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The locally made Cruze is the Gemini's spiritual successor and the two share plenty of parallels ...
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Craig Duff road tests and reviews the Holden Cruze hatch.
The Holden dealership was derelict, abandoned years before judging by the blistering paint and layers of dust. The silver lining in this particularly tattered cloud was a half-recognised glimpse of panelwork behind the window as the new Holden Cruze hatch purred through Nhill on its way to Adelaide.
We're at the wheel of one of the first examples of the Holden Cruze hatch, the newest Australia-made car and the model on which Holden, and indeed the very future of car making in this country has a lot riding.
Unscheduled stops don't help the tight timetable but I can't resist the opportunity to compare and contrast the Cruze with a bronze TF Gemini parked behind the grimy dealership. Holden built the Gemini at its Acacia Ridge, Queensland, plant between 1975 and 1985. Production shifted to Elizabeth, South Australia for the front-drive RB Geminis built from 1985, before turning to selling "badge engineered" Nissan Pulsars as Astras and then Toyota Corollas as Holden Novas. It wasn't until 1996 when Holden returned to German-sourced Opel Astras that the Red Lion again had a small car it could call its own.
The locally made Cruze is the Gemini's spiritual successor and the two share plenty of parallels, starting with their Opel underpinnings. Like the Cruze hatch the TF Gemini in the showroom window was built and fine-tuned in Australia off a global platform. And like the Series II Cruze, it proved a hit with the public, selling 28,000 cars in its first (and only) year on sale. The Cruze sedan, which Holden started manufacturing locally in August 2009 after initially sourcing cars from South Korea, has already chalked up 28,000 sales year-to-date, trailing only Mazda's small car challenge r the Mazda3 and Toyota's evergreen Corolla for category leadership.
It's a booming category, in stark contrast to the rapidly shrinking large car market in which Holden's Commodore is the dominant player. The changing tastes of a steadily downsizing Aussie motoring public make this not only one of the biggest categories, with year-to-date sales of more than 204,000 vehicles, but also one of the most hotly contested, with 43 models vying for your attention.
DRIVING
The hatch is a better car than the well-regarded sedan — though that's an advantage it may not hold for long. Holden's engineers have tweaked the fastback's suspension to improve ride quality, and lightened the steering at low speeds without eliminating steering feedback.
On the road, the trip computer is hovering in the low 6.0L/100km range as the turbocharged 1.4-litre petrol engine hauls the hatch down the road at a cruise-controlled 110km/h. A headwind isn't doing fuel consumption any favours but does highlight the hatch's good aerodynamics.
There's a faint whoosh over the mirrors at this speed but no need to pump up the stereo volume. Tyre noise varies depending on the surface and coarse bitumen generates some boom but it's not untoward.
On the highway, a stream of trucks — both those coming at us and those we're passing — don't ruffle the hatch's composure. I later learn, via a sample of one, that said truckies dismiss the bright blue hatch as a "ladies' car". "The sedan looks better, mate," I'm advised by a beer-and-burger girthed bloke wearing a fluoro yellow vest.
Adelaide hills and corners give the hatch a chance to stretch its suspension and prove the on-highway behaviour improves on back roads. It's not as road-huggingly adept as a Mazda3 but it is a spirited performer with solid mid-range poke. Fuel use climbs into the mid nines, but that's still a cheap price for a very entertaining drive.
The city of churches itself provides a surprise. The same suspension that soaked up mid-corner ruts and cattle grids transfers some bounce as it rolls over the recessed metal covers around the CBD. At 30km/h it's not close to jaw-rattling and at 50km/h it's only half as bad.
As I park the car with 769km on the trip meter and just on nine litres/100km showing on the fuel usage, two things are obvious. I don't have a sore back or backside, which is testament to the quality of the leather-clad seats after 10 hours in the car. And Holden has a small car to take on the class leaders. It'll flog the "Aussie built" marketing line harder than a penal overseer but most potential buyers will be swayed by the features/pricing mix. And patriotic jingles aside, the Cruze is a very capable and comfortable car with more interior space than most vehicles in this class. That will help encourage some mid-sized and large car owners to step down — and Holden boss Mike Devereux is on record as saying he doesn't care whether he sells Commodores or Cruzes, as long as it has the Red Lion logo.
HOLDEN CRUZE HATCH
Price: $21,240-$30,740
Warranty: Three years/unlimited km
Resale: N/A
Service: 12 months/15,000km
Thirst: 6.4-7.4 litres/100km 91RON, 5.6-6.7 lites/100km diesel
Safety: Five-star ANCAP rating, six airbags, stability and traction control, ABS with EBD,
Engines: 1.8-litre four-cylinder, 104kW/176Nm; 1.4-litre turbo four-cylinder, 103kW/200Nm; 2.0-litre turbodiesel four-cylinder, 120kW/360Nm
Transmissions: Five-speed manual (1.8), six-speed manual, six-speed automatic
Body: Five-door hatch
Dimensions: 4518-4542mm (L), 1797mm (W), 1477mm (H), 2685mm (WB), 1539-1545mm/1561-1567mm tracks front/rear
Weight: 1387-1578kg
Wheels: 16x6.5, 17x7
Spare: Tyre inflation kit/no-cost full-size spare.
