Holden Cruze Scored Top Marks In Appearance
Gasps of admiration were noticeable when Holden unveiled its stunning new Cruze small car to the automotive media at the Melbourne Motorshow - its appearance scored top marks.
But when the journalists came closer and could see the interior, they were just staggered at the superb work done by the GM/Holden styling teams.
Much credit for the Cruze interior goes to Holden's Rebecca Christianson, the company's lead designer for colour and trim.
Developed by GM in Korea, but destined for sale in all major global markets - constant communication and trips to Korea were required to deliver a package that fulfilled the requirements of Australian motorists. The main objective was to create an exciting and refined interior appearance, a high standard of material quality and the all-important 'wow' factor…large car styling at an affordable price.
The overall result is an interior this is highly refined, with clean interrelating surfaces, quality fabrics and materials.
CD models have two-toned sport mesh knit fabric seats while CDX models feature beautiful leather. Seats are tailored with French seam stitching.
The center stack and console decoration is available in two levels - CD offers a combination of silver and matt black paint finish while CDX provides a premium combination of a silver technical patterned in mould film with a high gloss black paint and silver alloy-look spokes for the steering wheel.
Both front seats have manual six-way adjustments and CDX models boast heated comfort with a clever quick-warmup function for those chilly winter mornings.
Interior space is a standout feature of the Cruze. Shoulder room is a generous 1391mm at the front and 1370mm at the rear while rear legroom is a handy 917mm.
The audio system is a six-speaker in-dash CD with MP3 'Plug and Play' functionality and internal four-channel amplifier. Cruze has a 'Graphic Information Display' which (among other items) offers up to six 'favourites' pages storing both AM and FM radio stations on the one page to eliminate the need to change bands when swapping between your preferred stations.
Cruise control and automatic headlights are standard on both models and a real luxury touch is delayed entry and exit interior lighting (with theatre dimming) - this uses the rear courtesy lights and front map lights for extra convenience on dark nights.
The rear seat splits 60/40 and the boot capacity is a handy 400 litres. A clever shopping bag hook is mounted on the left side of the boot - hooking your bags over that prevents spillage en route from the supermarket.
