Pics and info pour in as the Chevy Trailblazer goes live in Thailand

20/06/2012 - 09:30 | Chevrolet Trailblazer, Chevrolet | Shrawan Raja

GM Thailand has cut the mustard with its new 7-seat Trailblazer SUV that has just been launched for a starting price of 18.8 lakh rupees.

IAB readers who have been tuning in regularly were told that GM India is impressed with the Trailblazer and is keen to bring it to our market at a later date.

The Trailblazer was in fact developed mainly for Southeast Asia where there is a boom for SUVs. GM invested US$300 million in its Rayong assembly plant to manufacture this model. It has to be noted that Toyota's Fortuner and Ford's Endeavour are also produced in Thailand and brought to India as a CKD. The Trailblazer belongs to the same class of vehicles.

The Trailblazer was designed at the GM South America Design Center in São Caetano do Sul, Brazil, and shares plenty of design cues with its sister vehicle, the Colorado pickup. To provide a premium appearance, there are chrome appointments on the grille surround, door handles, tailgate handle, mirror caps, headlamps and fog lamps.

Moving to the vehicle's features, the car is powered either by a 2.5L diesel engine with 150hp/350 Nm or a 2.8L diesel engine (installed with a variable-geometry turbocharger) developing 180hp/470Nm (440 Nm for the manual). These motors are coupled to a five-speed manual and six-speed automatic transmissions.

Coming to car's cabin, the car has three rows of theater-style seating. The interior is upholstered in contrasting two-tone (beige and dark gray) trims. Luggage volume ranges from 205 liters to 1,830 liters depending on the seat folding.

The Trailblazer's two most important features from the Indian perspective are the separate control for the HVAC unit mounted on the roof in the rear and a premium sound entertainment system. These make long journeys easier.

The top-end variant is tech-savvy boasting of gadgets such as an integrated touch-screen infotainment system with DVD playback capability and a GPS navigation system, on top of the usual audio and radio functions.