I had about 10 minutes of bliss in my new Chevrolet Blazer EV before I heard the rattle.
Heading down Interstate 5, the headliner was buzzing over every bump. I pushed it from my mind and focused on the comfort and convenience of a new SUV, after years in 15-year-old shitboxes and sports cars. But eight days later, the car had a problem I couldn’t ignore.
“2 Vehicle Issues: Lithium-Ion Battery and 12V Battery require your attention.” That was the message in the MyChevrolet App, which I checked after noticing a red warning light on the dash. The symbol—a car shape with an exclamation point—is the Blazer’s version of a Check Engine light. And it was lit up with less than 200 miles on the odometer.
Warning Messages And Interior Rattles
I was meeting friends for a hike, and there was no indication that I wasn’t able to drive it. So I pressed on, driving 45 minutes to a local trail after scooping a few friends. By the time we finished hiking three hours later, the warning light was gone, as was the in-app error message. But the headliner was still buzzing, and I wanted to know what happened. I made an appointment to have it checked out by the selling Chevy dealer. It was 45 minutes further away than the nearest one, but I figured they’d care a bit more about a customer who bought the car from them.
The light came on on July 27, two months ago, and I delayed this write-up because the situation was not fully resolved. First, it took a couple of weeks for my schedule and the dealer to line up, due to a busy few weeks of travel on my end. During that first appointment—on Aug. 7—the dealer disconnected the battery and checked the system for codes.
(I should note here that I reached out to GM for comment on all this. It’s our standard practice to give companies a chance to respond to stories we write about them, and answer questions. They do not see a draft of the story, and are not given an opportunity to influence it beyond providing a statement or answering questions. But GM quickly reached out to the selling dealer. I did not expect, nor accept, any preferential treatment as a journalist here—we treated this experience as we would any owner's.)
According to a GM spokesperson who has been in contact with the dealer, “The alert was related to a charge system diagnostic launched with 2024 model year EVs. Your charging system is in good health based on diagnostic data—and the warning was shown in error. This is a very rare issue we have already previously identified and we expect to address it through a planned over-the-air update in the coming months. In the meantime, shifting to park and back into drive should clear the alert if you see it again. As you already know, software releases address known bugs and in some instances add new features or functionality.”
I will note that shifting into park and back to drive did not clear the code the first few times I did it, so your mileage may vary. Either way, the problem resolved itself. But the headliner rattle was going to take a bit longer. As I quickly noticed, the rattle was coming from an area above the passenger-side rear window of the vehicle.
The panoramic roof of my Blazer EV had also been smudged up with a clearly botched last-minute attempt to clean it up for the sale, so I’m not convinced that the sagging headliner and rattle was a production issue, and not triggered by a misplaced hand during clean-up. Regardless of the cause, though, it’d take a week for the part to come in.
One week became two. Then I was out of town again. But after another day in the shop—it’s fifth day in its first month in my hands—I had an all-new headliner. The rattle seemed to be gone. But by the following week, I noticed I was still hearing a rattle on the highway. I was frustrated, but it wasn’t too loud or frequent. I started writing up the story.
I was out of town again at the time, and on return, I couldn’t pin down where the noise was coming from. Sometimes I’d hear a squeak from the left-side rear door. Sometimes from the center console. Other times from the headliner. But there was no rattle consistent enough for it to be a real issue and none I could point out to a dealer to get them fixed.
There was certainly no problem serious enough that a normal customer would get corporate assistance or have their issue fast-tracked, and I have no interest in getting special treatment because I’m writing about my experience.
So I’ve opted to not address the noise(s), at least for now. They’re too varied and intermittent to be addressable in one stop, too minor to be a real problem and too context-specific to be reproducible. I wouldn’t expect a normal buyer to notice or care.
“The rattle you experienced is not commonplace," a GM spokesperson told me via email. “It may have been due to assembly error or [a] part quality issue. Our vehicles offer a strong and comprehensive new vehicle warranty and we encourage our customers who experience any concern to visit their dealer to get it addressed.”
He added that Chevy received the most segment awards in this year’s J.D. Power Initial Quality Study. The Blazer EV—which was not on sale for all of the time that the study covered—did receive an award in the IQS, though Chevy as a whole was the second-highest-ranked mainstream brand. The industry average is 195 problems reported per 100 vehicles reported. Put another way, it’s just under 2 issues per car. So my own Blazer EV is slightly below par on initial quality.
It's Actually Been Great Otherwise
That doesn’t mean I regret the purchase. Besides the teething issues, I’m loving the car.
The in-car software is fantastic, better than almost any other legacy manufacturer’s. It has bugged out twice—requiring a quick double tap of the power button to reset it—but the Spotify integration and Google Maps support mean I prefer it to CarPlay. I don’t love that most apps require a connectivity package that’s included for three years but paid after, but since it’s a two-year least that’s not a problem for me.
The Blazer EV is also a great SUV. It can fit my surfboard fully inside of its cabin, which means I don’t have to deal with a time- and mileage-sucking roof rack—one of my big requirements going into this purchase. The seats are comfortable and the cabin is quiet, which is perhaps the reason why I notice rattles that would have been inaudible in the clanking, gasoline Equinox I had as a loaner.
The Blazer has also swallowed my bike without removing a wheel, shuttled four people without any discomfort and handled 200-mile round trip without a hitch.
My only substantive complaint about the Blazer EV’s performance is its sluggish charging speed. It took 39 minutes for me to go from 15-80% on a 350-kW charger. 10-80 on a 150-kW plug—the most common type—will be closer to 50 minutes. Blame it on the low-voltage pack it shares with the Equinox EV.
Gallery: 2024 Chevy Blazer EV Long-Term Owner Review
Stopping for 30 minutes isn’t ideal, but it’s workable. Waiting around for close to an hour is untenable for longer trips. It makes me glad that I still have a gas truck hanging around for longer trips. (I’m overdue to write a story on why my initial plan to ditch the gas truck feel through.) I just got my NACS adapter so I can try to test out its speeds on a Tesla Supercharger, ideally on a 500-mile camping trip I’ve wanted to attempt in the Blazer.
For day-to-day life, though, I’ve been running an extension cord to the street for slow level 1 charging. I can only recover about 15% overnight with the trickle charger, but since I drive less than 100 miles per week that hasn’t been a problem. With a fast-charging test, an 80% charge at the dealer and only about 900 miles of driving so far, I’ve only had to plug in a few times.
In return, I’ve had a quiet, reasonably quick, spacious, advanced, good-looking, expensive-feeling SUV for an incredible price. I just hope I can get it to stop squeaking.
Contact the author: mack.hogan@insideevs.com
