x2 on that. Both vehicles were designed for different purposes. The Jeep is based off an old military vehicle that was meant to be rugged, tough and for off-road use.
The Blazer in stock form is more well suited for cruising around town and making the occasional trip up to camp or down a trail, nothing too extensive. For this reason it's difficult to compare the two really.

Another thing, a 2-3 year old Jeep rots out before any other vehicle where I'm from. The Fender design just doesn't work with oxidative road salt in the winters. I've also seen many a person wearing parkas driving their jeep in sub-sub-freezing temperatures with their soft-top jeeps while I'm warm and toasty and in a T-shirt sweating in my Blazer lol.

my $0.02

 

It's the old chevy slogan

 

S10's will never replace the Jeeps for two very simple reasons:

1. Jeeps were made long before the S10 and are still being produced.

2. Aftermarket product support.

 

"It's a Jeep thing, you wouldn't understand."

Yea, I got your jeep thing and now it hurts when I pee.




Jeeps better than Blazers, 4.3L crap :LOL.

First off Jeeps are a social status and somewhat capable off-road. Stock for stock the S10-Blazer will outperform a Stock Jeep. Guess who won the very first Petersons Off-Road Truck of the year compitition? Yep the first and only year the S10-Blazer was entered.

The 4.3L V6 has a ton more power than any engine offered in Jeep, except for the V8. Besides the 4.3L is the famous 350 Chevy small block with two pistons removed. Literally!!!

Now if you want to compare modified rigs. Game on.
Cherokee is no contest, uniframe, in other words the body is the frame. No real way to make it over the top. Wrangler, the more common version, is 93" wheel base. Too short, especially when you add V8 Power, more on that later. Common mod is to lengthern the wheel base to 100". Guess what the stock wheel base is on a 2 door Blazer? 100.5", the 4dr version is 107". BOth perfect wheel bases for hard core wheeling.

V8 power- Most common swap into the Jeep is the Chevy 350, that means a new tranny and t-case adapter, or GM t-case, plus other mods. What will it take to drop in a V8 in a Blazer, the engine and some minor mods. The V8 will bolt up to the tranny.

What about the frame. Jeep has a c-channel, weak and will need to be reinforced, boxed in. The Blazer has IFS, which requires a fully boxed frame. Pre-95 the boxing too the tranny cross brace, post '95 the frame is boxed to behind the rear seats. Teh Blazer has a much stronger frame.

Ground clearance. Jeep is what 8", Blazer 7". Ah not so fast. Crawl under them both and take a look at what hangs below the frames. The Jeep has a gas tank in the back end and t-case in teh center that both hang below the frame. S10-Blazer nothing hangs below the frame.

Shall I go on?






I have wheeled with Jeeps, and I get the same reaction. They laugh at me in camp, then out on the trial they say, "You made it back here in that? I smile and say, "Yep its stock, wish I had lockers", and drive away.

One last thing to chew on. The only place solid axle still wins races is rock crawling? Every other raceing circuit ahs been dominated by IFS. Teh only trouble is there is no affordable aftermarket support for IFS, yet!

 

Boom goes the dynamite lmao.

The jeeps aren't as great as people make them out to be. It's probably the rugged bare-bones look that makes everyone think they're better. I remember arguing with a classmate saying that jeep wranglers and tj's were more capable than a humvee, all my friends just looked at him and told him to go somewhere upwards of cold.

 

Time you buy a jeep the person with the same amount of money got there blazer with a 6'' lift lol

 

I had to go back and re-read the original post.

The OP asked if we thought the S10 Blazer would take over as the "new" Jeep. Not which one is better for whatever reason.

Therefor, I still stand by my first post as to why it will never happen.

Now, if you REALLY want a true offroad capable vehicle from the factory, very hard to beat an IH Scout. But I don't see many of them around for some reason. Could it be because they haven't been produced for a 30 years or so?

 

I have both a Jeep TJ Wrangler (01) and a Chevrolet S-10 Blazer ('89, 4.3 4wd)
The Jeep has the weight advantage and is a little more flexable in teh frame than the Blazer, both are stock height, so I can actually geta "off the floor " comparasion of the two, teh Jeep will NEVER be able to yank a humvee, hummer or even a Ford F350 SD out of a ditch, in hi, or low.
However, my little S-10, WILL and HAS yanked a Hummer H-2 out of a ditch big enough that a tow truck couldn't get it out before, simply slap the transfer case in 4l ow, trans in 1 and sit back and enjoy the very slow ride. on the Jeeps side, I really doubt if teh Blazer will ever go through a streem and not ruin whats left of the carpet, plus I'd love to take the windows and top off the Blazer on a sunny day. So they both have their good and bad points, but I don't think a Blazer will ever replace a Jeep, and a Jeep can never replace a Blazer.

 

Although a Blazer fan, I doubt they will ever be replaced by Blazers. Jeeps have always been popular as far as I know, and will continue to be until something else replaces them.

The problem is that (excuse me for saying this) Blazers typically are not as reliable as Jeeps. Just what I have seen, so feel free to correct me.

 

My experience too, I've owned both so I can say so!