Chicago 2014: Chevrolet City Express Van Live Shots

Matt Fink
by Matt Fink

We’re on the floor at the Chicago show, checking out the new Transit Connect and NV200 competitor.



It appears a little larger than the Ford, with 122.7 square feet of cargo room. It’s 4 feet from the floor to the ceiling, and 7 feet from the seats to the tailgate. It should be fuel efficient as since it is powered by a 2.0 liter 131hp 4 cylinder with CVT. I asked if this would ever become a passenger vehicle but was told that is not in the plans at all, mostly because of all the additional safety concerns that go into making it a passenger vehicle. In fact, they rushed to get this together out of necessity from requests from current customers. It will be released this fall. They told me to think of it as 1/2 the size of the Chevy Express, but twice the gas mileage. The interior is basically a work van with lots of hard plastics. Although it wasn’t mentioned during the press conference, this is actually built by Nissan in Mexico and appears to be almost identical to the NV200. Think of it as the Chevy LUV for the twenty-first century tradesman.



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  • Corey Lewis Corey Lewis on Feb 07, 2014

    Yup that's a Nissan power mirror adjustment. The same one is in my M, and my mom's Pathfinder. I suspect the NV will have better resale value later.

  • Old Man Pants Old Man Pants on Feb 07, 2014

    It's tall, boxy, mostly empty and has a 4-banger. What's not to like? Will it be cheaper than the NV? Not much point to it otherwise. BTW, did they really decide to cut a dime or two by giving this CVT the same brake pedal as the MTs sold in the rest of the world? Now *that's* cheap.

  • ToolGuy First picture: I realize that opinions vary on the height of modern trucks, but that entry door on the building is 80 inches tall and hits just below the headlights. Does anyone really believe this is reasonable?Second picture: I do not believe that is a good parking spot to be able to access the bed storage. More specifically, how do you plan to unload topsoil with the truck parked like that? Maybe you kids are taller than me.
  • ToolGuy The other day I attempted to check the engine oil in one of my old embarrassing vehicles and I guess the red shop towel I used wasn't genuine Snap-on (lots of counterfeits floating around) plus my driveway isn't completely level and long story short, the engine seized 3 minutes later.No more used cars for me, and nothing but dealer service from here on in (the journalists were right).
  • Doughboy Wow, Merc knocks it out of the park with their naming convention… again. /s
  • Doughboy I’ve seen car bras before, but never car beards. ZZ Top would be proud.
  • Bkojote Allright, actual person who knows trucks here, the article gets it a bit wrong.First off, the Maverick is not at all comparable to a Tacoma just because they're both Hybrids. Or lemme be blunt, the butch-est non-hybrid Maverick Tremor is suitable for 2/10 difficulty trails, a Trailhunter is for about 5/10 or maybe 6/10, just about the upper end of any stock vehicle you're buying from the factory. Aside from a Sasquatch Bronco or Rubicon Jeep Wrangler you're looking at something you're towing back if you want more capability (or perhaps something you /wish/ you were towing back.)Now, where the real world difference should play out is on the trail, where a lot of low speed crawling usually saps efficiency, especially when loaded to the gills. Real world MPG from a 4Runner is about 12-13mpg, So if this loaded-with-overlander-catalog Trailhunter is still pulling in the 20's - or even 18-19, that's a massive improvement.
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