From the January/February 2026 issue of Car and driver.
Until the current Chevrolet Trax debuted in 2024, it seemed like General Motors would never get the affordable small vehicle right.
And yet, decades of floundering and half-hearted cars have produced the utterly excellent Trax, now a three-time 10Best winner. The Trax is subtly seductive: the closer you look, the longer you drive it, the more it grows with you as its excellence becomes apparent. After driving our long-term Trax for 40,000 miles, the glow remains ever strong. No other SUV in the Trax’s price range can match the Trax’s blend of refinement, functionality and value. Suddenly, spending more than about $25,000 seems like a waste.
The more than you paid for starts within. From the switchgear to the seats and the big colorful displays, the design looks expensive, even if the accounting department left a few fingerprints on some of the hard plastics inside. Packaging engineers have managed to maximize passenger and cargo space, and the result is more space than you’d expect from a small SUV, with rear-seat comfort particularly impressive, even with three adults in the back. Behind the rear seat is a massive 26 cubic feet of cargo space, enough to carry six carry-on bags. A large infotainment touchscreen works logically, the seats are pleasantly comfortable and the controls work precisely and intuitively, which is not self-evident at any price.
You’ll want more than the Trax’s 137 horsepower when merging onto a short highway on-ramp, but at lower speeds there’s enough power to accelerate adequately, if not with gusto. Provided you don’t hammer it to the redline regularly, the vibrations from the little turbo three remain distant and subdued. If you ignore the ability to accelerate hard, there’s a refined and expensive-feeling harmony in the way the Trax steers, stops, drives and handles. It’s a quiet companion on the highway and exudes a calming assurance and slick refinement that belies its price.
While a bump of about 70 horsepower would address our biggest complaint, the Trax is already a class act. It wins its third 10Best award in a row for combining functionality, comfort, refinement and value in a way that eludes the rest of its segment. If you spend time with it, you’ll understand the winning qualities of the humble Trax. Chevy could charge more for it, but we’re glad that’s not the case.
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Specifications
Chevrolet Trax
Base: $22,995
Power: 137 hp
CD TEST RESULTS
100 km/h: 8.5 sec
1/4 mile: 16.5 sec
Top speed: 185 km/h (CD East)
EPA FUEL ECONOMY
Combined: 29-30 mpg
Tony Quiroga is a twenty-year veteran Car and driver editor, writer and car reviewer and the magazine’s 19th editor-in-chief since its founding in 1955. He subscribes to Car and driver since the age of six. “Growing up, I read every issue of Car and driver from cover to cover, sometimes three or more times. It is the place I wanted to work since I could read,” Quiroga says. He has moved Auto Magazine to a position as associate editor at Car and driver in 2004. Over the years he has held virtually every editorial position in print and digital, edited several special issues and also assisted in production CD’s early YouTube efforts. He is also the oldest test driver for Lightning Lap, having completed the Grand Course at Virginia International Raceway more than 2,000 times in 12 years.
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