Can you honestly believe that this is the new Chevrolet Trax? I’m a bit shocked seeing what Chevrolet’s done with the nameplate. Sure, another entry-level crossover was most certainly in the cards, but I never expected it to look anything like this. The headline Chevrolet chose to run on its press site is “2024 Chevrolet Trax Delivers Beyond Expectations,” which is reasonably accurate because the current Trax is about a ton and a half of sick contained in a sad plastic bag of misery. It’s a vehicle you just dread getting at the rental car counter as you don’t even need a full hand to count its positive aspects, but you need an abacus to add up its deficiencies.
In contrast, the 2024 Trax looks quite pleasant. Not just pleasant compared to the last one, pleasant overall. In fact, it looks a lot like the current Chevrolet Blazer. The headlamps feature a split design with thin daytime running lights, yet their design works reasonably well. Along the side, strong haunches offer interesting surfacing, although the rear end is a bit strange. The hatch finishing seems a bit basic and I’m not a fan of the faux vents on RS models, but nothing out back is truly offensive.
On the inside, things are obviously built to a budget, but Chevrolet’s done a fairly good job for the price. There are proper knobs to control things, the available 11-inch touchscreen infotainment system is massive, and the air vents really do look quite nice. Some of the interior plastics look like they could be a bit hard, but do you know what? I’m okay with cheaper plastics on a cheap car, so long as the vehicle seems comfortable and cheerful. Chevrolet seems to have the cheerful bit down here, offering exactly the sort of stuff entry-level buyers really want. Job well done, I reckon.
Power for the new Trax comes exclusively from a 1.2-liter turbocharged three-cylinder engine. There’s not a lot of it on tap, just 127 horsepower, but torque seems very alright at a stout 162 lb.-ft. All-wheel-drive isn’t an option, so this little crossover will exclusively spin the front tires. Let’s face it, unless you live in Alaska, you don’t really need all-wheel-drive so long as you have a good set of winter tires. Best of all, there’s no CVT monotony here, just a conventional six-speed automatic.
The 2024 Chevrolet Trax starts at $21,495 for the base LS model, while the range-topping 2RS and Activ trims both sticker for $24,995. That’s not even silly money, it’s about where something this size should cost. The LT trim at $23,395 is likely the best value in the range as it comes with heated seats, a heated steering wheel, automatic climate control, rear seat USB ports, wireless phone charging, and push-button ignition. That’s a lot of kit for that sort of money. Best of all, every price I’ve mentioned includes an unspecified freight charge, so just add tax, title, and go.
Expect the new Trax to go on sale in the spring of 2023, not a particularly long wait at all. While fast, expensive cars are quite exciting, cheap stuff like this gets me equally excited. It’s incredibly difficult to build a cheap car these days, so to design one that looks pretty good, offers tons of options, and doesn’t cost a small fortune is wickedly impressive stuff. Dare I say it, I’m more excited to see these on the road than I am for the Corvette Z06. [Ed note: Wait, really? I am more excited to see the Z06. – MH]
A 6 speed auto. Genuinely refreshing to see.
“Let’s face it, unless you live in Alaska, you don’t really need all-wheel-drive so long as you have a good set of winter tires.”
This is demonstrably false.
We live part-way up a hill in PA and don’t even have the steepest driveway in the neighborhood. We have three vehicles, two FWD and one with on-demand AWD. I have a separate set of dedicated snow tires for each of them that I get mounted every winter.
Even with the snow tires, the FWD vehicles cannot get up our driveway in winter unless it’s clear down to the concrete. Just 1″ of snow and you can’t make it. The AWD vehicle has never NOT made it.
I’m not claiming that snow tires aren’t worth it, because they do make a real difference and I will continue to invest in them, but please don’t preach that AWD isn’t helpful or even necessary.
Is this another General Korean Motors product?
Not that there is anything wrong with that.
When I saw the engine specs, I realized it’s the same three cylinder engine that is used in the GM Korea-manufactured Encore GX. This vehicle is also manufactured in China by the SAIC-GM joint venture. I don’t know where the engines are made.
Yes
I stopped looking at most small SUVs and CUVs because there’s no way in hell I’m ever buying a CVT other than a Toyota Hybrid Synergy Drive or something electro-mechanically similar to that. All non-hybrid CVTs are unacceptable, and some hybrid CVTs are, too.
I won’t even consider other CVTs because you shouldn’t rely on friction drive to determine gear ratios. That’s a recipe for constant wear on vital components. No matter how good you make it, operation of a friction drive abrades vital parts, and the question is not if they will fail, but when. It’s essentially like riding the clutch all day. The parts that wear are not usually sold separately, so a replacement transmission is often the only choice. (The HSD uses a fixed planetary gearset, and derives the gear ratio by electrically varying the torque applied to the gear axle shafts.)
Cheers for putting a real transmission in this thing, and not something that’s likely to grenade itself and mechanically total the car right around the time a second or third owner really needs something cheap and reliable to get to work.
Maybe I missed this in the article, but where will this be built?
CNN says it’s being built in South Korea, was expecting China, so that’s a win …
It looks so good I would be willing to give the three cylinder a chance. No CVT? Hallelujah!
Driving across the country in this thing would be brutal. How fast will that 3 have to spin to maintain 80? Too fast, for sure.
No AWD seems like a big miss.
I know sNoW tIrEs ArE aWeSoMe No OnE eVeN nEeDs AwD!!!!! is gospel on every car blog comment section, but the honest truth is that very few buyers of a $21,000 subcompact crossover are going to be able or willing to shell out for another set of tires and rims, plus store them all year long and pay to have them swapped every spring/fall. They just want to set it and forget it, and they won’t consider anything without the security (both real and perceived) of AWD.
AWD is more money than a set of tires, and a salesman in a snow area will get them to tie the tires into the financing or even throw them in for free sometimes.
I mean, it IS a miss because these sell to people who aren’t in website comments section and want AWD, so it’s going to be missing a big chunk of the market.
Chevy’s smaller CUVs have seemed overpriced to me the last few years, so this is a nice surprise. Looks like a decent amount of content for what you pay, and all that torque combined with a conventional automatic should make it feel satisfyingly quick. (You know what I mean, sometimes “feeling” quick is a different metric than BEING quick.)
Now that Chevy has killed off the Spark (which would actually be a good name for a low cost EV), the Trax is the cheapest vehicle Chevy makes now.
Oh fiddlestix, it’s the Captiva reincarnated…
Hard pass
Oddly despite being cheaper this is longer and wider than the Trailblazer, with more overall interior room. The two were already close with the old one.
Kind of the inverse of other entry level FWD-only small crossover types like Venue, Kicks, and Soul, but guess that will be a selling advantage too – bigger for the same price.
No AWD probably helps give the Trailblazer more of a purpose too. Or maybe something for the more compact-size SUV buyers that don’t an EV to go to as they ready the EV Equinox for sale.
You know what? It looks pretty alright. A lot what Chevy has been churning out recently looks pretty alright. There’s a cohesive design language across most of their range. Sharp but not overly aggressive angles, fairly decent lines, simple but sleek LED DRLs, etc.
If you debadged it and asked me what it is I’d say “Chevy” right away…which to me is good for an economy car. Also good on them for not throwing another godforsaken CVT in it…which are standard on the CHR, HRV, and I believe barebones versions of the Kona, amongst other things.
I don’t even think the lack of AWD is really going to hurt it. All wheel drive is nice but IMHO its benefits are overkill for the average consumer. A good set of winters or all seasons on a FWD car will do the job just fine unless you’re getting heavy snow all the time Hell…my father in law is a Chicago native and lived there for most of his life, and he’s usually bought front wheel drive cars and had 0 issues.
Not bad Chevy. Not bad at all. In what may well be the least desirable class of cars on the road (bit of a self own here as a Kona owner lol) the new Trax seems decidedly alright. It may well be the okayest subcompact crossover.
I like the colors. The red is reminiscent of Mazda’s gorgeous metallic red, and the green is an interesting shade that you don’t see very often.
How many will actually hit the streets in those colors, though, and how many will be black, white, and 50 shades of grey?
Counterpoint: it’s too big, and misses the point of what the Trax is for.
The current Trax might not get respect from auto journalists, but it’s a relatively small, affordable, simple AWD car that’s perfectly fit for purpose. It’s easy to park, has the turning radius of a Honda Fit, it’s sure-footed on the road, and great in all kinds of weather. One of my favorite things about the Trax is how basic it is, with nice chunky controls that don’t even make you take your gloves off in the winter.
It fills a niche that the Fiat Panda 4X4 would occupy if it were in America. We live in a small rural area that gets all four seasons, and it makes the perfect grocery getter on days when the snowplows haven’t cleared the four miles into town yet.
The new interior looks cluttered and messy. They’ve even lost the conventional handbrake, another thing I like about the Trax. I wish they’d stuck to the formula of a small, simple AWD car with good storage, and just updated the styling, make it more like a little Lada or Panda.
I agree with 99% of what you’ve said, with one issue. Did you really feel the previous gen had a good turning radius? I was always very surprised when I drove my wife’s Encore (the Buick Trax-clone) and it’s turning radius always felt far larger than it should have been. By comparison I could whip my jeep into crowded parking spaces much easier than I could the Trax/Encore.
From the stats online, it appears the Encore has a larger turning radius (18.5′ vs 17.7′) for some reason. My wife has a ’22 Trax, and I regularly spin it round some very tight spots.
Probably wheels – Buick has 18″ standard, Trax had 16″ or 18″, so some stats might just report the standard wheels. GM media site says turning circle is 35.4′ for 16″ on Trax, 36.7′ for 18″ wheels on both, or same radii you found. Trailblazer/Encore GX are both listed as 36.8′ regardless of wheel size.
I think it’s fine to be more excited about this than a new Corvette trim. You’re going to have to look at a hell of a lot more of these things on the road than Corvettes, so it’s good when they’re not the ugliest vehicle possible!
I see we’re going for lets do the same SUV in small/medium/large again.
This looks like a home run. Hot segment, good value, decent looks and equipment. The lack of AWD might come back to bit Chevy, but presumably it could be added back in.
It’s also possible they have it in the cards but don’t want to announce it just yet.
I’m surprised to see a new Chevrolet vehicle that I actually find attractive. I wish they were doing more interesting/efficient things with the drivetrain, but at least that boring motor keeps the price down.
That’s way better than I’d expect.
I kinda think they might be crowding that end of the market – there’s also the Trailblazer, which does have AWD, and doesn’t seem too far off in pricing – but that’s an entirely decent entry-level car.
Though, that said, I’ll reserve judgment until I find out whether or not I actually fit in it. That’s a crapshoot with compact CUVs, and even though I’m not actually THAT big – 6 feet, 200lbs – I’ve got long legs and wide shoulders and it’s rare that I find one which I don’t feel like I’m going to burst out of it. I know I bang on about this a lot, but I don’t get why I can fit just fine in a small car but a small CUV is so space inefficient I frequently feel I’m going to break out of it like the Hulk.
Compared to what else is out there for this price, it seems like a good value. The 8.6 seconds 0-60 sounds a lot faster than the existing Trax. I’m disappointed that the AWD went away in this version, but honestly, it is probably cheaper for people to buy a set of snow tires. I need to get my son a car for at college before summer and this looks like a good option if it’s available by then. He’s in the UP of Michigan, where they get about 200 inches of snow annually, so I want to get him something with a little more ground clearance, but something that isn’t going to kill him on gas mileage. Since there’s only a GM, Ford, and Stellantis dealership, it needs to be something he can get serviced locally. And with used car prices, he’s probably going to get something new at this rate.
Looks very snazzy. As an Alaskan though, I see a large number of this thing’s prior generation on the street, as well as it’s Buick Encore clones (My wife had two before getting her current Bronco), and I’ll say the lack of AWD is going to basically mean we’ll see few if any of the new generation on our roads.
Nice to see another Alaskan on here, i see the Encore everywhere in Anchorage & Eagle River, along with the Jeep Renegade; cant believe they aren’t going to offer AWD, its a huge mistake. I guess people will go for the Kia Seltos since its the same price point and AWD is standard, personally don’t see a lot of them around here though.
The front end looks like the slobber dripping off of my neighbour’s dog’s snout.
Is it me or do all these new SUVs have more pronounce door crease line now?
I know the engine is weak and it’s really a raised hatchback/wagon but I am weirdly excited about this. It is nice to see new vehicles entering the lower end of the market. I felt like automakers had forgotten this section of the market throughout the pandemic. That being said, I do realize that I am referring to a +$21K vehicle as affordable – times have changed