2024 Chevrolet Trax

Hey everybody, today I am out in Michigan taking a look at the new 2024 Chevy Trax. If you're looking for an affordable small crossover that doesn't have all-wheel drive, that's why you might want to take a look at a Trailblazer, then you want to take a look at the Chevy Trax. This is one of a very limited number of under $25,000 starting crossovers that's going to be on sale in the 2023 calendar year. This is definitely more practical than something like a Hyundai Venue. This is an awful lot larger, but there obviously are a few reasons you might want to step up into the Trailblazer over something like this, or some reasons why you might want this over the Trailblazer, namely the lower sticker price. This is going to start under $22,000. Fully loaded, the Trax is going to end up at just under $25,000, including the destination charge, and that would be for either this top-end RS trim or the top-end Active trim next to it. These are both the top-end trims for the Trax. You get to choose which look you like. Most of the versions of Trax you'll find on the dealer lots are actually going to look more like this 2RS trim here, although we're going to find a bit more chrome up front and not all the blacked out accents we find on this model. We have LED headlights here, an LED accent strip up top, and then incandescent turn signals just below in that module. The Active trim is the same price as the top-end RS trim, so they're both co-top trims in the lineup, but we have a slightly different look down here with a bit more egg crate going on and definitely a bit of an angrier front end. A little bit more of an off-road, I guess, rugged look than you'd find in the RS trim. Now to the important parts. The new Trax is definitely larger than the outgoing model. It's almost a foot longer. Some of that goes to the back seat and some of it goes to the cargo area, so it's definitely a roomier vehicle inside, and it has a very different presence on the road. This looks sort of like crossover meets station wagon, maybe meets hatchback, especially back here in the rear. It's not quite as boxy, not quite as upright as something like Kia Soul, which is going to be a direct competitor to this. The new Trax is designed to appeal to a customer that might have traditionally gravitated towards the sedan, but might want to tiptoe into the crossover waters with something that's certainly a lot more practical than any of the subcompact stands available in America. Moving towards the rear, you can see that the lines of the vehicle give it a bit more of an aggressive haunch than we find in the Trailblazer. Also, a bit more of a shoulder look right back there in the rear. As you'd expect out of an affordable vehicle, we have incandescent tail lamp modules. No LEDs going on back here, but we do have a rear windshield wiper and definitely a more raked appearance to the hatch than we find in something like a Venue or a Soul. So if you're looking for something that's definitely sleeker, longer looking, you might want to take a look at this. It's really obvious when you take a look at the hatch from the side that this has a little bit more of a horizontal theme with this rear glass, and then we have a very vertical section down here lower. The other beneficiary for the Stretch versus the outgoing model is the cargo area, where we find about 12% more space, about 25 cubic feet back here. We have a single-stage load floor rather than the two-stage load floor that we find in other Chevy models, but there's still a spare tire under there, and of course, there's additional storage space under the floor. There's a rigid style cargo cover rather than the roller style or the flip and fold style, just as you'd expect in a relatively less expensive vehicle. This is a little bit more cargo capacity than you'll find in the current generation Kia Niro, also definitely above the average for this segment. If you take a look at something like a Hyundai Venue, it has considerably less cargo capacity. Spare tire fans rejoice. We do have a compact spare down here, something that's becoming a rarity even in inexpensive crossovers, but you should know that you cannot put that rigid cargo cover actually under the load floor. It's just a bit too big. Jumping into the front seats, you'll definitely notice the different driving position versus the outgoing tracks and some of Chevy's other crossovers. This seating position is a bit more reclined, perhaps a bit more sedan-like, just as you'd expect. Now, this top-end RS trim does not have a power driver's seat, but you will find a power driver's seat in the active trim. You have to trade the larger wheels that we find in this model for the power seat. However, we have a manual tilt telescopic steering column with a pretty decent range of motion, and in this model, we don't have any kind of adjustable lumbar support. Jump into the back seat and you'll find plenty of room because we have about three inches more legroom than we found in the outgoing tracks. This is one of the few subcompact vehicles where you could probably put a rear-facing child seat behind me sitting up front in the driver's seat. There's definitely a considerable amount of room back here, and because this is a front-wheel drive vehicle only, if I scoot over here to the middle position, you'll notice we have a completely flat floor back here. But of course, this is still a smaller vehicle than an Equinox, so the back seat is not going to be as wide. If you want to mix child seats and adults or want to put three larger people across the back, you're going to want the bigger crossover, but as far as legroom goes, there's quite a lot going on here and plenty of headroom. Even in this middle seat position, my hair is brushing the ceiling, but my head's not touching the ceiling. Under the hood, we have a revised version of the 1.2-liter turbocharged engine that we find in the Trailblazer. Apparently, some of the modifications that are used in the Trax will eventually find their way into the Trailblazer as well. This produces 137 horsepower, 162 pound-feet of torque. The big difference between the Trailblazer and the Trax is that this is a bit more focused on that lower price point. So instead of the CVT or the nine-speed automatic we find in the Trailblazer, we find a six-speed automatic transmission under this hood. And again, just front-wheel drive. If you want all-wheel drive, there's the Trailblazer. If you'd rather have slightly higher fuel economy, there's the Trailblazer as well. Unfortunately, at this point in time, I don't have any fuel economy figures for the Trax just yet, other than it will start at three and it will be a little bit more fuel efficient than the outgoing Trax. Now let's take a quick spin around the interior. If you get the top trims, we do have an available moonroof. Fixed height shoulder belts. You can see in this active trim, we get this attractive yellow trim on the seats, and then we have the active logo embroidered on the headrest. A key difference between this and the Trailblazer is that the front passenger seat does not fold flat. Even in this top-end trim with the power driver's seat, this is still a manual seat, but the power driver's seat does have a two-way adjustable lumbar support. You can see that we have more premium materials on the dashboard and on the doors than we had before. There's a bottle holder down there on the passenger side door. There's a fairly large bin-style glove compartment over there on that side of the dashboard, and definitely a lot more style going on for the dashboard components than we found in the last generation model. Of course, as you'd expect out of an inexpensive vehicle, most of the dashboard plastics are hard, but there's a lot of texture going on. You can see that we have kind of an interesting crosshatch design on the upper section of that dashboard component, and then that continues over here in this mid-trim strip. Big change for this generation is that it has now adopted a very, very large touchscreen here in the dashboard. Now this is optional. The base model is going to have an eight-inch screen. Upper-end trims are going to have this larger one, and this is running essentially the latest version of General Motors infotainment software, so this is very similar to in the Silverado, the Sierra, etc. Below that, we have two large air vents, optional single-zone automatic climate control that is available there, USB inputs for the system, a pretty traditional console shifter with two big cup holders, electronic parking brake there, and then a padded center armrest with a decent amount of storage space inside. Base models will have an analog instrument cluster, but most of the ones you'll find on the dealer lot apparently will have this larger LCD instrument cluster. It's approximately eight inches in size, so it is definitely smaller than the infotainment screen, but I was surprised to see one in a vehicle with a base price this low. Over here, we have the controls for the cruise control. Adaptive cruise control is available, and then over here, we have the controls for that multifunction LCD, then of course, some infotainment buttons as well. There are also some buttons on the back of the steering wheel, just as you'd expect in a GM vehicle. We have volume up, down, and track forward, backward on the back of the wheel. If you're looking to get your hands on the new tracks, these are going to be on sale spring of 2023, so you should head down to your Chevy dealer soon and try and get on the list because they'll probably have one if you want to be one of the very first people to get your hands on the new model. I'm really excited to drive the new tracks because there aren't too many inexpensive vehicles that look good and are practical on the inside currently in America. It's a shrinking number of vehicles to be honest, and some manufacturers have completely abandoned affordable transport like the tracks, like the Kona, like the Venue that we find from Hyundai as well. In fact, at this point in time, it really is the Koreans and Chevy that are really taking the fight down here towards the lower sticker prices. And speaking of sticker prices, let me pull out my cheat sheet here. So we have the LS starting at $21,495, and it's going to have a decent amount of standard equipment on it. Obviously, the automatic transmission, the turbocharged engine, that's going to be standard. Autonomous emergency braking with pedestrian detection is also going to be standard, something that we don't find in all of the inexpensive competition. And that base price does include the destination charge as well. And then if you want the top end trim with all the features you've seen so far today in these videos, then these are going just barely. It's only about $5 under $25,000, but you could get either the 2RS trim or the Active trim for that approximately $25,000 price point. That's really important because if you're really worried about that low sticker price, that low monthly payment, et cetera, this is going to be less expensive to purchase than something like a Niro Hybrid because of the hybrid drivetrain. Now, exactly how that sorts out as far as long-term ownership costs, we don't know yet because we don't know any final fuel economy figures just yet. But assuming that these are going to be somewhere in the mid 30 mile per gallon range out on the highway, then it's not going to be that big of a difference, honestly, in operational costs between this and some of those less expensive hybrids that are available in America. Because by the time you've gone over about 35 miles per gallon, the difference in yearly expenditure as far as gasoline cost goes is not a huge deal. Let me know what you think about all that. And what would you pick if you were shopping in this segment? Are you interested in the tracks? Because I think it looks really good up front. This, I think, is definitely more attractive than the current generation Hyundai Venue or actually the Kona, even though it's received a recent refresh. I do wish it had all-wheel drive, but again, if you want all-wheel drive, that's where the Trailblazer steps in. And you do have some decisions to make because the Trailblazer could be a bit more cargo practical than this with that fold-flat front passenger seat. That's one of my favorite features on that vehicle. But this is still a solid alternative if you don't need all-wheel drive. As always, hit that subscribe button. Find us at Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, all of those social places. I'll see all of you next week.