Test Drive Chevrolet Blazer 5 Doors 1997 - 2005 SUV
Find for practical
The movement along the surprise highway did not prevent. Not bad aerodynamics and excellent noise insulation protect ears from third-party sounds. The car is well holding the road at speeds up to 110 km / h, not forcing the driver to strain high. The day on which the Chevrolet Blazer test was scheduled was rarely. From nights in the sky began to gather a suspicious type of cloud and tuchci, to the morning managed to consolidate into a solid gray veil. The probability of rain and other atmospheric phenomena increased with each hour, so we decided to hurry and implement the entire planned program in the first half of the day.
Start.
In the parking lot of the official dealer, the car was already waiting for a car dark green metallic.
Having finished with formalities, we throw things into the back seat and sit down, or rather, we enter - so wide and high doorways, in the car. Turn the key in the ignition lock, and in response silence. Immediately remember that on many American cars installed a kind of blocking: the motor is started only when the brake pedal is pressed. We try to zero effect. And if you drown a clutch pedal? Earned! While the engine warms, we manage to adjust the seats and mirrors. The driver without difficulty finds a convenient position for himself, the most time to spend on finding a common language with the back of the seat, the position of which changes the stepped and sharply. Along the way, we note that at idle there are practically no vibrations, which for an eight-glitched four-cylinder engine is quite unusual. The blazer motor is very damaged - it is obvious that when it is configured, the priority parameter was torque, not power. It is almost possible to touch on the machine. At first, we encountered such a problem: the box is working clearly, the movement of the lever is insignificant, however, when switching from the second to the third to the lever, you have to make a significant effort. Yes, and whether the terate transmission is turned on, or the fifth. The method of samples and errors found out the box work algorithm: it turns out that the first gear is slightly away, and the third - just opposite the second, so the annoying confusion arose when they move to the fifth immediately from the second transmission.
In move. In general, it is slowly moving on the blazer around the city - one pleasure. Soft and informative pedals, powerful brakes, in any case, much more efficient than on VAZ front-vents. The visibility from the driver's seat is simply magnificent due to the high planting, a large area of \u200b\u200bbody glazing and the impressive size of the outer mirrors. The hydraulic pipe pump makes it easier for maneuvering in the stream, and the energy-intensive suspension reveals most of the road coating defects. Energetic riding Nothing other than fast fatigue: In turnings, the steering is annoyed by insufficient reactive effort, the rear spring suspension (we will not forget that Blazer is built on the CHEVROLET S-10 pickup) at high speed, it starts to respond hard to pits and junctions, and Body rolls with weak side support for comfort seats do not add.
Salon.
We leave for a country chassis, and now the time appears to look around. The car's salon is great in itself, and the high ceiling and bright shades of materials give it lightness and airiness, allowing psychologically to relax. The interior stylistics corresponds to the image of the machine - many details are made deliberately robes, but at the same time are made of high-quality materials. There are no special complaints to the control authorities: the steering wheel and long, as on the domestic classics, the gearbox lever is convenient, all four pedals (the estate brake is delayed) are separated for optimal distances. The dashboard is fragrant and, it is quite possible, it is perfectly readable. The ventilation and conditioning unit of the cabin is made in the form of standard three rotating handles; Writing is that that of them, which is responsible for adjusting the pressure of the air, is rotated by the end and therefore requires a certain addiction. But then it is easy to find on the touch. It must be said that the air conditioner, however, like the central lock, the electric drives of mirrors and windows, Rings on the roof and alloy wheels are the belonging of a more expensive version - in the basic all this is not. To the left of the steering column is the head of the headlight. Also, not without tricks: dimensions and neighbor are included with one key, the far is different, and everything turns off the third together.
According to American ideology, Blazer is replete with all sorts of capacities for small things - there are deep pockets in the doors, and the cup holders between the front seats, and the glove bar, whose cover plays the role of a hiking table, and trusts the picture console on the ceiling, in which not only Four navigator lanterns, but also separate containers for points and documents. And its electronic compass is crowned, also reflecting the temperature of the intake air. True, the console enters the list of standard equipment only for the expensive version. Without asphalt.
The movement along the surprise highway did not prevent. Not bad aerodynamics and excellent noise insulation protect ears from third-party sounds. The car is well holding the road at speeds up to 110 km / h, not forcing the driver to strain high. With a further speed of speed, the design features of the machine and the bad quality of our highways are beginning to affect - sometimes you need to adjust the trajectory, and the car rearranges on large irregularities. And one more thing: after all, the backrest of the front seats is harsh. When, finally, it went raining, it was found that there is no right-wing padded switch at all, and the engine cleaner control is assigned to the left - as well as on Mercedes, the modes of their work change the rings turn. They suffered with the janitor of the rear door, until they found it button somewhere on the left, under the headlight control unit.
The rear-wheel drive blazer, in contrast to the all-wheel drive, an SUV is not in principle: it does not even have the locking of the rear inter-track differential. This is a one hundred percent five-door wagon with elements of increased passability, which should include a specially configured engine and transmission and large clearance. Therefore, it is much cheaper than the size of the Machines of Formula 4x4, and therefore, it is absolutely not logical from it any outstanding off-road qualities.
But we tried to ride through the hilly terrain. And that's what it turned out. First, the short first transmission, the torque motor and universal firestone tires with a developed pattern of the tread allow the blister to pass there, where the car is ordered. You can even let go of the gas pedal, and the car will independently deal with the relief of the ground or sandy road. To switch to the second transmission there is no meaning not the slightest - the engine is drawn on it worse, and at high speed in such conditions there is no need. Blazer is slowly, but very confidently climbs on the slopes and is as reliably descended down - sometimes it seems that the only restriction is the hitch properties of tires. However, to avoid excesses, it is necessary not to be carried away and all the time be on guard, because the diagonal hanging in the blink of an eye will carry the car. You just should be kept in mind that, at its essence Blazer, rather a regular car than the all-terrain vehicle, and for the machine with a drive on one axis it is capable of much on a lot. 
But the trunk !!! During our trip, we did not have to use another advantage of the car - his bottomless trunk. In everyday conditions, the volume of its covered soft curtain part is 455 liters, however, with a folded rear seats, the cargo capacity of the machine exceeds two cubic meters. Note that the rear seat folds in a ratio of 1: 2, 2: 3 or entirely, it moves forward, and the resulting space between the horizontally stacked back and the trunk floor is automatically covered with a plastic curtain, so that an absolutely smooth floor is obtained. The lid of the trunk is made by lifting, unlike the American version, where it is broken, consisting of two horizontal flaps.
Dossier.
Once it came to the differences, it will not be superfluous to remember the model of the model. Chevrolet S-10 Blazer appeared in 1984 as an answer to compact SUVs of competitors from a large triple - Ford Bronco II and the newest Jeep Cherokee. The car was offered in three-door short-pass and five-door long-dual versions, with a full either rear-wheel drive and the only motor - 4.3-liter V-shaped
Six. In January 1994, the BLAZER of the second generation was presented at the Detroit Auto Show (in fact, simply an upgraded old car), which a year later won the contest North American light truck '1995. Production of the model turned parallel to the states and in Brazil, at the enterprise General Motors Do Brasil Ltda. That in the city of San Jose Dos Kampos. The Latin American machine is very different from North American: she has other wings, hood, rear side doors, headlamps, radiator grille. Especially the choice of motors - besides the already mentioned V6, there is a four-cylinder gasoline and 95-horsepower turbodiesel, but the body is the only one, five-door. The high level of development of the local automotive industry has allowed to quickly switch to the release of own components, and today only less than a quarter of the parts of the car are imported from the USA - everything else is produced in Brazil itself. Negotiations on the possible assembly of the Brazilian Blazer in Russia began in the winter of 1995, and the rear-wheel drive modification with a 2.2-liter motor was the subject of greatest interest from the very beginning. No matter how surprisingly
but, unlike dozens of other no less ambitious projects, this was implemented, and on December 19, 1996 in one of the workshops of the unfinished Giant Plant in Elabuga began a seating of machines from the sets supplied from the other edge. The first copy personally tested the then Prime Minister Chernomyrdin. After well-known events, the price of the basic version (a rear-wheel drive car was also gathered in an improved configuration and all-wheel drive modification) fell from $ 23,000 to $ 16,200 and, more recently, up to $ 14,200, and that Blazer, which visited our test, is $ 18,000 today. It was completed in December 1998, the factory left about 4,000 Brazilians. If we talk about allegedly povali problems with four-cylinder engines, then the official statistics provided by General Motors of the CIS indicates: the motors were replaced by warranty on 22 cars, that is, only 0.5% of the total number of vehicles released. Summary.
In fact, we are dealing with another extracurricular machine, because it's simply not to compare the rear-wheel drive blazer. It could not be: in domestic execution it could look like a hybrid of Nizhny Novgorod Wagon GAZ-31022 and Togliatti Minivan VAZ-2120 Hope. And according to the ratio of price - quality - the capacity of the Blazer on the Russian market of competitors is not, this is a really multipurpose car for money, which now and Volkswagen Golf IV cannot be bought. And with the most commonly involved functions of an SUV like to move from the welgberry or overtaken by the sideline, it copes playing. We do not see any reasons that Blazer become in Russia really popular, and the Department of General Motors CIS, if necessary, is ready to resume assembling machines. So the choice is yours.
A source: Magazine "Wheels" [№39 / 2000]
