Took a road trip Canada Day weekend to deliver my son his new Challenger and we took the Trax along to make the trip back. 750 miles one way over roughly 12 Hours, 3 days later headed the other way. and got to drive the Trax on long stretches of nice roads for about 8 to 9 hours.
Let's start with the bad. When we arrived at the destination the Trax had lost its two roof moldings. (The LS has no roof rack) The dealer told me they've seen many with this problem, the bulletin says to clean apply urethane and then re-install new moldings and clips. Parts have been ordered, will call us when they are in. Rick the parts guys figured 3 to 4 days.
Over the trip, the Trax returned an average mileage of 38.6 miles to u$ gallon!
For comparison sakes, the Astra 1.8l 5 speed was 29.03 miles per us gallon, The Challenger 392 24.1 miles per us gallon. Now here is the kicker for most of the trip we maintained an average speed ranging from 84 to 97 miles per hour. Only twice during the entire drive did I have to drop to fifth gear to climb and that was generally because I was not paying attention, talking or playing with the audio. The car has two personalities, at 60 to 65 miles per hour it revs around 2100 rpm and feels like a tall competent small car. if you bring it up to 85 to 90 miles per hour it squats revs between 2800 and 3100 rpm and turns into a very good impression of a VW Golf (wider tires and H&R progressive springs)
My two passengers had no problems sleeping and the car got really quiet around 2800 RPM. It's like wind and engine noise just disappeared.
So this car is as competent on long trips as it is as a super commuter around the city. Very impressed overall. The AC was bone chilling cold (good tint 97 back and rear door windows, 35 percent front doors)
And I never felt it was underpowered. The only time my wife fell behind is on the way up when I played with the Challenger a bit (110).
That little Chassis is extremely stiff and has a ton of potential. GM should hurry and offer a sporty edition with a more potent driveline combination. With the ferocious competition in the segment. 185hp, suspension tweaks, and bigger brakes. would make that little car untouchable in its class.
Let's start with the bad. When we arrived at the destination the Trax had lost its two roof moldings. (The LS has no roof rack) The dealer told me they've seen many with this problem, the bulletin says to clean apply urethane and then re-install new moldings and clips. Parts have been ordered, will call us when they are in. Rick the parts guys figured 3 to 4 days.
Over the trip, the Trax returned an average mileage of 38.6 miles to u$ gallon!
For comparison sakes, the Astra 1.8l 5 speed was 29.03 miles per us gallon, The Challenger 392 24.1 miles per us gallon. Now here is the kicker for most of the trip we maintained an average speed ranging from 84 to 97 miles per hour. Only twice during the entire drive did I have to drop to fifth gear to climb and that was generally because I was not paying attention, talking or playing with the audio. The car has two personalities, at 60 to 65 miles per hour it revs around 2100 rpm and feels like a tall competent small car. if you bring it up to 85 to 90 miles per hour it squats revs between 2800 and 3100 rpm and turns into a very good impression of a VW Golf (wider tires and H&R progressive springs)
My two passengers had no problems sleeping and the car got really quiet around 2800 RPM. It's like wind and engine noise just disappeared.
So this car is as competent on long trips as it is as a super commuter around the city. Very impressed overall. The AC was bone chilling cold (good tint 97 back and rear door windows, 35 percent front doors)
And I never felt it was underpowered. The only time my wife fell behind is on the way up when I played with the Challenger a bit (110).
That little Chassis is extremely stiff and has a ton of potential. GM should hurry and offer a sporty edition with a more potent driveline combination. With the ferocious competition in the segment. 185hp, suspension tweaks, and bigger brakes. would make that little car untouchable in its class.
