The 2021 Chevy Blazer has received top marks in the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety’s various crashworthiness evaluations, including the critical small overlap front test, but it missed out on the coveted Top Safety Pick+ distinction due to poor performing headlights.
The 2021 Chevy Blazer received the best-possible rating of Good in the IIHS’ driver-side and passenger-side small overlap front tests, as well as the moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraint tests.
The Blazer’s two available front crash prevention systems, Forward Collision Alert and Automatic Emergency Braking with Pedestrian Detection, also earned ‘Superior’ and ‘Advanced’ ratings in the Institute’s separate vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian evaluations.
This performance was enough for the 2021 Chevy Blazer to earn a Top Safety Pick rating, but it was not deemed a Top Safety Pick+ due to its headlights. The Blazer is actually available with three different headlight configurations: HID projector headlights with and without high beam assist and LED projector headlights with high beam assist. The IIHS said the LED projectors “only earn a marginal rating because the high beams provide weak illumination on curves,” while the HID projectors received a poor rating “for the same reason in addition to excessive glare, with or without high-beam assist.”
“Though it meets those core requirements, the 2021 Blazer falls short of taking home a Top Safety Pick award due to its headlights,” the safety watchdog said. “To qualify, a vehicle must be available with good- or acceptable-rated headlights on at least one trim. For the higher-tier Top Safety Pick+, good or acceptable headlights must come standard across all trims.”
Some of the 2021 Chevy Blazer’s direct rivals already received the IIHS’ Top Safety Pick+ rating, including the Ford Explorer, Toyota Highlander, Hyundai Palisade, Mazda CX-9 and Subaru Ascent. All is not lost for the Blazer, though, as GM can still make some adjustments to the vehicle’s headlights and receive a higher safety rating. GM already did this with the 2020 Cadillac XT6, going back to the drawing board to improve the vehicle’s passenger crash protection so it could qualify for the Top Safety Pick+ rating.
Watch the IIHS perform its driver-side small overlap front crash test evaluation on the Chevy Blazer in the video embedded below.
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Comments
Why isn’t Chevy using the Matric technology developed by Opel when GM OWNED it!
Because it’s not legal in the states yet…
I’m glad the IIHS is improving its standards and is encouraging the car industry to do so as well. Headlight technology could go a long way to improving nighttime safety.
Congratulations to GM on the rating.
BUT, like many others that kept rolling away, this crash test is incomplete; that is if one wants to know the structural integrity of the cabin. That force eventually got deflected and never ended at the wall. I am sure it would have a competitive result, but we will never know how that cabin will do until the vehicle comes to a complete stop at that impact area. In the real world, deflection is not always the case in a crash, therefore the result in structural integrity is inconclusive.
The video is just one of several tests, the one you see is called the overlap, where it just glances the side.
You would think that a head-on crash reveals move, but usually a “small overlap” test is more dangerous to the occupants than a “moderate overlap” test precisely because it deflects the energy. Most car manufacturers have figured out how to keep the cabin safe in a head-on crash, but in a small overlap test, only 25% of the vehicle hits the wall. This causes the vehicle to deflect and the driver’s momentum to shift diagonally towards the point of impact. In less safe vehicles, the crash test dummy’s head will bypass the steering wheel and side curtain airbags and hit its head on the A-pillar or dash. IIHS videos reveal this quite often.
Rest assured, the IIHS often conducts the moderate overlap and the small overlap tests on vehicles to confirm safe results.
It is true, the HID lights GM uses really do not cut it these days. I am so happy with our Blazer, but the most important upgrade I have made is changing out OEM HID bulbs to a higher output bulb from Philips. Definitely relieved to see great safety ratings otherwise!
There is a battery of test these vehicles have to go trough. These insurance text are more grand standing.
GM has to do this test, t bone, drop on the roof from a specified height and even test for just the fuel system in crashes. They spend a ton of money to meet the standards.
As for headlamps. None of us are wondering in the dark. Even the worst lights are more than able to handle any need on the roads.
The greatest trouble today is many lamps are crazy expensive now and too often they are now blinding to on coming drivers in some cases.
The Jeep and truck owners who level or lift often never adjust the lights. They are blinding as they need readjusted.
I had a truck last night behind me with a load and he was blinding me in my mirrors.
I think so many people just have headlight envy today.
You want bad lights go drive a 38 Chevy.
Who cares.
I’m getting sick of the daily insignificant ‘stories’ on the blazer trying to stir up interest in this rag. How many blazers did they sell in Mexico in 2020, 1,000 lol.
Still a foreign vehicle.
Give this a thumbs down if you like watching foreign countries prosper at American’s expense.
“Still a foreign vehicle….If you like watching foreign countries prosper at American’s expense.”
Welcome to capitalism, where one of the goals is to, by any means, maximize profits.
Don’t like it? There is a socialist country in Europe with protection on what you’re complaining about.
Haha.
No I’ll stay right here in America and use my money to buy American products. Tell your boss Mary Barry that I will never buy her foreign products.
Why take a well designed vehicle and put less than very good headlights in it? Got to question what GM was thinking. We live in the country where great headlights are important. Congrats to the IHS for holding car manufacturers feet to the fire on headlights.
I swear those dummies NEVER learn to drive, do they????