Chevrolet Trailblazer

The Indian market is a well known playground for big players like Ford, Toyota, Hyundai, Chevrolet etc. Moving on to the SUV segment it can be said that the sales are sunny side up for these huge boys and now the time has come for Chevrolet to gain some numbers in terms of sales with the choosy, merciless and sensitive Indian market.

Well GM India’s problems is that its product portfolio and any future product is a mix of what its Korean cousins and Chinese half-cousins can produce. So it is normally very late to any party. The Beat is a competent hatchback but GM India spent a decade-and-a-half to reach that point in its evolution lifecycle and it would take many more years for GM India to respond to emerging niches like seven-seater compact MPV’s that are not call-center cabs.

mm_gal_item_c2_0.img_resize.img_stage._3

It could be ascertained as a bold step taken by Chevrolet India this festive season by launching its new SUV in India named as the “TRAILBLAZER”. It is expected to be a replacement of the old Chevrolet Captiva but with better features and capabilities.

Exterior

2013 Chevrolet TrailBlazer

Talking about the exterior the car is huge or maybe very huge, The overall design is muscular and bold but at some angles the car does still gives you a glimpse of the old Captiva. Side profile is a bit below the average looking SUV and the car has a body-on-frame chassis. Over all it carries the Chevrolet family genes, not too boxy not too curvy. Also to notice is the Chevy’s traditional two-part grille which gives an added aggressiveness to the front structure.

Advertisement


Interior

2013 Chevrolet TrailBlazer

Moving on to the interior, it comes with a dual tone black/beige dashboard and door panels which gives it a premium look on the inside. The whole dashboard is given a lighting of electric blue, the speedometer and tachometer design gives the car a very sporty look. There is also a 3 spoke steering wheel with steering mounted controls. The interiors are quite spacious with the middle row folding 60:40 and the rear seats folding 50:50, honestly a Chevrolet Beat can fit in there.

Performance

Engine options:

  • 2.8-litre Duramax diesel engine
  • 2.5-litre diesel
  • 3.6-litre V6 petrol engine

Unfortunately India will only have the 2.8 liter diesel variant and there will be only 1 variant which is sadly a two wheel drive. The 2.8-litre diesel engine punches out 200 bhp @ 3600 rpm and a max torque of 500 Nm @ 2000 rpm all this is combined to a six-speed automatic gearbox which powers the rear wheels.

The Trailblazer will feature dual front air bags, ABS with EBD, hill start assist, Traction control and hill decent control. The Chevrolet Trailblazer (2 wheel drive automatic transmission) is priced at Rs 26.4 lakh (ex-showroom, Delhi). With tough competition from the new Toyota Fortuner facelift and other cars like the Ford Endeavor and Mitsubishi Pajero, GM India has some serious tasks of finalizing the appropriate price and they have also got to acquire some serious car selling skills.

Video

Gallery

An Aerospace engineer by profession, Bob has a deep passion for automobiles. He started blogging on automotive stuffs since 2010 and still has the same drive for the automobiles. Feel free to contact him using the "Contact Us" form.Add Bob on FB