GM Adds Punch to Chevy, Buick Crossover Lines

General Motors announces it will bring the Chevrolet Trailblazer back to its portfolio, but this time as a small crossover positioned between the compact Chevy Trax and midsize Equinox.

The ’21 Trailblazer will arrive at U.S. dealers early next year and include an RS trim similar to the brand’s newly launched Blazer with which it shares many design cues, but with a 2-tone roof for extra styling punch.

The Trailblazer will launch alongside the '21 Buick Encore GX, which was announced a day earlier. It will slot between the Buick Encore compact crossover and midsize Envision crossover. Both the Trailblazer and Encore GX reportedly will be imported to the U.S. from a GM assembly plant in South Korea.

“The Trailblazer’s great design enables more personalization,” says Steve Majoros, director-marketing, passenger cars and crossovers, at Chevrolet.

“Trailblazer is a continuation of the design language for Chevy’s crossover family and extends our momentum into one of the industry’s fastest-growing segments,” he says in a statement.

Few details about the Trailblazer, or Encore GX (pictured, below), were made available, although GM says both models will come with standard advanced driver assistance systems such as front pedestrian braking, automatic emergency braking, lane keeping and lane departure warning. The Trailblazer and Encore GX also will offer optional adaptive cruise control, a technology that is not widespread in the segment.

Additional specifications and pricing on both vehicles will come later, GM says.

The new models will bolster the crossover lineups at both brands as U.S. buyers continue to flock to the segment at the expense of cars, which Chevy and Buick also are moving away from.

Chevy sales through the first quarter were down 7.8% to 452,401 units from 490,919 in the same period last year, according to Wards Intelligence. Buick sales were off 8.7% to 51,867 units from 56,804 in the first quarter of 2018.

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