Add Your Info Here ➜ 2024 Chevy Blazer EV Reservation Tracking List

Just taking the temperature of the room...

1968 Views 17 Replies 12 Participants Last post by TxTom, 8 mo ago

Chip

Discussion Starter · 11 mo ago

After being a member / moderator of my fair share of automotive forums I was curious as to how this small group (for now) felt about the (bound to happen) problems that this new platform will experience during its first days of production and subsequent early ownership. Contrary to the views of many of the people I encounter on the "other" car sites that I frequent, my view is that the first year of ANY new platform is going to be fraught with issues. Some bad, some awful, and some just a PIA. Is this place going to be populated with people willing to accept that first year owners are primarily "Beta testers" and that there will be issues and that the difference between a really BAD experience and one that is only bothersome will be defined by Chevy / GM and the dealer you buy your Blazer from? How many of you will buy this new EV from "Jump Street" and how many will wait 6 months or more to try to wait out the early "bugs"? Will the cyber armor go up every time someone here makes a legit. criticism or will we just take it as it comes? Speaking only for myself I never liked Kool-Aid.

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1 - 18 of 18 Posts

anraganjr

· #2 · 11 mo ago

I hear ya. When I ordered my 2010 Camaro, it was a completely new platform but with a mostly tested drivetrain. I still don't have 10,000 miles on it yet......should be later this year......maybe. We'll see. Never had a problem, but there were some who did. I know it's not the same thing, but I'm hopeful that GM has done their due diligence on testing and there won't be many problems off the start. Also, hoping the Blazer is going to share enough with the Lyriq that we won't be in completely uncharted waters. If the price is right and the options are there, I'm going to say that I'm in as of now. Later this week I'll be declining my Ocean ONE option too. I still like the Ocean, just not how the process is going with details and package pricing. Hoping on the 18th that we get a lot of this information from Chevrolet so we know what we're looking at now for when production starts. It still just amazes me that Fisker isn't going to share until October (maybe) it sounds like on the information you need to make an ordering decision. There's so many vehicles hopefully coming soon, I'm afraid that Fisker needs something more to draw people in. Just my thoughts.

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BlazCraz

· #3 · 11 mo ago

Chip said:
After being a member / moderator of my fair share of automotive forums I was curious as to how this small group (for now) felt about the (bound to happen) problems that this new platform will experience during its first days of production and subsequent early ownership. Contrary to the views of many of the people I encounter on the "other" car sites that I frequent, my view is that the first year of ANY new platform is going to be fraught with issues. Some bad, some awful, and some just a PIA. Is this place going to be populated with people willing to accept that first year owners are primarily "Beta testers" and that there will be issues and that the difference between a really BAD experience and one that is only bothersome will be defined by Chevy / GM and the dealer you buy your Blazer from? How many of you will buy this new EV from "Jump Street" and how many will wait 6 months or more to try to wait out the early "bugs"? Will the cyber armor go up every time someone here makes a legit. criticism or will we just take it as it comes? Speaking only for myself I never liked Kool-Aid.

Ditto what
anraganjr
said. Not fond of Kool-Aid either!

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JPelletier

· #4 · 11 mo ago

Since this new platform is already used on the Hummer and Lyriq EVs, I'm more confident that most "problems" will be fixed

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MTN Ranger

· #5 · 11 mo ago

From my experience I've done both the bleeding edge and waiting a little while. My 2012 Volt was a second year model where GM added some more features that the 2011 lacked. They usually change up some of the options in the first few years as they figure out a new model's strengths and weaknesses compared to the competition. Unfortunately, some issues have persisted the length of a model's life. For example, the Volt had slow AC charging (relative to even back in 2011). They never offered 6.6 kW charging on the first generation. The Bolt EV has been held back by poor DC fast charging since its introduction. Hopefully GM has learned from past mistakes plans a little better. On the positive side, I think the first gen Volt's battery pack was over-engineered and had an excessive buffer to combat degradation. My 2012 was faultless for my 3 year lease.

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Chip

Discussion Starter · #6 · 10 mo ago

Since we've gained a significant number of members since I started this thread, and we know a lot more about the new Blazer I thought I would run it past the new folks for their thoughts / comments.

BlazerEvSsAllin

· #7 · 10 mo ago

I am afraid that all the early Blazer EV buyers like me will be guinea pigs who will go through lots of problems because we just can't wait for the 2025 "improved" model. Every company rushes their EV products to market without proper testing. Look at all the issues Mach E owners have encountered. GM will launch and sell Lyrics, Silverados, Hummers and Blazers in late 2022 and 2223. There is no way they will find and fix issues by then. I hope I am wrong

ngiovas

· #8 · 10 mo ago

I expect there to be issues and will likely tolerate most of them. What I'm wondering is how many of the issues will be addressed through an over-the-air software update. I have been impressed with how some of the automakers have leveraged this technology to not only fix problems but also to add features to cars after the sale (similar to the cell phone model). I think this is going to play a huge factor in reliability and satisfaction.

Chip

Discussion Starter · #9 · 10 mo ago

Here is another question for you all; Do you consider yourselves as drivers or passive passengers? By this I mean, just how important are the autonomous capabilities of this new Chevy to you? How much would / will you use it? How much are you willing to pay to have a vehicle that did all the interstate or other driving for you? I am afraid I am just too damn old for this nonsense to mean much to me, but that's just me. How about you?

ngiovas

· #10 · 9 mo ago

Chip said:
Here is another question for you all; Do you consider yourselves as drivers or passive passengers? By this I mean, just how important are the autonomous capabilities of this new Chevy to you? How much would / will you use it? How much are you willing to pay to have a vehicle that did all the interstate or other driving for you? I am afraid I am just too damn old for this nonsense to mean much to me, but that's just me. How about you?

Because of my job, I have had the opportunity to ride in many autonomous vehicles from many manufacturers. I love the technology and find that it works quite well. It is getting better every year. With that said, I wouldn't pay a huge premium for it yet but would be willing to spend $1500-$2000 for it in its current state. You have to keep in mind that while it is keeping you centered in the lane on the freeway, it isn't navigating, so you still have to manually enter and exit the freeway as well as know when to merge onto a new road. The bottom line is that you still need to be fully paying attention.

The part that interests me about the technology the most is what most people don't think about - once vehicles are fully autonomous, it will greatly benefit those that are unable to drive such as the elderly or disabled. Yes, it will be a huge convenience for those who want to relax while traveling, but this other group of people is often dependent on others to take even a short trip.

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Yoliber

· #11 · 9 mo ago

I personally wouldn't pay more for super cruise. I would be happy with just radar cruise control. Lane centering is a big plus to me, but not needed. I pretty much never use autopilot on my Tesla, but I use radar cruise control in my other vehicles.

BlaZL1er

· #12 · 9 mo ago

EV isn't in the same boat as ICE. With ICE, engines have more "moving parts" and those moving parts can be a headache to deal with on new platforms. With the EV, it's essentially like buying an RC car and putting different "skins" on it. The battery technology has been used for several years already with the Volt/Bolt and I say that GM having to recall all of the batteries from the Bolt, maybe their growing pains aren't going to be as painful as someone just getting into the EV scene for the first time. I figure GM has a bit of a leg up compared to someone like Ford or Kia/Hyundai which are both having a few recalls already for their Mach-E and EV6/Ioniq 5.

The one thing that concerns me is will the Blazer try to hold onto conventional ICE packaging when it's not needed. One of the things about the EV6 that I was curious to see was how the center of the vehicle felt without that transmission hump required. I hope GM isn't forcing the Blazer EV to have the hump so that it can be built alongside the Blazer ICE. I haven't seen definitive proof that GM has removed that hump in any press release images, although I have only seen a few.

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Yoliber

· #13 · 9 mo ago

What makes you think it has conventional ice packaging? From reviews it seems to have lost the hump. They mentioned it a couple of times and I've read it on article.

I thought the Blazer EV will be built in Springhill with the Lyriq?

BlaZL1er

· #14 · 9 mo ago

Yoliber said:
What makes you think it has conventional ice packaging? From reviews it seems to have lost the hump. They mentioned it a couple of times and I've read it on article.

I thought the Blazer EV will be built in Springhill with the Lyriq?

Like I said, I haven't seen too many press releases and the only thing I'm basing it on is past GM mistakes. I've been a GM consumer since the late 80s. I remember when I bought a Saturn Ion (granted it was an upper trim version) and then later bought a Pontiac GTO. When I went to move the side mirrors, I noticed that the switch was the exact same switch that was in my Saturn just turned upside down. GM has a bad history of doing things like this. I'm hoping that's changed though.

EVolution

· #15 · 9 mo ago

BlaZL1er said:
With the EV, it's essentially like buying an RC car and putting different "skins" on it

Contrary to belief, this is not how it is with EVs. The difference is not with the hardware, but the software. The software has to be coded properly to interreact with a whole new series of parts that previously were not part of a vehicle (battery mgmt systems, heat pumps, etc.). This has to be done in not only a seamless way for the driver experience, but also to ensure driver/vehicle safety. If the steering wheel is now all electronic then you sure as heck do not want that software to be buggy.

The Blazer is using Android Auto OS, which is more of an open interface to interreact with all the parts and is customizable for each manufacturer. My guess would be it still takes a lot to integrate the entirety of the vehicles parts into this OS.

BlaZL1er said:
The one thing that concerns me is will the Blazer try to hold onto conventional ICE packaging when it's not needed

This is a brand new platform (no trans tunnel, the vehicle has different dimensions, etc) but you are right that they wont entirely re-invent the wheel. Expect shared parts for some particular components with the ICE version. All large scale manufactures do this whether you notice or not. Its how you save costs and hopefully lower prices. Sandy Munro makes a pretty good living explaining to automakers how to do this better.

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BlaZL1er

· #16 · 9 mo ago

EVolution said:
Contrary to belief, this is not how it is with EVs. The difference is not with the hardware, but the software. The software has to be coded properly to interreact with a whole new series of parts that previously were not part of a vehicle (battery mgmt systems, heat pumps, etc.).

No I mean in regards to it's essentially just mash the pedal and go. The variation that you see with ICE isn't really there with EVs (hence my point about comparing them to old Tyco race track cars). Performance does vary with battery charge state, and as you stated heat, but it's not nearly as drastic as ICE, more so if the ICE has a manual transmission. When I look at this video, for instance the results are almost identical for all the drag races. This only proves how many more moving parts ICE has and demonstrates why an EV should theoretically be less maintenance. I get a kick out of how quiet the race is, btw.

mrping59

· #17 · 8 mo ago

I am one of the handful of folks who has reserved a Blazer EV and a Lyriq. I've been hitting both forums and YouTube offerings, though each vehicle shared parts will be minimal I'm sure there will be out-a-sight components that are shared. Hopefully there is a sharing of info on certain aspects of the 2 vehicles to minimize Blazer EV teeth-cutting when it hits the market. There is one major common theme between the 2 vehicles, GM's sharing of information to it's customers SUCKS!!

TxTom

· #18 · 8 mo ago

Yoliber said:
What makes you think it has conventional ice packaging? From reviews it seems to have lost the hump. They mentioned it a couple of times and I've read it on article.

I thought the Blazer EV will be built in Springhill with the Lyriq?

The Blazer EV is going to be built in the Ramos Mexico plant, along with the Equinox EV and the new Honda EV. Springhill TN has the Lyriq. One of my prior cars (2010 Cadillac SRX) was built in that plant and had no production issues.

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