#ChevroletBlazer

Today we feature a 1989 Chevrolet Blazer off-road rig that needs some work but could be a fun rig to take to your local off-road park.

The 2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV will be added to the Chevy lineup as the brand tries to increase its presence in the EV market.

It will include a SS performance version. Traditionalists, clutch those pearls.

Chevrolet plans on showcasing a 1977 K5 Blazer converted over to all-electric propulsion for SEMA360, foreshadowing the Electric Connect and Cruise package General Motors hopes on selling in the latter of 2021. But it would first like to take the public’s temperature on the concept by surveying SEMA attendees interested in building their own electric projects before finalizing its “eCrate” offering.

That makes the modified Chevrolet Blazer-E a proof of concept to help customers realize what kind of projects might be possible and get the creative juices flowing — something which never seems to carry over when it comes to naming EVs.

Today’s Rare Ride represents a landmark for the Oldsmobile brand and a somewhat unsuccessful luxury badge experiment for General Motors.

Let’s check out the rarely seen first-generation Oldsmobile Bravada.

The mild content changes coming to Chevrolet’s midsize Blazer for 2021 were the talk of the town last month, though it’s entirely possible people were talking about Blazer for a very different reason…

Regardless, one of the changes not talked about by either the public or General Motors is something first aired by the EPA.

Putting aside your author’s own predilection for traditional sedans (a kink shared by many a TTAC resident, but fewer and fewer buyers), one can understand why General Motors canned its Chevrolet Sonic, Cruze, Volt, and Impala, and why Buick stands to become a utility-only brand come 2021.

Less understandable, especially after last week, is why one newish model arrived in its present form. And it seems some people at GM are wondering that, too.

In addition to being a gearhead, I’m a sports fan.

The long-time play-by-play man for my favorite baseball team called it quits a year or two ago, presumably deciding the golf course was more appealing than the broadcast booth as he approached his eighth decade of life.

This gentleman, long ago given the nickname of Hawk, had a whole bunch of catchphrases in his verbal toolbox. One of them was “right size, wrong shape” – meant to describe a foul ball that traveled home run-worthy distance but landed on the wrong side of the foul pole.

And this particular Hawkism came to mind when I tested the 2019 Chevrolet Blazer last year. It does a lot right – but the price made me blanch.

With last week’s tentative agreement between the United Auto Workers and General Motors, the end of the now six-week-long strike seemed closer than ever. GM hourly workers in the U.S. have until the end of the week to decide whether to approve the contract deal; if it gets the thumbs-up, the strike’s over.

Amid all of this labor news came a couple of tidbits, both of which stand to make the UAW happy. The first involves a resurrected nameplate built in Mexico, the other, a defunct GM brand that didn’t survive the company’s recession-era bankruptcy.

Chevrolet’s Blazer, a resurrected midsize crossover many claim fails to uphold the prior Blazer’s memory, will gain a new powerplant for 2020, but naysayers could easily find a problem in GM’s decision-making here, too.

Thanks to order guides, we now know what you’ll pay to get behind the wheel of a 2020 Blazer outfitted with the tweener turbocharged 2.0-liter four-cylinder.

Sleeper enthusiasts have a space in their heart reserved for General Motors. While the company’s most famous performance vehicles have typically been difficult to ignore, there was an era where some of its meanest models flew below the radar. This peaked in 1991 with the GMC Syclone pickup and Typhoon SUV — both of which played host to a 4.3-liter LB4 turbo V6 that could give high-end exotics a run for their money in a drag race.

While each of GMC’s unassuming monsters had a tragically short lifespan, evaporating by 1993, Specialty Vehicle Engineering (SVE) announced it would be bringing back the Syclone as a limited-edition “modern classic” earlier this year. Now the company is saying it’ll happily do the same for the Typhoon if General Motors decides to hand over the Blazer to GMC.

The jury’s out on whether General Motors will foist an SS version of its new-for-2019 Chevrolet Blazer on Americans, but some consumers stand to get an XL.

An extended version of the midsize crossover is in development, adding enough mass to the vehicle’s rear for the automaker to squeeze in an extra row of chairs. The vehicle would split the difference between the existing Blazer and full-size, three-row Traverse, but don’t expect to see it at a dealership anytime soon.

You can see Canada from the top of Detroit’s Comerica Park, but the warm, low-labor-cost lands south of the Rio Grande lie far below the horizon. It’s not surprising that, as workers at a General Motors plant sitting just 3.5 miles from Comerica prepare for possible closure and job loss, GM’s decision to prominently feature a new Mexican-built vehicle at the stadium ruffled feathers on both sides of the U.S.-Canada border.

On Saturday, the controversial newcomer was quietly whisked away.

Indeed, so jazzed are these enthusiasts, they’ve created a rendering of a hypothetical Blazer SS to compete with the very real Ford Edge ST. If you’re already thinking this vehicle boasts canary yellow paint with wide, black striping, fear not — your assumptions were bang-on.

It’s an interesting idea, given that Ford’s Edge blows the existing Blazer out of the water in ST guise, but the merits of waging a hot tweener crossover war are debatable. And the vehicle itself might not be doable.

“It came without ribbons. It came without tags. It came without packages, boxes or bags.”

— Dr. Suess, The Grinch Who Stole Christmas

2019 Chevrolet Blazers are available for purchase at dealership near you. No, really, they are. Like, right this second. You could buy one. Some people already have. This is interesting because it’s pretty much impossible to find a review of one anywhere on the internet. A search for “Chevrolet Blazer Reviews” brings you to some news of the initial auto show reveal, and that’s about it.

To you, the TTAC reader and automotive enthusiast, this news probably doesn’t rock you to your core. But there’s a group of people that are wringing their hands nervously about this product launch.

The journosaurs.

Sporting two rows of seating, front-wheel drive as a starting point, and a historical name sure to anger Bowtie brand diehards, the 2019 Chevrolet Blazer revealed itself in June and almost immediately fell from view (and conversation). Compare the nameplate’s return to that of the yet-unseen Ford Bronco, which generated gigatons of buzz in the months and years preceding its upcoming reveal.

The Blazer name’s resurrection, unlike that of the Bronco, wasn’t designed to signal the return of the same vehicle. Chevy had a hole in its utility lineup — created by the newly downsized Equinox and generously sized Traverse — in need of filling. While the sizing seems correct, many took exception to the vehicle being just another a unibody brossover. The appeal of name recognition tipped the decision makers at GM into dusting off a nameplate easily recognized by anyone who lived and breathed in North America during the past 40 years. Purists be damned.

As for pricing, to best battle its midsize(ish) competitors, GM decided on a very predictable base MSRP for its reborn Blazer.