buying a car

GM plans smaller cars for urban buyers

General Motors Corp., the world's largest automaker, plans to produce new, smaller Chevrolet cars that would compete with DaimlerChrysler AG's Smart models for younger buyers in North American cities. GM will unveil prototypes of the Trax and two other of the smaller cars April 4 at the New York International Auto Show, spokesman Michael Albano said today in an interview. The Detroit- based company hasn't decided which of the cars it will build, when they might be sold or where they would be produced. The so-called subcompacts will be about a foot shorter than the Chevrolet Aveo, which at 12.5 feet is the smallest model GM sells in North America. The Trax has a 1-liter engine, compared with the standard 1.6-liter on the Aveo. .