Monthly Motor - September 2014

EDITOR’S CHOICE
One of the things which motoring journalists often get wrong when writing
about vehicles is the context… both of the car itself and the general market.
That’s why, for example, Porsche has won Car of the Year award two years in
a row. The Porsches are excellent cars and, judged solely on that, were worthy
winners. But a car of the year is much more than dynamic performance. It’s
about affordability, flexibility and, critically, the likely impact on the market.
Chevrolet Trailblazer
Trailblazing An Art
By David Hoonigan
Those, sadly, are not things which figure
in the eyes of some of the journalists
who constitute the Car of the Year
Jury - because they test all the cars on
one day and emotions and subjectivity
trump all other considerations. Think about it: getting
out of a Porsche into virtually any other car is
going to be a let-down.
Having been guilty of that myself in regard to
the Chevrolet Trailblazer full-size SUV, I owe both
the vehicle and Chevrolet an apology. Climbing
into the big Fortuner wannabe at the GM offices on
Mombasa Road and heading home in the afternoon
traffic, I was not happy. The thing is enormous. The
steering felt ill-defined. The 2.8 litre turbodiesel
engine felt rough and under-powered when compared
to those in its rivals, most notably the Toyota
Fortuner. The 6-speed auto transmission, in urban
use, felt slow and hesitant and allowed the revs to
build to screaming level in some cases, almost as bad
as a CVT transmission.
But I was judging the Trailblazer against softroader
SUVs which are, I’ll admit, more my style. I
own a Subaru Forester and it handles like a Subaru
which is to say very well indeed in the city. We also
have a Ford Kuga SUV on long-term test and that
also provided a stark contrast to the big Chevy.
The Kuga is much more street-friendly - easier
to drive, with a better gearbox and livelier diesel
engine. However, as the days went by, though, I
started to warm to the Trailblazer: you get used
to the relaxed power delivery and work around it,
but you start appreciating the comfy ride and the
auto box in city driving. The Chevrolet Trailblazer
also has an excellent - one of the best around -
infotainment system, which operates from a large
touchscreen in the centre console, very much like
a smartphone.
Good sound, a USB connection and easyto-pair
Bluetooth are things which should not be
sneezed at in the daily urban grind. On tarmac,
the Trailblazer, with its long-travel suspension and
high-profile tyres, was never going to be a sharp
handler. That annoyed me at first… and then one
day I did what I should have at the beginning of
26 MOTOR SEPTEMBER 2014