SPY PICS: Holden Trax spotted in Port Melbourne

What you're looking at here are the first local pics of Holden's new Trax, the car that will underpin the company's three-tiered SUV model range next year.

The lightly disguised car pictured indicates Holden will stick with its own corporate grille, rather than migrate to a Chevy-style bifurcated unit, as the Colorado 7 is expected to do. While such details as headlights and tail lights for the production Trax remain clouded in mystery, the car is clearly close to ready for the local market, even bearing a masked-up Lion badge on the grille.

The look is consistent with the artist's impressions provided by Holden last month, when John Elsworth, the company's Executive Director of Sales, Marketing and Aftersales, revealed in a press release that the Trax would be sold here in 2013. And if the Trax sports an exclusively Holden nose, then the facelifted Cruze is likely to follow suit, particularly as the hatch and sedan are built in Holden's Elizabeth plant in South Australia. Moving to a Chevy grille would send the wrong signals to the public, at a time when the media persists in reporting that local manufacturing is under threat, despite Holden confirming earlier in the year that Elizabeth would remain open through the remainder of this decade at least.

Holden plans for the Trax to sell alongside the Captiva and the Colorado 7, and broaden Holden's coverage to three volume-selling SUV market segments in Australia. When it goes on sale next year, the Trax will also go head to head with Ford's EcoSport. Both the baby crossovers will arrive in Australia next year, with the Ford odds-on favourite to reach the market first.

Mr Elsworth was quoted saying in last month's press release that Holden engineers are subjecting the Trax to local testing as part of the global R&D program for the car. It was bound to happen that the upcoming new model would be seen in the field — or in this case a service station forecourt. The Trax was filling up not far from Holden's home base at Fishermans Bend, while motoring.com.au staff were photographing another vehicle. Our photographer along for the ride snapped off four shots of the car before the diminutive Holden made tracks.

Presumably Opel will be watching how Holden fares with the Trax in the local market, in light of the burgeoning sales in this market segment. If the Trax makes it big locally, expect Opel to bring in the Mokka, which is built on the same platform.

Photos courtesy John Wilson

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