Why I love and hate my 1985 Chevy S10 Blazer

I’m a young guy, and a young guy like me wants a car that will stand out in the High school parking lot. So naturally, I thought to get a classic car. It was flawless reasoning, no one will have a car like mine, the women will love it , I can work on it and show off my knowledge, etc. That’s not entirely how it went to be.

Things I Love

The Simplicity: I can take a look at the engine and diagnose whats wrong with it in a couple of minutes, and on top of that, i don’t have to buy an expensive scan tool to get a code that I have to look up in order to point me in the general direction.

The Rarity: Not a single person in my town, hell I’ll bet even in my county will have the same car as me. I got extremely lucky, my particular car is a 2.8 v6 coupled to a 4-speed manual with 4WD, it is the 2 door sport model, but it has air shocks in the back. On top of that, it was stored away in a garage for 13 years. It only has 87,000 miles on it. If you can find one of the year with the same options and mileage even close to that, i will personally deliver you a cookie.

The Ride Quality: Never in my life did I even consider saying that an 80’s small SUV made to be a jeep competitor would be comfortable. But surprisingly, it is. It is probably one of the most comfortable cars I’ve been in my life, In the short amount of time I’ve had this car, I’ve already brought it on two road trips to the middle of Pennsylvania.

The Clutch: This car had the single easiest clutch to learn on the engine is torque-y enough to get anyone used to driving manual, and on top of the the transmission is from a car so the throws are smooth and satisfying.

Things I Hate

The Engine: The 2.8 V6 is the most underwhelming engine ever. Stock It just passes 120hp. Some say that is enough but when you need power to get you up steep dirt hill it would be nice to have a few more horses under the hood.

The 4WD Vacuum Switch: Yeah, I know, this is kind of specific but anyone who had had a 1st gen blazer knows this problem. It is literally a hollow bolt with a ball on a spring in one end and three points for vacuum hoses to go into. Not only is it in the least accessible place ever, ( on top of the transfer case between it and the bottom of the body.) For this damn thing it cost $30. Yes, you heard right, $30 FOR A BOLT.

The lack of aftermarket support: This is another thing, even though it has been graced with the golden bow tie of easily accessible OEM interchangeable parts, it doesn’t have a huge amount of aftermarket parts. The 2.8 is the biggest culprit of this problem. GM had some sort of agreement with Jeep and Isuzu so a lot of 80’s 4x4 SUV’s had that V6 while a small group found ways to make power , others just scrapped the motor.

In Conclusion

There are more pros than cons on this subject. From having the pleasure of owning this beautiful piece of American engineering, I’ve gained these opinions. While some qualities I love, others I hate. This is a good car and if people finds cars like mine snatch it up, If you are in the same situation I was i before think a bit more about owning a classic