Hours ago, Chevrolet released 2016 Cruze pricing. The compact sedan in L trim level will carry a base price of $17,495, with the $875 destination charge. But how does that compare to the Cruze’s primary competitors? In two word, quite well.
As it turns out, the 2016 Cruze has the lowest starting price out of all the big players in the mainstream compact vehicle space, lower than the Honda Civic, Toyota Corolla, Ford Focus, Hyundai Elantra, Volkswagen Jetta, and Mazda 3. Only the Kia Forte has a lower starting price than the 2016 Chevy Cruze (by $680).
| Model: | 2016 Chevrolet Cruze L | 2016 Toyota Corolla L | 2016 Honda Civic LX | 2016 Hyundai Elantra SE | 2016 Ford Focus S | 2016 Volkswagen Jetta S | 2016 Mazda3 i Sport | 2016 Kia Forte LX | 2016 Dodge Dart SE | 2016 Nissan Sentra S | 2016 Buick Verano 1SV |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MSRP: | $16,620 | $17,230 | $18,640 | $17,250 | $16,726 | $18,780 | $17,845 | $15,990 | $16,995 | $16,530 | $21,065 |
| Shipping: | $875 | $835 | $835 | $825 | $875 | $820 | $820 | $825 | $995 | $825 | $925 |
| Total: | $17,495 | $18,065 | $19,475 | $18,075 | $17,601 | $19,600 | $18,665 | $16,815 | $17,990 | $17,355 | $21,990 |
Editor’s notes:
- Manufacturers’ suggested retail prices include destination but exclude tax, title, license, and optional equipment and dealer fees.
- Ford Focus price is with Friends & Family promotional discount.
- Though the Buick Verano is a premium-level vehicle, we’ve included it in the table for the sake of comparison.
The GM Authority Take
Granted, the base price of a vehicle is a single component that doesn’t say much about the features and equipment that are offered. However, it can be useful for the purposes of advertising and marketing. And when Kia — which is known for its bargain-basement prices with comparably-gutted vehicles — is the only brand with a less expensive offering than the new Cruze, it’s a pretty good place to be for Chevy. A pretty good place, indeed.
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Comments
Yes, the base price is a starting point as it is. You have to compare what you get for that base price. Is the Cruze L comparable in features and functions to a Civic LX? And what are the cost of added options and accessories that a buyer may want. Build Your Own is the only way to compare MSRPs across brands.
Precisely, jamis. That is, more or less, what I mention in the GMA take.
Outside of that, we’ve already begun to compile a feature-list comparison. Stay tuned for that.
Chris
Editor, GM Authority
I really like the design language of this Cruze. It actually looks better than Verano, and it’s huge. It reminds me of the 80 Grand Am.
My only issue is that both Chevy and Buick look so similar. GM needs to do a better job with unique design.
I wonder if Chevy designers noticed and fixed the inadequate center armrest – unusable for tall drivers. My 2013 Cruze LT has a stub/short armrest, not made for on-the-road drivers, especially anyone over 5’9″ with the seat slid back. By the way, my friend’s 2013 Civic has a nice sized center armrest built for drivers. These are the things Honda and Toyota designers pay attention to, not just the number of fancy cupholders and HDMI ports.
I guess GM was of the impressions that drivers would value their safety a lot more than the arm rest designed specifically for drivers over 6″. Cruze has 10 standard Airbags (Including “Quality of Life” KNEE Airbags) and ABS, Traction Control and Stability Traction standard). Most imports dont offer these safety at all or you need to get on a much higher trim to get these. Cruze offers them standard even on LS trim. Also GM hasnt cheated on their Emissions Control as far as I can recall.
I am 5’10” and the arm rest works just right for me on my 2015 Cruze 1LT.
Just to set the facts.
“Cruze has 10 standard Airbags (Including “Quality of Life” KNEE Airbags).”
Yes the first generation Cruze has 10 airbags, but even with the added Knee bags, the car does not pass the small offset crash test. As a comparison, the 9th generation Civic has 6 air bags and it passes the same test. The bag count difference is the Civic has a single full length side head cushion air bag in place of the two the Cruze has. Same rollover/side impact protection with fewer components. The Civic does not have knee air bags because it doesn’t KNEED them. The real difference is in the structure of the cars themselves. Not saying the Cruze is not safe, nor a bad car.
Are you sure you would want to count on the Takata airbags in your Civic to deploy properly?
Joking aside, its unfair to compare the the older generation Cruze with the newest generation Civic. The small overlap crash tests werent conducted on cars by IIHS till 2013MY and so the Civic does appear to beat Cruze here as it had the advantage of the newer architecture. I am confident the 2nd gen Cruze will ace at the Small Overlap Crash Test. For eg the 2012-2015 Honda Pilot got a POOR rating for Small Overlap test till 2015MY and in 2016MY test on the new architecture it got a GOOD rating.
Having 10 standard airbags, including knee airbags for both passenger and driver in addition to ABS, Traction and Stability track are a definite safety advantages on the Cruze. Instead the imports were focusing on projection headlights, side mirrors with markers, seat warmers (front and rear), center armrest, digital two tier speedometer and the smallest trunk space in its class. The 2016 Cruze, I think addresses the things it lacked before (projection headlights, side mirror indicator markers) while improving on its safety ratings with advanced Onstar.
BTW according to IIHS’s test results the 2013 Cruze did pretty well in the small overlap test as it was ranked Moderate. The car was destroyed but chances of driver injury were minimal:
QUOTE:
Injury measures
Measures taken from the dummy indicate a low risk of any significant injuries in a crash of this severity.
END QUOTE
… and one more thing.
Cruze also has the full length side curtain airbags. The 4 additional airbags in Cruze are as follows:
– 2 Knee Airbags (one for front passenger and one for driver)-
– 2 Rear Passenger airbags (one on each side) to protect your precious cargo behind you. I prefer to get airbags for my kids over the seat warmers.
The other 6 are the same as found in the Civic. The benefits of Airbags and ABS can not be challenged so offering them only on higher trims of the same compact vehicle isnt right. In my opinion Safety should come standard in all vehicles.
Heated seats are good to have for the rear passengers but safety comes first.
I really like the look’s of the new Cruze. But I’m not so much in to the fuel economy rather performance. I Know the CEO of Gm is very busy with important business but I did send an e-mail to her through the Corporate website. Yes I am a GM employee. I explained in my message that there are younger people like myself who like to modify their cars and there is actually quite a few people in my generation that miss the old days of the Cobalt SS HHR SS and so on. I have guilt that I Bought a Civic SI, however I like to tune and modify my car, and there is nothing in Gm’s compact and below that owners can do that. And I was shocked when I went to buy a Cruze that the manual transmission is NOT available in the LTZ top of the line model. So I walked away disappointed. I am hoping GM starts looking at the demographics of future customers and not so much the generation that are older and want just a car to get around, rather than myself who want’s to have a car customized to make it original and tuned the way I want it to be. Before I get any bad comment’s my second choice was a ATS Performance Model, with the 6 speed manual. But couldn’t afford it on a single income.
I know unfortunately it looks like GM has given up on any type of affordable fun performance model.
The ATS with the 2.0 turbo is cool. but it is definitely outta some ppl’s price range.
The new GM is a bit boring.