I recently bought a 2011 Chevy Cruze 1.4 litre Turbo with 19,000 kms on it. I have dreamed of owning this car for years now and I absolutely love it except for the transmission. Sometimes when I am driving it shifts really hard and actually scares me. I understand it has a 6 speed transmission and that there is sometimes a lag when it shifts but this is not right. When I take off from a stop it takes forever to shift and then when it does it is so hard that it makes me hold my breath until it shifts. Then, sometimes when I am slowing down it down shifts irratically. I took it to our local Chevy dealer and when they drove it they said it was fine. The problem is that it is not happening all the time so it is very hard to get the dealer to get a true feeling of what it is doing. It seems like in the morning when it is cold it is better than later in the day. Doesn't make sense to me but I did notice yesterday with the air conditioning running it was worse. I drive 30 minutes each way to work and back and sometimes I am a nervous reck by the time I get home. I never know what to expect when I get behind the wheel. Does anyone have any suggestions? Like I said before, I love this car and the last thing I want it to be afraid to drive it. Please help.

 

I am VERY sorry that you fell into this situation. The best thing I can tell you is to get rid of it ASAP! There is NO fix and GM will NEVER admit that there was a problem with the 2011 transmission. I know. I went through this for 2 years and 13,300 miles with my BRAND NEW LTZ RS Cruze that I got on Valentine's Day 2011. I dealt with 3 different GM "customer service" people and 1 from CORPORATE Headquarters- ALL to NO avail! A GM engineer came to my dealer, drove the car for 13 miles, and declared that it was "operating as designed"! Six days later I got rid of it and bought a 2013 Buick Verano Turbo! It's like night and day!

My 2011 Cruze acted the same way as yours. The scariest part was the lack of acceleration at times in dangerous conditions! Like yours, it was erratic. Since my driving was mostly local it was very noticeable. If I drove on the highway everyday where the car didn't have to keep shifting, I would probably still have the car. Like you, I was afraid to drive my car.

Good luck.

 

Bigfish3,

I know it can be frustrating when it is difficult to recreate the concern at the dealership. I would like to look into you situation more if you could private message me your name, VIN, mileage, address, and name of the GM certified Dealership you are working with. Look forward to hearing from you soon.

Erica Tiffany
Chevrolet Customer Service

 

Erica-

If you can SOLVE Bigfish3's transmission problem, they should make YOU CEO of GM! I would love to see the followup to this! If indeed the 2011 transmissions were "operating as designed", WHY did they change things for the 2012/2013 models? NO ONE has ever been able to answer my question, not even the GM lovers over in cruzetalk.com!

 

fastdriver,

Well, I am certainly going to assist to the best of my ability! If there is something that you would like me to look over for you, please let me know. We are here to assist.

Erica Tiffany
Chevrolet Customer Service

 

Erica, it's too late for me! I dumped my 2 year old 2011 Cruze LTZ RS with 13,300 miles 6 days after a GM "engineer" claimed that it was "operating as designed" after driving it for only 13 miles! It was replaced on 1/31/13 (same day I dumped the Cruze) with a 2013 Buick Verano Turbo with NO problems! The ONLY way you're going to solve Bigfish3's problem is to give him a new Cruze! Even then, the transmission might be okay, but then he could end up with the coolant/antifreeze smell instead! Good luck to both of you!

 

To:
Erica Tiffany
Chevrolet Customer Service

Erica, I am curious as to the current state of this transmission problem. I just bought a 2014 Cruze Diesel and am experiencing some of the same jerkiness when the car is cold and I am driving slowly through my neighborhood to the main road. It recedes when it warms up, but never quite goes away, and I have taken to using the manual control to hold second or third gear to avoid the jerkiness. It seems pretty primitive as a gearbox when one thinks how long GM has been making automatic transmissions and has even OEM'd them to other companies over the years.

I bought this car based on a positive experience renting a Cruze LT with 1.4 Turbo for a month, where I experienced none of these problems, just the usual amount of turbo lag that one would expect from this kind of power train.

I read elsewhere that these are "learning" transmissions and will adapt to the driver's style after some time. I hope mine is a fast learner, but in the interim, are there any plans to reprogram the shifting on this car? A clunky transmission is the last thing I expected and it is certainly spoiling the experience of what is otherwise a pretty nice car for the money.

Thank you in advance for your attention to this.

 

That is the functional problem and it is danger. To get rid of it is the right choice.


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skybuying
Gps jammer and cell phone jammer

 

LOL.....

 

man you just hit on the nail.........car looks very good but in reality its a **** car. I am thinking to dump it asap and going back into VAG world