Need separate option for Cruze Eco

[XtremeRevolution]

The ability to choose a car is pretty vague here. When choosing a car from the list to check fuel economy for the Chevy Cruze, all you can really check is the Chevy Cruze. However, there are different Cruze models, from teh 1.8L motor in the LS to the 1.4L Turbo to the rest of the models. The Eco trim also gets significantly better fuel economy, as many people are averaging numbers in the high 30s. However, this isn't reflected in the vehicle search as you can really only see "Chevy Cruze." Would it be possible to add an option to select the Eco trim?

[pb]

We don't like to get into tracking the various trim levels that manufacturers offer. Often those are marketing distinctions rather than meaningful distinctions. We're trying to keep things very simple so that someone who doesn't know the distinctions between all of these different options can just find Chevy Cruze. We talk a little more about it here: Why don't you track more vehicle details?

[XtremeRevolution]

It is often a marketing distinction, but with the Cruze Eco, its a significant difference. I'll go down the list. Compared to all other Cruze trims, the Eco trim has:

1. a lower grille shutter that closes at higher speeds to reduce drag

2. a lip spoiler that makes the car more aerodynamic and reduces drag

3. a ~220lb weight reduction

4. skid plates underneath the car to reduce drag

5. taller gearing on the manual transmission in 5th and 6th gear

6. suspension is lowered 10mm to reduce drag

7. low rolling resistance tires

8. forged aluminum 17" wheels to reduce rolling weight, which are 21lbs lighter than the base 16" alloys

9. a unique front fascia and air dam to reduce drag

All factors combined, the Eco trim with the Manual transmission gets 28mpg city, 42mpg highway, while all other trims get 25mpg city, 36mpg highway.

All of these factors combined should indicate that the Eco trim is not just a marketing distinction and is significantly different from the rest of the Cruze trims.

[pb]

Yeah, I'm taking a look at the page here that lists the Eco along with the other trim levels: LS, 1LT, 2LT, LTZ, and ECO. And I just don't think those distinctions are right for Fuelly. I get that they're meaningful distinctions with some serious differences, but we can't get into tracking the trim level of every model out there. We just don't have the resources for it, and allowing them into the main directories would end up being very confusing for people.

You're welcome to call your Cruze a 'Cruze Eco' and track it on the site. It just won't be listed in the public browsing that way.

[XtremeRevolution]

I just figured it would be worthwhile to differentiate cars that have significant differences between trim levels. Fuel economy on the LS, 1LT, 2LT, and LTZ will the same, with the Eco the only trim standing out.

You already do this on vehicles such as the Honda Civic. You have specific sections for the plain Civic and the Civic Si. Isn't the Si just another trim level? Last time I checked, it is, and the difference in fuel economy compared to the standard Civic is about 2-6mpg depending on what year you're looking at. What makes it so special compared to, say, a Cobalt and a Cobalt SS? Simply the number of people who own one on fuelly?

For example, as of 2012, there's a Honda Civic Hybrid available. The difference between this model and the other Civic models should be obvious, yet there isn't a section for it. What will you tell people when they request one The difference isn't great enough between models?

It would appear that the "browse all cars" section of this site is of very limited use and having developed websites in the past, I can't imagine it would be too difficult to add "Cruze Eco" similar to the way you did "Civic Si."

Here's a fun fact: there are 2x more Cruze vehicles registered on this site (223 exactly) for 2011 and 2012 than there are Honda Civics and Honda Civic Si combined (92).

It just doesn't make sense to me.

[pb]

For example, as of 2012, there's a Honda Civic Hybrid available. The difference between this model and the other Civic models should be obvious, yet there isn't a section for it.

You can use the filter controls at the top of the page to limit the listing to Civic Hybrids if you want to. It's a different engine altogether.

The Cruze Eco has the same engine as any Cruze. I understand your view--you'd like to see how that trim level performs on its own. Unfortunately we can't track every potential level of detail that folks want to see.

[Cruzin]

What happened to the customer being right? We your customers would like you to add a trim option for the Chevy Cruze ECO, due to it being the high mileage option for the Chevy Cruze. Is this a fuel tracking site? Take the 5 minutes to add it to the drop down.

[pb]

You're both new here and might not be aware of our site history. We've had debates here in the past about how much detail to track and where we draw the line. At one point we had diesel Jettas as a separate model, and after some debate we decided to keep them together in a single model and rely on the filter controls. And that idea of keeping things simple and consolidated has been a guiding principle for us on decisions like these.

Chevy doesn't list the Cruze ECO as a separate model on their website. It's a trim level. And we don't add a new model for a trim level unless there's a significant difference from the standard model. We don't want to add any model distinction that anyone wants—the directory would become out of control fairly quickly. I just haven't seen the case made. Maybe there's a great reason to break with our system in this case. We can discuss it here.

[XtremeRevolution]

I sincerely appreciate you talking about this instead of just closing up this thread. Thanks for that.

Well, lets make it simple. Go to the 2012 Cruze, and find every Eco manual transmission model you can find, then calculate the average fuel economy. You'll find its somewhere around 39mpg.

The average for all 2012 Cruzes of any trim is 32.6mpg, a 6.4mpg difference. While that in itself is significant, what's even more significant is that the current 32.6mpg listing includes the Eco models as well. Take them out of the equation, and I can almost guarantee you the difference will be at least 8mpg. For the purposes of a fuel tracking website, 8mpg is certainly significant.

It doesn't have to be an entirely new model. I can see where that could turn into a slippery slope and as an IT systems engineer, I can see where best practices need to be followed and lines need to be drawn.

The golden combination here is the Cruze Eco with the Manual transmission. The automatic version, while being rather uncommon, doesn't pull the same fuel economy numbers. Could there be added an option in the drop-down for "ECO MT" in the engine choices? It should be a fairly minor change, but would still allow for some kind of distinction.

I'm not trying to make your lives more difficult. I just strongly believe that the Cruze Eco MT deserves some kind of distinction.

[Cruzin]

With the Jetta diesel you can easily filter by diesel engine. There is no easy filter for the ECO unless you add it as a body style option.