Hi! I’m new here. I have an old 2001 two door blazer that I love to death. It’s got the 4.3 V6 and all that. A lot of the newer crossovers that I see are all four-cylinder, smaller tires, etc. The newer Chevy small SUVs don’t seem to of near the quality of these old blazers. Are there any modern SUVs or crossovers that are similar to my 2001 blazer that are of good quality?

 

Depends on what you mean by similar. One of my favorite things about my 2002 Blazer and 2003 Rav4 is that they are on full frames. I did some research a while back and I don't think that there are any mid size or small SUV's on frames anymore which is a non starter for me because I have frame mounted class 3 hitches on both trucks and pull a lot of trailers.

George

 

It all depends on what you want your vehicle to do, i.e., its mission. If you want a grocery getter with all or four wheel drive for days with snow, then there are many option. However, I'm with George if you are looking for a new substitute for a body-on-frame, off-pavement capable, SUV. The closest new offering would be a 4Runner but those are larger.

Now, to be fair about the engines, there have been lots of developments in the last 20+ years in engines so that smaller engines now can deliver as much or more horsepower and torque as our 4.3L. I'm not so sure about their longevity though.

 

I once had an interesting discussion with the manager of a jiffy lube place. He has seen thousands of vehicles over decades. I asked him about the highest mileage vehicles that he has seen and he said that they are almost always 4 cylinder small pickup trucks. This was about 15 years ago.

George