The Chevrolet Trailblazer wins in the space department but lacks in speed and torque
The Chevrolet Trailblazer is huge; so huge that in the middle of an alliterative attack I debated between dubbing it a ‘ponderous pachyderm’ or a ‘lumbering leviathan’. I have decided to stick with the latter, for a couple of reasons. First, and quite obviously, its size. And the second is that the last adjective one should use with the Trailblazer is ‘fast’. It isn’t.
But that is not to denigrate this car, the Trailblazer, much more than the Endeavour is an all-American car. To use an human analogy, this is the Brock lesnar of cars. Well, it would be had it had a punchier engine. But that is not the Trailblazer’s biggest drawback. For that, we have to come back to the Trailblazer’s immense size.
Many of my friends are immensely jealous of my job. And true, being an automotive journalist is to lead an extremely pampered life, yet it is not as simple as it sounds. Swapping cars on a regular basis, particularly ones you have to live with even for a few days is not easy. I call it the ‘diagonal’ challenge. Every time you change cars the first challenge is to learn the diagonal, just how big a car is. And on the Trailblazer, that is a challenge particularly on the smaller colony roads in and around Delhi.
That, more than engine power and braking is a major consideration of how you drive a car particularly in a city, with motorcycles swarming around and jaywalking being a championship sport. Of course, it takes a few kilometers to figure out how the accelerator and brakes respond and then you take a couple of corners aggressively to figure out cornering. You can skip the cornering tests on something like the Trailblazer, because well, have you seen an elephant corneringIJ I haven’t.
That said, once you are aware of the car’s size and drive accordingly, there are few surprises. It does not wallow from side to side and while the car takes some time to build up speed it feels rather comfortable. The Trailblazer does not really lend itself to playing around too much if you are behind the wheel. Indeed, as such, if you have a driver with a leaden right foot, may I suggest the Trailblazer.
Inside the car, the sense of space again comes to the fore. Given that most of us in India grew up in small econo-hatches, it feels alien to be able to stretch out your legs in the rear seats. The third row in this car is quite usable and the middle bench in particular feels very nicely padded. The instrument dials seem oddly tiny for this car, the dials to size ratio for this car seem like the Diplodocus’ brain to size ratio. The information display is limited and the ‘My link’ system while capable, seems a generation older than the systems on rival cars.
So to reiterate, this car is large, very large indeed. And for its size, it is not that expensive coming in at around Rs27 lakh. Which given its size is a steal one would think, or is itIJ There are actually quite a few problems with the Trailblazer. The first is the Ford Endeavour and then a couple of Japanese issues. The Endeavour is actually slightly larger than the Trailblazer but because they have integrated their engine and gearbox better, even the 160PS 2.2-litre Ford Endeavour feels faster than the Trailblazer. In fact, Ford Endeavour 4x2 version is cheaper than the Trailblazer and the top-spec 4x4 not much more expensive. Given that the Trailblazer lacks a 4x4 model, it does not have any pricing power over its American rival.
And then there is the market-leading Toyota Fortuner, which isn’t perfect but is large, relatively powerful and spacious as well, and it is a 4x4. Though that said, if size is what you want with three rows of comfort then you should go to a Toyota showroom, look at the Fortuner and buy the second generation Innova. Spacious with a practical third row, tremendously reliable and cheaper. It does not pretend to be a SUV, but you really can’t tell. So given the competition and its sluggish performance, is the Chevrolet Trailblazer worth investing your money inIJ It is really difficult to make a case out here.