839

Current Pricing (Source, Chev Alabang)
1.8 L DVVT ECOTEC DOHC L MT 808,888.00
1.8 L DVVT ECOTEC DOHC LS MT 858,888.00
1.8 L DVVT ECOTEC DOHC LS AT 908,888.00
1.8 L DVVT ECOTEC DOHC LT AT 1,048,888.00