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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.

NHTSA investigates 1.7 million GM SUVs for windshield wiper failures

WASHINGTON - The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said on Tuesday it is investigating whether General Motors should recall an additional 1.7 million sport utility vehicles due to an issue with windshield wiper failures. GM in August 2016 recalled 367,800 2013 GMC Terrain and Chevrolet Equinox SUVs in the United States to address the problem. But after receiving 249 complaints about similar problems, the federal agency said it is probing whether the recall should be expanded to include an additional 1.7 million vehicles from the 2010-2016 model years. The automaker said it is cooperating with the NHTSA review. GM said it recalled the 2013 GMC Terrain and Chevrolet Equinox SUVs "because warranty data showed a higher-than-expected failure rate," adding it has continued to monitor field data on other model years of those vehicles. GM noted that no crashes or injuries related to the issue have been reported. The Detroit-based automaker said the recalls were prompted after a GM Canada brand quality manager reported a potential safety issue relating to reports of windshield wiper failures in Canada through GM's "Speak Up For Safety," program in late 2015. The data showed significantly higher field incidents in parts of Canada, which prompted a June 2016 recall there. Over the next two months, a higher number of U.S. reports prompted a U.S. recall, the company added. In the 2016 recall, GM said the front-wiper module would be replaced with a module that has a water deflector and, if needed, dealers would fill the water management hole and drill a new small hole in a different location.(Reporting by David Shepardson, editing by G Crosse)Related Video: Government/Legal Recalls Chevrolet GM GMC SUV

800k car names trademarked globally, suddenly alphanumerics seem reasonable

What's in a name? This cliched phrase probably gets tossed out at every marketing meeting that happens when a new car gets its nomenclature. We know the answer, though: everything. The name of a car has all the potential to make or break it with fickle customers that are more conscious than ever about what their purchases say about them.
That's giving headaches to marketing folks across the automotive industry. "It's tough. In 1985 there were about 75,000 names trademarked in the automotive space. Today there are 800,000," Chevrolet's head of marketing, Russ Clark, told Automotive News. Infiniti's president, Johan de Nysschen, echoed Clark's sentiment, saying, "The truth of the matter is, across the world, there is hardly a name or a letter that hasn't already been claimed by one car manufacturer or another. You can go through the alphabet - A, B, C and so forth - and you will quickly see that almost all available letters are taken."
What has that left automakers to do? Get creative. In the case of Infiniti, it made the controversial move to bring all of its cars' names into a new scheme, classifying them as Q#0 for cars and QX#0 for SUVs and crossovers. So the Infiniti G, which was available as the G25 and G37, is now the Q50. The FX37 and FX50 are now the QX70.