WHY I TRADED MY 20-YEAR-OLD GAS TRUCK FOR A CHEVY BLAZER EV
I've been an internal-combustion car enthusiast for my whole life. But I think now's the best time to make the switch.
Here's a secret I can finally tell. For the first six months, I was deputy editor of InsideEVs—a site that's a leader in covering the transition to a more sustainable future. I drove a 2001 Chevy Tahoe daily. It got 14 mpg. I felt like a fraud. Here, I was telling others about the importance, joy, and opportunity of the electric revolution while my truck spat poison and leaked oil. I thought going electric would be impossible for me in the near-term. That is until Friday when I took home a 2024 Chevy Blazer EV.
Here's why I held on to my old truck for so long and why I finally made the plunge.
The first thing to know is that I'm a career car reviewer. I started doing this in college, and I've never known another adult job. I've driven everything on the road: New heavy-duty trucks, old Lamborghinis, Miatas, Rolls-Royces, you name it. Whether it's powered by gas, electricity, or both, if it's new, I've probably driven it or something like it. And that wide range of new-car experience has left me with a distaste for the glitzy, tech-forward, overbuilt, expensive cars on the market today. Driving a dozen different "software-defined" vehicles every month nearly turned me into a Luddite.
My 229,000-mile Tahoe, "Big Red," was the physical manifestation of that feeling. Faced with manufacturers telling me the best thing I could do for the environment was to buy a $60,000, 5,000-lb car, I rebelled. I daily drove a Chevy I bought for $2,500. Its radiator, wheel bearing, air conditioning, oil drain plug, valve cover gaskets and climate resistor may have failed. Its right-rear window may not have worked, its seatbelts may have worn out and required junk-yard replacements and its HVAC may have only blown out of certain vents, but it wouldn't quit. It did a half-dozen three-to-five-hundred-mile trips in the 20 months I drove it, often with four adults and camping gear. It took me miles from pavement, over steep mountains, through 110-degree heat, and it started up every time.
The damn thing has heart.
Big Red on a four-person, dispersed camping trip in Anza Borrego State Park.
It has the sort of old-school charm I find missing in the new, computerized world. But just as "technology is good" is not a truism, neither is "technology is bad." Despite aching to escape the consumerism of a "nice" car, I can't deny I drove more, did more, and saw more on the intermittent weeks when I was reviewing a new car. I'd go two months without one, trundling around my neighborhood in San Diego with an 8-foot foam board stuffed inside Big Red. Then I'd have a new truck to review, and suddenly, I'd be surfing up in Encinitas, hiking in Cleveland National Forest, or trying a new restaurant in another neighborhood.
And that, more than any old-world charm, is what I love about cars. I love to explore nature, try new things, and have new adventures. Big Red was capable of all of that, but with 229,000 miles and an uncountable amount of quirks and rattles, the experience was never stress-free. The fuel gauge never worked, the seats were worn out even with new foam and I never went far without my toolbox.
I've owned 13 cars, most of which were over 15 years old. The only semi-modern car I've had is a 2016 Miata. That had almost no tech options, so this is a dramatic change for me.
I wanted something stress-free that would enable my adventures. But on the new market, that's a tall order. Anything equivalent to an old Tahoe is $50,000 on the new market, and I don't have that sort of coin. I also wanted something electric—a new adventure—and that narrowed my options. I can't stand the sparse cabin of a Tesla, or the thought of giving money to Elon Musk. The Ioniq 6 is my favorite EV on sale, but between surfboards, bikes, and camping gear, I usually fill up every inch of an SUV. The Ioniq 5 and Kia EV6 are phenomenal, but they don't have the ground clearance I need for dirt roads.
I was stalled. Everything bigger than those felt out of reach financially, and everything internal combustion was either too boring or too expensive. But then I saw my friend Alex of Auto Buyers Guide publish a video. He leased an all-wheel-drive Chevy Blazer EV for the equivalent of $264 a month with 0 down. I did some quick research and found a reason to hope: The Chevy Blazer EV offers 7.9 inches of ground clearance, just 0.5 inches shy of my Tahoe.
At 5,337 pounds, the Blazer EV is significantly heavier than my ancient, V-8 Tahoe. I've taken to calling the portly EV "Gordo."
I hadn't thought much about the Blazer since I attended the first drive at the tail end of 2023. Then at Road & Track, I criticized the RS tester for its poor ride and high price. InsideEVs' Kevin Williams getting stranded by it made me more skeptical. However, Chevy has since fixed the software and dramatically reduced the price, and the LT's smaller wheels and different tuning are transformative for the ride. A short test drive confirmed that the LT was a cushy around-town cruiser and that the software and attention to detail I lauded in my initial review were even better than I remembered. I've never owned a vehicle with CarPlay, and I prefer good home-grown software to it, anyway.
So, I stumbled into a perfect fit. Big enough to swallow an 8-foot surfboard or four passengers and their camping gear, and with plenty of ground clearance, the Blazer EV is the only affordable EV that could handle all of the adventures I did in Big Red. With 279 miles of endurance and impending—though delayed—access to Superchargers, it's also got enough flexibility to enable a new age of EV adventure trips.
It was a natural swap. But it was the price that pushed me over the edge. Despite not being eligible for the competitive-lease discount that enabled Alex's irreplicable deal, after submitting quotes to a few dealers, I finally got one offer I couldn't refuse. For a Radiant Red LT model with the optional panoramic roof—along with the standard dual-voltage charger, faux leather interior, 360-degree camera, adaptive cruise control, heated steering wheel and Google infotainment—I will pay just $2000 at signing and $271 a month for 24 months.
That's cheaper than a Honda Civic, cheaper than any gas SUV and barely more expensive than running Big Red for another couple of years. For that money, I get a comfortable, cheap-to-run, do-anything car with modern safety features and enough range to wander off the map. Best of all, I'm still driving a Big Red Chevy.
I'll be writing updates over the next two years, starting with a proper ownership review. We'll see if it can help me shake my Luddite ways, and get me excited for the future.
Contact the author: [email protected].
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2024-07-24T15:48:34Z dg43tfdfdgfd