2015 Chevrolet Trax Lt Sport Utility 4d Reviews and Problems
The Machine Connection Expert Review
June 23, 2015
Likes
- Roomy, versatile interior
- Actually seats iv adults
- Excellent safety ratings
- Reasonable prices offset at $21K
- AWD offered in every trim level
Dislikes
- Bland exterior styling
- Dispatch not particularly peppy
- Steel wheels on LS a throwback
Ownership tip
features & specs
AWD 4-Door LS w/1LS
AWD 4-Door LT
AWD iv-Door LTZ
The 2015 Chevrolet Trax offers a useful hatchback shape in a smart package that'southward more practical than it is fashionable.
The 2015 Chevrolet Trax, along with several other new and smaller SUVs, is jumping into the blood-red-hot utility vehicle market. With a lower entry price, the Trax offers about of the amenities of its larger sibling, the compact crossover Equinox. Expanding Chevy's lineup of modest cars—from Spark minicar through Cruze meaty sedan—the Trax gives the brand its least-expensive all-wheel drive entry.
Based on underpinnings shared with the Buick Encore, the Trax is derived from the subcompact Sonic and shares its engine and manual. so it adds optional all-wheel bulldoze, which isn't available on the Sonic hatchback or sedan. And while information technology's been on sale in Mexico and Canada for a couple of years, the 2015 Trax entering the U.S. market gets several new features plus a structural upgrade to handle tougher new crash-safe tests. With added sound insulation, the U.S. Trax may be 1 of the more quieter small utilities on the road, and feasibly more refined than simpler Trax versions sold in more 60 other countries.
You could consider the 2015 Trax a alpine v-door hatchback, or a classic two-box utility vehicle in miniature. It'southward about 169 inches long, with a 101-inch wheelbase and 61-inch-wide track, which gives it the footprint of a subcompact by today's standards. It is, at 66 inches tall, quite a bit higher than a typical subcompact hatch. An arched-back roofline and nicely sculpted flanks do their all-time to keep it from feeling too slab-sided, fronted by a taller, stubbier version of the current Chevrolet corporate grille that blends into a high hood line. Rubber-look lower-body components to offering a hint of ruggedness—although, of course, the Trax isn't meant for the trail.
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Within, the Trax gets an instrument panel expect that has a lot in common with the Sonic's motorcycle-influenced layout, including a sweeping tachometer, a digital speedo, and otherwise, a simple, sporty, upright await to the dash and trim.
All U.S. Trax models come powered by a one.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine, making 138 horsepower and 148 pound-anxiety of torque—with peak torque from just i,850 rpm on upwards. It's paired to a half-dozen-speed automatic transmission with a wide range of gear ratios, allowing relatively quick takeoffs but a deep overdrive sixth gear for relaxed, fuel-efficient highway cruising. Fuel economy ratings are 29 mpg combined for the front end-bicycle-drive version, dropping to 27 mpg if you add all-cycle drive.
The Trax's underpinnings are much similar those of many typical small cars and carlike crossovers, with a MacPherson strut front break and a torsion-beam rear setup with tubular V-shaped beam and twin-tube gas shocks. Column-mounted electric-boost ability steering provides maneuverability and responsiveness, and all models will include four-wheel disc brakes (ventilated in front end).
This small crossover—or alpine hatchback, more accordingly—fits four adults, or 5 in emergencies if the three in back are quite small. Rear seats are split threescore/40 and fold forward apartment, while there'south storage in all iv doors as well as diverse cubbies. Cargo space expands from 18.seven cubic feet with the rear seatbacks up, to 48.4 cubic feet with them folded frontward. The front rider seat tin can fold flat for long items, too.
A rearview camera arrangement is standard, likewise every bit an electronic stability command system with rollover mitigation, electronic restriction force distribution, and Restriction Assistance. And the Trax offers an astonishing 10 standard airbags. Both the driver and front passenger get standard human knee bags; front and rear outboard positions become side thorax airbags; and side curtain bags comprehend those in front and rear outboard positions.
The 2015 Chevrolet Trax starts at $21,000 for a base front-wheel-drive LS model. There are three trim levels--LS, LT, and LTZ--with keyless entry included across the model line. LS models come with 1990s-style 16-inch steel wheels and silver plastic wheel covers, while LT models get 16-inch alloy wheels and top LTZ models get xviii-inch alloys.
The LT model will likely be the top seller, and information technology adds roof rails, heated power adjustable mirrors, and a scattering of other features. Buyers can mix and match features that appeal almost to them within the LT model designation; the list is long. The top-of-the-line LTZ includes standard feature like heated leatherette seats, an auto-dimming rear-view mirror, and a Bose seven-speaker sound organisation. A sunroof is optional.
The Trax offers next-generation OnStar telematics services and MyLink connectivity, including an available 7-inch color bear upon-screen system with boosted USB ports, SiriusXM satellite radio services. That system is compatible with expanded Siri Eyes Free connectivity for iPhone models, and with the BringGo navigation app, which substantially allows smartphone users with the installed app to projection maps and directions to the vehicle's display screen. Chevrolet's new OnStar 4G LTE embedded vehicle data system is likewise offered in the Trax, potentially turning the vehicle into a Wi-Fi hotspot when needed.
The 2016 Chevy Trax is a tall hatchback with Chevy truck cues that only serve to create a generic look.
The 2015 Chevrolet Trax is the 2nd vehicle offering all-bicycle drive to exist built on the underpinnings of Chevy's Sonic subcompact. While it shares only its front doors with the Buick Encore that'southward the aforementioned size, its styling is far less expressive than the littlest Buick's.
The designers have added some Chevy truck styling cues to what's essentially a tall, two-box modest hatchback body. The slightly squarer lines piece of work better than the Buick's swoops and flourishes, to our eyes, but the Trax has few of the complex angles found on the larger and very handsome Impala full-size sedan--possibly underscoring the truck/utility aspirations of this v-door subcompact. The result is entirely inoffensive exterior lines that are bland enough to approach the generic. We didn't see a single head turn during several hours of driving the Trax. In other words, Chevy'due south chosen to play it very prophylactic against the much more than overt design cues of competitors like the MINI Countryman or Nissan Juke. Information technology'due south not a bad shape, information technology's only an anonymous one.
Base LS models ride on steel wheels with silver plastic bike covers, something of a throwback, simply only a missing chrome beltline strip and blackness door-mirror pedestals underscore the budget nature of the everyman trim level. It also forgoes the roof rails standard on all other models, giving it a cleaner look in our optics. The mirrors themselves, the rear license-plate housing, and other smaller pieces remain body color, in keeping with Chevy's want to emphasize value for money even on base models. Alloy wheels are standard on the mid-level LT model--at xvi inches--and the top-of-the-line LTZ model, at 18 inches.
Inside, the Trax adapts the "twin cockpit" Chevy styling theme to a more practical, utilitarian, and upright configuration. The instrument cluster is almost identical to that of the Sonic, with a tachometer at the left paired with a 3.5-inch monochrome display screen holding a numeric speedometer and various bar gauges and warning lights. The base of operations black-cloth upholstery has not merely a pattern of light oblong shapes on it, merely contrasting blue stitching--a nice touch on that relieves the potential grimness of all-blackness upholstery and furnishings set off by just a couple of silver trim accents. Higher-line LTZ models come with nicer vinyl upholstery in a two-tone--ours was chocolate brown and black--and add some patterned trim embellishers over parts of the console to salve the blackness.
Overall, the Trax pattern is straightforward, practical, and probably suited to its size and probable usage. We simply wish the designers had taken a few more than risks; when your vehicle looks generic correct out of the box, information technology may exist destined for invisibility on the roads--even if you end upward selling a lot of them.
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There's not a lot of upper-end power in the 2015 Chevy Trax, though it'due south fine around town; handling is skillful, if unremarkable.
The 2015 Chevrolet Trax comes with only a single powertrain, unlike the forepart-wheel-bulldoze Sonic hatchback and sedan on which it'southward based. The turbocharged 1.four-liter 4-cylinder engine produces 138 horsepower and 148 lb-ft of torque, and it's mated to a half-dozen-speed automated transmission. Front-bicycle drive is standard, and to Chevy's credit, all-wheel drive is a $1,500 pick across all three trim levels--unlike some makers who only offer AWD on pricier models.
Chevrolet is proud of the fact that its engine puts out maximum torque from as low equally i,850 rpm upwards through 4,900 rpm. The Trax performs well around town, with good acceleration up to near 50 mph, though the actress 300 pounds of the AWD version make it slightly slower to gather speed. The company quotes 0-to-60-mph acceleration times of ix.4 seconds for the front end-drive model and nine.7 seconds for AWD, which isn't fast but is roughly on par with a number of subcompact and compact cars.
But the Trax starts to run out of steam as yous arroyo highway speeds, and the commonly tranquillity engine gets relatively much noisier above 3500 rpm. And for all that sound it produces from 3500 to its redline of 6500 rpm, it just doesn't assemble speed all that chop-chop. Quick spurts from, say, 60 to 75 mph on the highway accept pre-planning, and you lot'll hear the effort the engine makes. Part of that is due to gearing that maximizes around-town fuel economy, and it'due south also a credit to Chevy'southward sound engineers that they've managed to make depression-speed operation and so placidity.
Handling and roadholding of the Chevy Trax is nearly boilerplate for pocket-size utility vehicles. It'southward nowhere near every bit much fun to drive as a larger Mazda or even Ford compact crossover, but it feels solid on the road and absorbs bumps fairly well. The electrical ability steering has been retuned for better on-centre tracking on the highway, and a slightly heavier feel at parking-lot speeds. In our maneuvers, nosotros think Chevy'southward scale engineers did well: There's enough feedback when you need it, and the weighting felt right at pretty much any speed.
The AWD Trax rides slightly higher than the front-wheel-drive version, which is not merely lower to the ground but has a deeper forepart air dam--both features that aid with its 2-mpg gain on combined average fuel economic system. For trivia buffs, the Trax AWD is a "calorie-free-duty truck" in the eyes of the Feds, while the front-drive model is a rider car. It'southward all in the interest of maximizing fuel economic system. We didn't feel a slap-up bargain of difference--the increment in ride pinnacle is just about one-half an inch--but the AWD model felt slightly heavier and a touch slower. Given the higher seating position in a pocket-size and short vehicle, the Trax did demonstrate some body whorl, though its relatively wide rail prevented it from feeling "tippy" like utility vehicles of prior decades.
The optional all-bike-drive arrangement starts out powering all 4 wheels at low speeds, and then gradually dials back power to the rear wheels from there to 37 mph. Above that speed, the Trax is powered solely by its front end wheels, unless the traction control arrangement senses wheel sideslip, in which case it splits power among the 4 wheels equally needed to maintain forward motion. We didn't get a take a chance to examination the capabilities of the AWD system on our largely urban test road, but hope to do so when nosotros have the Trax for a longer drive report.
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The 2015 Chevy Trax is commendably quiet under almost circumstances and rides decently, but it gets noisy under heavy acceleration.
The 2015 Chevrolet Trax has benefited from a dandy bargain of work by Chevy engineers to reduce road and wind noise, and information technology'southward worked. For a small utility vehicle starting at $21,000, the Trax cabin is remarkably quiet nether about types of utilize. At idle, the engine essentially can't be heard, aided by a transmission that shifts imperceptibly into neutral until the car moves away, to reduce vibrations through the drivetrain and steering.
Around town, equally long every bit you're non pushing information technology too difficult, the 2015 Trax is pleasantly hushed, with the loudest sound being the tires on rougher pavement surfaces. But if you need to drive information technology hard, the engine starts to make a lot more than noise--somewhere between a howl and a roar--and you'll suddenly be conscious of how hard you've asked information technology to piece of work. In some means, it'due south the downside to the quiet functioning while driving around boondocks; passengers are just more conscious of engine noise when it appears.
The front seats are comfortable, with lower cushions long enough for most taller drivers (a frequent failing of the smallest cars from some makers). The driver's seat is manually adjustable for height as well as rake. Top-trim models become power adjustment for the forrad-aft motility and height, although the backrest angle remains manually adjustable (via a very, very brusk lever that unfamiliar passengers will have to search diligently to discover). The steering wheel both tilts and telescopes.
At that place'southward plenty of headroom front and rear within the Trax and information technology feels like a much larger vehicle from the inside than it appears on the exterior. The sole tipoff to its size is that front-seat passengers' shoulders are only 3 or iv inches autonomously, and the driver'south seat has a fold-down armrest. The passenger seat doesn't take the armrest, and there'due south no panel compartment with a padded top either.
Instead, there are four cupholders set up lengthwise behind the shift lever (four!), with the rearmost one accessible to rear-seat riders besides. The Trax boasts xv interior storage cubbies, trays, bins, and cupholders, including upper and lower gloveboxes, upper and lower bins in each door and the center console, and ane of our favorite features: smartphone-sized vertical slots with rubber lesser liners each side of the center-console ventilation outlets.
Cargo space is greater in the Trax than in competitors similar the Juke, with 18.seven cubic anxiety with the rear seat upwardly and 48.7 cu ft in one case the rear seat is folded. The rear seatback is separate sixty/40, and folding the seat down is uncomplicated: Pull a fabric tab under each section of the lower rear-seat cushion, which lifts information technology up and forward, then tilts it into the footwell. Then brand sure the rear headrests are in their lowest position, and pull the release lever on the outboard edges of each half--which tin can be reached from either the rear load bay or each rear side door. The load floor is essentially flat, and combined with a front end seat back that folds forward, Chevy boasts that the Trax and conform viii-foot-long cargo like flat-screen TVs or surfboards. (Not the stereotypical 4 x viii-foot sheet of plywood, however.)
Build quality of the pre-production Trax models we drove was good, with no buzzes, squeaks, or rattles apparent. While near of the black interior panels are hard plastic, there are soft-touch on surfaces for areas like armrests--and the overall effect is utilitarian and practical, with more than a hint of Chevy truck showing through.
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The 2015 Chevy Trax gets best-in-class ratings -- although information technology'due south missing any sort of active-safety possibilities.
One of the reasons that the U.South. is only now getting the 2015 Chevrolet Trax, despite its existence on sale in Canada for two years, was updates the fabricated for this model year to improve the little utility vehicle'south safety.
The Trax has already managed both elevation five-star results from the National Highway Traffic Prophylactic Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Constitute for Highway Safety (IIHS), and with all 'good' ratings (including for small-scale overlap frontal impact), it's been named a Pinnacle Safety Pick by the IIHS. Information technology'southward non eligible for the new Superlative Safety Pick+ award, though, due to its lack of forward-standoff warning and other advanced electronic prophylactic systems required to achieve that designation.
The 2015 Trax has no fewer than 10 airbags as standard equipment, including non only the usual front and side bags for driver and front-seat passenger, plus side-pall bags, merely likewise genu bags for both front end passengers and even rear thorax bags mounted outboard of the rear seatback that protect rear-seat riders' ribcages in the event of a side impact. A rear-view camera is also standard equipment on the Trax, as are rear-seat headrests that can be lowered plenty that they don't block rear vision at all--a feature we wish more small-automobile makers would adopt.
The niggling Chevrolet utility vehicle also has all of the usual suite of prophylactic systems, including anti-lock brakes, traction command, stability control, tire-pressure alert, and more than.
The 2015 Chevy Trax includes a number of standard features, including a 7-inch touchscreen and a backup camera, that cost extra on pricier vehicles.
The 2015 Chevrolet Trax is offered in three trim levels, with a starting price of $20,995 including the mandatory commitment fee. All-bike drive is a $1,500 option on all three trim levels, to Chevy'due south credit, and not restricted only to pricier models. The base AWD Trax, at $22,500, is by far the least expensive all-wheel-drive Chevrolet model, with the Equinox compact utility existence several thousand dollars more.
The base of operations LS trim level, which will business relationship for maybe 20 percent of Trax models, Chevy says, comes standard with a number of features that are optional on competing vehicles. Keyless entry; 10 airbags; a rearview camera; air conditioning; power windows, locks, and mirrors; 4G LTE connectivity with built-in WiFi hotspot; Onstar capability; and MyLink entertainment system with standard seven-inch color touchscreen display are all standard on every Trax.
The LS model comes with 16-inch steel wheels and argent plastic wheel covers, and a handful of exterior items show its base trim designation. There's no chrome strip beneath the window line, and the pedestals for the door mirrors are blackness rather than body colour, and there are no roof rails. All the same, the Trax is well equipped as a base vehicle compared to pricier entries like the MINI Countryman and the Subaru XV Crosstrek (which is one size larger, in the compact segment).
The mid-level LT model, which Chevy says will provide up to lx percent of Trax sales, adds standard 16-inch alloy wheels, roof track, heated power adjustable mirrors, and a handful of other features. The option listing for the LT is long, letting buyers mix and match among the features that entreatment most to them.
The top-of-the-line model is the LTZ, which includes many of the options offered on the LT, including the 18-inch aluminum wheels, heated front seats with leatherette trim, a Bose seven-speaker sound system, fog lamps, vi-fashion ability driver's seat adjustment (backrest bending is still manual), a leather-wrapped steering wheel, rear park assist (a proximity beeper), and an motorcar-dimming rearview mirror.
The only other option is a power sliding sunroof, available on the LT and LTZ. A top-of-the-line Trax volition be effectually $30,000.
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The 2015 Chevy Trax gets good gas-mileage ratings--upwards to 29 mpg combined--for a utility vehicle, even a small one.
The 2015 Chevrolet Trax has one of the higher fuel-economy ratings among all-bicycle bulldoze vehicles, although it's lower than 3 different models based on the Subaru Impreza hatchback.
At 27 mpg combined (24 mpg city, 31 mpg highway) for the AWD version, it bests the all-wheel-drive Buick Encore built on the same underpinnings by 1 mpg--and it's exactly equal to versions of the MINI Countryman and the Nissan Juke fitted with all-wheel drive and automatic transmissions. Those three Subaru models--the XV Crosstrek at 29 mpg, and the XV Crosstrek Hybrid and standard Impreza hatchback at 31 mpg--do improve, still.
The front end-wheel-drive model of the Chevy Trax is slightly college, at 29 mpg combined (26 mpg city, 34 mpg highway). If you sacrifice the AWD, however, there are many more subcompact hatchbacks with higher fuel economy--up to the Toyota Prius C hybrid, at a combined fifty mpg. Once more, the Trax is i mpg college than the comparable model of the FWD Buick Encore.
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The Car Connection Consumer Review
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Cracking smartphone interface, outstanding stereo sound, and very comfortable drivers seat.
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WOW I beloved information technology
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Fun little SUV
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Leased the car in May,and then far we love it.
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Very nice vehicle with great features and electronics.
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Good size & Great price.
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