For Just Two Years, Americans Could Buy A Nice Stick-Shift Diesel Chevy Sedan

There’s something useful about a diesel car. From the torque to the highway fuel economy, Volkswagen’s TDI diesels had the on-road merits to whip up a fanbase before Dieselgate brought an end to an era of affordable, economical diesel cars in America. However, if you want something of that genre that’s a little bit newer than a Jetta TDI, you’re in luck. Volkswagen wasn’t the last manufacturer to sell a stick-shift manual economy car in America. It was actually a domestic manufacturer that stepped up to the table after Dieselgate broke. That’s right, you could briefly get a diesel manual Chevrolet Cruze in America, a left-field fuel-saving option for those doing big miles.

In 2008, General Motors showed the world a compact sedan with the internal code name J3000. Sure, its torsion beam rear suspension wasn’t anything special, but this largely GM Korea-developed vehicle had the task of replacing two major model lines: the Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac G5 in America and the Chevrolet Lacetti just about everywhere else. It felt night-and-day over any of those options. It’s easy to forget just how much of a leap forward the original Chevrolet Cruze was over the Cobalt, but a cheesecloth dashboard was a step up over recycled Tupperware, the available 1.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine previewed the near-future for internal combustion,

In 2014, the Cruze’s powertrain lineup in North America got a bit more interesting thanks to Fiat. Yes, that Fiat. Joining the options list was a two-liter Multijet diesel engine making 148 horsepower and 258 lb.-ft. of torque. Hitched exclusively to a six-speed automatic gearbox, it didn’t sell in massive volumes and was only installed in the Cruze for two years, but it was enough to get the ball rolling. A second-generation Cruze was just around the corner, and this time, it would be available with both the fuel type and transmission the internet was craving.

For 2017, one year after the introduction of the Mk2 Cruze, GM brought a new diesel variant to America. Instead of simply borrowing an engine from Fiat, the General went in-house, turning to Opel for its MDE engine, marketed by Opel as the “Whisper diesel.” Displacing 1.6 liters and serving up 137 horsepower and 240 lb.-ft. of torque, it might have been less powerful than the diesel available in the Mk1 Cruze, but it put a whole lot of focus on not sounding like a diesel.

In addition to the usual engine bay insulation, this diesel engine also got some trick noise-attenuation bits. The composite intake manifold was padded by acoustic foam, the crankshaft pulley featured an isolation mechanism to quell vibrations, and even the fuel rail got sound absorbing material around it. A diesel engine that could be felt more than heard, right in line with American priorities.

As for transmission options, you could get the second-generation Cruze Diesel with a nine-speed automatic transmission that delivered 31 MPG city, 47 MPG highway, and 37 MPG combined, and that was good. However, if you crushed a lot of highway miles, you’d have wanted the six-speed manual transmission. Sure, it wasn’t the most precise manual on the market, and city fuel economy took a single MPG hit when rowing your own gears, combined fuel economy stayed the same with highway fuel economy jumping to 52 MPG.

So, did the extra slug of torque over the standard model make the Cruze diesel quick? Well, no, but also kind of. A zero-to-60 mph time of 8.2 seconds in Car And Driver instrumented testing matched the 1.4-liter turbocharged gasoline-powered Cruze, but that’s just one acceleration metric. As the magazine found out, the second-generation Cruze Diesel shows its relative swiftness in the real world, where you need power under the curve and aren’t revving it out.

Consider also that the Cruze diesel took 3.5 fewer seconds to squirt from 50 to 70 mph than did the Cruze 1.4T, for instance, and that it was quite a bit quicker in its top-gear acceleration tests than was the manual Golf TDI. This is a car well suited for easy, no-downshift-required passing.

Now that’s the sort of torque and gearing that can make a difference in the real world. However, don’t expect the diesel engine and a manual gearbox to suddenly transform a Cruze into a hot hatchback. It’s reasonably pleasant and usable, but the steering and suspension calibration make all second-generation Cruze models feel more fit for commuting than canyon runs. That’s not a huge hardship, though.

See, this thing’s new enough to actually offer the creature comforts you’d want for your commute. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto? Check. Heated seats? If you ticked the right options box, sure. A rear USB charging port for your back seat passengers? Yeah, that was also an option. Sure, the interior materials aren’t as plush as you’d get in a new Civic or Mazda 3, but this is an eight-year-old car, and examples are priced accordingly.

Take this 2018 model up for sale in Illinois. Sure, it might have 143,000 miles on the clock, but with an asking price of $6,995, it doesn’t carry an outrageous premium over similarly aged competitors. Plus, the bright red paint pops against the greys and whites most newer cars are specced in, and all second-generation Cruze diesels are based on LT models so they get projector headlights, alloy wheels, and heated mirrors. Not bad.

Looking for a lower mileage example? Here’s another 2018, up for sale in Indiana for $11,500. That’s a whole lot more money than the red one in Illinois, but with 106,163 miles on the clock, it’s also seen far less use. Sure, the silver paint isn’t the hottest color option out there, but it has heated seats for chilly midwest mornings.

Unfortunately, the diesel-engined second-generation Chevrolet Cruze was a bit too weird to live long in North America. The manual transmission option was dropped for 2019, followed by the entire Cruze itself in 2020. This means that diesel manual models were only sold for the 2017 and 2018 model years, making them exceptionally rare finds on the second-hand market.

Still, as far as sensible commuter cars go, a stick-shift diesel-burning Cruze is a more interesting option than most used compact cars on the market. If you can find one and are willing to put up with the emissions system maintenance so often required on modern diesel passenger vehicles, you could be driving an interesting side quest in GM history.

(Photo credits: Chevrolet, Autotrader sellers)

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