Holden Trailblazer 2020 Review

That’s a smile. Yep, check again, definitely smiling. And it’s happening behind the wheel of a Holden Trailblazer LTZ.

Low expectations of this tall, heavy, body-on-frame, turbo-diesel SUV are lifting by the minute.

No, we’re not clambering up some impossibly rocky gully, or slithering down the side of a muddy mountain.

Instead, the Trailblazer is comfortably and capably winding along one of those impossibly good New Zealand bitumen backroads that no-one has ever heard of and no-one ever seems to drive on.

This is such a pleasantly surprising experience. You want evidence that Holden’s local dynamic tuning works, here it is.

The Trailblazer started life in Australia as the Colorado 7 in 2012. As its name suggests, it was a seven-seat wagon based on the Colorado utility.

While it retained the ute’s 2.8-litre turbo-diesel four-cylinder engine, six-speed automatic transmission and part-time 4x4 system with low range – as the Trailblazer still does today – the SUV swapped leaf springs in its live rear axle for multi-links and coil springs.

Despite that, the Colorado 7 was still a pretty unhappy thing to drive, noisy and notably downmarket inside. Rivals like the more expensive Toyota LandCruiser Prado shamed it for refinement.

Those issues were tacitly acknowledged by Holden in a 2014 update and then more obviously in a 2016 makeover that also changed the name to Trailblazer.

Just as well considering the Ford Everest, Toyota Fortuner and very popular Isuzu MU-X – among others – have since arrived to add huge competition in this segment.

Importantly, the level of Holden engineering input was upped considerably in areas such as mechanical refinement, noise, vibration and harshness isolation, driveability and fuel consumption.

While engine outputs at 147kW/500Nm remained familiar, Holden claimed a 0.6L/100km drop in thirst to 8.6L/100km. It proved absolutely spot-on during our commuting in and around Auckland, out to Pukekohe and a return trip to Rotorua.

There were also exterior and interior styling updates and a boost in safety and comfort equipment levels.

And as already noted, there was a substantial improvement in the Trailblazer’s driving manners compared to the old Colorado 7.

Those NZ roads were more suited to a Commodore VXR than the Trailblazer, with wicked closing radii, lots of mid-corner bumps, downs and ups and plenty of left-right combinations requiring quick-flick changes of direction.

These roads would tie plenty of SUVs in dismal, jolting, head-shaking knots. Yet the Trailblazer coped really well. Its steering was slow and heavy yet not inert, it tracked over the bumps pretty well, only starting to struggle for rear traction over the worst of them.

The engine’s no BMW I6 in terms of svelte smoothness, but it was strong and enthusiastic and the six-speed auto was reactive to the situation, either accelerating or decelerating.

OK, the Trailblazer LTZ more than met its match when things got truly tight and rough, the brakes (discs all-round happily) needed a hard shove to retard the 2203kg kerb weight (plus passengers and luggage) and in suburbia the Holden’s size meant being extra-careful when manoeuvring. But along those Kiwi ridge-top and valley roads the Trailblazer was coping. Plaudits to Holden’s men and women for that!

We were driving the $52,490 (plus on-road costs) LTZ, which sits in the middle of the Trailblazer range between the entry-grade $47,990 Trailblazer LT and range-topping $53,490 Tarilblazer Z71, which is fundamentally a dress-up pack.

If that sounds like a lot for a ute-based wagon then you haven’t been checking the price guides lately. A Ford Everest can set you back more than $70,000, mid to high $50K wagons are pretty common. So, the Trailblazer LTZ fits right in.

Standard safety gear includes seven airbags, a reversing camera, front and rear park assist, forward collision alert, lane departure warning, blind spot alert, rear cross traffic alert and tyre pressure monitoring. But there’s no autonomous emergency braking (AEB), so there’s no chance of a 2019 ANCAP five-star safety rating.

The Trailblazer comes with a 3000kg braked towing capacity – the best in class offer 3500kg – hill start assist, hill descent control and low-range 4x4 gearing. However, it does get a helical limited slip rear diff rather than a locker, which slightly reduces its substantial off-road capabilities.

The fuel tank capacity is 76 litres, which delivers a pretty decent 700km-plus range even if you thrash it.

Comfort equipment items include 18-inch alloys with Bridgestone Dueler rubber, the MyLink infotainment system with an 8.0-inch touchscreen, sat-nav, Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connection, remote start capability, leather – well they say it’s leather – seat trim, power adjustment and heating for the front seats and climate control with adjustable rear roof vents.

The spare is full-size – which is good for a tourer like the Trailblazer LTZ. But the high-beam headlights are poor.

Holden offers a five-year/unlimited-kilometre warranty on Trailblazer and – at the time of writing this piece – seven years’ free scheduled serving. As this was being written there was also $52,990 drive-away deal on offer.

Having given the Trailblazer LTZ a solid thumbs up for its surprisingly competent road manners, it is time to quell the enthusiasm a bit.

That’s because the LTZ is not a special place in which to reside.

Surfaces are hard, seats are flat, trims unimpressive in look and feel and the driver gets no reach adjustment on the steering column.

The upside is space. There’s plenty of it for people in all three rows and there is also an abundance of storage nooks and crannies.

With all three rows in-place the Trailblazer LTZ still offers 235 litres of boot space. Fold row two and three and there’s 1830 litres of mountain bike-swallowing room back there.

Adjusting the 4x4 system through 2H, 4H  and 4L modes is easy, although to be honest there was no serious hit-out on dirt during this test.

The Holden Trailblazer LTZ is not outstanding, it’s not the leader of the 4x4 body-on-frame pack, but it is a vast improvement from where this model started out way back in 2012.

Nice surprises are nice things to experience. And that’s exactly what the Holden Trailblazer LTZ proved to be on our NZ road trip. It made that drive all the more enjoyable and that’s a win right there.

Price: $52,490 (plus on-road costs)
Engine: 2.8-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel
Output: 147kW/500Nm
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Fuel: 8.6L/100km (ADR Combined)
CO2: 228g/km (ADR Combined)
Safety Rating: Five-star (2016)