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Road test: Chevrolet 2.0 liter RS ​​laser

With the new Blazer, Chevrolet took two mythical American icons - the Camaro sports car and the laser SUV and combined them into one vehicle. Now with the addition of a 2.0-liter engine it generally confuses us all

• Chevrolet
• Blazer
• 4x4
• suv
• Crossover
• umi

Keenan Cohen

Sometimes enjoying a great song or movie is just a matter of context. You can watch Forrest Gump, but if you do not understand the upheavals of America in the second half of the 20th century, it would just be a nice movie. The same goes for Johnny Cash's songs, great music, but if you are not familiar with Folsom Prison and its historical significance and cultural connection to America - the enjoyment is not really complete.

I say this because when meeting a new Chevrolet Blazer it is very easy to judge it to be a must. How they took one of the big names in General Motors' tough SUVs from the 1960s onwards and turned it into a big, soft crossover. Because impressive as its design is, especially in the RS version and even more so in a black-on-black finish on its black - if you do not understand the context of the exterior design for the Camaro, when it does not stand next to it in the showroom, if you did not grow up in the United States and had a Camaro in college - So do not always understand it to the end.

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The Chevrolet Blazer wants to be the Camaro's extension for family use in the fashion order. And the Chevrolet Blazer really has everything a family car needs. It's very large, the Americans call it medium, but as with any translation of dimensions between America and Israel, it means much more than the dimensions you are familiar with from medium crossovers. And that's fine, because it does not really compete with what we in Israel call a mediocre crossover like the Kia Sportage or Hyundai Tucson. In Chevrolet's offering it sits between the Equinox and the Traverse. But unlike vehicles like the Hyundai Santa Fe or Kia Sorrento - despite this size it does not offer a third row of seats.

The fact that it does not have to cram a third row of seats leaves a very, very spacious rear seat here, with power and air conditioning and behind it a huge trunk volume of 864 liters, multi-use and luggage solutions that aim and hit the pony for customers with leisure needs or those who often travel and appreciate the surface Its wide charge, the cargo partition that prevents a sensitive cargo partition and more. The electric opening of the trunk door using the foot uses a feature worthy of adoption by all manufacturers that offer this option - projection of the company logo logo at the exact point where you need to wave the foot to open it.

The driver's environment is handsome, sloping in leather and a design that throws references to the Camaro. Not all the materials are the ones you would expect in a car that kisses NIS 300,000, but it makes up for that with such a long list of accessories that it would be a shame to list it in detail. Is everything okay? Just everything at a level that will send cars from premium brands "considered" to stand aside and be ashamed of themselves. This also includes its comprehensive safety systems. Where do these two meet? Take for example the leather seats (electric, heated fans), which in deviation from the lane shake the seat on the side to which the car deviates.

The rest of the cabin and especially the driver environment are full of buttons and small features, not all of them are as well engineered as the small air conditioning buttons or the glove compartment opening button that is next to the off stability control for some reason. But despite initial reluctance from the plethora of buttons - it works really well. You can dive into the variety of menus and systems and get a PhD in their operation, and you can simply use it on a daily basis superficially and conveniently.

The front visibility is very good which quite surprised me in light of the design, the sitting position is as high as his clients like, for the less successful rear view he covers with a variety of cameras in the amount of a large news studio. These will show you almost every possible angle of what is happening around the car and the main one becomes the screen that projects what is happening in the back at a wider angle than that of the original mirror. It was also found to be very effective when I loaded equipment up to above the height of the rear seats in a way that blocked the field of view.

The Chevrolet Blazer has so far been marketed in two trim levels, the Premier and RS, each of which has taken the model in a different direction. The Premier for luxury and the RS for a more sporty look. They both used the 3.6-liter V6 engine with 306 hp. The importer recently split the versions, and while the sleek finish continues with the V6 engine the RS version is marketed with a 2.0-liter, 4-cylinder engine.

If we got used to seeing the Europeans do a good job of squeezing horses from small volumes, this engine shows that the Americans also know how to work with them and the one here produces 230 hp and 35.7 kg. Like its large volume brother it uses a planetary 9-speed automatic transmission.

In practice, on the road even though the blazer does not give an inferior feel to most of the cars around in its performance. The V6 engine of the premiere version suits it much more, simply because there is a certain expectation from a car with this look and this approach. Again he did not plant his engine certainly not weak, but I did not find the appeal, thrust and power of the big engine. To these is added a metallic and unpleasant engine sound, very far from the growl of the V6.

The fear that the 21-inch rims in the 45-inch blazer would be stiff at an unbearable level was not unfounded. Indeed on bumpy roads and at slow speeds, not all the vibrations were left out of the cabin. At higher speeds the comfort was already improved and what was impressive was the noise isolation which even at high cruising speed was very good.

The thing is that this suspension calibration does not have any exciting value on the winding road and the gap. It moves a little too much on them and is attached to a dormant steering wheel feel and brake system with unclear feedback to the pressure level. The chassis, dual propulsion system and gearbox, especially in sport mode actually work very well there, but it does not connect together. The message of the turbo engine and the sporty appearance, do not crystallize into something that also travels this way.
At the end of the test days, the average fuel consumption was 8.7 km per liter. In the administrative driving chapter, I also managed to reach 9.6 km per liter.

Summary

The Chevrolet Blazer is exactly what Chevrolet needed - a tool that will leverage the image of the Camaro, with a glorious name from the past and one aimed at customers in one of the most sought-after categories in the industry. Things like extreme off-road capabilities like that blazer, or road behavior of a car like the Camaro - not so interesting to its customers - the spectacular appearance, the instrumentation, the dimensions, the space - absolutely yes.

The problem lies more in this particular version that does not really hit here or there. The sporty image and turbo engine have no coverage in its behavior, and the fuel economy (which I’m not sure how acute it is to its prospects) is not one that changes world orders relative to the 3.6-liter engine that at least provides a driving experience better suited to the message.

Add to that the price of this version which stands at NIS 285,000 compared to NIS 280,000 of the Premier finish level and the choice at least for me is very easy.

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On the technical side: a Chevrolet 2.0-liter turbo laser

Engine, propulsion: petrol, turbo, 4 cylinders, dual
volume: 1,997 cc
Power / RPM (hp): 5,000 / 230
torque / RPM (kg): 1,500 / 35.7
Transmission: automatic , 9 gears

Dimensions:
Length (cm): 486
Width (cm): 195
Height (cm): 170
Wheelbase (cm): 286
Trunk (liters): 864

Performance:
Acceleration 0- 100: 8 seconds
Maximum speed: 209 km / h

Competitors:
Ford Edge

Price:
NIS 285,000