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2020 Chevy Trax and Buick Encore spied testing

We just recently saw a little crossover SUV from General Motors being tested, and we weren't positive what brand it belonged to. We narrowed it down to Chevy or GMC, but we're feeling more confident that it's a GMC now, since both the next generation Chevy Trax and Buick Encore subcompact crossover SUVs have been spied testing together. Of the two, the Chevy has the more radically different sheet metal. It ditches the somewhat frumpy, lumpy shape of the current Trax for a body inspired by the bigger Chevy Blazer. The roofline has sharp corners, and the hood is wide and flat. The front fascia, though obscured, shows the most connection to the bigger crossover. It has the same split headlight configuration, and it looks as though the grille takes up a sizable section of the fascia. View 7 Photos The Buick Encore on the other hand looks evolutionary in design. The body still has plenty of curves, and the distinctive, sharply rising window sill are all hallmarks of the current Encore design. The headlights and grille are similar, too, though the grille appears to be slightly updated to fit in with the Enclave and Regal. It's understandable that Buick might want to play it safe with the new Encore, since the model is Buick's best seller, selling about 23,000 units in the last quarter, nearly twice that of the next best performer, the Enclave. Since this is the first time we've seen these little crossovers, we expect it will still be a year or two before we get to see them fully revealed. They will probably continue to use small-displacement turbocharged four-cylinder engines with either front- or all-wheel drive. Related Video:

Would you pay $17 a month to give your older Ford connectivity?

When it was first introduced in 2007, there was nothing like the original Ford Sync system, since it allowed car owners to connect and use a portable device better than anything that came before it. And because it was a brought-in/tethered and software-based system, Sync leveraged a device's connectivity and was easily updated. It took competitors awhile to catch up: Toyota Entune wasn't available until 2011, and Chevy MyLink didn't roll out until 2012. But now Ford is the one playing catchup since it stuck with the brought-in strategy while most other automakers were quicker to add connectivity via an embedded cellular modem. Ford initially installed 2G/3G modems in its small fleet of electric and plug-in electric vehicles starting in 2012 so that owners could keep tabs on charging. Embedded connectivity came to Lincoln in 2014, and Ford began adding onboard 4G LTE via Sync Connect to select cars starting with the Escape in 2015. To get more cars connected more quickly, last week the automaker rolled out its FordPass SmartLink solution that plugs into the OBD port of 2010 to 2017 model year vehicles. This lets owners retroactively get onboard Wi-Fi, set up a "geo-fence" to keep tabs on a car's location, receive vehicle health reports and allows remote engine starting and door locking/unlocking using a smartphone app, among other features. But to connect older Ford vehicles will cost owners $16.99 a month for two years, not including installation. Ford throws in 1 GB of data or a 30-day trial, whichever comes first, after which owners have to add the vehicle to their Verizon shared data plan, which supplies connectivity for SmartLink, or establish a new account. (Disclosure: Autoblog is owned by Verizon.) By comparison, GM's 4G LTE data plans start at $10 a month for 200 MB and goes up to $30 for 3 GB, and owners can also add a car to an AT&T shared-data plan. But OnStar doesn't have a separate monthly subscription for the embedded modem or an installation charge, and standard features via the RemoteLink Mobile App are free for the first five years of ownership. FCA's Uconnect Access service also uses an embedded modem to provide similar telematics features for $20 per month following a free one-year trial, while a la carte in-car Wi-Fi is offered for $10 per day, $20 per week or $35 per month.

GM marks 500 million vehicles

General Motors is marking a major global milestone, as 500 million vehicles have rolled off its assembly lines since the company's founding in 1908. To mark the occasion, the automaker is continuing to invest in production and offering a one-time discount to some customers. GM North America boss Alan Batey used the festivities to announce the Fairfax Assembly factory in Kansas as one of the sites earmarked for the company's $5.4 billion in upcoming investments. The plant will get $174 million of that money for new equipment and technology to build the 2016 Chevrolet Malibu. Among the upgrades will be a shake-and-rattle booth that will simulate road conditions to find squeaks. To commemorate both the production milestone and the Fairfax plant, Batey and company CEO Mary Barra also gave away a 2016 Malibu to a wounded Iraqi war veteran, and the two execs announced that in the third week in May all GM employees can share a one-time customer appreciation discount with friends to help get them into the automaker's products. Barra also gave a speech to the workers there about some of the other milestone's in the company's history, which you can read below. Innovation on the Line: GM Manufacturing Milestones Many of General Motors' most important innovations have occurred behind the scenes, in its manufacturing facilities. Concepts such as changeover, flexible assembly, automation, computer simulation, machine vision and robotics were developed at GM. Over the decades these innovations have helped enable improvements in vehicle quality, efficiency and competitiveness. 1901: Ransom Olds' famous Curved Dash Oldsmobile, designed with simplicity, reliability and value in mind, was the first American car built in a factory designed specifically for automobiles and in standardized volume production. GM acquired Oldsmobile in 1908. 1908: Cadillac wins the Dewar Trophy, Europe's most prestigious award for precision and excellence in manufacturing, by demonstrating the auto industry's highest standards for precision and interchangeability of parts by disassembling three Cadillacs and mixing the parts randomly before reassembling and driving them before a contingent of judges. 1922: GM hires William Knudsen to lead Chevrolet's turnaround. Knudsen implements flexible mass production, which helps Chevrolet incorporate annual styling changes and take market share from Ford.