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| The alternative route around SA's 2nd most expensive tollgate requires high road clearance and at least difflock. |
Last month, Toyota sold 1 135 Fortuners and
exported another 153. The next best-selling big SUV locally was the Ford
Everest, with 359 units sold. And BMW sold 111 X5 models to new owners. By
comparison, the big Chev sold only 64 units.
Now, surely the 1 600 plus people who all opted for other brands
cannot all be wrong, so we asked if we perhaps missed something in rating the
Trailblazer so highly at Wheels in
terms of value.
Could it be that Chev’s dealer network is too small?
The Chev site reveals 149
dealers in SA, (11 in Namibia, six in Zim and two in Botswana), with 153
approved service centres across Africa.
These dealers manage Chevrolet’s Complete Care
after-sales package with a best-in-class five-year/120 000 km warranty and a
highly competitive five-year and 90 000 km service plan, and the network
compares to the almost 200 Toyota dealers across southern Africa, so it can’t be
the dealer network.
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| Hill? What hill? |
Maybe 500 Nm is just not enough power?
The X5 also makes 500 Nm and the Fortuner and
Everest make less, so power is not the problem.
Could it be
fuel economy? After a 1 400-km trip, my average consumption was
8,7 l/100 km, which is already good, but my best — recorded while travelling
slowly in 4-high mode over a rough dirt and sand road — was an excellent
7,4 l/100.
This is quite a bit better than Chev’s official
combined fuel-consumption figure of 9,5 l/100 km.
Perhaps the seven-seater wagon is too soft
off-road?
After smoothly going over rocks, sand and
eventually knee-deep mud, we have to agree with Chev’s statement that no other
body-on-frame SUV on the market can match its proven 2,8 litre Duramax
Turbo-diesel engine when it comes to torque output, and that even the toughest
off-road challenges becomes a walk in the park for the Trailblazer.
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What about on-road then —
is it a sluggish, bumpy
ride typical of good off-roaders? I did not test the claimed acceleration
from 0 to 100 km/h in about 11 seconds (you don’t get excellent consumption with
a heavy foot) but the ’blazer scoots from 60 km to 80 km in five seconds to pass
trucks. Around corners, the more expensive X5 and Everest sit a bit better in
the hairpins, but the Traiblazer hunkers down solidly on tar and it is simply
fantastic on the rough, where its electronic stability system just smirked at
all my efforts to induce a tail swing on pebbly dirt roads.
After having a German lane departure system jerk my steering wheel
at high speed, I especially appreciated the freedom Chev gives its drivers to
drive, with its lane departure system only giving a few beeps should you cut
your corners.
How about comfort inside?
Well, there is adjustable air conditioning for
passengers in all three rows, a literally cool feature not seen in any of the
other utes in this price range, and only the Everest has a third row of seats
that folds down faster.
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| While not quite as firm as an X5 or Everest, here the Trailblazer handled like it was on rails... oh, wait, it was! |
All seats are clad in leather and the luggage capacity starts at
1 229 litres with the third row down. As with all seven-seater utes, with the
third row occupied, you need a trailer for the luggage as there is only space
for four small bags in the 205-litre gap between the seat and the rear door. I
did not have a trailer but an owner told me his ’blazer just loves towing,
thanks to Hill Descent Control and Trailer Sway Control.
Other driver aids include forward collision alert, side blind-zone
alert, rear cross-traffic alert and — my favourite — tyre pressure
monitoring.
Entertainment wise, General Motors’ second-generation MyLink system
also links to any phone with three clicks. The on-board satellite navigation
system also managed to steer me through 300 km of unmarked dirt roads in deep
rural KZN to really live up to the car’s name.
And theft?
After its lowly sales, the only other category in which the
Trailblazer scores lower than the competition is in the number of vehicles
hijacked.
In a week that saw both Toyota and Ford lose SUVs in robberies at
dealerships, no Chev was touched. At the border to Mozambique at Kosi Bay,
Tracker’s officers told me this model is simply not on their radars.
After spending a week in the Trailblazer over back roads of every
description, I still agree with Chev that their Trailblazer is a very attractive
proposition among the big sport utes, with its intelligent tumble flat
seven-seat configuration, generous equipment, excellent safety levels and
established engines backed by a best-in-class warranty.
Which leads me to conclude, maybe all those buyers of other brands
are, in fact, wrong.
