Chevy Blazer overwhelmed by Bronco introduction
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Chevy Blazer overwhelmed by Bronco introduction
Here's an (IMO) well-written article of how and why the Blazer is suffering from the Bronco's introduction, and the serious mistakes GM made with it.
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/bu...ad/5478580002/
Published 10:30 p.m. ET July 21, 2020
Pity the poor Chevrolet Blazer.
In the mounting frenzy for rugged, American-built SUVs with the chops to go off-road, the bow-tie’s look-alike crossover with the Camaro snout is anything but a segment-leading Jeep Wrangler or the coming Ford Bronco that's being revived after a nearly 25-year absence.
The new Chevrolet Blazer had been hailed as the right product for the times, but it's not turning out that way amid a building frenzy for SUVs with true off-road looks and capability. (Photo: General Motors)
They’re both evidence that General Motors Co.’s crosstown rivals are more adept at mining their most valuable brand heritage, Corvette notwithstanding. And recognizing that a rich vein of would-be buyers hungry for Detroit nostalgia-plays promises to deliver a lot of buzz and fat profit margins as GM watches from afar.
A winning strategy it's not, if only in the never-ending PR battle. The mountain of pre-orders for Michigan-made, compact Broncos flooding Ford Motor Co. is a harsh reminder that GM’s Blazer revival as just another sporty midsize crossover, something it originally wasn't, is shaping up to be one big missed opportunity. No less than CEO Mary Barra, I'm told, tersely reminded senior product planners as much in a meeting amid last week's Bronco brouhaha.
She would be right, of course. The new Blazer delivers neither the rugged capability to "overland" as Wrangler does and Bronco promises to do. Nor does it telegraph the Blazer heritage derived from a truck architecture that came to battle Ford's later-generations Bronco, popularized most prominently by O.J. Simpson trying to ditch police on an L.A. freeway.
Buy PhotoThe Ford Bronco that debuted last week is generating lots of buzz -- and advance deposits. (Photo: Nic Antaya, Special to The Detroit News)
Muscularity is a cornerstone of Detroit's brand DNA in a U.S. market where foreign-owned brands annually outsell domestics in terms of total vehicles sold. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV's Ram trucks, Dodge cars and Wranglers promise muscle. And Ford's F-150 Raptor, Mustang and Bronco promise it, too — no secret why they're routinely Detroit's biggest sellers.
Blazer? Meh, as wags have been riffing for the past two years. And when the Bronco finally appeared last week — following a gestation period measured in way too many years — critics were proven right and the cacophony surrounding GM's misbegotten Blazer returned. It wasn't pretty.
Wrote TopSpeed in a piece headlined "Ford's revealing of the 2021 Bronco just proved that GM has no idea what it's doing": "This wasn't the Blazer we wanted, it wasn't the Blazer we needed, and there was just as much hate going around as there was praise, if not more. It can hardly tackle pavement, let alone go off-road."
Or The Drive last year in "Here's Why GM Didn't Make the New Chevrolet Blazer a Rugged Off-Road Truck": "Two paths diverge in the woods. One leads to a rough road rich in history; the other, a smooth, anodyne moving walkway. I suppose you can't blame General Motors for taking the easier route."
General Motors Co. CEO Mary Barra. (Photo: Paul Sancya, AP)
Or MotorBiscuit last week in a piece headlined "The Travesty of the Ford Bronco is the Chevy Blazer": "In a desperate stab at drawing attention to its mediocre SUV, Chevy took the lazy route by giving it a powerful name. But the product that is Blazer is no Bronco. Nor is it a Blazer. Chevy missed a golden opportunity. It could have held onto an iconic name to wait for a product worthy of being called a Blazer."
Exactly right, but it didn't. And the reaction is predictably brutal, reminiscent of the punishment routinely meted out to the old, pre-bankruptcy GM and its focus-grouped-to-death vehicles that disappointed far more people than they satisfied.
These kinds of misses aren't s'posed to happen in a GM led by Barra and President Mark Reuss, each one-time heads of product development. He's a gearhead's gearhead whose product strategy appears content to leave rugged individualists (and the profits they generate) to the competition.
Wouldn't be the first time. Detroit's rotation away from traditional, slower-selling cars and deeper into trucks and SUVs by definition cedes car market share to foreign-owned rivals. The theoretical trade-off: Customers converted to a widening, more profitable array of truck and SUV offerings can compensate for lost sales and maintain market share.
The Blazer saga is different, a cautionary tale of misreading the market, of squandering an iconic brand name, of producing just another midsize crossover (in Mexico only) whose provenance fires the passions of politicians and United Auto Workers members witnessing the closure of assembly plants in Maryland and northeast Ohio.
Ford returned to Bronco's 1960s-era roots to reimagine a compact SUV to battle head-on Jeep's Wrangler and to claim a share of that growing segment for the Blue Oval. GM chose otherwise, and now it's on the sidelines of a game it chose not to play.
Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392 Concept (Photo: Courtesy of FCA US LLC)
daniel.howes@detroitnews.com
(313) 222-2106
Daniel Howes is columnist and associate business editor of The Detroit News. His column runs most Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
https://www.detroitnews.com/story/bu...ad/5478580002/
Howes: In Ford-Jeep battle for off-road cred, Chevy Blazer sits it out
Daniel Howes, The Detroit NewsPublished 10:30 p.m. ET July 21, 2020
Pity the poor Chevrolet Blazer.
In the mounting frenzy for rugged, American-built SUVs with the chops to go off-road, the bow-tie’s look-alike crossover with the Camaro snout is anything but a segment-leading Jeep Wrangler or the coming Ford Bronco that's being revived after a nearly 25-year absence.
The new Chevrolet Blazer had been hailed as the right product for the times, but it's not turning out that way amid a building frenzy for SUVs with true off-road looks and capability. (Photo: General Motors)
They’re both evidence that General Motors Co.’s crosstown rivals are more adept at mining their most valuable brand heritage, Corvette notwithstanding. And recognizing that a rich vein of would-be buyers hungry for Detroit nostalgia-plays promises to deliver a lot of buzz and fat profit margins as GM watches from afar.
A winning strategy it's not, if only in the never-ending PR battle. The mountain of pre-orders for Michigan-made, compact Broncos flooding Ford Motor Co. is a harsh reminder that GM’s Blazer revival as just another sporty midsize crossover, something it originally wasn't, is shaping up to be one big missed opportunity. No less than CEO Mary Barra, I'm told, tersely reminded senior product planners as much in a meeting amid last week's Bronco brouhaha.
She would be right, of course. The new Blazer delivers neither the rugged capability to "overland" as Wrangler does and Bronco promises to do. Nor does it telegraph the Blazer heritage derived from a truck architecture that came to battle Ford's later-generations Bronco, popularized most prominently by O.J. Simpson trying to ditch police on an L.A. freeway.
Buy PhotoThe Ford Bronco that debuted last week is generating lots of buzz -- and advance deposits. (Photo: Nic Antaya, Special to The Detroit News)
Muscularity is a cornerstone of Detroit's brand DNA in a U.S. market where foreign-owned brands annually outsell domestics in terms of total vehicles sold. Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV's Ram trucks, Dodge cars and Wranglers promise muscle. And Ford's F-150 Raptor, Mustang and Bronco promise it, too — no secret why they're routinely Detroit's biggest sellers.
Blazer? Meh, as wags have been riffing for the past two years. And when the Bronco finally appeared last week — following a gestation period measured in way too many years — critics were proven right and the cacophony surrounding GM's misbegotten Blazer returned. It wasn't pretty.
Wrote TopSpeed in a piece headlined "Ford's revealing of the 2021 Bronco just proved that GM has no idea what it's doing": "This wasn't the Blazer we wanted, it wasn't the Blazer we needed, and there was just as much hate going around as there was praise, if not more. It can hardly tackle pavement, let alone go off-road."
Or The Drive last year in "Here's Why GM Didn't Make the New Chevrolet Blazer a Rugged Off-Road Truck": "Two paths diverge in the woods. One leads to a rough road rich in history; the other, a smooth, anodyne moving walkway. I suppose you can't blame General Motors for taking the easier route."
General Motors Co. CEO Mary Barra. (Photo: Paul Sancya, AP)
Or MotorBiscuit last week in a piece headlined "The Travesty of the Ford Bronco is the Chevy Blazer": "In a desperate stab at drawing attention to its mediocre SUV, Chevy took the lazy route by giving it a powerful name. But the product that is Blazer is no Bronco. Nor is it a Blazer. Chevy missed a golden opportunity. It could have held onto an iconic name to wait for a product worthy of being called a Blazer."
Exactly right, but it didn't. And the reaction is predictably brutal, reminiscent of the punishment routinely meted out to the old, pre-bankruptcy GM and its focus-grouped-to-death vehicles that disappointed far more people than they satisfied.
These kinds of misses aren't s'posed to happen in a GM led by Barra and President Mark Reuss, each one-time heads of product development. He's a gearhead's gearhead whose product strategy appears content to leave rugged individualists (and the profits they generate) to the competition.
Wouldn't be the first time. Detroit's rotation away from traditional, slower-selling cars and deeper into trucks and SUVs by definition cedes car market share to foreign-owned rivals. The theoretical trade-off: Customers converted to a widening, more profitable array of truck and SUV offerings can compensate for lost sales and maintain market share.
The Blazer saga is different, a cautionary tale of misreading the market, of squandering an iconic brand name, of producing just another midsize crossover (in Mexico only) whose provenance fires the passions of politicians and United Auto Workers members witnessing the closure of assembly plants in Maryland and northeast Ohio.
Ford returned to Bronco's 1960s-era roots to reimagine a compact SUV to battle head-on Jeep's Wrangler and to claim a share of that growing segment for the Blue Oval. GM chose otherwise, and now it's on the sidelines of a game it chose not to play.
Jeep Wrangler Rubicon 392 Concept (Photo: Courtesy of FCA US LLC)
daniel.howes@detroitnews.com
(313) 222-2106
Daniel Howes is columnist and associate business editor of The Detroit News. His column runs most Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays.
Last edited by mmarshall; Sep 6, 2020 at 07:37 PM.
Lexus Fanatic
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 35,487
Likes: 386
From: ON/NY
So the Bronco is not even for sale yet. Neither is the Bronco sport.
I don’t think the Bronco will be a success for the following reason:
1. Pandemic
2. 400,000 dead by January
3. Terrible economic recession
4. Whack job for ...
5. Coronavirus relief that will cost $10 trillion or more
6. Pre-pandemic shrinking automotive sector
7. High prices for new to market SUVs
The barrier to entry at this point is far to difficult. I did also hear on motor week that the production line will not be converted till 2022 because of the pandemic reasons.
so for the above reasons....there is very little chance the Bronco will sell at expectations as people are going to be poorer and poorer in the United States and a brand new body on frame suv is just gonna be very expensive.....
As for Blazer....it’s a mediocre crossover that looks bad. There is no 3-row version unlike the China built Blazer....wrong name too as it really is a Camaro-crossover....finally, it had bad timing as it was released when the whole NAFTA-tariff BS was going on and it does not help it is made in Mexico while the UAW went on strike.
Personally speaking...I find the Mexican built crossover Bronco Sport to be far more appealing than the body on frame model....
I don’t think the Bronco will be a success for the following reason:
1. Pandemic
2. 400,000 dead by January
3. Terrible economic recession
4. Whack job for ...
5. Coronavirus relief that will cost $10 trillion or more
6. Pre-pandemic shrinking automotive sector
7. High prices for new to market SUVs
The barrier to entry at this point is far to difficult. I did also hear on motor week that the production line will not be converted till 2022 because of the pandemic reasons.
so for the above reasons....there is very little chance the Bronco will sell at expectations as people are going to be poorer and poorer in the United States and a brand new body on frame suv is just gonna be very expensive.....
As for Blazer....it’s a mediocre crossover that looks bad. There is no 3-row version unlike the China built Blazer....wrong name too as it really is a Camaro-crossover....finally, it had bad timing as it was released when the whole NAFTA-tariff BS was going on and it does not help it is made in Mexico while the UAW went on strike.
Personally speaking...I find the Mexican built crossover Bronco Sport to be far more appealing than the body on frame model....
Last edited by Toys4RJill; Sep 6, 2020 at 08:33 PM.
mmarshall - there you go again, comparing vehicles that have NOTHING in common except DISTANT (decades ago) models that competed, but today, your comparing these two in any was is utterly pointless.
Thread Starter
Lexus Fanatic
Joined: Oct 2003
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From: Virginia/D.C. suburbs
I didn't write the article. I merely posted it.....and it was written by a well-respected publication.
Last edited by mmarshall; Sep 6, 2020 at 10:06 PM.
Lexus Test Driver
Joined: Feb 2002
Posts: 8,223
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From: New York
I agree with the article that Blazer was a complete disaster and way overpriced.
New Bronco looks promising and has TONS of customization. It should be a worthy challenger to the Wrangler and sell well for many years.
New Bronco looks promising and has TONS of customization. It should be a worthy challenger to the Wrangler and sell well for many years.
Thread Starter
Lexus Fanatic
Joined: Oct 2003
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From: Virginia/D.C. suburbs
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Thread Starter
Lexus Fanatic
Joined: Oct 2003
Posts: 94,521
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From: Virginia/D.C. suburbs
.....and it is interesting is that, except for the pea-pot turbo-hree engine, the smaller Trailblazer, which shares a lot of bigger brother's looks, in its Activ Trim-level version, is arguably a better off-roader, despite also being a crossover. The Trailblazer is also selling like hotcakes, with a huge demand for it.....dealers simply cannot keep them in stock. To those who claim that is it pointless to compare the Blazer to the Bronco because they are two separate type of vehicles, that is precisely the point. They should not have been two separate type of vehicles....and that's where GM missed the mark. The flood of pre-orders for the Bronco showed that buyers were waiting for a real Blazer/Bronco replacement, not another grocery-shopping special.
New Bronco looks promising and has TONS of customization. It should be a worthy challenger to the Wrangler and sell well for many years.
Lexus Fanatic
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 35,487
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From: ON/NY
They are not really pre-orders, the article is spreading fake news... They are reservations. A reservation just holds you a spot to eventually actually place an order when the dealers are allowed to put the orders in. It is a very good marketing tool.
Last edited by Toys4RJill; Sep 7, 2020 at 07:28 AM.
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From: Van Alstyne, TX
Chevy Blazer overwhelmed by Bronco introduction
) I would have a Mazda CX-5 or a Lexus NX (or base RX) over a blazer all day long...and that's saying something, because I HATE the NX.Ford's Bronco? Not even in the same class, IMO. The blazer would't last 5 minues off-road with its plastic panels and low front and rear overhangs and chin spoilers. The Bronco was primarily designed (like the Wrangler) with off-road capabilities in mind.
Dysfunctional Veteran
Joined: Sep 2004
Posts: 8,103
Likes: 319
From: Van Alstyne, TX
So the Bronco is not even for sale yet. Neither is the Bronco sport.
I don’t think the Bronco will be a success for the following reason:
1. Pandemic
2. 400,000 dead by January
3. Terrible economic recession
4. Whack job for ...
5. Coronavirus relief that will cost $10 trillion or more
6. Pre-pandemic shrinking automotive sector
7. High prices for new to market SUVs
The barrier to entry at this point is far to difficult. I did also hear on motor week that the production line will not be converted till 2022 because of the pandemic reasons.
so for the above reasons....there is very little chance the Bronco will sell at expectations as people are going to be poorer and poorer in the United States and a brand new body on frame suv is just gonna be very expensive.....
As for Blazer....it’s a mediocre crossover that looks bad. There is no 3-row version unlike the China built Blazer....wrong name too as it really is a Camaro-crossover....finally, it had bad timing as it was released when the whole NAFTA-tariff BS was going on and it does not help it is made in Mexico while the UAW went on strike.
Personally speaking...I find the Mexican built crossover Bronco Sport to be far more appealing than the body on frame model....
I don’t think the Bronco will be a success for the following reason:
1. Pandemic
2. 400,000 dead by January
3. Terrible economic recession
4. Whack job for ...
5. Coronavirus relief that will cost $10 trillion or more
6. Pre-pandemic shrinking automotive sector
7. High prices for new to market SUVs
The barrier to entry at this point is far to difficult. I did also hear on motor week that the production line will not be converted till 2022 because of the pandemic reasons.
so for the above reasons....there is very little chance the Bronco will sell at expectations as people are going to be poorer and poorer in the United States and a brand new body on frame suv is just gonna be very expensive.....
As for Blazer....it’s a mediocre crossover that looks bad. There is no 3-row version unlike the China built Blazer....wrong name too as it really is a Camaro-crossover....finally, it had bad timing as it was released when the whole NAFTA-tariff BS was going on and it does not help it is made in Mexico while the UAW went on strike.
Personally speaking...I find the Mexican built crossover Bronco Sport to be far more appealing than the body on frame model....
I fail to really see the difference. You put money down for a "reservation" same as a pre-order. Seems like semantics to me.
Lexus Fanatic
Joined: Nov 2011
Posts: 35,487
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From: ON/NY
when someone puts done a $100 “cancellable” reservation....that is very different that per-ordering something that the dealers cannot even order for yet.