Chevrolet Is Killing The Cheapest Trim Of Its Cheapest Car Just As Automakers Say They Care About Affordability

Menu Home » Chevrolet Just Made Its Cheapest Car Even More Attractive, But There’s A Catch Chevrolet Just Made Its Cheapest Car Even More Attractive, But There’s A Catch By Thomas Hundal October 8, 2026 10:44 am 66 Comments For those in the market for a cheap-and-cheerful new crossover, few machines fulfil both sides of that equation quite as well as the Chevrolet Trax. The 2026 model starts at $23,495, including freight, and features loads of space, funky interior elements, solid infotainment, and a reasonably torquey engine hitched to a conventional automatic transmission. However, the Trax is getting an update for 2027, and an equivalent to the least expensive LS trim doesn’t seem to have made the cut for the new model year.

In case you aren’t familiar with the Trax, it’s one of the most popular small crossovers in America for good reason. Sure, it may only have a 1.2-liter turbocharged three-cylinder engine pumping out 137 horsepower, but 162 lb.-ft. of torque available low down makes it more sprightly around town than you’d expect. A starting price in the low-to-mid 20s and standard wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto go a long way, so it shouldn’t be surprising that it’s become one of Chevrolet’s most popular models. It’s also been on sale for three years now, meaning it’s prime for a mid-cycle update.

Indeed, that’s exactly what it’s receiving for 2027. A little nip/tuck to keep things looking fresh. It’s not strictly necessary considering sales of the pre-facelift model increased 16.27 percent in the third quarter of 2026 to 57,917 examples, but these sorts of things are planned well in advance, and the public’s appetite for the little crossover has been more voracious than expected. I won’t lie, the updates look good.

Up front, Chevrolet’s pulled a bit of an Uno reverse card with the brightwork, yoinking it off of the standard trims and adding some to the range-topping Activ model. At the same time, the split-headlight treatment’s been refined with more horizontal elements and the grillework’s grown a touch more mature. There’s also a fantastic new shade of orange available, but the most dramatic changes to the new Trax happen around back.

If there was one visual weak spot to the old Trax, it was that the rear end was a bit plain. Not anymore, as reworked taillights now stretch across the hatch, connected with a dark piece of trim. This adds visual width and neatly frames the recess for the licence plate. In fact, the hatch (now available with power operation) and bumper are also both new, with refined surfacing and sleeker reflectors set in the valence. This is the single biggest update that’ll make the Trax look more expensive than it is, but the revisions don’t stop with the butt-lift.

Inside the Trax, Chevrolet’s splashed the cash on some new dashboard elements, including a switch from circular to hexagonal outboard climate control vents. This seems to have required a new upper dash pad which looks rather smart, and that’s not the only update. The digital gauge cluster is now hoodless, the infotainment screen is now larger for easier tile presses, and the climate controls have been revised to feature wider horizontal rows of real buttons.

So far so promising, but there’s one concern: Chevrolet is paring down the number of Trax trim levels to three for 2027. The cheapest steel-wheeled LS trim is gone, there’s no more 1RS trim, and the entry point to the range is now the LT trim. For 2026, the Trax LT was priced identical to the Trax 1RS, but $24,995 is a step up in price from $23,495. Mind you, pricing for the 2027 model hasn’t been announced yet, but don’t be surprised if it climbs a touch to keep pace with inflation, as is traditional with most new cars.

While few people were likely buying the old Trax LS, it definitely served a need. As such, it will be missed, hubcaps and all, for it got people who couldn’t quite stretch to the next trim level up into a safe, warrantied, easy-to-finance new car. On paper, this is looking like trimflation, but we’ll have to wait and see where pricing lands before casting final judgment. With the updated Trax set to go on sale this Spring, don’t be surprised if we learn more about pricing relatively early in the new year.

I drove a rental Trax from Michigan to Florida for spring break ‘25 with 4 people’s stuff and a cooler and I loved the shit out of it. Everything worked, it got 38mpg at highway speeds – 31 legging it over my personal ‘ring (WV turnpike), the sound system was fine, and the seats didn’t bug me for the 3391 miles I put on it in those ten days (there were detours).

I rented a trailblazer 14 months later for a three day barnstorm from Michigan to Milwaukee for a Julie/Fleshwater show and it performed just as I asked it to. Good mileage, plenty of room, CarPlay worked fine.

Maybe I just remember such terrible 70s/80s shitboxes like K-cars, cavaliers, tempos and escorts that anything since seems miles better but if these things were built stateside I’d buy two in a heartbeat (no pun intended).

0 Member Beasy Mist 1 day ago Eh, the LS was pretty unappealing in the face of the LT from the start.

1 SmilesPerGallon 1 day ago These have the absolute worst seats on the market right now.

0 Member Kevin Rhodes 1 day ago I just turned in this thing’s platform mate, the Trailblazer, to Avis. Somehow they considered it an upgrade from the Camry (or equivalent) I had reserved. It was not. At all. Cheap and nasty tin box. I assume the Trax is even worse, being a grand or so cheaper. I don’t know if the ‘Blazer had the 1.2L or the mighty 1.3L triple, but it was entirely adequate around town. I don’t think I got the thing over 55mph all week – Augusta GA.

I don’t really get why the Traxx and the Trailblazer both exist. Is the Traxx meant to be some sort of sporty “coupe CUV”? I really don’t understand “utility” vehicles with LESS utility.

0 Member Carbon Fiber Sasquatch 1 day ago Reply to  Kevin Rhodes It’s their corolla/civic competitor. It gives SUV proportions for sedan money. They are Civic sized on the inside

0 Member Kevin Rhodes 21 hours ago Reply to  Carbon Fiber Sasquatch The Trailblazer isn’t exactly spacious.

0 Member Carbon Fiber Sasquatch 21 hours ago Reply to  Kevin Rhodes The Trax is actually bigger than the Trailblazer by dimension, the Trail blazer just gets AWD and sits higher

0 Member Kevin Rhodes 18 hours ago Reply to  Carbon Fiber Sasquatch All the more goofy.

1 Member Carbon Fiber Sasquatch 2 minutes ago Reply to  Kevin Rhodes It was a pain to explain to people when I worked for GM lol

0 Member Mikey66 1 day ago These are attractive but not in my wheel house. I’d be perfectly fine with my daughter getting one once her ’04 Avalon dies (which may never happen) but I really feel these are a throw away car quality wise.

0 Anonymous Person 1 day ago We specifically ordered our 2024 Trax LS specifically to get the analog gauges, wheels that didn’t have any black paint on them, (we got the LS Convenience package which gave us silver-painted aluminum wheels instead of the steel wheels with plastic hubcaps) and most importantly, an actual keyed ignition as the wife did not want a vehicle with push-button-start.

Sad that analog gauges and ignition keys are going away. But the rear seat center armrest with built-in cupholders is a nice addition.

2 Member Ppnw 1 day ago Don’t kick me off this website, but steelies don’t belong on any car in 2026. They should have disappeared long ago – they are never attractive. On anything.

0 Cransberry 1 day ago Reply to  Ppnw Jeeps and Ineos

3 Member Ppnw 1 day ago Reply to  Cransberry For me, it’s still a no. Even on the Defender. Proper alloys look best.

0 Cransberry 1 day ago Reply to  Ppnw Interesting. Tastes is subjective I suppose

1 Lightning 1 day ago Reply to  Ppnw I like them on the old cars in 2026. Like this Volvo Amazon. file.php (1080×675)

0 Member Jeff Wheeler 1 day ago Did I miss the moment when we stacked hands on calling these “cars”? I mean, it wouldn’t surprise me if I did, and I suppose I can be grateful for the deferred sadness, but I’ve been holding on to the notion that SUVs/crossovers were at least one pinky-toe into “truck” designation, even though most are just hatchbacks denying their car-ness.

0 Anonymous Person 1 day ago Reply to  Jeff Wheeler Our 2024 Trax LS is a wagon. It even says so on the Monroney label in the fuel economy section.

3 Redapple 1 day ago may be a fine car . but it is SK built from chinesium components.

0 Cransberry 1 day ago Reply to  Redapple More reliable than most American built junk. Made in the US hasn’t meant a thing quality wise for 10+ years

1 Space 16 hours ago Reply to  Cransberry I hate to say it but the model 3/Y are pretty reliable, only because they never change and are EV’s. Still wouldn’t want one for myself

0 Member Lotsofchops 1 day ago it may only have a 1.2-liter turbocharged three-cylinder engine pumping out 137 horsepower, but 162 lb.-ft. of torque available low down makes it more sprightly around town than you’d expect.

It’s definitely not bad for what it is. It’s definitely a weird adjustment if you’re used to a hybrid drivetrain (outside of the terrible Hornet), but it does the job well I thought. For the 2 weeks we had it as a rental it served its purpose, and I wasn’t actively disliking it.

1 Member Jdoubledub 1 day ago I fear South Korea is going to catch the tariff heat sooner than later so there might not be a 2028 version.

Fun fact: I can see the RORO ships that bring the cars from South Korea to the US when walking my dog.

0 *Jason* 1 day ago Reply to  Jdoubledub Current tariff on cars imported from Korea is 15%. It was 0% under the free trade agreement original negotiated by the Bush Administration

3 Member Jdoubledub 1 day ago Reply to  *Jason* Key word is CURRENT tariff. Just this week they were whining that SK was not meeting it’s investment obligations that secures that 15% and SK is now the largest steel exporter to the US which puts an extra crosshair on them.

So if the administration was known for stability and rationality I would not have made that statement, but given the facts I think it is a valid concern.

3 *Jason* 1 day ago Reply to  Jdoubledub Yes, predicting tariff policy today (and regulations) is about as accurate as asking a magic 8 ball.

3 Member Abdominal Snoman 1 day ago Reply to  *Jason* That might make it cheaper to assemble them there and ship them than have to pay the steel + aluminum tariffs here, the tariffs on every sensor needed to assemble the car, the tariffs for the tires, … which are often higher than 15%.

1 *Jason* 1 day ago Reply to  Abdominal Snoman Maybe. My employee plays that game every day and it varies based on model. We do have a lot more steel in our vehicles than a Trax though.

0 Member Grey alien in a beige sedan 1 day ago The front of the vehicle doesn’t look terrible for a modern Chevrolet… However, they seem to continue to insist on using a pattern of rough edges in the grill, that, when combined with the brightwork that makes you think “huh, I could probably grate this here wedge of parmigiano reggiano on it.”

4 Member SimpleFix 2 days ago I bought a 2026 Trax this June with the idea that we would have something for the kids to drive when they hit the driving age in a few years, and actually this site helped me consider it, from that article that Thomas links. Actually I’ve been pretty impressed considering this is the cheapest GM car in the US. The size is just right to commute to work and it’s got wireless Carplay/AA that so far has worked flawlessly. I ended up with the LT trim because everything above has the trim and wheels all murdered out and tons of piano black inside, and being GenX I’m more fond of brushed chrome, and the one I got still had all the niceties you need as options. At least in the Detroit area no one is buying the LS trim, so no hard loss. There is some turbo lag and the mileage is not as good as it should be, but considering it has less than half the HP of the old car, I never have an issue with it being underpowered. I was surprised to see that current Trax still has incandescent bulbs for the taillights, in 2026. I wonder if this refresh switched to LED. The design language of the refresh definitely fits it with the new Traverse and ICE Equinox. I’d say the rear end is an improvement, the front end changes are meh.

7 Member Abdominal Snoman 1 day ago Reply to  SimpleFix The part I can’t seem to comprehend is that it’s a very attractive vehicle, well designed inside and out, priced extremely competitively, and made by GM.

5 Alexander Moore 1 day ago Reply to  Abdominal Snoman I think the TL;DR is that Daewoo finally managed to figure out how to build a decent car and not that Chevy somehow managed to crack the subcompact segment after *checks notes* six decades.

4 Member Ben 2 days ago I still haven’t reconciled the fact that an entry-level model looks this good. Every time one of these comes up behind me on the highway I think, “What is that good looking car?” and slap my forehead when I see the badge on the back. Every. Time.

The digital gauge cluster is now hoodless

This is the real crime of the refresh. Hoodless gauge clusters are stupid and bad.

11 Suss6052 2 days ago The 1.2L I3 still uses a wet belt instead of a chain, so that’s one critical fail that’s still not fixed. Eventually it will clog the oil pump and starve the engine of oil unless religiously changed before the interval

4 Member Ben 2 days ago Reply to  Suss6052 Does this specific engine have problems with that, or is this a general complaint? Not all wet belts are created equal. For example, I know the 2.7 EcoBoost seems to be holding up fine, while the smaller car EcoBoosts are having major problems. I haven’t heard anyone having a problem with this on the 3.0 Duramax.

I’m not a fan of wet belts, but some implementations have definitely been better than others.

3 Member Lotsofchops 1 day ago Reply to  Ben I haven’t heard anything about them either, but I firmly believe it’s only a matter of time. Even if the belt doesn’t fail prematurely, all rubber belts shed some. And since the belt is wholly contained in the engine, the only place it can really go is into the oil.

0 David Milewski 1 day ago Reply to  Suss6052 If only they put the 1.3 from the Trailblazer in it. Tiny bit extra power plus a chain, no wet belt.

0 Mr. Fusion 1 day ago Reply to  Suss6052 I believe the official wet belt replacement interval is 100,000 miles. The basic powertrain warranty covers 60% of that interval, so if these belts were failing at any rate that is higher than a rounding error, then GM would be taking a hell of a hit on warranty claims. And I don’t think that they are.

Interestingly, the 1.3l version of this engine equipped in the Trailblazer, does use a chain. I always wonder about the true cost savings of producing two different SKUs rather than just standardizing on one that may appear more expensive on paper.

1 George Danvers 2 days ago I really wish you guys would add captions to your photos.

That last pic of the Trax is, I’m assuming, last years?? Reading the article gives clues to the photos, but why not just spell it out? This is true for a LOT of articles here.

24 *Jason* 1 day ago Reply to  George Danvers 100%

8 Member Jdoubledub 1 day ago Reply to  George Danvers I had this EXACT same thought reading the article as I was glancing at the pictures. Sure would be nice to know what model year I’m looking at with how tiny styling changes are these days.

6 Member Jb996 1 day ago Reply to  George Danvers I’ve also made this comment on some articles.

An article discusses subtle differences, but I don’t know which is which. Or sometimes about multiple weird types of car we’ve never seen before with strange names, but I still don’t know which is which. Because I’ve never seen them before! That’s why your writing the article!!

4 Member Aaronaut 1 day ago Reply to  George Danvers AMEN! If we’re going through the trouble to credit the photos, how about a few extra keyboard clicks for what the thing is/why you’re showing it to us?

Especially in these “comparing new model to previous” articles, it’s actual so so (so) helpful.

4 Twobox Designgineer 1 day ago Reply to  Aaronaut And without a displayed caption, occasionally hope springs up and I long-press an image in hopes for some text, but no.

2 M SV 2 days ago Making it look more like a trailblazer/ encore gx. I’ve noticed in some markets the encore gx and Trax are priced almost identical. Might be some good old GM infighting and Chevy trying to better match Buick.

0 Member Pater Corpus 2 days ago Subaru used to have a base Impreza with steel wheels for about the same money. I just looked and it’s gone from their web site. Not sure when, but it was in the last year. Lame.

2 NephewOfBaconator 2 days ago Reply to  Pater Corpus Toyota will still sell you a Corolla LE with steelies if you’ve got a thing for hub caps.

1 Member Pater Corpus 2 days ago Reply to  NephewOfBaconator I got some spinners in the attic

1 Member Nsane In The MembraNe 2 days ago I think these are more or less filling the Altima void, because holy shit are the ones I encounter in the wild driven maniacally. My wife and I were nearly sent off of this mortal coil by one doing 90 in a 55 that blasted clean through a red light a few weeks ago. The macabre humor I find in that is these things are SLOW…so you know whoever is doing 30 over in them has had their foot to the floor for like 10 consecutive seconds.

You really have to want to drive antisocially in one of these, but Americans uhhhhh…find a way.

4 Spikedlemon 2 days ago Reply to  Nsane In The MembraNe Interesting, I’ve notices that between Corollas (base model), Accords, and mix of Tesla ModelY/3s have been ones that I have to keep an eye on lately. The Teslas scare me as they’re usually doing stupid at high-speeds.

1 Anonymous Person 1 day ago Reply to  Nsane In The MembraNe Our 2024 Trax LS is definitely not slow. Out of the 6 vehicles in our fleet it has by far the smallest engine but is definitely the fastest 0-60 and 1/4 mile, as far as I can tell, anyway.

1 Member Taargus Taargus 1 day ago Reply to  Nsane In The MembraNe You live in the DMV right? Based on my experience any reasonably priced car is treated like a fucking missle down there.

1 Member Nsane In The MembraNe 1 day ago Reply to  Taargus Taargus Right you are, although the homicidal Trax we encountered was in North Carolina

0 Member Taargus Taargus 1 day ago Reply to  Nsane In The MembraNe Yeah that… also isn’t surprising.

1 RAMbunctious 2 days ago I love the look of these, but the fuel mileage seems abysmal for what it is.

I wonder what the take rate was on those lower trims, it could be that not having them could save some money by simplifying production, though whether or not that savings ends up in GM’s pocket or the customer’s remains to be seen.

0 *Jason* 2 days ago Reply to  RAMbunctious I’ve rented one a couple of times and averaged in the low 30s in mixed driving. Seems about right to me for a non-hybrid.

As to the LS trim, I’m sure take rate was low. Even Hertz the rental car companies avoid base models these days. This car is also coming from Korea so the tariff rate went from 0 to 15%. Cutting the low or no margin base trim makes sense when costs go up by thousands per vehicle.

2 Anonymous Person 1 day ago Reply to  RAMbunctious We get 32-37 mpg with ours over the last three years and 10,000 miles.

No complaints for a small wagon that’s not a hybrid.

1 4jim 2 days ago “a safe, warrantied, easy-to-finance new car” is getting harder to find. Used is also not always the perfect alternative these days either. I miss cheap new hatchbacks and small trucks.

4 Spikedlemon 2 days ago Reply to  4jim Ease of financing?

I’m sure Stellantis has got a 96month deal on a HEMI powered RAM or Jeep with payments that you can compare against the price of avocado toast

1 Bill Loney 2 days ago Reply to  Spikedlemon They have folks who adjust your will for your car loan terms. So that’s nice.

0 Spikedlemon 2 days ago GM is exiting a market?

Quick, put all your chips into it being the new hotness.

2 Member 4moremazdas 2 days ago The digital gauge cluster is now hoodless,

Wow, ok, glad to see Chevy is not reading any of my comments on this esteemed web-blog.

10 Sid Bridge 2 days ago I’m not surprised to see the Trax with a revised nose, updated taillights and a more engaging rear treatment. After all, Chevy is always looking for ways to cover their Trax.

17 Member Nick Fortes 2 days ago Reply to  Sid Bridge Boo this man!

1 Sid Bridge 2 days ago Reply to  Nick Fortes No, they’re saying Boo-urns

8 Member JJ 2 days ago Reply to  Sid Bridge this is a really great day for simpson’s references. Everything’s coming up Milhouse!