I think all in all with the exception of mpg they are a pretty good tough suv, mine is a 2002 4dr 4x4 and it does the trick for me ,I do my best to keep up with the maintenance.
But I don't mind saying I avoid rush hour traffic that's where my mileage sucks, But on the highway or trails I can't complain mine has 336kms and runs great

 

I guess it depends on what you haul/tow with it. I put some 12x12 patio blocks and small bags of sand in the back.. and the suspension did NOT like me at all for doing this, lol. Sag city. Thankfully I didn't have to go far. Maybe it would be better suited towing a small boat vs hauling stuff. I normally would have just used my Sierra for hauling, but I wasn't really grabbing all that much so it wasn't worth taking out of the garage.

 

i pulled my 3000lb tool trailer once when my 150 was out of commission, was going like it wasn't even there

 

K5 is world wide famous..now they are to old..still some of them are good and running,.

 

my dad loves the S-blazer chassis, hes on about the 5th one, im on my 2nd, they have their good points and bad, for a 5,000 pound suv running a big-block V6 the fuel milage isnt all that bad, tows reasonably well. it is a pain to work on, pretty much a full-size engine in a compact chassis. im a "ford guy" though, and id rather have a blazer over a explorer, hands down gms 4.3 is a much better engine than the 4.0 in my ranger, heck ive thought about repowering my ranger with a 4.3 before! when (the wifes's) blazer is running good, its my favorite vehicle, when its not, im wishing i could afford to trade it in on a rav4/crv. but its certianally better than the trailblazer that came after it, ive worked on a couple and i defitly dont want one of those! so i deal with the common stuff, the door pins, the intake gasket...worried about ball joints so im doing them this spring just to stay ahead of a breakdown, ive permantly locked the axle dissconect on the front axle so i dont have that worry about the axle not engaging, still get 18 mpg that way, did the transfercase input shaft seal, after i found twice the normal amount of oil in the t/c...and the trans a qt low. the brakes could be better, hate the abs and that growling sound, thought about doing away with the abs setup, but hasnt been a priority. seem to be plenty of the S-blazers out there, thought about putting a std trans in a four door, bet it would be fun to drive with a manual instead of the auto....maybe someday....

 

As stated in previous posts I believe that it defiantly has to do with people just not treating them right. It seems nowadays 99% of people do little to no work on their own vehicles and therefore really don't understand what goes into making their "magic moving machine" work and treat it like ****.

They drive them until something happens and then complain that it's not a "quality" truck. Preventive maintenance could solve most of the problems that people have with these things but with how much and easily it is to screw people over on things they don't understand nowadays people just act like shops are trying to get more money. The good thing is there are still alot of these trucks roaming the road and I rarely hear someone complaining that their 4.3 blew early.

The dealer I bought my truck from swapped in a 80,000 mile 4.3 with around 135,000 miles on the body so I will easily see my beauty rust apart before it dies and with a M/T I know it will be a cheaper fix down the road.

All in all I think people are just used to their Toyotas and Hondas lasting forever and when they get someone that needs a little more work they almost automatically want to act like its a piece of **** that gets terrible gas mileage.

I'm sorry about ranting haha feel free to criticize or correct whatever I said.

 

Toyotas and Hondas aren't a lot better, if at all. It's just routine maintenance if it's an import vehicle, and a flaw if it's domestic vehicle.

 

Mine was neglected pretty badly by the previous owners (friends of mine). They wouldn't fix anything until it got to the point of preventing the truck from driving.

I've had my share of the usual; fuel pumps, rear hatch release, spider, etc. But the engine, transmission, and rear end have been absolutely bullet-proof! It's got 265,000+ miles, and doesn't leak a drop of oil (after I replaced the oil cooler lines, anyway!), doesn't smoke, and the transmission shifts nice and firm. I haven't had to do anything to the drivetrain at all! Other than the spider and fuel lines.

It seems GM has a way of building great drive trains, and wrapping a junky car around them! same as my '06 Cobalt. 168K, engine/transmission are great, but the car is falling apart around it. Broken door handles, rattles and clunks. Stuff that doesn't really matter, as far as getting me to work and back, but it makes a mechanically great car feel like a turd.

 

I have a 1999 Blazer with 247,000 miles on it that is still going strong. It has never failed me. I am religious with my maintenance and repairs and that is what keeps it going. Most of the people I know that have nothing but bad things to say about the Blazers can't even be bothered to check the oil let alone change the oil.


All and all I honestly think my Blazer is as good in quality and performance as any other vehicle on the road. If not better. When I do have to have a repair done it doesn't cost me a fortune.

 

I suppose this is all relative, but for comparison sake, I have 3 4x4's, 84 bronco, 99 blazer, 02 dodge ram 3500, by far, the repair costs of the blazer per mile driven outway the other trucks. About $1,000 per 12,000 miles for the blazer to keep it running. They all have 150k miles or more on them. I think I put about $1,000 per 10 years into the Bronco, awesome truck, no computer to tell it what to do.