To Whom It May Concern

Lil' Vader?

I had some people asking me about the "new" car I purchased.  Thought I'd do a post quick to cover this. 

I really liked the Buick, it was without a doubt the nicest car for a long trip that I've ever owned.  Don't get me wrong, I'll always prefer the SRT-4 in terms of "fun" value, but there is something to be said for luxury.  But, the monthly payment, and the 21.5 mpg average were really starting to kick my butt.

I looked around online at Camry's and Accords, but their gas mileage wasn't all that great either, and the dealers wanted an arm and a leg for them.  Then someone mentioned the Chevy Cruze Eco to me.   So I went online to search for them and research them too.  I have always liked the looks of the Cruzes, ever since I saw one while at Camp Parks in California for a military school.  I figured I'd get a manual, because they get about 5 mpg higher than the automatics do. 

The first one I found in the Omaha area was a red one, then a burgundy one, both of them being out of the question, as I don't feel the need to MAKE myself look fast.  Then, at Plaza Buick here in Omaha, there was a black one, it was an automatic, but still I wanted to take it for a spin.  The car has a 1.4L turbo, which seems so piddly reading about it, but the car has surprising get up and go.  The main complaints about the car online are "loud tires" and "aggressive shift patterns".  Well I don't know too many cars with louder tires than an SRT-4 (the KDW2's aggressive tread pattern tends to do that) and God knows the truck transmission in that thing shifts hard as hell.  So I didn't really even notice the tire noise.  It does shift aggressively, and the auto stick is slow as hell to engage, unfortunately. 

BUT, so many good things about the car.  It's like a pint sized version of the Buick, well, 4/5th size lets call it.  Comfortable, and I was blown away at just how much it did indeed look like the Buick.  In fact a lot of people don't even notice at first that I'm driving a different car now.  See for yourself:

Subtle differences, but so much in common.  Lil N' first blurted out "HEY, where did all the red dots come from in here? WHO DID THIS???" (car has red fabric highlights all over).

Not the greatest angle, but you can see what I'm talking about.  So far I'm pushing more than 35% better gas mileage, that's huge.  Pretty darn happy.  Here are some other photos of the car: