2015 Chevrolet Trax Road Test & Review

With Chevrolet Trax, the bowtie brand now has an offering in the subcompact crossover market segment. Built in South Korea and offered in some 66 countries around the world, Trax makes its debut in the U.S. market for the 2015 model year.

Look closely and you’ll see more than a passing resemblance to Buick’s Encore. However, with a starting price some $4,000 less, the Trax is less luxurious than the Encore. But don’t take this to mean the Trax is sparsely equipped. When it comes to the features Chevrolet’s product planning team thinks will attract young buyers to the model, the diminutive Chevrolet crossover is packed with an abundance of high tech comfort and convenience equipment.

However, the model does lack some of the latest high tech safety features, so there’s a bit of a tradeoff in that regard. Still, the Chevy is cute, versatile, and returns reasonable fuel economy.

For the 2015 model year, Chevrolet is offering Trax in three trim levels; LS, LT, and LTZ. Base price is $20,995, which gets you the LS trim package. Standard features include sixteen-inch wheels, cloth upholstery, Chevrolet’s MyLink infotainment package with a seven-inch touchscreen, OnStar 4G LTE with a built-in Wi-Fi hotspot, 10 standard air bags, a rearview camera system, fold-flat rear- and front-passenger seats, a USB port, air conditioning, power locks and windows, power adjustable outside mirrors, and remote keyless entry.

The LT trim package adds roof rails and heated exterior mirrors, as well as leatherette and cloth upholstery.

The LTZ trim package then adds rear park assist, heated front seats with leatherette upholstery for all seating positions, a Bose seven-speaker audio system, a leather wrap for the steering wheel, fog lamps, a power adjustable driver’s seat, heated exterior mirrors, and an auto-dimming interior rearview mirror. It should be noted all of these features are available as options for LT equipped Trax models, allowing buyers to mix and match.

A power actuated sliding sunroof is available as an option for both LT and LTZ at $900.00. All-wheel drive is available as an option across the board (LS, LT and LTZ) for an additional $1500.

All told, the as tested price of our sunroof-equipped front-drive 2015 Chevrolet Trax LTZ test car was $26,805 (which includes a destination charge of $875).

At first glance, the 2015 Chevrolet Trax looks considerably larger than it actually is. In fact the Trax looks larger than it is in much the same way the Encore looks smaller than it actually is. While there are styling similarities, the Trax has a more rounded overall appearance while the Encore’s look is decidedly angular.

The Chevy’s face is dominated by the brand’s contemporary two-tier grille treatment featuring the golden bowtie. Thin horizontal chrome slats keep the grille’s appearance from coming across as too bland, while a set of squared off headlights complete the front graphics of the Trax. All of this is in contrast to the elegant “waterfall” grille treatment of the Buick.

Taken in profile, the Trax has pronounced rounded fender bulges where the Encore only hints at its fenders with slightly protruding angular lines. If you look closely, you’ll also note the Trax uses straighter lines at the lower edge of the doors, and the quarter windows in the rear doors of the Encore are less rectangular than those employed for the Chevrolet.

From the rear, Trax uses more squared off taillights, and a flatter rear window. To minimize the appearance of mass, a black lower cladding trim piece covers the rear bumper and extends around the sides of the small crossover.

The twin compartment treatment of the Trax’s front seating area finds the motorcycle-inspired instrumentation of the Trax’s Sonic sibling carried over. Seated at the three-spoke steering wheel, you’ll find an analog tachometer flanked by the digital speedometer’s readout. The speedo’s screen also offers the transmission position, odometer reading, fuel level, a compass readout, and distance to empty information.

Our LTZ test car featured controls on the steering wheel for handsfree telephony, voice activated features, and cruise control—as well as audio volume, tuning, and source selection. To the right of the wheel, the seven-inch full color touchscreen monitor dominated the center stack. The touchscreen provided interfaces for the audio system, telephone, Smartphone link, and system settings—in addition to pictures and video.

Further, the screen presented the output of the rearview camera, and contained the interface for Chevy’s MyLink and setting up the standard 4G LTE and built-in WiFi hotspot. In-car apps afforded through Chevy's MyLink include Pandora, TuneIn radio, and Stitcher. For iPhone users, Siri Eyes Free mode allows the placing of calls, composing and/or hearing text messages, as well as choosing music selections by voice command.

One peeve here, when using a smartphone app such as Pandora for music, the system switches out of it when the car is shut off, and does not return to it automatically when you resume your trip. You have to tell it to go to the app again—which is a minor quibble to be sure. But if you’re in and out of the car a lot over the course of a day (as we were), you’ll soon tire of re-establishing the connection each time.

The MyLink system is also configured to work with the BringGo navigation app to display GPS navigation information from your smartphone. Chevy’s product people figure the people in Trax’s target demographic already have smartphones, so why charge them for a nav system when they already have one in hand?

(That’s how they spun it anyway…).

Just beneath the monitor are the three round dials and two round push buttons comprising the controls for the climate system. While an automatic climate control system is not offered, at least the round dials afford the opportunity to set up the system easily. This makes finding and maintaining a comfortable temperature an easy task.

While outward views in all directions from the driver’s seat are acceptably uncompromised, some might note the rear window is a bit on the smaller side. Speaking of the driver’s seat, we found it a comfortable place from which to pilot the sub-compact crossover through the myriad of obstacles presented by city streets.

Its comfort good over several hours of driving, we never found ourselves fidgeting or wishing for more adjustability. Legroom for front passengers is terrific. Our six-foot tall test driver (whose height is mostly in his legs) found Trax provided more than adequate legroom. Ditto the front passenger seat.

People seated in the rear seats will depend heavily upon the mercy of those up front for adequate space for their lower extremities though. Headroom is a bit tight in the back seats too. But if everybody plays nice, four adults could do a day of short runs in the Trax—no problem.

When it comes to cargo, the Chevrolet features some 48.4 cubic feet of cargo capacity with the rear seatbacks folded away. With them in place, the Trax offers 18.7 cubic feet of cargo capacity. The right front seat also folds and features a plastic backing, which enables it to extend the cargo floor of the Chevy enough to swallow a narrow item of up to eight feet in length. Another aspect of the Trax’s interior of which Chevy reps are particularly proud is the fact it contains some 15 storage compartments of varying size and capacity, including one under the floor of the cargo compartment.

The Chevrolet’s roster of safety kit is lead by ten airbags. Trax also features hill-start assist, ABS, and electronic brake force distribution—in addition to cornering brake control and brake assist. It should be noted front-drive Trax models use drum brakes in the rear, while all-wheel drive equipped models get four discs.

StabiliTrak electronic stability control—incorporating traction control and rollover mitigation—is on the list of standard features as well. Options include rear park assist for LT models, although the feature is standard with the LTZ trim package. The OnStar package also incorporates emergency notifications, stolen vehicle location services, and stolen vehicle slowdown and assistance.

NHTSA awarded Trax five stars in total frontal crash safety (its top rating) and four stars in rollover protection. While the IIHS (Insurance Institute of Highway Safety) has yet to post crash test results for Trax, Chevy’s spokespeople say the model was designed specifically to do well in the Institute’s small overlap frontal collision testing. They expect Trax to score Top Safety Pick Status.

Chevy went long on tech in terms of comfort and convenience for Trax, but it should be noted blind spot monitoring, lane departure warning, and collision avoidance functions are not offered with the Chevy crossover. Lacking the collision prevention functionality, Trax will forego IIHS Top Safety Pick + status.

A turbocharged 1.4-liter fuel injected four-cylinder engine capable of producing 138 horsepower and 148 ft-lbs of torque generates motive force. The engine is calibrated to deliver maximum torque from 1,850 rpm up to 4,850 rpm, so you’re almost always operating in its torque sweet spot.

Helping to make the most of the power generated by the engine, Trax employs an electric power steering system to minimize parasitic loss and maximize fuel-efficiency. A six-speed automatic transmission completes the powertrain. As we mentioned before, all-wheel drive is offered as an option. The active on demand system sends 100 percent of torque to all four wheels at speeds of less than 37 mph. Torque then migrates to the front wheels at higher speeds, shifting to the rear if the front wheels lose traction.

According to the EPA, the 2015 Chevrolet Trax should be good for 26 miles per gallon in the city, 34 on the highway, and 29 miles per gallon combined—using the front drive powertrain configuration. The all-wheel drive arrangement is said to be capable of 24 miles per gallon in the city, 31 on the highway, and 27 mpg combined. We saw an average of 27 miles per gallon over the course of our mostly city driven testing.

As an urban runabout, the Chevrolet Trax is more than competent. Its smooth ride, comfortable seating, good outward visibility, and reasonable power output make it quite convincing in this regard—if not exactly sporty. But hey, everything doesn’t have to be about sportiness—right?

The engine, while not exactly powerful, proved well up to the task of rousing our 3,186-pound front-drive tester. The transmission shifted smoothly and accurately, and acceleration was good in all situations. Entering the freeway, we got up to speed easily and had no trouble keeping pace with the flow of traffic. At speed, Trax is quiet and quite stable; even when passed by large trucks or affected by crosswinds buffeting is minimal. We did note a bit of a pull to the left in our test car, but we’re willing to ascribe that to the realm of abnormality.

In urban situations, we found the Chevy reasonably nimble, and were impressed with its tight turning radius. Getting around double parked cars in downtown areas is absolutely no problem, thanks to the Trax’s agility and quick steering. The body stays flat in moderately paced cornering situations and ride quality is especially good, particularly in light of its short wheelbase. Further, surface irregularities and railroad crossings are negotiated without severely disrupting the comfort of passengers.

While the model is readily comparable to the Buick offering, there is enough of a difference in the personality of the two to keep Buick intenders from migrating instead to the Chevy product.  Well that, and the fact you’re looking at close to $30K to get into a nicely equipped Encore. However, for that extra money you get cross-traffic alert, blind spot monitoring, and several other features not available to Trax customers.

Pros: An abundance of cargo space and tech features, quiet, reasonable fuel economy, good looks

Cons: A lack of cutting edge safety equipment, audio system doesn't go back to music streaming on restart