For those who loved their Blazers of the past put your hands in the air. I know there were so many hands in the air it looked like a wave when the action on the sports field stops being interesting. Why is that? Because the Chevrolet Blazer was one of the most appealing and appreciated SUVs that ever came to market. The Blazer filled a hole in the market by giving us an SUV that was smaller than the Suburban and larger than an S-10, as well as the function needed in a vehicle in the mid-range of the SUV market.
The word on the street is the Blazer is coming back. The information is the Blazer will arrive in 2016 as a K-5 model and be offered in either a full size two-door model based off the current Tahoe or it will be a two and four-door offering that shows up with the size and platform the S-10 used to utilize, but will more likely be based on the current Colorado platform. Another discussion on the table seems to be the possibility of having a diesel model offered in the Blazer, which will give even more power than the gasoline powered engines.
With the advances in engine technology and improvements of all-wheel drive systems, the Blazer makes great sense to bring back and offer. The Blazer of old was an affordable offering that could be highly upgraded in order to gain whatever equipment and options were desired. Blazers were seen in many areas of the country, showing up as great off road vehicles that could be equipped almost as heavily as a Jeep Wrangler, and fantastic on road vehicles full of great manners to bring the soccer players to the field on the weekends.
With the idea of Chevrolet bringing back the Blazer, and the possibility of offering a diesel engine, the other hushed utterings are of an eight-speed transmission, HD axles and many other amazing components. Of course if Chevrolet brings this beast back to burden, it’s going to have to live up to and fill the shoes that have been left behind by the Blazer models of old. Those are in fact very big shoes, but if any manufacturer can bring back an well-thought of namesake it would be General Motors who give us the Suburban, Escalade, Tahoe, and many other great SUVs to choose from, so this may not be a huge challenge for them.
Whether the rumors become true or not, just the thought of a new Chevy Blazer prowling the streets again puts smile on my face. If it shows up with the performance and power that has been found in many of the other offerings from GM, other manufacturers are going to have to find something to keep up and show up with something that will even come close to competing with a trail ready fully loaded Chevrolet Blazer that will do just as the name suggests; blaze a trail right back into our hearts and minds.