Overall rating:

The Chevrolet Cruze has been around since 2009 in saloon guise, and, good value though it is, its budget status and four-door body style have counted against it in the UK. Chevy has wised up and lopped off the boot, morphing the Cruze into a C-segment hatchback. It's still very affordable, but can a five-door Cruze cut it in such a fierce segment?

Key Facts

Pricing: £13,995 to £20,295
Engine: 1.6- and 1.8-litre four-cylinder petrols, 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbodiesel
Transmission: five/six-speed manual or six-speed automatic
Body style: five-door hatchback
Rivals: Skoda Octavia, Hyundai i30, Kia c'eed
CO₂ emissions: 147 - 174g/km
Combined economy: 38.2 - 50.4mpg
Top speed: 115 - 130mph
0-62mph: 8.5 - 12.7 seconds
Power: 122bhp at 6,400rpm (1.6 petrol), 161bhp at 3,800rpm (2.0 diesel)
Torque: 114lb.ft at 4,200rpm (1.6 petrol), 266lb.ft at 1,750 - 2,750rpm (2.0 diesel)

In the Metal:

The four-door Chevrolet Cruze isn't a bad looker and the hatch is arguably more desirable. If nothing else, it's likely to hang onto its value better as a result of the body style. Its blocky styling and jagged, deep-set headlamps set it apart from a tirade of sedate rivals.

Space is the cabin's strong point. There's plenty of room for front seat passengers in every direction and the back seats aren't bad either. At 413 litres the boot is not to be sniffed at either. Where the Cruze falls down is in its lack of the quality materials and sorted dash layout of its immediate and upper class rivals.

Driving it:

Comfort is the name of the game here, as the Cruze rides well and remains pliant most of the time. The sound deadening isn't bad, but it's spoiled if you choose the 122bhp 1.6-litre petrol engine, which is desperately underpowered and requires a real caning to get anywhere. The 139bhp 1.8 improves matters, especially low down, but it still struggles at higher speeds or on hills.

Naturally, the 2.0-litre 161bhp turbodiesel unit is the obvious choice and suits the Chevrolet far better. It's not as smooth and refined as most modern diesels, nor is an average of 50.4mpg particularly impressive for a diesel hatch of this size, but it's easily the best of the available engines.

The steering is accurate insomuch as the Cruze goes where you point it, but there's little feedback and the overall driving experience is vague and uninvolving.

What you get for your Money:

This is where the Cruze really sells itself. It starts at £13,995 for the 1.6 LT - which is cheap for a C-segment hatch - and comes with air conditioning, electric windows and mirrors, an aux input for MP3 players and remote central locking. That's not bags of kit, but for just under £14,000, it's pretty good - miles cheaper than your Fords and Volkswagens and, engines and specs considered, affordable enough to rival Kias and Hyundais in the same league.

Worth Noting

Apart from the top-of-the-line LTZ Exec pack model in automatic guise, every Cruze hatch costs well under £20,000. Granted, the Chevy won't hold its value like a Golf, but it's a lot cheaper in the first place, and those sorts of asking prices are worth bearing in mind.

Summary

It lacks the kind of dynamic polish you'd find on class leaders like the VW Golf or Vauxhall Astra - or even cheaper competition like the Skoda Octavia - but the Chevrolet Cruze makes a lot more sense as a hatchback. It's quite a sharp looker, spacious and less prone to depreciation than the saloon. No game changer, but it's a decent, cheap family hatch.