2024 Chevy Trax | Much Better, Assuming it's Reliable

The 2024 Chevrolet Trax, the second generation. Now before we talk about how it drives and the engineering, I think it's important we discuss the elephant in the room, and that is this class of American steel, or in this case Korean steel, is not a class of vehicle we have been particularly kind towards. You can tell we don't really think the brands put a lot of effort into this class of car, and the reality part is because they didn't. Now this generation Trax allegedly fixes those issues, so let's talk about how. From an exterior perspective, they've changed this vehicle dramatically. Obviously it's a different architecture, but it is now 11 inches longer, it has a longer wheelbase to support that, it is a wider car than it used to be, it is a shorter car so it's got a more aggressive stance, and overall I think the exterior styling is miles better. It no longer looks like a jelly bean, now it looks like a more generic NPC mobile with hints of Hyundai and Kia styling, which is not a bad thing. From an interior perspective, because the exterior is grown, it's more usable. You have a bigger trunk, looking at like 25 cubic feet of cargo capacity, right in line with the HR-V and the Nissan Kicks of the world. The rear seats, yes it's a torsion beam, so it's not the most comfortable place to be when it comes to ride quality, and seats, but you now have three inches extra legroom, which is a good thing. The front seats, while I think the HR-V has better seats than this to be entirely transparent, they're not horrific, and the seating position and the actual visibility is great. Usable door pockets and all of the controls are traditional and physical and not gimmicky, which is great. Everything from the HVAC to the infotainment. Yes, there is a lot of piano black in this interior, where fingerprints will no doubt festoon every inch of the piano black, but at least it doesn't look entirely cheap. You have two threaded screens, all that other fun stuff. Audio system, it's a generic no-name audio system, and it's really not that bad. It's actually better than something you find, say, in a Honda Passport or Ridgeline. Now, with all that said, let's head in the shop and put this thing up on the lift. In the shop with the 2024 Chevrolet Trax, the second generation Trax, I want to walk you through a philosophical conversation about small domestic cars and why, historically, they've been shitboxes, with a few exceptions. Most of the domestic brands and senior leadership have not cared about these cars. They are relatively low earning, low margin, and they thought the only reason you bought these things is you didn't know any better. Basically, you stumbled and drunk into a dealership. Other reason is the way engineering resources are allocated in domestic brands. Traditionally, they're small segment, non-prestige cars like the Trax, big things like the Dodge Caliber, where junior engineers go to cut their teeth, and as they become more proficient in their job, they develop their skills, they learn more, they move on to bigger and better projects. That's not the case, again, in the foreign brands like Honda. In the case of Honda, the same guys who work on the Gen 1 and Gen 2 NSX also work on Honda Civic, and the K cars, and the minivans. Toyota's the same way, Volkswagen's the same way. Because their engineers work on multiple products, and they move around, that skill set and that engineering talent gets distributed more equally across all of their product lines, again, not something the domestic brands have traditionally done. Now, back to the Trax. The Trax, the second generation, is trying to remedy all of the variety of issues the first gen had, which again, was an absolute piece of garbage. This car now is an entirely different platform. They went from Gamma 2 to VSSF. It is still built in Korea, it's still engineered by Koreans, but again, maximum effort, because this is now a car that has to be that entry-level product for Chevrolet ownership. It's your window into affordability for the Chevrolet line. It replaces vehicles like the Cruze and some of their other small cars. I'm sure sooner or later it's going to replace things like the Trailblazer. It is still a budget architecture. It's strut front, it's compound crank rear or torsion beam or suspension. Everything is steel with a few exceptions, and there are not a ton of aero panels. But, this is now a longer wheelbase vehicle than it used to be by several inches. The overall package is 11 inches longer. It's a lower car, it's a wider vehicle, and all of that improves the dynamics behind the driving experience. They've also added more aero panels and NVH panels versus the prior generation tracks to make it a quieter car. When it comes to serviceability, the oil filter is easy to access. I'm sure all parts are incredibly cheap and easy to get to. When it comes to your drivetrain options, the Trax, unlike the Trailblazer, comes one-way, front-wheel drive, which honestly, if you put snow tires on this thing, I'm sure it'll be just as good as the Trailblazer or other on-demand small CUVs. The drivetrain, what you need to know is that prior generation engine had an unbelievable number of issues, from turbo problems to general liability issues. This 1.2, they now have one engine for the Trax, at least here in the U.S. It has a new crankshaft, it's a brand new engine, and they're trying to fix many of the issues with the prior generation vehicle. It's a 1.2 liter three-cylinder turbocharged engine. It makes 137 horsepower, 162 foot-pounds of torque, and gets a whopping 30 miles per gallon combined. This thing weighs about 3,000 pounds. While that does not sound impressive when you compare it to all of its competitors like the Kicks and HR-V, it's right in the same miles per gallon range, and it does not have a CVT, which from a drivability perspective is a big improvement. Now, with all that said, I think it's time for us to go take this for a drive with Chevy Trax, Mark. Second generation, 1.2 liter turbocharged. Yeah, some wheel spin. It's time to test those brakes. I'm gonna have a cervical surgery. Man, I haven't felt that much. Look, there's GT3 RS, and then there's Chevy Trax when it comes to braking performance. Yeah, it was incredible. So, when Jack pulled up to the house, he woke me up. He's like, hey buddy, got work to do. He pulls up, I'm like, why do we have a Hyundai out there? He's like, no, it's not a Hyundai. It's not a Tucson. It's a Trax. I piqued your interest on that, Evan. Yeah, I really did. All right, it's well known our viewers have seen some of our other, let's call them compact, subcompact American car videos in the past. Yeah, they're turds. Yes, like the thing in front of us. Zero effort, just some commodity box that the V team put together and sold because the general expectation for a long time by American brands is their consumers like stumble into their dealers who are looking for cheap vehicles, drunk, have no credit, are desperate, and don't test drive anything else. Today, 2024, the general consumer is getting smarter. They're trying to spend more time doing their research because cars are more money than they've ever been. And this Trax, I can't believe I'm saying this, is actually pretty okay. It really is. And when you factor the fact that it's not $35,000 like the Trailblazer, that this thing is $26,000 or 27 fully loaded, it starts at $20,500, doesn't have a CVT, it's got reasonable interior, good visibility, ride quality is all right, the steering works, it's attached to something, at least for the front occupants, it rides pretty well. It's not a bad car. Yeah. What do you think? I mean, you drove this around, you had the pleasure to pilot the Trax around the mean streets of Barrington. The thing with affordable cars is you've had a blueprint for the better half of 25 years of how to do compact cars, small cars. This is no different. It's just an SUV, CUV form factor. So GM's... This feels handling. Oh, Jesus. Oh, some lift off oversteer in the... Oh, yeah. Oh, please. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, that's impressive. Yeah, you were saying. I've kind of lost my train of thought, but yeah. So the blueprint has been there for a long time. I just don't feel like the American brands have prioritized putting any effort into these. They just like, oh, they're low margin, you know, just get it out. So this is a great example of, okay, now they've taken the blueprints of what essentially what Hyundai and Kia do great. Essentially perfected. Yeah, and just took it, copied it, and then put their own flair on it. And it works really well for what it is because the price is at a place that is completely digestible. So any excuses or any problems that you could potentially have with it are scrubbed by the fact that you can get in and buy this and you're probably going to get it under sticker. There's going to be a lot of them out there. The big X factor for me is, you know, unlike buying a shitbox Honda or Toyota from the past where you knew they were going to run until the thing completely rusts apart. Like a Corolla Cross. Yeah. These have had a historically really bad reliability. Yeah. Engine problems, like just things that you don't want to deal with. So my hope would be, and I know they've done some mechanical running changes on the engine, you know, you're downsizing the engine now. Yeah, it's a new engine family. It's a new powertrain. That's my hope too. I hope so because it really, like I said, to me the excuses go out the window after a long period of time. You know, we know how to do internal combustion. We've been doing it forever. These small compact cars are not something that gets stressed dynamically. Somebody's not running it at like max load for high, high long periods of time. So they should be working and they should be lasting. And this feels at least on the surface. So go around this postman. Please don't hit them. Remember the American workforce. Yeah, you're saying? No, I just, my hope is I hope that they have it sorted out because they have made a lot of changes here that seems like they really do care. And that core buyer that's looking at this needs something that's going to work. You know, like you're not buying this because you have to have it. You buy it because you need a car. And in this class of vehicle, you know, there are a lot of choices. And to your point, you know, you kind of harped on me like, well, look at the pit of this segment. They're not that great. No, they're all bad. So they, I feel like they did a good job here. It drives good. It rides really well for what it is, even though it's a torsion beam in the back. It doesn't feel like it's bouncing all over the place. It's relatively quiet. It's well appointed. You don't feel like the previous generation tracks where it's like a complete embarrassment. This is not an embarrassment as a brand. It's not an embarrassment. And you don't feel embarrassed to be in here because it does do everything quite well. And it does the space thing. Well, you know, so to me, there's no reason other than the X factor of what residuals are going to be. All right. Yeah. And the potential long-term reliability not to buy this thing. And I'm not saying this one is going to be bad. We just don't know. Yeah. Because the last one was not good. They're saying that it's going to be better. Yes. You know, and I really hope for their sake it is because I see them selling a lot of I do see them selling a shitload of them. And I'd like to see a good quality product in this segment from them or any American brand. And they will continue to do well because this brand is capable of doing amazing. Right. Yeah. I know you just have to put the effort in. And I think they did that here. I guess we'll find out three years from now in the comments and people like I bought this thing and the things, you know, my mechanic said, are you stupid? You know, and that this historically what's been happening with their ---- box like economy cars is they're just they're not made for longevity. And I, I hope to God this thing is meets that expectation. Again, before we wrap this up, you know, for the five people who care about what this thing then like dynamically outside of the stupid thing I just said in the roundabout, it actually handles pretty well at high speed. There's very little flow. I mean, sitting at like 80 miles an hour on the highway, the steering is fairly direct. The brakes obviously don't have a tremendous amount of breaking power. Jokes aside, but they're more than adequate, reasonable feel. It's, it's not a bad car. And unlike a lot of the older, you know, like a caliber or something like the old ---- or like a compass, you don't lose the will to live when you're behind the wheel. Is this exciting? No, but is it a totally competent car? Like an HRV? Yeah. Yes. Yeah. And you drove this a lot and I know you drove it a lot. Probably not because I know I was like, do I drive the Z06 to Autobahn or do I drive the tracks and with the tracks? But this is, this is a vehicle to be fair. Like if you gave me the old tracks or the blazer that we just got or whatever the hell, the trailblazer, um, this is something that you, you would want to drive. You know, it really is. Particularly for the price. Yes. I really appreciate what they did here and I wish them the best and I hope that it stays reliable for the people that are going to buy it. All right. So with that, Mark, let's head into the final thoughts. Final thoughts on the Chevrolet Trax. This is truly the upside down as I'm about to say nice things about a Trax. This is really not a bad car. Again, if this thing was $30,000 or $35,000, we'd be having a different conversation. The fact that it starts at just over $20,000 and is essentially fully loaded at $25,000, $26,000. This is a really compelling small vehicle. And in many ways, it's better to drive than its competition. It doesn't have a CVT. It's not horrible to look at. It's a well packaged car from an interior perspective. Are there some deficiencies here and there versus this competition? Yes. I think the Nissan and the Honda have better seats and you could maybe argue the infotainment on the Honda is better and yada, yada, yada. But as a vehicle to test drive in this class, it's near the top. And that is not something I thought I would ever say. Now there's another conversation to have as well. And that is this class of car in general. Historically, these small CVs have had really poor residuals. So it's important you do your homework on your cost to own versus say a used offering of like a Civic Sport or a CRV or a RAV4. Figure out what it's actually going to cost you to own over five to seven years and then make up your mind. So with that, thanks for watching and I hope to see you soon.