Just before Ford revealed the new BroncoBusy Jeep Tried To Steal The Show By Sticking a V8 in the Wrangler. Jeep was trying. It was a failure, but at least I was trying to get in there, get some people to think back to that hardcore Jeep, not just the cool new Ford. GM missed the conversation for good reason – even GM has to know that the new Blazer is as desirable as falling off a flight of stairs.
We touched on this a bit the last time we saw the Blazer in person and declared it “so disappointing it hurts a little. “My coworker Jason Torchinsky explained things quite clearly:
He’s so damn cynical. If Chevy just wants to slap one of his most valuable names in a soft, wet match pad like this, then they deserve contempt. If they’re going to waste everything Blazer had on something you can lose in a parking lot almost immediately, then they need to hear that feeling you get when you see this with the concept of what Blazer had in mind. like being punched in the stomach with a fist filled with the grim, gray realization that nothing really matters.
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Nobody in Chevy looked at what Ford is planning with its reborn Bronco and at least have a moment of pause and think, eh, maybe we shouldn’t just throw Blazer’s name this way in a cynical and mediocre attempt to push another almost indistinguishable SUV into people’s driveways?
See, that’s why I love GM. All companies have their fair share of disorder, poor decision making, internal drama. But with GM, many of its bad decisions visible to the outside let you know, just know, that behind the scenes there were many more horrible and amazing things. other bad decisions that preached what you see publicly. Everything with GM is the tip of an iceberg. When Cadillac came out with a brand new twin turbo V8 just to cancel the car it entered and an orphan a highly technical engineering project about five seconds after putting it into production? When GM bought the Tesla Model 3 with the Bolt, a not-quite-compact and odd-sized hatchback? You get the feeling that these were horrible engagements built on an endless series of other horrible engagements. It is dramatic, public failure, and it is very, very visible.
And that’s what’s amazing about the Blazer. We all knew it was a bad idea. I have a feeling that even GM knew it wasn’t the best or most interesting or standout car. But it also seemed like the best GM could do, as if a small team was desperately trying to make something interesting continue as everyone around them fought within their own fiefdoms. I mean, the Blazer at least has an interesting Name.
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But it is also that name that throws its mediocrity into the light. Ford just brought the Bronco back, a desirable vehicle, not just bland. Ford and GM are not, from a certain perspective, very different companies. They are both big American car companies. You feel like yelling at GM, It didn’t have to be this way. Look at the Bronco! There was nothing stopping GM from making an interesting Blazer. And yet you have the feeling that everything inside GM is conspiring against something interesting being done.
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