Here's the baby elephant in the room.
How is life with a 3 cylinder? Not that bad. The wee thing only makes 137 hp, but its max torque is on tap at 2,500 rpm and believe or not there's torque steer here and that juice carton was able to chirp the 19" Continental winter tires. It's plenty peppy around town and on urban highways, humming a "½ 911" tune, giving it personality. At a steady pace, the Trax is as silent as a luxury car, hearing no wind, tire or engine noise.
The limitations come during a full-on on-ramp or passing lane attack, where foot meets the carpet and go "that's all ya got?" Not an ideal 2-laner, but the Trax is far, far better at highway speeds than the lame Kicks will ever be.
Fueled on regular, this 3-pot, like all 3-pots, drinks like a large 4-banger. My observed avg in the cold was 9.0 l/100 km, and the lifetime value on Trip 2 was 8.2, inline with NRCan stats.