My Favorite Sedan

My Favorite Sedan

The Cruze is a seriously smooth car, from its slippery shape to the way its doors shut. In large part, Cruz's smoothness is derived from its impeccably compliant suspension. In car terms, it is refined. And the Cruze doesn't come much more so than the mid-grade LT tested here, with the automatic transmission and 16-inch wheels. The available premier model with the largest wheels available (18-inchers) may be less smooth, while the base Cruze L with its 15-inch tires and their taller sidewalls may be smoother still. Yet cut the lineup down the middle and you're still talking baby-bottom smooth. And the environment works even better than it looks, with the touchscreen running Chevrolet's easy-to-use MyLink infotainment menu and the hard-button controls operating with a well-damped smoothness. Usefulness abounds: There are storage cubbies in the doors, a stash spot for a phone ahead of the shifter, and a total of six cupholders. The front centre armrest slides fore and aft. Android Auto and Apple CarPlay integration are built-in, and when an iPhone is hooked up using a USB cable, the driver can call out Siri commands or manage music selections via the touch screen or a secondary display in the gauge cluster using a steering-wheel control pad. (The same goes for an Android phone, albeit with Google, not Siri, as the personal assistant.) Yes, GM's 4G LTE data connection and a Wi-Fi hotspot are standard, and, yes, we used both to send some emails while stopped on the side of the road.