Chevrolet Blazer scores top marks for crashworthiness

The 2021 Chevrolet Blazer scores top marks for crashworthiness, but inferior headlights prevent it from earning an award from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

Relaunched by General Motors in 2019, the midsize SUV earns good ratings in the driver-side and passenger-side small overlap front tests as well as the moderate overlap front, side, roof strength and head restraint tests. The two available front crash prevention systems also earn superior and advanced ratings in the Institute’s vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian evaluations, respectively.

Though it meets those core requirements, the 2021 Blazer falls short of taking home a Top Safety Pick award due to its headlights. To qualify, a vehicle must be available with good- or acceptable-rated headlights on at least one trim. For the higher-tier Top Safety Pick+, good or acceptable headlights must come standard across all trims.

The Blazer is available with three different headlight configurations: LED projector headlights with high beam assist and HID projector headlights with and without high beam assist. The LED projectors only earn a marginal rating because the high beams provide weak illumination on curves. The HID projector headlights receive poor ratings for the same reason in addition to excessive glare, with or without high-beam assist.

The six crashworthiness ratings apply to the 2019, 2020 and 2021 models, and the headlight ratings apply to model years 2020 and 2021. The LED headlights were not available on the 2019 model.

For front crash prevention, the optional Driver Confidence II system has been available since 2019. Another system called Chevy Safety Assist is also available as an option on the 2021 model. Both systems avoided collisions to earn superior ratings in the vehicle-to-vehicle evaluation. They also both avoided hitting the dummy or slowed substantially to mitigate the force of impact in the vehicle-to-pedestrian tests, earning advanced ratings.