[rmouthaan]

Been driving my Trax for two years now. I live in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, Canada. Here is a brief summary of expectations vs delivery:
I expected: A reliable AWD performance.
Delivery: Yes, the awd system functions perfectly from snow to deep sand to normal road conditions. Never lost track at any time.

I expected: fuel economy.
Delivery: in summer great fuel economy, in winter great gas guzzler. The engine has to work hard in winter pushing car forward and heating the interior. There is no fuel economy in winter, period.

I expected: a car that theoretically starts 80 times a day.
Delivery: yes, it never showed it could not do that. In city car in car out stop here stop there and every time shut down and start again. It certainly was designed to do just that.

I expected: nice easy space making by folding the rear benches.
Delivery: I am 6' 1" tall and I need my chair pushed back fairly far. The trax allows that.\ and gives me plenty of room. That said, this scenario won't let the rear seat fold forward flat. It can be folded flat but you have to push front chair fairly forward and erect.. None the less I have transported quiet a variety of cargo from 3 garbage bags full of empty bottles to 4 boxes full of playground sand.

Did install a grill cover and that heats up the interior quiet faster in winter.

All in all a good choice for my requirements

Rudi

 

[beeguz]

Did you know if you take out the left side rear seat lower cushion, you can get the drivers seat back a little more, (there are 2 nuts I believe they were 13mm, the seat then lifts right out)

I always keep my rear seats folded down, I found all you had to do was take out 2 bolts that hold the rear seat lower cushion, then fold the back down the front seat will go back a bit further.

It also gives you more storage room, on the rear floor under the seat back, I kept small items there I needed.

On my Buick with power seats the electric motor will push the seat back even further than the Trax did.

If you don't need to use the rear seats take both sides lower cushions out, that will open up space for some of the things that you might need to carry, you can now carry them and they will be out of sight.

 

[rmouthaan]

Unfortunately I regularly have passengers, but I like the idea.

 

[beeguz]

You can do it on one side if you wish but it all depends on how many people you need to have room for in the back.

The rear seats come out with just 2 nuts on studs, it takes less than 5 minutes to take them out

 

[Tracking]

Thanks for the 2 year update

80 times a day starting is quite an excessive theory. Understandably that's an exaggerated number but realistically, it'll be able to do it for a while but I'm in to see how long it takes for the starter motor to show signs of wear and tear.

 

[rmouthaan]

Winters here in Canada are hard on the engines. My old Grand Am v-6 3.4 liter engine was not up to 10 times starting a day without draining that battery. Plus with short distance driving in town it didn't get time to load the battery. I had a battery trickle loader installed: every time I plug in the block heater the battery gets trickle loaded as well. I had the trickle loader also installed in the trax. With the Grand Am I had maximum two year battery life, i think the Trax battery lasts longer.

 

[Tracking]

Oh wow, okay so now it makes sense as to where the concern would come from. I thought there was sufficient driving time with the alternator re-charging the battery so it'll sustain itself. Guess not. That's clever to install a trickle charger in line with the block heater though, never heard of anyone doing that. How big is that trickle loader though ??

 

[rmouthaan]

The trickle loader is a small box 4x4x1 inch only. cost about $120 Can.

 

[beeguz]

You can pick up float chargers at Harbor Freight for around 10 USD, I use them on my vehicles, I have been using them for over 15 years once and a great while I have one quit working.
These are very small you can fit them almost anywhere and they are water proof so you can put them just about anywhere, all you would have to do is change the ends on the wires so you could bolt them to your terminals.

They are so cheap I keep a few of them on hand.

Also in my Buick I keep a jump starter plugged into the 110 outlet on the back of the center consul, winters here are not as bad as Canada but I do keep it to help others who leave their lights on or battery failure.

 

[Tracking]

To be honest, I had to google that float charger thing and that is pretty darn cool. Just hook it on and plug it into the wall. Really can't go wrong with that at all. Maybe I'll order some over or take a walk at the local Princess Auto and see if they have anything good in house. Weathers starting to get pretty cold so I gotta get a move on

 

[Flyinfool]

I guess we are at the opposite end of the spectrum.
Our Trax gets driven once or twice a month and then usually only a trip to grocery store 1 mile away. So far the battery has always started it, winter and summer.

 

[Tracking]

Wow.. definitely on the opposite ends of the spectrum. But that's a super good battery. What region are you in, do you have the same battery ? I know some manufacturers provide different batteries for different regions.

 

[Flyinfool]

I am in Wisconsin so we get a good cross section of weather. We can hit -30°F in the winter and get over 100°F in the summer. I would think that if there is a regional battery difference that we would be getting the best one around here.
We got this Trax in Sept 2015 and it has a whopping 800 miles on the clock.

 

[beeguz]

I bought a nice float charger off ebay it has the black and decker name on it, I use that one because it has a blinking light telling me its charging and a stead green light to tell me the battery is up.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Black-Decker-BM3B-6V-and-12V-Battery-Charger-Maintainer-1-5-Amp-/322071694880?hash=item4afcf80e20:g:cqcAAOSwJQdXDHos&item=322071694880&vxp=mtr

They are cheaper now than when I bought mine.