Chevy Trax Surprises, Kia Telluride Shines

Chevy Trax Review Begins

SPEAKER_00 0:04

All right. Time now for this hour's car review. I had a chance to drive the 2026 Chevy Tracks. This thing is made in the Shangwan, Korea province. Oh, yeah. And it comes, and I didn't know that. Have you been there? I have not. Have you?

unknown 0:21

No.

SPEAKER_00 0:22

No. Available trim levels. My mind was racing at about 100 miles an hour to come up with something, and I did, but I can't repeat it on the air.

Trims, Design, And Interior Details

SPEAKER_00 0:30

Available trim levels, LS, one RS, LT, two RS, and Active. Active is the new model. I had the two RS. So pretty much loaded up. Small SUV, seats five. It was all new in 2024. Large split grille with squinty headlights. It's very attractive. Side sculpting is just the right amount with upswept rear glass. Small rear hatch window with a sunshade over it, and attractive lighting back there in the back. Wheels, they change with the trim level that you select. What I liked about it, the overall design in my mind gets high marks. I really did like this. What could use improvement? I'm not exactly sure what the roof rack rails are for anymore. It's just a look because they don't serve any purpose other than looking from the side, you can see a rail up there. But why? I don't know. I don't get it. They just don't make sense. Well, anyway. Interior highlights. Um, optional big infotainment screen, one of the best, and it's one of the biggest as well. Our RS trim had attractive red accents uh stitched on the seats and piping, which adds some pop to the interior. Easy to use and find dash controls. Steering wheel controls are not complicated. I am glad to report. Cargo room, more than you would expect in a small SUV like this. What I liked again, high marks overall, including comfortable seats. What could use improvement? Nothing. Here's a killer. I really surprised.

Three-Cylinder Powertrain And MPG

SPEAKER_00 2:13

All right. A 1.2 liter three-cylinder turbocharged engine powers this thing. A three-cylinder. You wouldn't know it. 137 horsepower. You're thinking, well, this thing is gutless. No, it's not. 162 pound feet of torque, six-speed automatic transmission, and that combination actually works very well. You'd think that the thing is a slug from the stoplight. It is not. Uh tow rating, 1,263 pounds on a three-cylinder turbocharged motor. And this I really like. Miles per gallon, rated 28 city, 32 highway for a combined of 30 miles per gallon. I got 29.3 miles per gallon over 477.5 miles. And 90% of that is driven on the on the uh highway. What I liked, zippy, despite that small engine, and it gets good gas mileage. What could use improvement? Maybe a little

Ride, Drivetrain Limits, And Pricing

SPEAKER_00 3:13

more power as an option, but why? Because then you kill the price point. Riding handling, smooth and comfortable. Yes, he said that. What could use improvement? It only comes in two-wheel drive. Now, here in Houston, good, because we get to save the money on not having a four-wheel drive. Now, if you have the thing in someplace that's got a snow, well, that could be a problem. But uh then you've got other options when it comes to that in the Chevrolet lineup. Uh this two-wheel drive model keeps the price down. Four-wheel drive, again, for the snow belt. Base trim price, $25.3. Price is tested, $28,385. Base model price, $21,600. Nice base model price. Nice starter vehicle.

unknown 4:05

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 4:06

Uh uh competitors, Mazda CX30 starts at $25,975. The VW TAUS, $26.5, and the Chevy Trailblazer. And I say that because the Trailblazer is just a tiny bit bigger, but it does have a four-wheel drive option if that's what you want. It starts at $23,000, which again is a couple of thousand dollars more than the base model price of the Chevy tracks. Next week. All right.

Competitors And Buying Context

SPEAKER_00 4:38

Time now for Jeff's car culture. And today, Jeff talks about Vertipack Chevy Shipping. What is that? And you got to be careful when you say it.

SPEAKER_01 4:51

Okay. Well, uh, the Chevy Vega was a subcompact car sold by Chevrolet during the 70s.

Car Culture: VertiPak History

SPEAKER_01 4:59

70s and 77 mile years. The goal was to take a new Japanese, European, small fuel efficient car with an American-made uh body, innovative features, and all kinds of good stuff, but it had to be competitively priced. Major cost uh efficiencies of the Vega uh gained through a quick vehicle development process. It had aluminum engine, it had advanced automation in the assembly plant. Uh getting the Vega to the dealers needed to find a cheaper way to ship the cars. So what they did was uh typical car in the 70s could, rail car that is, could fit about 15 vehicles due to its compact size. It was possible to fit 18 of the Vegas in that same configuration. It was a small gain, but not good enough because one of the things was that to ship a Vega from Lordstown, Ohio assembly plant to the furthest point on the west coast was about 4,800 bucks. The car itself cost around two grand. So that was not very, very efficient. No. So what they did was uh the new method came from a form of what they call a VertiPak rail car developed by General Motors and Southern Pacific Railway. By placing the cars nose down, 30 cars could fit where 18 previously did. Getting those extra vehicles loaded into each rail car reduced shipping charges. However, it required additional rail car features and vehicle packaging. In order to have the Vega packaged in this, the new rail car design, each one was fitted with four removable cast steel sockets to the undercarriage. Plastic spacers were wedged beside the powertrain to prevent damage to the engine and transmission mounts. These were removed when the cars were unloaded. Yeah, right. The rail ramp doors were opened and closed via forklift. What could go wrong there? Not only did the doors double as ramps, they also provided security from weather vandalism and theft. Something uh which the typical air, uh the typical tri-level racks were exposed to. Then uh Chevrolet Marketing wanted to put and tout the Vega as ready to drive off the Vertipak ramps without any fluid fills. Unfortunately, the cars were not meant to be suspended nose down for any length of time. Since the Vertipak shipment method was known early, Chevrolet engineers were able to design the Vega with this in mind. Now check this out. Engineers performed vibration and low speed crash testing to ensure Vegas did not sustain physical damage in the rail cars. They also included following the preventative of actually to prevent fluid spills and internal engine damage while the vehicle was vertical. An engine oil baffle prevented the oil from entering the number one cylinder. Battery filler caps were located on the edge of the battery. The battery prevent acid spilling. The carburetor float pole had a tube that drained into the vapor canister during shipping. Windshield washer bottles stood at a 45-degree angle. Nothing could go wrong with any of those. All these design considerations were meant to get the Vega to a market in a safe, efficient manner. In real life, the Vertipak system created challenges. Now, there's more to this story because they interviewed a lot of the rail people that did this, and there were a lot of problems. The doors failed, the uh forklifts jammed them up in there, damaged the vehicles, they fell back. So there was a lot of things that were not actually uh conducive to making this a proper way. They they saved some money, but in the long run, it cost them because of all the damages, they had to get the rail cars right, and then of course the the uh broken vehicles. So uh it was an e it was an event, it was an expense that they did, and for the seven years at the Vega, I don't know if it was cost effective or not.

SPEAKER_00 8:35

Well, you know, it wasn't that long ago that they shipped cars in open rail cars. Do you remember that? Yeah, oh my god, and they'd arrived to their destination. Dirty, broken, beat up. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:48

It looked like it looked like they'd gone through hell and back. And the ones that you see now that on the on the tracks that we have in the area, those were actually designed by General Motors. General Motors designed that for the theft, and I think they came out of Detroit doing that. So, and uh, you see the pictures there. That's just a little bit about what how they did it back in the 70s.

SPEAKER_00 9:04

Well, I vaguely remember the 70s, and uh we'll just leave it at that, shall we?

SPEAKER_01 9:10

All right, but you had two of them, you know that.

SPEAKER_00 9:12

Uh, yeah, well, yeah, two two Vegas. I thought you meant you had two seventies. No. Uh

Telluride Overview And Trims

SPEAKER_00 9:22

time now for uh an extra bonus car review this week. All right, because we didn't get to it last week, so we wanted to stick it in here right now. I had a chance to drive the 2025 Kia Telluride. Now, this is a three-row SUV, and I thought that this was interesting. The final assembly location is West Point, Georgia, made here in the US of A. Right. Available trim levels include the LX, the S, the EX, the SX, and the SX Prestige. What did I have? The SX Prestige, X Pro, V6, All-Wheel Drive, Plus, X-line, and X Pro. Wow. That's what it said on the window sticker. They had to make the window sticker extra big to get that out of the windows. Kind of a wraparound. Well, and can you imagine in the back of the car the the nomenclature back there? That you runs across the whole back of the car. This is a standard SUV. So it competes up there with the Chevy Suburban. This is a big SUV. Okay. Uh seats, including the driver, seven. All new in 2020. And here we go. Exterior features include

Design, Interior Tech, And Comfort

SPEAKER_00 10:42

modern, overall clean design with that familiar Kia pinched grill, wheels, and some trim change with the trim level that you choose. It does have a hockey stick rear lighting configuration back there with a sunshade over the back glass. All of the manufacturers seem to be doing that sunshade thing. Uh, dual exhaust tips on the lower right of the car. Maybe you can see it in this picture.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 11:10

Yep, there they are. Not dual exhaust, one on each side. Right. No, this is two on one right hand side. Um, what I liked, the clean look. Roof rack is old school and not necessary. I why why don't I just make it an option? I don't I don't understand. Do you how many people do you see going down the road with the luggage on top?

SPEAKER_01 11:31

Do you know the car I looked at before the Buick had that? It was a Toyota, and I said, That is the hideous thing. And the guy tried to sell me. I said, No, did you have one without a roof rack? They all come with roof racks. Mine actually has a style rack on it, but mine's different.

SPEAKER_00 11:45

Is that what they call it? A style rack?

SPEAKER_01 11:47

That's something that they invented. But go on, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.

SPEAKER_00 11:50

No, that's that's perfectly fine. Interior highlights, huge infotainment screen with easy-to-use controls, digital instrument cluster with white faces, which I thought was a nice touch. Comfortable seating surfaces, steering wheel-mounted controls are not overdone, which so many manufacturers tend to do these days. Very much so. Cargo trunk room, great. What I liked, uh the roominess and the quality materials, plus the well-placed controls. What could use improvement? How do you improve on that? Look at that. It's like a spaceship in there. It's beautiful.

V6 Performance, Economy, And Towing

SPEAKER_00 12:27

3.8 liter V6 motor in this that turns out 291 horsepower, 262 pound feet of torque, eight-speed automatic transmission. It will tow up to 5,500 pounds. All-wheel drive is standard on this model. The lower models, it's an option. It's got knobs, not knobs.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

It's got knobs on it.

SPEAKER_00 12:49

It's got knobs on it. Wow. Uh miles per gallon in the city. It's rated at 18 on the highway 23 for combined to 20. I got 22.2 miles per gallon over 426.6 miles. What I liked about it, the power is nicely matched with the eight-speed automatic transmission. I don't think you can improve on this. No turbo. Uh no. No turbo. No. Uh ride and handling, very compliant. It's lemo-like. What could use improvement? Uh ride lessons are available uh to many competitors.

SPEAKER_01 13:28

Oh, so they're going to take them to school on it. Yeah. So you uh you compare this to a suburban? I don't think it's that big.

SPEAKER_00 13:36

Well, it's it's it's three rows. Is it and uh your United States government uh they classify this, and this is is in the same classification as this.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

I think the suburban's actually gotten a little smaller compared to what it used to be.

Price, Rivals, And Final Verdict

SPEAKER_00 13:48

Well, base trim price 53,685. Price is tested 56,240. Now, the average overall price of a new car is now at $50,000. Wow, jeez. You can get into one of these base model price $36,390. Overall, I give it high marks. Competitors, Toyota Grand Highlander. That's the three-row starts at $44.2. The Subaru Ascent. Did Mars go away? The Subaru Ascent, uh, it starts at $39,995 and the Honda Pilot starts at $40,200. Now, this one again starts at $36,390. Uh, if you are into big SUV three rows, I would definitely shop this.

SPEAKER_01 14:38

The starting price isn't bad. No, it's affordable for starting.

SPEAKER_00 14:41

I would definitely shop that thing because uh I think that you're gonna be impressed. Whether you're impressed with the keel line or not, I I'm just telling you, somebody somebody that drove it for almost 500 miles, I can tell you that this is one nice vehicle. Good deal. All right. Okay. Hey, if you'd like to get