GM Bad Idea: Chevy S-10 TrailBlazer

GM Bad Idea: Chevy S-10 TrailBlazer

When the second-gen S10 Blazer came out in 1995, it was a pretty decent car. For a couple of years. Then competitors started coming out with much better cars, like the second-generation Explorer, the ’96 Pathfinder and the refreshed ’97 Jeep Cherokee.

As is customary, the arrival of better vehicles didn’t deter GM, and they continued to sell the ’95 Blazer virtually unchanged for years. Actually, that’s not entirely true. In 1998, to comply with federal regulations put in place four years earlier, the Blazer got a passenger airbag. Unfortunately, there were never any regulations on panel gaps, so the Blazer used GM’s typical rule of “one inch between everything.”

As we entered the new millennium, the Blazer sorely needed a redesign. Ford came out with a new Explorer in the spring of 2001. The Cherokee became the Liberty around the same time. The Toyota Highlander was out in 2000, and Honda was readying an SUV.

Unfortunately, GM wasn’t ready to debut a new Blazer. But, somewhere in the hallowed halls of the Renaissance Center, a mid-level product planner had an idea. Let’s keep selling the current car but give it the same name as the new car!

And so that’s what they did.

Beginning in 2000, you could buy the Blazer or the TrailBlazer. Both were, in fact, the same exact vehicle. The actual Chevrolet TrailBlazer, which was an entirely different vehicle, was still more than a year away. Of course, when it finally did arrive, the confusion started. Since we’re talking GM, the old TrailBlazer was vastly overproduced, so dealer lots were still full of them when the new TrailBlazer started showing up.

Imagine being a Chevrolet salesman in 2001: you have two models, both called TrailBlazer. One is new and hot; the other is old and crappy. Fortunately, we can be sure GM’s highly scrupulous dealer body would never try to talk a little old lady into the old TrailBlazer by telling her it’s the new one.

Here’s the real kicker: although Chevrolet ditched the S-10 Blazer’s TrailBlazer trim by 2002, the old Blazer stayed around until 2005. Yes, there are 2005 model S-10 Blazers out there. And some of them even have anti-lock brakes.

5 Responses to “ “GM Bad Idea: Chevy S-10 TrailBlazer”

  1. Pontiac 6000LE says:

    Parallel universes have recently been hypothesized, but known at GM for sometime now.

  2. Roberval says:

    The new Malibu looks exactly like the Ford Taurus; right down to the touch sceern interface called MyTouch (Ford = MyFordTouch). Also, the Malibu is a luxury car. The Pontiac Grand Prix was the only successful sports sedan of its day. Simply put, the vehicle has nothing to offer except for a touch sceern and an ipod connector. GM will NEVER catch up to the likes of Hyundai and Kia in not only quality, but in price and features. Its no wonder they went bankrupt.

  3. Ltd783 says:

    Wasn’t this bodystyle TrailBlazer sort of a Denali-like upscale trim pack? The pictured one looks pretty plain, but I seem to remember most of these having gold trim and wheels, and maybe some extra cladding or bumper covers. I also seem to remember either this or maybe a contemporaneous Denali having some pretty awful diamond leather stitching inside.

    • Doug DeMuro says:

      That was the Jimmy Diamond Edition!! Definitely worthy of a column all unto its own. Awful car in every way, though I still lust for them. That could be the title of a column too.

      Yes – this was intended to be the ‘upscale’ Blazer. They didn’t have gold wheels but they did have gold accents on the wheels, at least if I remember right. Not sure why this one doesn’t have them, though those are the right wheels (they were unique to that model), so maybe we both remember wrong!

      • Ltd783 says:

        That Jimmy definitely needs a write up. Just looked at pics online, that did not age well to say the least…

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