It’s easy to lament the death of “cheap” cars. After all, SUVs and crossovers are holding the knife, as the buying public just can’t get enough of that sweet, sweet body cladding. But here’s a little newsflash: cheap cars aren’t dead. As the 2024 Chevrolet Trax demonstrates, they’re still around — they just happen to be crossovers now, too. Duh.
Of course, there’s a big caveat here. With compacts like the Spark, Sonic, and Cruze all but blips in the rearview mirror, this reworked Trax is pricier than Chevy’s dearly departed, budget-friendlier, and body-cladding-free offerings. But by the same token, its price point — more on that later — is a breath of fresh air when the average price of a new car is well over $65,000 in Canada.
The Trax heads into 2024 with a thorough makeover inside and out. Where the outgoing Trax looked — how can we put this diplomatically — uninspired at best, this second-gen glow-up feels like a wholly different car. The 2024 Trax is lower, wider, and longer both in wheelbase and overall length, lending to a more usable interior but also a much better-proportioned exterior. The somewhat busy front end draws a lot of inspiration from the Blazer, while the side profile bears more than a passing resemblance to the Envision, and that’s a very good thing. Around back, the new Trax could perhaps be executed a bit better — the droopy tail lights and fake vents aren’t really our cup of tea — but by and large, it’s a genuinely good-looking thing.
Inside, the Trax’s new cabin features a more driver-centric layout and improved tech. Higher-spec trims, like our fully loaded 2RS tester, get an 11-inch touchscreen for infotainment, augmented by an eight-inch digital instrument cluster. It’s an intuitive setup, with crisp and clear graphics on either display, and the touchscreen responds quickly to your inputs. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto are standard across the entire lineup, but throughout our week with the Trax, we just couldn’t get the system to hold a reliable wireless connection for more than a few minutes. Your mileage may vary, as this hiccup could’ve been limited to our particular tester, but it’s probably a good idea to keep that USB cable handy.
The rest of the 2024 Trax’s interior feels shockingly good for the money. Sure, most touch points are hard to the touch, and the bottom of the door panels seem to scuff easily, but Chevy’s textures and splashes of colour detract from the bargain-basement-cheap feel. Visibility all around is good, seats are comfortable, everything is where it needs to be, and the embiggened exterior dimensions lend to much more interior room than before. Backseat drivers get an extra three inches out back, and the Trax will hold up to 736 litres of your junk in its trunk with the rear seats up, and 1,529 when stowed. There’s a wee bit less rear-seat headroom than before owing to that lower roofline, but where it counts, the new Trax is much roomier than the Hyundai Venue and Nissan Kicks, its key sub-$25K competitors.
All Trax models come with a 1.2-litre turbocharged three-cylinder engine, hooked up to a six-speed automatic transmission. It’s hardly an exciting powertrain — with 137 horsepower on tap, you’ll have to wring out the Trax when merging and plan your passes — but its 162 pound-feet of torque available at 2,500 rpm is plenty punchy around town. Where eight gears seems to be the sweet spot for modern automatics, the six cogs in the Trax seems low these days, but the transmission is otherwise well-behaved in most situations. Hey, at least it’s not a CVT.
The only knocks we have against the Trax in the powertrain department are nitpicks at best. The lack of all-wheel-drive might be a dealbreaker to some — Chevy dropped the option for AWD this year, meaning if you want four-wheel traction, you have to spring for a smaller and pricier Trailblazer — and fuel economy isn’t that great for something with only three cylinders. On paper, it’s rated at 8.3 L/100 kilometres in the city, 7.4 on the highway, and 7.9 combined, but we averaged a thirstier-than-expected 8.6 L/100 km. Must’ve been from all that flooring-it on the highway, but at least the Trax happily takes regular.
Beyond the powertrain, the 2024 Trax is well-mannered. Steering is super light, so it’s easy to parallel park or squeeze through parking garages. The Trax feels surprisingly refined, too, soaking up bumps, rough pavement, and most other imperfections rather well. Wind and road noise are well-hushed, too, though you’ll definitely hear the engine work hard when you put the pedal to the metal. But between its light steering, small footprint, and cushy road manners, the Trax is very easy to live with.
Pricing for the 2024 Trax ranges from $21,699 for a base LS trim, running up to $29,989 as-tested for our top-line 2RS tester before destination fees, taxes, and all that fun stuff. There’s another top trim, the Activ, that’s the same price as the 2RS. Either way, it’s pretty good value, but you’ll probably be happiest with the mid-range Trax LT. At $26,099, you still get the upsized infotainment, a heated steering wheel, alloy wheels, and all the driving and safety assists you could possibly need like blind-spot monitoring and adaptive cruise control, all without the frills visual dress-up of the 2RS or Activ trims.
Calling the Trax “cheap” seems disingenuous. Sure, it’s not quick and the lack of AWD might be a turn-off to some, but by and large, the Trax’s glow-up for 2024 makes it one of the best “cheap” buys out there. It’s comfortable, easy to drive, roomy, and good-looking. And best of all, you can get a well-equipped Trax for well under thirty grand out the door. Granted the 2024 Chevrolet Trax isn’t as “cheap” as a Spark or Sonic back when they were still around, but these days, that’s pretty damn good value.
