Inside the Chevy Trailblazer Activ is a GMC Sierra AT4 wanting to get out.
Over Christmas, I had the $65,000 AT4 beauty in my driveway (Chevy sells a similar Silverado Trail Boss): all-terrain tires, 6 1/2-foot bed, Multi-Pro tailgate. I hauled my Christmas tree home in it, tore around Metro Detroit's ox-cart roads without a care in the world.
Then along came a Trailblazer Activ that could have done the same thing for half the price.
Off-road capable SUVs are all the rage these days, led by the cage match between the Ford Bronco and Jeep Wrangler. But you don't have to don the full, lifted, ladder-frame, 33-inch tire, tree-chewing wardrobe to be tough.
My $32K tester rode on meaty high-profile Hankook all-seasons that absorbed every shock area roads threw at them. While not lifted to the sky like big brother Sierra, the GM mighty-mite would have fared just fine on dirt roads, too.
I didn't need to traverse a dirt road to get my Christmas tree, but having a GMC pickup bed made life easy at Orchard Lake's English Gardens nursery, where I just tossed a 7-foot tree into the bed. No straining to put the tree on the roof. No fear of it falling off. No fiddling with string.
The Trailblazer didn't have a bed, but it had a flat-folding front seat, one of my favorite auto features. The Trailblazer's front seat performs the same trick as its Chevy Trax and Buick Encore kin: It'll flatten forward as well as recline backward. That means — with the middle seats flat — you can put objects up to 8 1/2 feet long under the wee Chevy's roof. Hello, Christmas tree.
Of course, that means you'll have to vacuum a few needles, unlike with the Sierra's bed. But the Trailblazer comes standard with a roof, so you don't have to worry about the tree getting wet.
Speaking of roofs, Trailblazer went about its hauling duties in style like the AT4.
The Activ is distinguished by a white top and white-capped mirrors that remind of a Mini Cooper. It's a nice touch and helps divert attention from the dog's breakfast Chevy face. Were GMC to do a version of the Trailblazer (GMC builds a Terrain equivalent of Chevy's Equinox, but nothing smaller) with its classic upright grille, it would be a knockout.
The Mini Cooper look does give the Trailblazer the appearance of a hot hatch and — typical of Chevy vehicles — the ute is no slouch in the performance department. I enjoyed flinging the AWD box around Oakland County's lake roads, its peppy 1.3-liter turbo engine growling happily under competent management by GM's nine-speed transmission. When it's not impersonating a Sierra pickup, the Trailblazer wants to be a Camaro apparently.
The family traits benefit the junior Chevy.
GMC Sierra and Chevy Silverado were knocked this generation for their carryover interiors even as they innovated on tailgates and chassis stiffness. The next-gen trucks will get the trendy big-screen treatment, but lost in the hubbub is the fact that GM's software is some of the industry's most intuitive.
The Sierra AT4 system is easy to use, and its trickles down to the Trailblazer.
I jump in and out of a lot of brands week-to-week, and the GM products are always a quick study with good ergonomics, excellent screen graphics and helpful knob controls. On the way home on a dark and stormy night, I was struck by the detail on Trailblazer's steering wheel as my thumbs searched in the dark for controls.
GM's "rollers" — surrounded by push buttons — are ribbed for easy location and use, even at night. With the right thumb, I quickly found the MPH indicator screen on the instrument display ahead of me. Then I found the MPH control for adaptive cruise control on the left spoke. I thumbed it repeatedly without ever taking my eyes off the slick road in front of me.
Compare that to, say, the $52K Lexus NX350 I recently drove, which has a good Adaptive Cruise Control system but controls that are flat on the steering wheel, and difficult to locate without looking down.
Lexus also has adopted touchscreens in its products — ditching clumsy touchpads — no doubt due to products from GM that have stuck with touchscreen fundamentals. Sirius XM and its multitude of channels is always a good test of screen planning and the GMC/Chevy system is one of the best, allowing the driver to swipe though channel icons like a smartphone. Select your channel, then add it to favorites. My only ask of the GM designers: a "thumb shelf" at the base of the screen to anchor my thumb while paging.
This attention to detail extends elsewhere in the cabin. The rear window wiper toggle control is at the end of the right stalk, where it should be. The STOP/START, SPORT mode and AWD buttons are above the shifter. Where they should be.
Legroom is generous in back — better than some compact SUVs a segment above — and I could easily sit behind myself with my 6'5" knees. Up front, the Activ model even comes with "Oh, crap" handles on the center console for when the going gets tough off-road. Those handles add to the personality of the Trailblazer in a competitive segment.
The competition is formidable. Think the AWD Jeep Compass, Subaru Crosstrek Wilderness, forthcoming Mazda CX-30X ... and my 2021 Detroit News Vehicle of the Year, the Ford Bronco Sport, which positively begs to be taken off the grid with its rear cargo lights, sub-rear seat storage and twin rear bike storage.
Good thing Trailblazer has Big Brother Sierra AT4 to learn from.
2022 Chevrolet Trailblazer Activ
Vehicle type: Front engine, all-wheel-drive five-passenger compact SUV
Price: $26,820, including $1,195 destination fee ($31,505 as tested)
Powerplant: 1.3-liter turbocharged inline-4 cylinder
Power: 155 horsepower, 174 pound-feet of torque (AWD)
Transmission: nine-speed automatic
Performance: 0-60 mph, 9.4 seconds (Car and Driver); Towing capacity, 1,000 pounds
Weight: 3,323 pounds
Fuel economy: EPA mpg est. 26 city/30 highway/28 combined
Report card
Highs: Intuitive controls; fold-flat front seat
Lows: Oh, that face; gets pricey
Overall: 3 stars
