The 2021 Chevy Blazer offers received top marks in the Insurance policy Institute for Highway Safety’s different crashworthiness evaluations, including the critical little overlap front test, but it overlooked the coveted Top Safety Pick+ distinction due to poor performing car headlights.

The 2021 Chevy Blazer received the best-possible rating great in the IIHS’ driver-side and passenger-side small overlap front tests, and also the moderate overlap front, side, roofing strength and head restraint assessments.

The Blazer’s 2 available front crash prevention techniques, Forward Collision Alert and Automated Emergency Braking with Pedestrian Recognition, also earned ‘Superior’ and ‘Advanced’ ratings in the Institute’s separate vehicle-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-pedestrian evaluations.

This particular performance was enough for the 2021 Chevy Blazer to earn a highly regarded Safety Pick rating, but it had not been deemed a Top Safety Pick+ because of its headlights.   The Blazer is in fact available with three different headlamp configurations: HID projector headlights along with and without high beam assist plus LED projector headlights with higher beam assist. The IIHS mentioned the LED projectors “only make a marginal rating because the higher beams provide weak illumination upon curves, ” while the HID projectors received a poor rating “for exactly the same reason in addition to excessive glare, without or with high-beam assist. ”

“Though it meets those primary requirements, the 2021 Blazer drops short of taking home a Top Safety Choose award due to its car headlights, ” the safety watchdog stated. “To qualify, a vehicle must be obtainable with good- or acceptable-rated car headlights on at least one trim. For the higher-tier Top Protection Pick +, good or even acceptable headlights must come regular across all trims. ”

Some of the 2021 Chevy Blazer’s immediate rivals already received the IIHS’ Top Safety Pick+ rating, such as the Ford Explorer, Toyota Highlander, Hyundai Palisade, Mazda CX-9 and Subaru Ascent. All is not lost for that Blazer, though, as GM could make some adjustments to the vehicle’s car headlights and receive a higher safety ranking. GM already did this with the 2020 The cadillac XT6 , going back to the sketching board to improve the vehicle’s traveler crash protection so it could be eligible for a the Top Safety Pick+ rating.

Watch the IIHS execute its driver-side small overlap front side crash test evaluation on the Chevy Blazer in the video embedded beneath.

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