2015 Chevrolet Trax

Base LS models ride on steel wheels with silver plastic wheel covers, something of a throwback, but only a missing chrome beltline strip and black door-mirror pedestals underscore the budget nature of the lowest trim level. It also forgoes the roof rails standard on all other models, giving it a cleaner look in our eyes. The mirrors themselves, the rear license-plate housing, and other smaller pieces remain body color, in keeping with Chevy's desire to emphasize value for money even on base models. Alloy wheels are standard on the mid-level LT model--at 16 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 black-cloth upholstery has not only a pattern of light oblong shapes on it, but contrasting blue stitching--a nice touch that relieves the potential grimness of all-black 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 relieve the black.

Overall, the Trax design is straightforward, practical, and probably suited to its size and likely usage. We just wish the designers had taken a few more risks; when your vehicle looks generic right out of the box, it may be destined for invisibility on the roads--even if you end up selling a lot of them.

But the Trax starts to run out of steam as you approach highway speeds, and the usually quiet 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 gather speed all that quickly. Quick spurts from, say, 60 to 75 mph on the highway take pre-planning, and you'll hear the effort the engine makes. Part of that is due to gearing that maximizes around-town fuel economy, and it's also a credit to Chevy's sound engineers that they've managed to make low-speed operation so quiet.

Handling and roadholding of the Chevy Trax is about average for small utility vehicles. It's nowhere near as 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 electric power steering has been retuned for better on-center tracking on the highway, and a slightly heavier feel at parking-lot speeds. In our maneuvers, we think Chevy's calibration 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 only lower to the ground but has a deeper front air dam--both features that help with its 2-mpg gain on combined average fuel economy. For trivia buffs, the Trax AWD is a "light-duty truck" in the eyes of the Feds, while the front-drive model is a passenger car. It's all in the interest of maximizing fuel economy. We didn't feel a great deal of difference--the increase in ride height is only about half an inch--but the AWD model felt slightly heavier and a touch slower. Given the higher seating position in a small and short vehicle, the Trax did demonstrate some body roll, though its relatively wide track prevented it from feeling "tippy" like utility vehicles of prior decades.

The optional all-wheel-drive system starts out powering all four 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 wheels, unless the traction control system senses wheel slip, in which case it splits power among the four wheels as needed to maintain forward motion. We didn't get a chance to test the capabilities of the AWD system on our largely urban test route, but hope to do so when we have the Trax for a longer drive report.

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 get power adjustment for the forward-aft movement and height, although the backrest angle remains manually adjustable (via a very, very short lever that unfamiliar passengers will have to search diligently to find). The steering wheel both tilts and telescopes.

There's plenty of headroom front and rear inside the Trax and it 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 4 inches apart, and the driver's seat has a fold-down armrest. The passenger seat doesn't have the armrest, and there's no console compartment with a padded top either.

Instead, there are four cupholders set lengthwise behind the shift lever (four!), with the rearmost one accessible to rear-seat riders as well. The Trax boasts 15 interior storage cubbies, trays, bins, and cupholders, including upper and lower gloveboxes, upper and lower bins in each door and the center console, and one of our favorite features: smartphone-sized vertical slots with rubber bottom liners each side of the center-console ventilation outlets.

Cargo space is greater in the Trax than in competitors like the Juke, with 18.7 cubic feet with the rear seat up and 48.7 cu ft once the rear seat is folded. The rear seatback is split 60/40, and folding the seat down is simple: Pull a fabric tab under each section of the lower rear-seat cushion, which lifts it up and forward, then tilts it into the footwell. Then make sure the rear headrests are in their lowest position, and pull the release lever on the outboard edges of each half--which 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 seat back that folds forward, Chevy boasts that the Trax and accommodate 8-foot-long cargo like flat-screen TVs or surfboards. (Not the stereotypical 4 x 8-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 most of the black interior panels are hard plastic, there are soft-touch surfaces for areas like armrests--and the overall effect is utilitarian and practical, with more than a hint of Chevy truck showing through.

The 2015 Trax has no fewer than 10 airbags as standard equipment, including not only the usual front and side bags for driver and front-seat passenger, plus side-curtain bags, but also knee bags for both front 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 enough that they don't block rear vision at all--a feature we wish more small-car makers would adopt.

The little Chevrolet utility vehicle also has all of the usual suite of safety systems, including anti-lock brakes, traction control, stability control, tire-pressure warning, and more.

The LS model comes with 16-inch steel wheels and silver plastic wheel covers, and a handful of exterior items show its base trim designation. There's no chrome strip below the window line, and the pedestals for the door mirrors are black rather than body color, and there are no roof rails. Still, 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 60 percent of Trax sales, adds standard 16-inch alloy wheels, roof rails, heated power adjustable mirrors, and a handful of other features. The option list for the LT is long, letting buyers mix and match among the features that appeal 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, six-way power driver's seat adjustment (backrest angle is still manual), a leather-wrapped steering wheel, rear park assist (a proximity beeper), and an auto-dimming rearview mirror.

The only other option is a power sliding sunroof, available on the LT and LTZ. A top-of-the-line Trax will be around $30,000.

The front-wheel-drive model of the Chevy Trax is slightly higher, 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 50 mpg. Again, the Trax is 1 mpg higher than the comparable model of the FWD Buick Encore.