Chevrolet Trailblazer: the wildcard alternative
OUT ON the highway the Trailblazer, indeed, forges a new path thanks to its impressive high-speed cruising manners.
The SUV market is getting crowded indeed, but there’s to be no abatement of buyers flocking to and buying one. There are currently seven 7-seat SUVs in the market, from Japanese (Toyota Fortuner, Mitsubishi Montero Sport, Isuzu Alterra) to Korean (KIA Sorrento, Hyundai Santa Fe), and now American (Ford Everest and Chevrolet’s all-new Trailblazer) manufacturers.
With rising fuel costs, perpetual threats of flash floods, growing families, a booming economy plus the growth of tourism, it’s no wonder why this segment is growing and remains to be popular; traditional segments, particularly the compact sedans, continue to shrink and lose relevance.
Chevrolet’s Trailblazer is an impressive SUV. The interior space is pretty good; refinement and comfort is impressive, and there’s a mighty big stonking engine displacing 2.8 liters, packed with CRDi and VGT technology, allowing the Trailblazer to produce 180 ps and a mind-blowing 470 Newton-Meters of torque when equipped with the 6-speed automatic 4-wheel-drive transmission.
The Trailblazer also comes with Chevrolet’s Dynamic Driving Technology, which means: ABS-EBD equipped brakes with Brake Fade Assist and Cornering Brake Control, Hill Descent Control and Hill Start Control, Traction Control and Engine Drag Control. With all these, the Trailblazer clearly puts itself ahead of the competition in terms of technology and gadgets, ensuring a safer, more capable and more confident driving experience regardless of road and weather conditions.
Dual airbags help keep you safe should all these electronic aids fail to keep you on the straight, true and narrow path—be it uphill, downhill or mildly sideways.
Tough workhorse
SHALE leather covers everything.
The Trailblazer is also a rear workhorse, with a 3-ton towing capacity on a braked trailer, an 800-mm wading depth, handy for all but the most intense flash floods and an 8-crossmember ladder frame chassis, you know this truck is built really tough.
OK, so we’ve looked through the specs sheet. But another crucial thing: How is it to drive then? Impressive comes to mind, as well as refined.
After a really tiring long flight home from Europe, Chevrolet kindly offered to have their driver pick me up and turn over the test unit to me. A combined 18-hour flight (including stop-overs between connecting flights) with extreme weather changes does not sit well with me, but thankfully the Trailblazer was a sight for sore eyes as I had missed driving on real roads (the roads in Europe are ridiculously perfect it annoys me).
Within minutes I felt perfectly at home back on Philippine roads and in the Trailblazer. The steering effort is light, not exactly for the sporty-minded driver, but important in a segment that is always slogging through traffic. There’s a hint of mushiness from the brake pedal, nothing that a brake fluid change and proper flushing and bleeding won’t fix, but nonetheless decent feedback and good modulation. And the brakes are important especially for the Trailblazer as the 470 Newton-Meters of torque means that if your front wheels are anything but straight, you’ll find yourself peeling out on every corner, the tail slowly but surely swinging out of line.
A quick dab on the brakes brings with some corrective steering lock reigns in the playful rear end quickly.
WITH power adjustable front seats and 60:40 split-folding rear seats allowing you to carry large objects
The SLA front suspension coupled with the 5-link rear also helps the Trailblazer gain ground on agility on the road, more so than its key competitors with a similar ladder-frame chassis.
Forges a new path
Out on the highway, the Trailblazer indeed forges a new path thanks to its impressive high-speed cruising manners. A drive down south helps show that the Trailblazer is well suited for relaxed yet high-speed long distance drives, and the roomy front seats means you’re less tired after a day’s worth of driving. In the city, the tall ride height, coupled with the soft-riding suspension gives comfort even when snaking across gridlocked EDSA during rush hour.
Just like all Chevrolets, seating position is excellent: bum is low, knees slightly high, with the steering wheel just slightly below your shoulders to provide an ergonomically correct and orthopedically safe position, much like most race cars. Drive on light-off-road conditions and pretty soon you’ll find yourself in more challenging terrain, such is the Trailblazer’s off-road prowess when we took it off onto some farm lands surveying potential properties to develop for my day job in the real-estate industry.
Inside, shale leather covers everything, with power adjustable front seats and 60:40 split-folding rear seats allowing you to carry large objects (expensive mountain bike anyone?) inside the Trailblazer with ease. The in-car entertainment system has 8 premium speakers and plays CDs, MP3s and connects to your mobile device to play music too. You’ve also got steering wheel mounted controls on the handsome 3-spoke steering wheel, while both second and third row seats can also fold completely flat to the floor, which means your Trailblazer can also double as a love shack in the middle of nowhere.
Impressive features, but there are some niggles. First is the diesel engine. While I love big, Brawny, torque diesel engines, the Trailblazer’s is noisy. The NVH permeates even inside the cabin, such that I find myself cranking up the volume when I’m tired and irritable at day’s end. The interior trim pieces also rattle at odd times in conjunction with the diesel engine, and the finish and feel of the plastics themselves are still not up to par with the Japanese and Korean SUV’s. Hopefully Chevrolet looks into this and improves on it soon.
I’d also quickly swap out the 265/60R18 OE all-terrain tires for something with a bit more highway/on-road performance orientation (and slightly bigger and fatter sized too) such as Nitto’s Dura Grapplers or Terra Grapplers because the A/T tires seem so much more sensitive and prone to slipping on wet and slick surfaces such as typical pebble-washed driveways and garages, and even some mall car parks.
I’m always asked for choices on what’s a good SUV to buy. Of course there are the usual (boring) suspects but I love giving wild card alternatives. The Trailblazer is now my favorite wild card suggestion to people.
