What can I do?

Camp, don't let the thoughts of the Holden Cruze limit the imagination as to where you may like to go in Australia. There are many places where you can hire a 4by to take you where ever you may wish to go. What is more, it may be easier to fly to close to your desire and then hire the vehicle to take you further.

If you like though, your Cruze could take you to a lot of the outback provided you equip yourself for eventualities like breakdowns and holdups due to road conditions for the suitability of your car. You will be building your skills and knowledge too in that time. I think they are fairly short though and the suspension may be choppy on some roads.

As for wonderful men?????? Never take the situation too far, just a little learning at a time. Your car is meant for grip on roads not to be taken too far off road. The roads out to Camerons Corner from Sydney are not beyond you with care.....

Gidday Camp,Get out and enjoy.Aus is a big land and go and look before all the so called crats lock it up and the only way to see it is to walk.
One thing I would suggest is to join a 4WD club and learn how to enjoy the terrific world we live in.You dont have to own a 4by.One more important thing is if you take rubbish in take it out with you and if you can if there a bit more laying around (there is a lot of inconsiderate people out there).
Remember tread lightly.
Seeya Locallaw

AWD is great on loose surfaces such as gravel and beaches. I wouldn't be venturing too far off road though as with limited ground clearance and a fairly narrow track from memory you stand a good chance of getting stranded on many tracks. With no substantial recovery points (I'm guessing) I wouldn't want to be pulling you out either.There are still many places you can go but it would pay to travel with someone in a better equiped vehicle just in case. My theory is you don't know how far you can go until you get stuck, as long as you have the means to get unstuck again you're OK. if not you're in the p00h.

Hi Camp,
Whenever i do even a week-end trip i find it a compromise between what i need to take and the weight that puts on the vehicle.I am pleased with the O.M.E. suspension and it works hard when the vehicle is loaded over rough terrain.When you put outback trip and Holden Cruze in the same sentence i worry how much gear can you carry,standard springs and small tank and find the vehicle very limiting indeed.It could be done with a small tent and travel very light and stick to main roads or consider a trade-in whilst their is still some equity in the car.
Cheers Mark

Hi Camp

Naturally, there are some rough dirt/gravel roads so check out how the roads are at time of travel, if YOU TAKE YOUR TIME along the way you will get there.

If in Qld.
Matilda Highway (as just recently posted) or any the outback highways would be worth a drive as well as staying on the black stuff.
Also:-
From Brisbane/Gold Coast ? you'ld get to Birsville (we saw normal cars out along these roads) then head along the Eyre and Dianantina D.Roads, they are bitumen highways now, through Boulia to Mt Isa. Go the way you want to along the bitumen to Gregory Downs (from here the road is dirt/gravel and is normally well maintained due to the mine up there, but can be roughish), Adel's Grove/ Lawn Hill N.P. You could go down to the Riversleigh dinosaur fossils which was a good road this year, coming back from the N.P to Gregory R and head north to Burketown, Normanton and Karumba. You could even go along the Burke Development (this is a dirt/gravel road and even normal cars travel on this) and onto Chillegoe, Cairns or come back the Gulf D.Road through Croydon/Georgetown to Cairns, Mareeba, Cooktown, Lakefield N.P. (the road in and out is rough but well worth the trip) and finally up to Weipa.
You would have to come back through Lakelands as I wouldn't try Cape Tribulation in it, the road can get slippery when slight rain gets on it and there is a dog leg turn that is quite dangerous going up and down it.

It is getting quite hot now so go soon unless you like the hotter weather.

Other than that if you don't mind a bumpy road, don't treasure the Cruse too much(broken/chipped windscreens, rocks chipping paint from other cars/4wd's/trucks, hitting roo's/animals and alike) take and your time, plan well and always ask for info wherever you stop for the night then you should have fun.

Cya
Tripp'n
:)

The Cruze will get you reasonably far as long as you take it easy and make sure there's no rain. I used to have a Daihatsu Terios, also an AWD with no transfer case (although it did have a difflock, does the Cruze have that?) and went to lots of places from Cooktown to Innamincka and Maree. But you do need some recovery gear, especially a snatchstrap (if you have somewhere to attach it to). As the Cruze is so light, a shovel and a push will probably get you out of most trouble provided you don't get too deep into it in the first place.
Don't know where you are, but a good beginners' place for a softroader, with a real outback wilderness feeling, is Mungo National Park (between Mildura in the south and Broken Hill in the north). It's not too far away from civilisation (150km to Mildura), it's not too isolated so you're likely to get help if stuck, the dirt roads into the park are okay even for 2wd if you take care though rough enough to give you that "4wd feeling" (but don't go when wet, you'll get bogged), and there's a choice of accommodation. Plenty of wildlife, beautiful scenery, roughish tracks etc without any real risks even with a Holden Cruze.

Camp,

I think it was 4wd monthly that took one across the Simpson recently as my mate saw it at Birdsville at the end of it's trek. You should try get that issue as it talked about what to pack and take etc.

Leroy

Hi Camp,
In SA you could do most of the Flinders Ranges (in the 1960's I did lots of it in a HD Holden). And you could get into the Gammons to Arkaroola because the road is so good. You wouldn't try the 4wd tracks there tho, but you could join the tour in their vehicles to see lots of the rough stuff.
Camping at Innes National park would be a breeze as would Kangaroo Is.
Cheers,
Camper

Followup to Navaraman.
Lucky you know what is going on,
Your answer
"Its full time AWD, IF the front wheels lose control/drive it TRANSFERS to the rear wheels"
sounds like 2 wd to dumb old me
OR
" great marketing by the general"
as If they would tell us anything that it is not !
Transfers in my mind says from front to back or vice versa not AWD/4wd @ all times as we all imagined

for example
SAME as in their brochure/website
CD Astra has ABS standard
I went to deliver one in Syd one night
the young lady daughter of well known barrister who is previous client of mine, looked out the window of multi storey block of luxury units near harbour bridge & said that car has not got ABS, I said yes it has & showed her GMH Staff Car Sale auction catalogue, where it stated ABS was on this vehicle
she said no it hasn,t I said what makes you think that as we were @ least 6 storeys from it, & looking out the window @ the car
she said it only has 4 wheel stud/nuts, ABS has 5 stud alloys
I said ERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR !
on further investigation on GM website
YES CD Astra Convertible Turbo has ABS standard but nothing said re normal Astra CD
GREAT marketing, we see website & take for granted all CD Astras have ABS Standard which is not the case
in my opinion same as AWD Cruze,
as you say it transfers from Front Wheels to Rear Wheels if it LOSES CONTROL
in my eyes/ears that = 2wd with traction control
not AWD all the time as we EXPECT/BELIEVE from its marketing
I stand to be corrected on my thoughts as they are only my personal thoughts but I believe you answered my assumptions as I believed 2wd @ all times, when those 2 get in trouble it transfers to the other 2 , but still only 2 working @ once

You are telling the story, I believe you but on past experience with that Astra, & the advertisements on TV when they were plugging them daily when first released I just remember they were " guarded " in their words re " 4wd " on the ad & it made me sceptical.

Thanx for all the wonderful replies guys (and Tripp'n). It is obvious that we have a huge learning curve in front of us with regard to our capabilities. Maybe we should start off somewhere close to home like the Otways or the like, or maybe join up with one of the trips organised by Exploroz like the ones to Mt Skene, Gembrook or Robe. Anyway if you see a little blue Cruze stuck in the pooh somewhere you know I bit off more than I could chew. lol.