Chevrolet's compact SUV Trax; Ford EcoSport rival

Chevrolet introduces its compact SUV – Chevrolet Trax at the New York Motor Show and the vehicle will hit the showrooms in States early next year. It is highly expected from GM India that the company will bring the Trax to India by early next year to feast on the booming compact SUV-Crossover segment. When launched the Trax will compete against the segment leader Ford EcoSport, the mighty Renault Duster and its alter-ego Nissan Terrano, upcoming ones like Hyundai ix25 and Mahindra's compact SUV.

Trax is just a nick over 4m, so it won't get the benefit from the excise duty cut in our country but will fall in the similar price band like the EcoSport and Duster. Speaking of the design the SUV features similar 'Dual Port' grille with bow-tie logo, swept back headlamps and vertical tail lamps. The overall design is very curvy & chubby and one can easily figure it out from the pronounced wheel arches, puffy trunk lid and extruded nose. Powering the SUV is the 1.4 liter turbo-charged inter-cooled EcoTec petrol motor gathering a healthy 138hp and maximum torque of 200Nm. The car features an optional all-wheel drive layout. When it will come to India, a diesel heart is a much needed element to succeed, expect the car to receive the MJD derived unit found in Sail siblings with tweaked power output (maybe with a variable geometry turbo). The interiors of the SUV is similar to Cruze when it comes to overall layout, although it shares similar instrumentation cluster, 'Motorcycle inspired' the one found in the Beat.

Key features of Chevrolet Trax

• 1.4 liter EcoTec turbo-charged petrol motor with six-speed automatic transmission.
• 7-inch diagonal high resolution infotainment touch screen with USB port, AUX-in and Bluetooth phone integration.
• The infotainment system offers 3G/4G connectivity and in-built Wi-Fi hotspot and Apple Siri integration for voice guidance phone support.
• The car features built-in navigation.
• The compact-SUV features 530 liters of boot space.
• The vehicle boosts 10 airbags as standard in US, expect multiple airbags when it comes to India (EcoSport offers 6 airbags).
• The vehicle offer leatherette upholstery trim in the top end variant with leather wrapped steering wheel. Interior are in a combination of Jet Black, Jet Light Titanium and Jet Black/Brownstone.

Read More on : Ford Ecosport 2014