But it's the interior that does the heavy lifting in a small car. Typically, designers and bean counters wage a tireless war over material quality and convenience goodies, and nearly without fault, it's the accountants who stand victorious over their art-school foes. But this time, the halls of GM headquarters were lined with a carpet of lifeless forms still desperately clutching their adding machines. There are expletives to describe how nice the Cruze interior is compared to the long parade of Dollar General cabins we've seen in the past, but since we try to keep this place as family friendly as possible, we'll just say that it's fantastic. And it's about time.
In LTZ trim, the dash is dominated by a tech-laden but well-sorted center stack and accented with broad swaths of leather. We're not talking vinyl with real leather grain here, either. The dash trimmings, seats and steering wheel are all coated in hide that was once roaming a hillside. Their touch has the effect of distracting you from the fact that the rest of the dash and door panels are hard plastic. Nicely grained, sure, but the material is more along the lines of what we expect out of a GM compact. Put the two together, though, and you're rewarded with a duo that looks gorgeous. Simply put, we love it ? especially in the dark brown/cream combo of our tester.
