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Chevy murders out Trax crossover with new Midnight Edition

Leaning towards a new Chevy Trax, but think it needs a little bit more attitude? Chevy has you covered with the release of the new Midnight Edition. It's based on the Bowtie brand's smallest crossover, but injects some extra style with its murdered-out treatment. The new Chevy Trax Midnight Edition is based on the top LTZ trim, and upgrades with black wheels, bezels, molding, door handles, and more. Inside, the cabin is adorned with gray-accented seats and gray-piped floor mats. It isn't a huge transformation, but may be just the dose of attitude that Chevy's little crossover needs. Otherwise it's the same Trax introduced a year ago, and comes equipped with a 1.4-liter turbo four good for 138 horsepower and 148 pound-feet of torque. It's available in either front- or all-wheel drive, and will return a claimed 34 miles per gallon on the highway in the former setup. The Midnight package adds an extra $500 to the $26,125 base MSRP on a new Trax LTZ. Related Video: Chevrolet Trax Crosses to the Dark Side New Midnight Edition adds distinction to small SUV 2015-12-27 DETROIT – Chevrolet today announced the 2016 Trax Midnight Edition – a blacked-out styling statement for the small SUV, offering customers a bold choice and adding to the momentum of the brand's record 2015 crossover sales. Based on the LTZ trim, the Midnight Edition features black wheels, bezels, beltline molding and door handles, along with a black rear license plate applique. Inside, the seats are trimmed with gray accents and the floor mats feature gray piping. "Introduced just a year ago, the Trax has quickly become an important vehicle for Chevrolet, bringing in new, younger and more female buyers to the brand," said Betsy Flegg, senior marketing manager, Chevrolet Crossovers. "The small SUV segment is the fastest growing in the industry and models such as the new Trax Midnight Edition provides customers an expressive option." Trax sales were 57,707 for the first 11 months of 2015, placing it second in the segment, with almost 20-percent market share. Chevrolet crossover sales were up 35 percent for the same period. Fusing small-car agility and utility convenience of an SUV, Trax offers up to 48.4 cubic feet of cargo space. A 1.4L turbocharged engine offers the efficiency of a small displacement engine – an EPA-estimated 34 mpg highway (FWD models) – with the power of a larger engine on-demand. Connectivity features include an available 4G LTE Wi-Fi hotspot.

UAW strike's three-pronged attack focuses on popular midsize trucks, SUVs

The United Auto Workers announced at midnight last night that they would begin targeted strikes at Ford's Michigan Assembly, Stellantis' Toledo Assembly and GM's Wentzville Assembly — all three home to midsize pickups and, in the case of Toledo and Michigan, popular midsize SUVs.  The Ford Ranger, Jeep Gladiator (just updated for 2024), Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon are all built on lines that have been shut down by the strike. The Ford Bronco and Jeep Wrangler, which share fundamental underpinnings with the Ranger and Gladiator, respectively, are also in on the party. GM's Wentzville Assembly also builds the GMC Savana and Chevy Express vans, neither of which is a big player in the retail market. While midsize pickups may not move in the quantities we see from the half-ton segment, all of these are fairly high-volume models. Ford sold nearly 120,000 Broncos along with more than 55,000 Rangers in 2022; Wrangler and Gladiator combined for nearly 260,000 units last year (181,000 of those were Wranglers) and the Colorado/Canyon represented more than 117,000 sales for General Motors. Throw in the nearly 80,000 units for Chevrolet Express and GMC Savana, and production from these facilities equated to more than 500,000 units sold in 2022.  Ford has been struggling since launch to deliver its wildly popular Bronco to waiting enthusiasts. With supply woes largely easing last year, the company caught up to a great deal of its pre-existing demand, but lingering supply chain and quality control issues have continued to plague the manufacturer even as general constraints have eased. Even earlier this year, Ford said it was selling every unit it could produce. The Ranger, freshly redesigned for the U.S. market, is still getting its feet wet.  Jeep likewise has been on a tear. Sales of the 4x4 have remained so steady that the Wrangler 4xe became the country's best-selling plug-in hybrid vehicle pretty much by accident. Jeep just formally confirmed this week that a 4xe variant of the Gladiator pickup is on the way by 2025 — and they said you couldn't sell hybrids to truck and SUV buyers.  At GM, meanwhile, the Colorado and Canyon are sporting fresh redesigns for the 2023 model year, with production of both still ramping up. And while the Chevy Express and GMC Savana vans may not be popular consumer models, GM still sold more than 77,000 of them last year combined.  Related video: Plants/Manufacturing UAW/Unions Chevrolet Ford GMC Jeep Truck SUV

GM's MPG overstatement could affect 2 million vehicles

Late last week, GM admitted that three of its large SUVs fuel economy window stickers did not match their actual efficiency ratings, and so the vehicles couldn't be sold. The stickers on the 2016 Chevy Traverse, GMC Acadia, and Buick Enclave said their ratings were one to two miles per gallon better than they should have been. Officially, the number of affected vehicles sits at about 60,000. But Consumer Reports makes a good point: what's up with all of the previous model year SUVs that are basically the same vehicle? To wit: the 2016 model year vehicles are not substantially different than the 2015 or the 2014, or even going all the way back to 2007. On the EPA's fuel economy website, all of these older models will "have better stated fuel economy numbers than the new vehicles in GM's dealerships," Consumer Reports noted. CR's best point, and the one that makes the 60,000 number potentially grow to 2 million if all of the vehicles built on this platform are affected, is that "[i]t seems unlikely that the company would change the powertrain on these carryover models so late in their model cycles in a way that would cause a dramatic, negative impact on fuel economy." GM says that earlier model year SUVs are not affected and the EPA did not respond to CR's question about the potential for more discrepancies. We've seen automakers reverse course before, so if GM has to come out with a mea culpa soon, don't be surprised. GM is rushing corrected stickers to dealers so that the SUVs can be sold again, but a fix for the already-sold vehicles could be trickier to solve. Related Video: Related Gallery 2013 GMC Acadia View 16 Photos News Source: Consumer Reports Government/Legal Green Buick Chevrolet GMC Fuel Efficiency mpg gmc acadia chevy traverse