Bought it new, always had the oil changes & regular services on time, etc. One day "Check engine light- overheated" comes on for first time, so I stop car immediately. I read book about needing to be sure enough coolant in overflow tank & that it uses Dexcool 50/50. I look up & I'm right by major car supply store, so I buy the stuff & wait awhile for car to cool with hood open. I noticed that fan was NOT running & overflow tank for coolant was about half empty. I added Dexcool to overflow tank, turned car on & didn't turn on air. Temp gauge stayed below 240 while I drove 15 minutes home. (Same 15 minutes I had driven into town that had created the overheating.)

Took car to dealership who decided that coolant leaked into the engine block & they will either need to replace the head & gasket or the complete engine. They were pretty sure it would be the whole engine needed replaced at about $7,000. Since car is about year out of 5 yr warranty. However, I raised heck over the fact it only has 58,400 miles and only gave the overheat light once. How was I supposed to know it was overheating so bad as to ruin the engine??? The Service guy said it might have been the thermostat gone bad & info wasn't sent to the sensors. So I asked if that wasn't their fault for putting a bad thermostat into my car?? Finally he said they might see if GM would help pay on some of it & I said GM should pay all of it! They finally came back & said if I would pay $3715, they would pay the rest to replace the engine. But wouldn't give me any details (i.e. what about if the thermostat & other parts need replacing?) OR they'll take my car on trade in.

Honestly, I don't trust my Cruze anymore no matter what they do to it. I've been long time Chevy owner (over 20 years) & had always been pleased with my Cavaliers & Cobalts, but this Cruze is a bunch of junk!!! I will be trading it in & not sure for what model & eventually I will get out of the Chevy world. They should have recalled this piece of junk after all the stuff I've read - folks have had the same problems I've had.

Red is the new lemon. I saw this sweet red Chevy Cruze and thought to myself, this is going to be awesome! The color red means speed and power, just like a race car. Yeah, it turned out otherwise.

When I got in this baby, it gave me the adrenaline I needed! It was going great! Fast forward a few months later, it starts overheating and accelerating like an old computer booting up. Well, there goes my adrenaline. I take it to the dealership and they replaced the spark plugs due to engine misfiring and the cylinder head was leaking because there was a hole in the exhaust port on cylinder one. When I got it back I was so excited thinking it’ll have the power again. Nope. Four months later, it got overheated again and so I had to get it towed to the dealership again. They replaced the water pump, and both heater core hoses because they were leaking. When I got it back, I was stoked! Few months later, it overheated on the NJ turnpike. To make things worse, I had to call two tow trucks because turnpikes have their own tow trucks. So that’s a double whammy. I had to get it towed to another dealership. There they replaced just about every other hose dealing with the coolant system. With all this overheating, I could’ve made loot delivering hot pizzas for Dominoes. Customers would be tipping me like crazy!

So, three times taking it to a shop, they replaced the cylinder head, spark plugs, water pump and every other hose except the one leading to the wiper fluid. After having all that replaced I felt like I had a brand new car…until the wiper blade bar broke and my driver side wiper was flapping all over the windshield. $600 later I figured nothing else could break right? Nope. My battery had to be replaced twice from cracking and leaking. Everything is great now though, FINALLY! Except my windshield wiper arm won’t stay down, so now I have a damn wiper right in my face when they are turned OFF. So this is what happens when you pick fashion over function. You get a lemon.