TL;DR:
It’s an 02.
I absolutely love my 99 Blazer (don’t know with the S10 (just got it)).
The Blazer was rock solid with 220K miles on it (again just got the S10, so not sure).
It’s an 02.
I just bought it less than a month ago, and I’m going to manual swap extremely soon (the manuals really liven these things up), so I don’t know about reliability, but I do have a 99 2 door Blazer with a 5 speed that I’ve had for over a year and with 220k miles on it it was rock solid and ran strong (like really strong) until I failed to put the radiator cap on all the way before lending it to a friend, so it got overheated badly.
I love the Blazer (despite me thinking SUVs are dumb) it was just so much fun to drive thanks to how short and light it was, and how great the manual was to shift, you could shift it as fast as you want, but it was also very tactile at the same time (best feeling trans I’ve felt yet).
They only have 190HP, but they have 250 ft-lbs of toque, so they do very well towing. There supposed to get 17 city 23 hwy (15 city 20 hwy for the crew cab) I got 17 MPG driving the Blazer like I hate it.
The Blazer was decently quick too, 0-60 just under 10 seconds. Raced it against my 2013 Nissan Leaf and it beat it pretty soundly (not bad for an old SUV with 220K miles on the clock).
That S10 looks great for being over 15 years old. I too hate SUVs, but I always liked Blazers and 90’s Cherokees. My aunt had a Blazer that went for 290k miles, her daily drive was 3 miles of dirt road full of potholes and steep inclines and another 10 miles on the highway and city, she beat the thing to hell and wouldn’t give up. I manage to get my G6 down her driveway and only bottom out a few times. I live in the sticks and most of the kids in my high school have these lifted Cherokees. They break down, a lot. The kids that don’t modify their Cherokees just have to follow maintenance schedules and they run great with 200k+ miles on them. I like the combination of vehicles you have too, an S10 and a Blazer alongside a Leaf. I’m going to keep looking into S10’s though, my main concern is reliability and ease of maintenance.
they’re really cool until you try to drive down a street lined with parked cars or park in a packed parking lot. The novelty is lost when every 'murican in your neighborhood has one in their driveway. I can’t deny how great they are for utility though, my only problem is that I know people that drop 50 to 60 thousand on a new F150 with all the features and maybe put a bicycle in the bed for the entire time they own it, thats like buying a miata and never going to a track day.
For me it would be pretty practical to have one for my Horse trailer.
However uphere parking spaces are a huge problem.
And petrol prices are really expensive, allthough a V8 runs perfectlly fine on LPG too.
Helps that the Blazers are on actual truck frames. I helped build a Cherokee, the after market, and forums for those things are extremely nice, but they do seem to be lacking a little in the reliability department (though some people swear by them), and did I mention how great the aftermarket/forums are haha.
I also have a fun car, a 99 Volvo V70 T5. It’s turbo charged running 16 pounds of boost though a 5 speed manual, it does 0-60 in 6.7 seconds with garbage tires. It’s my baby and an amazing car in general.
I LOVE Geo Metros, my buddy Scrat has one, he taught me how to drive stick in the school parking lot with it, I think his is a 94’ (?) its painted yellow and he almost always drives with the top down, I watched him fly down the highway in blizzard with the top down about a month ago.
That’s why I got a small 4dr truck. Though not as maneuverable as the Blazer (which has the same wheel base as my Leaf haha) I think it’s utility will make up for it.
You could probably get away with a smaller SUV/truck if you have a 1 or 2 horse trailer.
I like them too. I drove one of those to the scrap yard with 350K miles on it. Simple cars that are as tough as cockroaches, and just as beautiful too haha (though you can put Suzuki parts on them to make them look good IMO). I almost bought a convertible Geo, but since I have so many cars, and the leaf I had to pass.
I had a lot of fun teaching all my friends how to drive stick with my 81 Ram 50 (if you could drive that, you could drive anything).
Suzuki Swift
Those are sketchy to drive in a blizzard period, and your saying he did it with the top down haha, he must have some brass ones.
When I get home I’ll look though the codes in the glove box (I believe one is for tow capacity).
Edit: None of the pro codes told me the tow capacity, so I looked up similar vehicles, and most actually have more towing capacity (kinda a let down for the S10).
I should have tried to get a picture, but this morning I was behind a diesel Volkswagen Rabbit pickup with a cap and the driver was wearing a cowboy hat.
I was not expecting to see any of that on my way in to work this morning.