Chevrolet

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Monday – Small High Tech

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Surprising at it might seem, £18,000 doesn’t buy you much new car these days. At first glance, the range-topping Trax LT might look expensive for a small SUV but there’s a lot more equipment than you would expect. It’s actually a fairly high-tech machine.

Top of the list is the MyLink screen, which connects to your smartphone and offers all kinds of possibilities apart from just music. For Trax buyers, the most practical is an app that you download onto your phone for about £50 which provides satellite navigation. That’s even cheaper than the most basic TomTom.

Connecting a phone via Bluetooth is super easy – and the screen also links up to a reversing camera. There’s a decent sound system and the seats are firm but comfortable.

I had a quick play around with the back seat today and it’s going to be tight squeezing three adults in the back. It’s fine for two grown ups with plenty of headroom too. The boots ok with the seats up – much better with the back seats down.

Oh, and the dashboard and controls maybe pure GM but in this case it looks good too.

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Sunday – Bulldog Looks

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If ever there was a British Bulldog of car design this is it. The Trax may be short on stature – 4.25 metres of it – but the front end looks like a mutt straining at the leash.

While the rest of the car is sculpted-out conventional SUV, that Chevrolet front end is what really bites you on the bottom. In fact, if you added a set of wider wheels and painted it black, the Trax would be a bruiser of a 4×4 to look at.

The only problem with having such a large front end is that wind noise can be quite intrusive at high speed – not helped by the elephant-sized door mirrors which are simply enormous!

However, the built quality is pretty rugged and robust. The doors shut with a reassuring thud and  the interior is practical, with 1370 litres of space if you fold the rear seats flat (356 litres with the back seats in place).

Right now I’m thoroughly enjoying the 128bhp diesel engine. You have to work it hard, which might be tiresome in the long run but it’s simply great fun to drive.

 

 

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Saturday – McJimny

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Sometime ago in a previous century, I was driving in Scotland on the launch of a crazy little vehicle called a Suzuki Jimny. It was the smallest 4×4 since the arrival of the donkey and a pack of journalists from around the world were causing chaos in the Glens.

It was a slightly surreal moment seeing four Japanese writers squeezed in tiny Jimny. One had bought a kilt and wore it later at supper. While the new Suzuki was definitely flawed, it was also bloody good fun to drive and superb in the dirt – thanks to a short wheelbase and light weight.

I can see similarities with the Trax. It’s nowhere near as light as the Jimny of course and beautifully flawed too – but I can’t help but like it.  Why? Because although the Chevrolet is noisy at speed, jittery on the corners and not blessed with the most refined of diesel engines, it has bags of spirit.

Like all great flawed cars – think Alfa Romeo Alfasud, Renault Avantime, Citroen 2CV – you just can’t help but like a machine that puts a smile on your face. Winding the Trax up to speed involves a lot of leg and arm work through the gears, it rolls slightly alarmingly on corners and the ride is somewhat lacking but would I want one if I lived up a slightly muddy lane in the Trossachs? Yes.

 

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Friday – American Pie

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Chevrolet – it’s a name that conjures up images of all things American, from Bruce Springsteen to apple pie. Chevy is at the heart of it, famed for producing bold and brash cars that really don’t have any place on the streets of England.

Until now that is. Today there’s a whole range of smaller Chevrolets out there to back up the feel-good Corvette and Camaro. Newest of them all is the Trax. In the US it would probably be used as a golf buggy but here, Trax is classed as a small SUV and competes against cars like the Nissan Juke and Skoda Yeti.

Chevrolet has the advantage of a great name though (would you rather own up to driving a Skoda or a Chevy?) and they’ve used it to full effect with the largest darn grille you will see this side of the Mississippi.

It’s the only feature that is big, bold and brash about this little car. You can’t miss it and the grille sets up the rest of the car’s curvy shape nicely. Our bright blue example seems a steal at under £19,000 and with a frugal diesel engine capable of more than 60mpg, what’s not to like about this baby Chevy so far?