Sport Cars

Top Cars | 2012 Chevy Cruze ECO | While we like the idea of the 42-mpg Eco and we love its fuel economy, were pretty sure its biggest competition lies with the rest of the Cruze lineup. There is a growing range of fuel efficient, 40-mpg cars selling at the same price-point, from the Honda Insight hybrid to the aforementioned Focus and Elantra. While the Eco compares well with all of them  heck, it does boast the highest highway mileage number of any vehicle powered exclusively by a conventional internal combustion engine  the mileage improvements to the other Cruze trims make the Eco less compelling on its own.

The automatic Cruze LT and LTZ models for 2012 saw a bump in fuel economy, and now come close to the automatic Eco at 26/38, giving up just a single mile per gallon on the highway. Also worth noting is that LT Cruzes are now being offered with a standard manual transmission (meaning the automatic is now $995 extra). This is the very same gearbox as in the base model, without the overdrive gearing of the Eco. In this application it gives the Cruze a fuel economy rating of 26/38 equivalent to the automatic and, again, only a mile per gallon behind the Eco automatic.

 2012 Chevy Cruze ECO

 2012 Chevy Cruze ECO Interior

 2012 Chevy Cruze ECO