The final Ambassador Program car that I was able to drive this year is the 2012 Chevrolet Cruze. The attendants at work were a little shocked when I picked this car up (they were guessing Camaro or Corvette), but it is a more realistic vehicle that both Tara & I have considered getting for me to drive to work. Like the LaCrosse and the Equinox, this car wasn't sporting a color that I would choose for my personal vehicle. This particular car came fairly loaded, as a 2LT model. It came with heated front seats (leather all around) standard, along with a navigation system and a sunroof. The engine for this car is a 1.4L 4-cylinder turbo engine, which seemed plenty peppy to Tara & I. The sticker on this car was right around $25,000, so not too bad consider how well equipped it is. I have priced out similar cars, except with a 6-speed manual instead of the 6-speed automatic (Tara's choice) and added a couple of extra options (a couple of packages that adds a backup camera, rear sensors, and blind spot warnings among other things) and deleted the nav system and I came in with a price that is also at the $25,000 range. Despite there being other vehicles that we've tested that I would much rather have (the Cadillac Escalade or the GMC Acadia Denali for example), this one hits the sweet spot in the budget for us. Plus, the gas mileage was great! We averaged 32.8mpg over the course of the weekend, Tara's lead foot included, while I managed to average 35.2 driving it back and forth to work. This is a drastic improvement over the 22-23mpg that I typically get in the van! The gas savings alone would be enough to make half of the car payment! Take the truck (and it's 15mpg average when Tara drives it around town) out of the regular driving rotation and the savings get even bigger! I could really see this being the car that is parked in our garage next summer (only in red!)...

2012 Chevrolet Cruze LT
	Here is the Chevrolet Cruze LT as seen from the front three-quarter view.
	The RS badge on the door.
	A look straight on at the Equinox.
	And the rear three-quarter view.
	This is the back seat area of the Cruze. With the seats slid forward there was plenty of legroom - even for adults.
	The front seat area - all of the seats were leather, and the front buckets are heated as well.
	The instrument panel.
	The center stack, complete with navigation system.
	Another look at the center stack area and the passenger side of the dash.
	Top it all off with the power sunroof!