Assembling cars is a lot of work. Fortunately, the process has been streamlined since Ransom Eli Olds built the world's first automotive assembly line in 1901, and the issues "where does this go?" and "how much do I tighten this bolt?" have been solved through automation. But there are some important steps of the assembly process that still must pass through human hands, and as it turns out, mistakes can be made—just like Chevrolet recently forgot to adhere drivetrain-denoting badges to multiple Chevy Trax crossovers.
Speaking of manual jobs performed by workers along the assembly line, affixing badges by hand must be one of them because as GM Authority points out, a number of Trax have been sent home without their all-wheel-drive badges. Oh no!
GM has since published a service bulletin (A202321370) for dealers to handle the installation of the missing AWD badges for affected vehicles. However, it's worth noting that there's a very specific subset of vehicles that were included in the service bulletin.
Both 2020 and 2021 Trax are included, but only if purchased in the LT-trim configuration, provisioned with all-wheel-drive (obviously), and equipped with the optional Redline package. And on top of this, only vehicles that are currently on dealer lots were included in the bulletin, meaning that you really needed to have hit the lottery in order to have one of the affected units. And chances are, you'd never actually know if your vehicle was affected unless the dealer told you before pickup.
I personally like de-badged vehicles, but I could understand why people would be upset that their vehicles didn't have specific up-badging installed. This is especially true when they paid $995 for the Redline package, which adds special 18-inch black wheels, blacked-out vehicle moldings, as well as special black and red badges—including the missing AWD badge. Model year 2020 owners are probably even more upset, as their upgrade cost an additional $355 than in 2021 for the same exact upgrades.
This may seem like a tiny problem, but as one Reddit user points out, it might be the tip of the iceberg on vehicle quality. Consumer Reports recently ranked the Trax as the vehicle with the fourth-worst owner satisfaction out of all new cars, which leaves a lot unsaid. And while we're hedging our bets that the badging snafu is unrelated to the owner satisfaction, it could point towards the reason why so many consumers aren't exactly satisfied with their purchase.
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