Words: Dipayan Dutta
Photography: Vikrant Date
It’s about the size of a small moon, it goes like a stabbed elephant and you can’t have it with a ‘stick’. If there ever was a stereotype for American trucks the Chevrolet Trailblazer would be it. Normally, I would have questioned Chevrolet’s sanity – parking a hatchback, forget a sedan, takes a fair amount of pre-planning in most of our cities but then you look at the profusion of Fortuners, Dusters and now Cretas and you understand India’s love affair for things that scream look-at-me. And, for whatever it is worth, Chevy definitely needs to get noticed.
General Motors India has had a slow run off late and the people who brought us the likes of the unloved Sail need to send out a strong message. The Trailblazer is, in essence, a two and a half tonne, two hundred bhp, fifteen foot long reminder that Chevy is back. (Not sure if I can add, here to stay.) How you ask? Well, there is a Chinese behemoth called Shanghai Automotive Industry Corporation. Back when the recession struck SAIC bought a controlling stake in GM India and that resulted in the Sonic being canned (Google it) in favour of cars and MPVs designed in China, by the Chinese, for the Chinese. Stuff like the Enjoy. Ick. SAIC couldn’t have derived much joy from the tepid market reaction, nor having to recall the Sail and U-VA almost as soon as they were launched, and sold their stake right back to GM.
And now, with their global house in order, GM have renewed their focus on India. Global CEO Mary Barra has already made two trips to India, a 1 billion dollar investment has been announced accompanied by shuttering of the Gujarat plant) and the Trailblazer – god I love that name – is the first of a barrage of launches that will be proper Chevrolets (well, if you can call Chevy’s from South Korea that).
On to the elephant in the room then but, to find out what the Chevrolet is like to drive, we need to exit the city. And that is not the easiest of tasks, considering how perfectly coordinated Pune traffic is. Despite the fact that you’re sitting at almost the same level as a truck, you are constantly reminded of the fact that you are driving something that costs a quarter of a crore and takes about three fourths of the available space on the road. After much perseverance we manage to leave the city in our rear view, albeit with some grey hairs that I hadn’t seen been before. Settling in on the highway I get the chance to have a look around the monstrous Chevy. The cabin is a nice place to be, everything from the dials to the two tone interior and the glossy black entertainment system looks good, but I feel the competition is slightly more premium. The mini-recliner like seat is perfectly comfortable, switchgear quality is about where it’s supposed to be and there are no notable quality issues that I could see. In fact everything engages and disengages with a satisfying click.
Cubby wise, there’s a place for everything. Doors get bottle holders, not for ‘hobbit’ bottles but regular sized ones. There’s a retractable cup-holder at each end of the dash, there’s a recess above the centre console, a storage shelf under the steering column and there is even a bay below the headlight controls. All of the above are in addition to two glove boxes and a functionally large storage space under the front centre armrest.
Mathematically, it’s no big surprise that space is not really an issue on the inside. The cavernous interiors are one of the monolithic Chevy’s strongest points. The first two rows are properly large and there is a lot of space to move about; even my six-foot frame is more than spaciously housed in both rows with space to stretch one’s legs. The third row, which is most usually used to house children, has more or less enough space to fit two adults for short trips. Most importantly, the rear seats can be entirely folded to accommodate luggage.
Since the Trailblazer is only available with an automatic transmission and rear-wheel drive, we weren’t expecting it to be capable of much off-roading, but thanks to that massive 231mm ground clearance the Chevy does hold its ground when the road disappears. And, being a pickup underneath, the underpinnings are rugged and hardcore enough to deal with any kind of dirt road. Instead of slowing down, I went faster on hitting a dirt track and the Trailblazer felt perfectly at home. I’ll give full marks to its rugged character.
At low speeds the suspension – which is a combination of a five link setup at the back and coil springs – does a good job of dealing with large obstacles and keeping the cabin judder free. However, you always get that disconnected, unsettled feeling that comes as part and parcel of the ladder-on-frame chassis construction. Over undulating roads there is a fair bit of pitch and wallow and the steering is notable for an absence of feel and accuracy. This is an old-school SUV that doesn’t know how to spell r-a-c-e-t-r-a-c-k and can safely be described as ponderous. Even the brakes feel spongy and lack decent feel though outright braking distances are par for the course.
The Trailblazer for India does boast of hill start assist (won’t roll backwards), hill descent control and has a wading depth of 800mm – which is almost a metre deep – and will be useful if you live in Mumbai or for that matter Chennai. Otherwise there’s always that strong meaty chunk of bottom end torque to get you out of sticky situations.
Let’s talk numbers for a bit now. The Trailblazer makes 199bhp at 3500rpm, and a solid 500Nm of torque at as low as 2000rpm. This comes courtesy of its 2.8-litre DURAMAX engine (Ouseph could not stop giggling at that name) that propels the 2-tonne monolith to the ton in less than 10 seconds. The motor gets double overhead camshafts to operate its 16 valves and also features a water-cooled, variable geometry turbocharger and common-rail injection that operates at a high pressure of 2000bar. This put the DURAMAX ahead of all the segment competition in terms of performance (the Toyota Fortuner’s 3-litre only makes 169bhp and 343Nm of twist). Refinement though isn’t best in class and it has a very blue collar Detroit feeling when you give it the beans. The 6-speed auto box is also slow to respond and takes its own time with downshifts.
The Trailblazer is not made in India and that means it is on the pricey side at Rs 26 lakh, over a lakh of rupees dearer than its nearest rivals. Overall though, for the space and performance, the Trailblazer is worth a second look. The only problem is that Chevrolet really need to work on their network and brand image if they want to go up against the likes of Toyota, and even Mitsubishi. The Trailblazer is a good start, now let’s hope for more interesting stuff from Chevrolet in the days to come.