2024 Chevy Trax Review

 

About a year ago, after a series of mechanical issues made me decide to get a different car, I took out a lease on a 2024 Chevy Trax. Now that I've had nearly 12 months to test it out, driving to the store and as far as the Mississippi Gulf Coast, I think I can accurately give my opinion of this vehicle.

I'll start with the positives of this car. One of the main things is I am very impressed with the gas mileage. The car, at least in appearance, is larger than the Chevy Cruze I replaced it with but gets just as many miles to the gallon. Part of the reason for this is the three-cylinder engine, which I was admittedly skeptical about, but doesn't seem to have any impact as far as horsepower is concerned. No issues at all getting it up to 70 mph.

Unlike the Cruze, this car does have quite a bit of leg room in it, enough for my daughters (15 and 20) to sit in the back seat without complaining about being cramped. The cargo space is a bit lacking, at least compared to what I had with my previous car (that car had a large trunk) but if I don't have anyone sitting in the backseat, can be increased by lowering it. In other words, it doesn't make Costco runs any more difficult.

The car doesn't have 4-wheel-drive but does handle well enough in the snow. It's high enough off the ground to get me over the deeper drifts and it took a 14-inch snowfall piled higher by a snowplow at the entrance of my office parking lot for me to get it stuck (I'll chalk that up to me being stubborn enough to try to get through that and won't blame the car).

The Trax does have some negatives as well. For one, if you drive more than 25 mph with the window down or the sunroof open, it makes a lot of noise.

The bigger issue for me though is the safety features. Normally, this isn't something you would expect to be a negative but the sensors on this car are insanely sensitive. The back up alarm has been triggered by the exhaust from the tail pipe while the crash detection alarm seems to go off at random, leaving me wondering about what phantom object it saw.

The one that really stands out though is one that creates a safety problem itself. I needed to turn off the lane assist on the Trax because it would detect a crack on the roadway, read it as a lane line and try to autocorrect the wheel. After that happening more than a dozen times, I realized it just wasn't worth using it because it was only a matter of time before that caused an accident.

Final Opinion: It's an OK car that gets decent gas mileage and, overall, I don't regret leasing it. There are a few things I think Chevy could have improved on as far as the design and the safety features go but, while sometimes inconvenient, they aren't something that would give me buyer's remorse. However, when the lease comes up in about 24 months, I'll probably look for something different.

My Grade: C+