The last time we reviewed the Chevy Trax, our headline read “You Can Do Better.” Clearly, Chevy’s baby CUV hadn’t made a great impression. But good news! Chevy fixed one of the car’s copious flaws! And one is at least better than zero, right?
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When we drove the Chevy Trax last year, we thought it was “slow as a dog,” didn’t handle well and sucked more fuel than any small, powerless CUV should. But it’s time for a refresh, so what did Chevy pull out of their magic Mid-Cycle Action hat?
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Well, Chevy’s product planners clearly skipped that “slow as a dog” part of that criticism, because the powertrain—a 138 horsepower 1.4-liter turbo bolted to a six-speed auto—sticks around for 2017.
But those product people didn’t skip this paragraph in our article:
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The problem lies with the plastic splayed across the dash, which was distinctly rental car-cheap and probably responsible for the strange rattle I heard in front of the steering wheel.
Upon reading this, Chevy must have called up their engineers and designers one night as they slept in their suburban Detroit homes, asking them to come in for an emergency meeting. Upon arriving in their pajamas and corporate-lease GM cars, everyone stood and waited for the Trax product planner to talk.
“Guys, they don’t like our dashboard,” the planner whispered, her head turned downward in disappointment.
Everyone’s eyes began tearing, one lady vomited, a man fell off his chair and another fainted on the floor. They were in shock. “Oh no, what shall we do?” a designer cried in horror.
A brave engineer consoled the designer with an arm around her shoulder as an HR lady kept a very close eye on the positioning of that arm. The engineer said what everyone else was afraid to mutter: “We must redesign it.”
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The room went silent. All heads turned towards the finance guy. His face went beet red, his eyes widened, and he screamed in disgust: “I refuse!”
In the end, Chevy convinced the finance guy to spend the money on a revised dashboard (it’s amazing how convincing duct tape and an empty closet can be), so behold the new 2017 Trax interior:
So there you go; a new dashboard. Still, the interior looks rather similar to that of a 2010 Chevy Equinox. That’s not a bad thing, but it’s still pretty rental-car-tacular.
On top of that snazzy new dashboard, devised by a group of heroic engineers and designers in the middle of the night (except not really, because that story was purely fictional), Chevy threw in some new features including Side Blind Zone Alert, Rear Cross Traffic Alert, Forward Collision Warning and Lane Departure Warning. That’s all good stuff, particularly in a segment in which safety is paramount.
There’s also a new seven-inch infotainment display with Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Youths like that kind of thing, and Chevy wants youths to buy this trendy, hip car.
On the styling front, there’s a new squished hexagonal grille that looks similar to the new Malibu’s, and there are skinny headlights with LED daytime running lights wrapping the front corners. There’s also a revised rear fascia, which looks much like the old one with new taillights.
So the car looks nicer, but still has the same gutless powertrain and “meh” handling characteristics. Hey, at least they fixed that dashboard.
Photo: Chevrolet
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