History: When Chevrolet introduced the first modern compact sport utility vehicle, the 1983 S-10 Blazer, they started the ball rolling toward a phenomenon no one could have predicted. Sport utilities have become the hottest selling vehicles in America and a favorite of women buyers. For nearly seventeen years, Chevrolet's Blazer has been popular with families and off-road enthusiasts alike. It's available in two-door, four-door, two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive. For 1999, four-door Blazers can be had with a top-of-the-line TrailBlazer trim. Chevy defends this adventurous-sounding name by saying that it is appropriate for the truck that carved a new trail when it was introduced in 1982. We think the luxurious TrailBlazer is more likely to carve a trail to the mall than through the great out-of-doors. Chevy's Blazer brand manager, Russ Clark, seems to concur, at least somewhat, saying that "the TrailBlazer capitalizes on the fact that four-door buyers tend to be different than two-door buyers in the way they use their Blazers. Two-door buyers are more likely to go off-road. Four-door buyers want the attributes of a truck with a very refined, distinctive appearance." With its monochrome paint with gold accents, unique aluminum wheels, and two-tone leather-trimmed interior, the TrailBlazer fits beautifully in the luxury compact sport utility vehicle category. We know we sure wouldn't want to scratch it in a brush with Mother Nature.

The Test Vehicle: 1999 four-door, four-wheel-drive Chevrolet TrailBlazer

Vehicle Type: five-passenger, two-door/four-door, two-wheel-drive/four-wheel-drive compact sport utility vehicle

Base Price: Base price for the two-door, two-wheel-drive Blazer starts around $18,500. Four-door Blazers start around $24,000. Base price on the TrailBlazer test vehicle was $32,670.

Test Vehicle Price: $33,376

Trim Levels: Blazer has four trim levels: base-level, LS, LT, TrailBlazer