Chevy Blazer Supply Running At A Scant Five Days As Of November
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As GM Authority has reported throughout this year, inventory of the Chevy Blazer continues to dwindle at Chevrolet dealerships across the United States. Now, the midsize crossover has a mere five days supply across the United States.
Supply of the crossover has been low for over a year now. Back in September of 2020, GM Authority exclusively reported that it was running at 28 days as of the beginning of that month. The figure was the same in January 2021. By the end of February 2021, supply had increased slightly to 31 days. Two months later, it had dropped again to just 16 days, falling to 12 days as of the beginning of July, and eight days as of the first week of August. Now, as of the first week of November, nationwide Blazer supply is less than a week’s worth, at just five days.
The optimal figure for the U.S. auto industry is 60 days. There is an upside to vehicles finding customers more quickly than that, but it also implies excess demand, insufficient supply, or a combination of the two. This means customers shopping at their local Chevy dealer have less choice, may see higher prices as a result of lower incentives, or find a dealer less willing to negotiate. In some cases, dealers could even want more for the vehicle, charging over sticker. All this could lead those customers to buy a competing vehicle from another brand or manufacturer.
The continuing drop in inventory suggests a considerable excess of demand over supply for the Chevy Blazer. This can often be explained by the ongoing global semiconductor microchip shortage which has been affecting vehicle production at auto plants around the world, such as Chevy Equinox at the GM Ramos Arizpe plant in Mexico. That was the also the case for the Blazer in July, which is also built at the same facility. Blazer production was idled from August 23rd to September 6th, but finally restarted on October 18th.
At GM, smaller vehicles like the Equinox and Blazer have been impacted the most by the chip shortage. Since the automaker’s larger vehicles, like full-size trucks and SUVs, tend to be more profitable, the automaker continues to prioritize its chip supply for plants that build these vehicles.
Dwindling inventory of the Chevy Blazer continues to negatively impact sales, with the midsize crossover posting a 29 percent decline during the first three quarters of 2021. As result, its share of the mainstream midsize and full-size crossover segment has decreased from five to just three percent.
Sales Numbers - Midsize & Full-Size Mainstream Crossovers - Jan-Sep 2021 - United States
| MODEL | YTD 21 / YTD 20 | YTD 21 | YTD 20 | YTD 21 SHARE | YTD 20 SHARE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TOYOTA HIGHLANDER | +46.89% | 207,564 | 141,301 | 13% | 10% |
| FORD EXPLORER | -0.02% | 160,174 | 160,209 | 10% | 12% |
| JEEP GRAND CHEROKEE | +24.12% | 189,727 | 152,856 | 12% | 11% |
| HONDA PILOT | +27.40% | 114,667 | 90,002 | 7% | 7% |
| CHEVROLET TRAVERSE | +12.12% | 94,198 | 84,012 | 6% | 6% |
| VOLKSWAGEN ATLAS | +65.99% | 92,815 | 55,917 | 6% | 4% |
| HYUNDAI SANTA FE | +27.32% | 89,656 | 70,420 | 6% | 5% |
| KIA SORENTO | +2.91% | 62,255 | 60,492 | 4% | 4% |
| KIA TELLURIDE | +51.72% | 70,724 | 46,615 | 4% | 3% |
| HYUNDAI PALISADE | +6.75% | 64,673 | 60,583 | 4% | 4% |
| GMC ACADIA | +8.84% | 55,679 | 51,159 | 3% | 4% |
| CHEVROLET BLAZER | -29.45% | 50,339 | 71,356 | 3% | 5% |
| FORD EDGE | -28.51% | 54,951 | 76,862 | 3% | 6% |
| DODGE DURANGO | +16.44% | 52,931 | 45,456 | 3% | 3% |
| TOYOTA VENZA | +2,927.16% | 50,493 | 1,668 | 3% | 0% |
| SUBARU ASCENT | -13.63% | 43,043 | 49,835 | 3% | 4% |
| HONDA PASSPORT | +51.87% | 42,014 | 27,665 | 3% | 2% |
| NISSAN MURANO | -12.42% | 39,287 | 44,859 | 2% | 3% |
| MAZDA CX-9 | +41.09% | 28,799 | 20,412 | 2% | 1% |
| NISSAN PATHFINDER | -23.02% | 28,885 | 37,525 | 2% | 3% |
| MITSUBISHI OUTLANDER | -9.33% | 21,277 | 23,467 | 1% | 2% |
| TOTAL | +17.59% | 1,614,151 | 1,372,671 |
Meanwhile, the segment as a whole saw sales grow 18 percent to 1,614,151 units during the first three quarters of 2021. Even the Blazer’s larger platform mate, the Chevy Traverse, saw a 12 percent bump in sales volume and maintained its segment share of 6 percent.
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While not build the Blazer on the Colorado chassis and then get rid of the traverse? That would compete with the Forerunner.
This is why armchair product quarterbacks like you don’t see the light of day.
Why not? Because crossovers are the new sedans. You can build body in frame SUVs as much as you want, but people want an suv with the frame and associated driving behaviors of a sedan = crossovers. That’s what blazer and traverse do – they hit at the heart of what people are buying.
Body on frame is cool, but it’s a limited market when it comes to midsize SUVs.
Also, it’s 4Runner… and it’s still a relatively niche market vehicle.
Both Ford and GM lead the segment in sales drop.
Not surprising
Go Toyota with your 47% highlander growth and the Honda pilot with 27% sales growth.
Not to mention the Jeep. Not too bad for an 11 year old design.
The jeep is all new now. The Q3 sales are a mix of old model and new model.
Hey Chevrolet ! Let’s talk about the real reason the “Blazer” has just a 5 day supply. Pretend it’s the mid 1990’s, a POTUS named Clinton(D) got a deal named NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) passed and in about 1 year later the kid sister named CAFTA (Central America Free Trade Agreement)) which essentially shut down all types of manufacturing. Yes GM still builds a few models in the US, but vehicles like the Blazer, Encore, Trax, Envision are imports … as are a majority of the parts used to build them out of country, and domestically. I can imagine many reading this have never even heard of NAFTA an CAFTA, the liberal agenda right now isn’t too proud of their past actions which has lead all of us to the position we’re in right now. Things aren’t going to get better until things like NAFTA are repealed, and manufacturing returns to the US. In closing this … in NC we lost close to 3 million manufacturing jobs in things like auto/truck tires, boats, textiles, electronics, pharmaceuticals, minor an major home appliances, and all types of furniture … eventually over 5 million jobs. Not many new manufacturing jobs came back, and what did, well some didn’t last very long.
Hmmmm let me think. Plant has been closed for some time and no Blazers being built or shipped.
Supplies of it are basically non-existent and sales are substantially off. Somehow this is a revelation?
What a misleading and misinforming article.
The main reason this foreign GM product is in low supply is that production stopped because there are not enough chips to make the vehicle. Not to mention many do not want a foreign product.
This is a complete screwup from the GM leadership.
People should be fired from Mary Barra on down the list.
Is an hourly worker stopped product for even a minute there would be repercussions.
GM outsourcing has caused months of lost production and yet Mary is making record compensation.
Makes me sick.
Misleading? Misinforming? Come on buddy, you just failed to read. They say exactly why supply is down, right here:
“ The continuing drop in inventory suggests a considerable excess of demand over supply for the Chevy Blazer. This can often be explained by the ongoing global semiconductor microchip shortage which has been affecting vehicle production at auto plants around the world, such as Chevy Equinox at the GM Ramos Arizpe plant in Mexico. That was the also the case for the Blazer in July, which is also built at the same facility. Blazer production was idled from August 23rd to September 6th, but finally restarted on October 18th.”
Every automaker is facing the semiconductor shortage. Fire yourself.
Chip Shortage? How about GM/Ford/Chrysler not listening to the chip makers. The story broke this week whereas the quote “chip” shortage is on you guys. For those who don’t know the Big Three hasn’t updated their electronics as has the chip builders, the chip builders can’t afford to make the “chips” they need as they are obsolete. Their computer chips have to do work for more than one customer. Maybe the big three need to start making their own, I sure Texas Instruments would like the contract.
THE BLAZER SHOULD HAVE BEEN LEFT IN AN BUILD IN CANADA .. MY 2010 TERRAIN WAS BUILT .IN CANADA .. STILL RUNS GREAT . CHEERS