[James]

Green light your enthusiasm
The fun begins at every stoplight, thanks to the confident acceleration of the 1.4L turbocharged ECOTEC® engine that’s standard in every Trax. The horsepower is 138, but it’s the 148 lb.-ft of at-the-ready torque that makes Trax so responsive to every touch of the accelerator pedal.

Turbo – That’s way cool
Turbocharging technology gives your driving ambitions a literal boost by directing substantially more air into each cylinder, enabling it to optimize each combustion cycle. At the same time, an intercooler cools the charged air entering the engine, allowing for more complete combustion and greater output. Very cool.

A shift in attitude
Trax also gives you two ways of engaging more directly in your driving, with a standard slick-shifting six-speed manual transmission on LS models, and a smooth-shifting six-speed automatic transmission on LT and LTZ models that is also available on LS. The automatic also includes Driver Shift Control that lets you choose your shifts, much like a manual. Now that’s a shift.

You can handle it
An ultra-stiff body structure, combined with a wide stance and a sport-tuned suspension contribute to Trax’s fun, yet precise driving personality. The tuning of the suspension was a collaborative effort of European, Asian and North American engineering teams. Think global, drive local.

 

[rmouthaan]

Green Light your enthusiasm: jack rabbit starts only work well using the drive shift control. High torque means you don't need to kick-down to accellerate and it rarely shifts up driving up hill.

Turbo: Kicks in at around 3000 rpm. Below that it's hardly noticable. Makes the engine economic, though.

Shift in attitude: Nice smooth shifter: short first gear, long second gear. Driver Shift Control for quicker speeding up. Easy switching from automatic to manual and other way around.

You can handle it: sport-tuned suspension makes it more shaky on uneven roads but gives you a steady grip on paved roads.

Can't wait for your opinions once you drive it too.

 

[James]

turbo kicking in then is good, at least it's not going to be put to work for a ton of stop and go, unless you're racing from car to car like an idiot.

 

[rmouthaan]

If you drive conservative, that is not kicking the pedal it will be very economic.
The guy at the dealership is driving a cruze with the same engine and he does 800 km on a tank (60 Liter). I can do 550 km on 3/4 tank (ours is 50 Liter) and I'm not always drive conservative.

 

[steph]

Most I've gotten has been 480km out of a tank. But I commute in stop and go rush hour traffic and am not so conservative of a driver.... So I have no complaints.

 

[chevyfan]

Most I've gotten has been 480km out of a tank. But I commute in stop and go rush hour traffic and am not so conservative of a driver.... So I have no complaints.

glad to hear that, as long as to you it's good thats what matters.

 

[James]

Most I've gotten has been 480km out of a tank. But I commute in stop and go rush hour traffic and am not so conservative of a driver.... So I have no complaints.

coming from a big v6, i find myself stepping on the trax quite a bit to get it going, get im too used to a bigger engine.

 

[Kooper]

coming from a big v6, i find myself stepping on the trax quite a bit to get it going, get im too used to a bigger engine.

a 4 pot turbo offers the same punch as your old 6 if not more, your perception is playing with you...

 

[James]

i doubt that

 

[rmouthaan]

i doubt that

Search on youtube, they have a 2.4 liter EcoTec 4 with big turbo build into a dragster.

 

[rmouthaan]

Search on youtube, they have a 2.4 liter EcoTec 4 with big turbo build into a dragster.

Here is the link:

 

[James]

that's just brutal, it's crazy to see the potential of these engines. I'm not sure if years ago people could have imagined a 4 cylinder doing that, probably thought you'd need at least a 6.

 

[rmouthaan]

that's just brutal, it's crazy to see the potential of these engines. I'm not sure if years ago people could have imagined a 4 cylinder doing that, probably thought you'd need at least a 6.

Although not a four cylinder, Renault's first Formula one engine, although a six cylinder, was only a 1.6 litre engine. Read the story on wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_in_Formula_One#1980.E2.80.9383

 

[TrainTrax]

I think its great that engineers are finding ways to make powerful engines that are smaller. Personally, I'm a little tired of V8 engines. They just seem like inefficient overkill to me.

 

[chevyfan]

Although not a four cylinder, Renault's first Formula one engine, although a six cylinder, was only a 1.6 litre engine. Read the story on wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renault_in_Formula_One#1980.E2.80.9383

Nice! Yes I remember that engines from those days had small displacement. I remember seeing stats for V8's that had displacement under 4.0 liters.

I think its great that engineers are finding ways to make powerful engines that are smaller. Personally, I'm a little tired of V8 engines. They just seem like inefficient overkill to me.

These days you just have to have a purpose for it.
Whether that be for fun, towing, capability, etc.

 

[James]

Being a guy that had a few V8's back in the day and now wouldn't need one, I had a chance to drive an ecoboost ford truck and it's amazing how that v6 performs... great replacement for a V8.

 

[chevyfan]

Being a guy that had a few V8's back in the day and now wouldn't need one, I had a chance to drive an ecoboost ford truck and it's amazing how that v6 performs... great replacement for a V8.

That's what I have heard from many new truck owners.

 

[63dart]

Green light your enthusiasm
The horsepower is 138, but it’s the 148 lb.-ft of at-the-ready torque that makes Trax so responsive to every touch of the accelerator pedal.

My 2015 LS is very sluggish from a complete stop, until the turbo kicks in after a couple of seconds, then it really wakes up. I originally attributed this to the tiny 1.4L displacement. Is this typical, or should I be troubleshooting this as a problem?

 

[Traxy]

Mine does that sometimes, but it does it a lot less since I serviced the boost gate.

 

[Montkun]

I noticed that there can be a little hesitation in the start off from a dead stop, not that it's not moving forward, but I can tell when the boost starts building up. I think it's just the slight bit of lag that most turbo engines have in general. If you ever look at torque and horsepower graphs of turbos, there's a steep jump in power after starting at the low end of the power band.

I think what really helps the Trax is the full torque being available at under 2000 rpm (1800 rpm i believe), since you normally don't get it until you hit the 2500-3000 rpm range. I think it will also help with the longevity of the engine because you don't have to go all out to get the power from the engine.