mikesplumbing

Ha! Just thought I would post this for fun.

A buddy of mine who is a long time GM fan found out I was looking to buy a Cherokee and called to recommend buying an S-10 Blazer instead. He talked about how dependable they are yada yada.....

Anyhow, I figured I would check them out by researching online and found a forum similar to this one. The first thing I clicked on was the thread for "Quirks about the blazer". Holy Crap! I read through just a few of the many pages before quitting. I can't imagine having a list of problems like that, I mean geez, it's normal to have problems but when you have multiple people on the forum say they would never buy one again and they all have the same 12-15 problems as each other, I can't imagine buying one. I have owned GM products in the past and did like them but the blazer is hardly competition after what I read.

Man am I glad I decided on buying a Cherokee!

Mike

nw-xj-scott

Everyone has an opinion.. its up to you to make your own..

MY opinion.. stay away from ANYTHING GM

The early 90s S-10 platform was pure junk. everyone says "oh but it has the vortec 4.3" BLOW ME! that motor was junk the day it came out.

And the S-10 platform had IFS..
It came with GM interior!
It had a GM Transmission!

Enough said!

89Laredo

My sister has had nothing but problems with her blazer, so has my brother...

They came with IFS, dont plan on wheelin unless you do a straight axle swap.
The Intake gaskets are known to leak and kill the engine (cause gm used crappy coolant)

My dad is having troubles with the 4wd in his Sonoma, My sister is having problems with it in her blazer. They both have push button 4wd and neither one has it working..

I heard they ride worse than a jeep (very rough), get about the same or maybe even worse mileage, they have less interior space and the interior is all cheap plastic, the transmission is "light duty" (and its not an AW4! lol), not to mention less horsepower...

Last but not least: ITS NOT A JEEP!

LiftedFun

I agree Ive had two cherokees and had an 01 s10 blazer and i would pick the cherokee a million times over a blazer anyday

Donnie_K

If you're gonna look for a blazer, look for the old K5 blazers... the S10's just don't cut it.

mobilecherokee4

yeah the k5's are waaayyyy better than the s-10's my buddy used to have a k5 and it could get through about anything, it was so heavy it would just sink down and grip to anything it touched and just ease on through

tburda

I have an 86 s10 blazer 3" body lift 33's and it has the 2.5L in it. The 2.5 is a better motor than the 4.3L. the 4.3L was for nothing other than cost cutting and fitting a 350 into the small trucks. They dropped 2 cylinders remapped the fuel and thats how they came up with the 4.3L. it's s junk motor. It WILL overheat, it WILL blow the water pump. Then the radiator. Then the thermostat...

I was a fleet mechanic for about a year, (the ONLY mechanic) and we had a bunch of astro vans and s10's with the 4.3. If you manage to keep the cooling system in good shape. it should run forever. But the FIRST time you have a cooling issue, you WILL be replacing everything, and then it's going to goto hell. Most of our 4.3 vehicles had over 300,000 on them, with terrible maintenance (these guys dont follow directions and "it's not their car" so they beat the **** out of them).

It's still a junk motor cause if you have ONE small issue...it's game over. It snowballs fast. My blazer did get me started into 4wd though thats for sure. But I HATE HATE HATE the newer blazers. they suck. My dad is retired from GM and had one of those blazers. I towed an 8 ft trailer with a MOTORCYCLE on it and it felt like the truck was gonna explode.

storm101

K5 FTW on the blazer topic. Preferably an 83 with the 350 or the 6.0 diesel! lol

Ill eventually con my stepdads away from him some year lol.....picked it up like 2 years ago for 150$ Ive done some work on it and that thing is a beast......

I still like my XJ more though.....but that k5 is like a tank version of it hahaha

iweb

Funny you all bring up the K5, I have an 87 all decked out and bought my Cherokee for my hunting rig. Blazer is for sale but no smog so hard to sell. Cherokee hauled my elk home this year!

Rmart30

having had a s10 and a few cherokees stay the heck away from a S10. The XJ is ten times better than a S10.

ZachsXJ

Cherokee>S10 Blazer

end of story

zr2toxj

Well I've got to chime in here. First things, first, check out my user name. Self explanatory. I had a 98 Blazer ZR2 that I sold and bought a 99 XJ.

I know, I know, all you hard cores are getting excited. Simmer down, I have no regrets with the Blazer other than outgrowing it when it comes to its offroad abilities.

I had a ton of fun with it. FWIW, it's still running with 200k on it. When I sold it it had 186K and didn't burn a drop of oil, started every time I asked it to.

So all this crap bout a 4.3 being junk is exaggerated. They are a tough engine.

My problem was the IFS, the weak front dif and the **** poorly designed idler arm. I don't have a problem with inferior design IF there is either an OEM cure, or an aftermarket one that is reasonable.

In the case of my ZR2 and the State I live in, I would have to buy a $3000 kit and then buy an axle to do an SFA. It wasn't worth it.


I love my XJ, more than the ZR2 in a lot of ways. I know it's a better platform and has tons of things available for it, so I'm glad I did what I did, but the Blazer was a good rig and is still thumping along.

Verbalkint99

I too had a Blazer right before my current ride. I had a 99 2dr Blazer 4x4 that was nothing but problems....though I should say I bought it used with 80,000 on the clock and sold it with 146,000. So I did buy some one else's problems...just didn't know how many.

All before the 100k mark: New heater core, new intake gasket, new water pump, new steering gearbox, CV joints on both sides, and several trips for work on the front diff

The four wheel drive never did work right and I could not take it on the freeway with out it trying to slip into gear on its own. So I sold it and bought my 2000 XJ with 180,000 miles and no issues yet...though its only been a few months...fingers are crossed.

flexinxj

Id pick my jeep over any vehicle including s10. although i did just sell a k5 on 40s that was badazz. My dd is a k1500 with 6in lift and i absolutley hate the ifs. I think if the s10 has sas i might like them more

prerunner1982

I will chime in here as well....

I just got rid of my wife's 97 S10... It wasn't a horrible vehicle but certainly turned me away from newer GMs. The fuel pumps are PITA to replace an expensive at that ($350ea)... I had to replace it twice within two months because the first one burned up inside, the 2nd was an updated version. The lumbar switch is in the side of the driver's seat in the soft area...where you sit when you enter/exit the vehicle, so the wiring got cut up by the seat frame and shorted. There is a crossmember welded right below the pitman are so that the steering box has to be removed to remove/replace the pitman arm, but that is also a good time to change the #1 spark plug as the steering shaft goes right infront of it and can not be removed with regular tools but requires a special tool for 1 spark plug. Also the outside mirrors had poor mounting and would fall off. I had it happen 3 times. The 3rd time I drilled out the holes where the mounting stud were glued and bolted the mirror to the door (the mirror design was changed later in the model years, but the 97 still had the crappy ones). I am sure there are a few things I am missing....but you get the idea.