Chevrolet Trax - street fighter
Creating a popular crossover in the face of fierce competition is not an easy task. It should be ideal in the city, on the highway, when driving and going beyond the asphalt. General Motors has in one fell swoop prepared three twin cars that try to meet the above criteria: Buick Encore, Opel Mokka and Chevrolet Trax. How does the latter behave on European roads?
Calling the Trax an American SUV is, of course, a bit of an exaggeration. The car is made in South Korea, more precisely in Busan. Of course, the emblem on the hood gives hope for a relationship, albeit a small one, with the legendary Camaro, but a quick selection of information leaves no illusions. Trax is based on the GM Gamma II platform, the very one on which the urban - and quite popular in Poland - Chevrolet Aveo is based.
During the first contact, we get the impression that Trax is trying to pretend that the car is much larger than it really is. It's helped by swollen wheel arches (the same procedure was done on the Nissan Juke), big XNUMX-inch rims and a tall window line. Although the similarity with the twin and the Opel Mokka offered on our market is visible, Chevrolet seems less ... feminine. In any case, the test specimen is attractive to both sexes and is largely due to the characteristic blue color of the body. With a wide range of colors, you can leave the salon with Trax in orange, brown, beige or burgundy. Great advantage!
The wheelbase of 2555 millimeters provides ample space (especially for the legs) in the second row of seats. There is also plenty of headroom. Unfortunately, the car's width of 1776 millimeters, as well as the central tunnel, means that only four people can comfortably ride. The narrow armrest is only accessible to the driver. The Trax offers 356 liters of boot capacity (expandable to 1372 litres), is well shaped, has a double floor and several nooks and crannies for small items.
The first thing you notice when you take your seat is an unusual dashboard. The Trax seems to carry the sensors straight from the sport bikes. The tachometer is a traditional dial, but the speed is already represented digitally. The font used for this will almost immediately remind us of the crazy eighties. Due to the small size of the display, not all information is readable, and the coolant temperature display is simply omitted. We don't even have the most basic control. To sum up: this is an interesting gadget, but completely unnecessary in the long run.
The central place in the cockpit is occupied by a screen responsible for all kinds of multimedia. The "MyLink" system is a bit like a "mobile" Android. It is very easy to use and, most importantly, logical. At first, you will probably be surprised that it does not offer traditional navigation, but you can fix this by downloading the appropriate application (BrinGo) from the Internet. The biggest problem, however, is the two-button volume control. This aspect takes getting used to and, as it turned out, does not give us much accuracy.
The plastics used in the interior are hard but very resistant to damage. The finish of individual elements is solid, and the door panels also do not give the impression of a budget or, even worse, of poor quality. The designers tried to provide the user with a sufficiently large number of compartments - there are two compartments in front of the passenger himself, another one is removed in the windshield, the mobile phone will be placed under the air conditioner panel, and the cups will find their place in the central tunnel. I did not find any use for the two recesses at the ventilation holes - they are of a strange shape and very shallow.
The Trax tested is powered by a 1.4-liter turbocharged four-cylinder petrol engine. It produces 140 horsepower and 200 Newton meters at 1850 rpm. This unit accelerates the car to "hundreds" in a little less than 10 seconds. This is enough to move around the city. However, the fuel consumption of this SUV may surprise you.
Trax with a 1.4 turbo engine (with Start / Stop system), a six-speed manual transmission and a 4x4 plug-in drive requires about nine liters of gasoline per hundred kilometers in urban conditions. This is a lot, especially when you consider that the car weighs just over 1300 kilograms. If we want to go faster, the engine has to be "turned" to a higher speed, and this leads to more fuel consumption - even up to twelve liters. On the highway, you can count on a consumption of a little more than seven liters.
However, Trax is not the ideal vehicle for long trips out of town. The Chevrolet is narrow and relatively tall, making it extremely susceptible to side winds. The responsive steering, which works well in tight streets, makes the car nervous. It is similar with the gearbox - gear ratios are selected taking into account morning traffic jams. However, as dusk falls, we will find that the dipped headlights do not illuminate the road in front of us very well. Xenon headlights are not available in Chevy even for a surcharge, but Opel's twin Mokka can be equipped with them.
The tested Chevrolet Trax has a plug-in rear-wheel drive, but any off-road amateur attempts are doomed to failure. The problem is not only the 215 / 55R18 tires, not adapted to the sand, low ground clearance of only 168 millimeters, but also ... in the front bumper. Due to its style, Trax has a very low front end, which can be damaged not only by stones or roots, but also by a slightly higher curb. The car is equipped with a hill descent assistance system, but given its off-road capabilities, the likelihood of using this gadget is almost zero.
The cheapest Chevrolet Trax cost PLN 63, while the tested car cost more than PLN 990. For this price, we get, among other things, cruise control, a rearview camera, a 88V socket, manual air conditioning and eighteen-inch wheels. Interestingly, the twin Opel Mokka (with a similar configuration) will cost about PLN 990, but it will be possible to purchase additional features that Chevrolet does not have, such as dual-zone air conditioning or a heated steering wheel.
The crossover segment is crowded - each brand has its own representative in it. Therefore, getting through to customers looking for a new car is simply difficult. Trax did not have time to appear in the minds of drivers. Chevrolet will be leaving the European car market soon, so those interested in buying the Trax should hurry up or check out Opel's dual offering.
