Owners have filed 6,478 complaints on the Chevrolet Trailblazer, covering 2002–2026. The system named most often is Fuel System (1,101 reports). Worst years by volume: 2005, 2006, 2004; cleanest: 2026, 2025, 2009. 311 reports describe a crash, 227 a fire, 13 a death. On average the car was 5.4 years old when the problem happened.
What breaks on Chevrolet Trailblazer
Grouped by the system owners named — percentages are shares of all 6,478 Trailblazer complaints. Open any row for the full reports in owners' own words.
Fuel System 1,101 Read
The accident happened 10/29/2004 around 7:00 pm. My husband, was traveling on highway 27 north coming home from vicksburg, ms. The accident report claimed he lost control of the 2002 chevrolet trail blazer he was driving and crossed into the other lane. He was hit on the passenger side of the vehicle by the vehicle in…
My 2007 new trailblazer started on fire while it was off and parked for over 12 hours in may of 2008. After 2 and 1/2 months of not having my truck it was determined to be an electrical short. Gm admitted it was a fault of theirs seeing as my truck was not even a year old and purchased new. Ever since the car was…
Vehicle was parked with all doors locked and the vehicle not running. The remote unlock button was engaged and all doors unlocked with the exception of the driver door. The remote unlock was engaged 3 to 4 more times. The door was manually unlocked from passenger's side. When the door was opened, smoke was pouring out…
Electrical System 1,056 Read
Was in the middle of a 3 car collision. After about 5 min engine started smoking and a fire started. Fire slowly escalated and fully engulfed the entire car
I was coming to a stop light my brakes did not want to work , then they did. I stopped my vehicle, my lights in my dash went out within a few seconds smoke started to roll from under my hood and cover my windshield. I immediately got out of the vehicle, and called 911. The vehicle was not running at this time, it…
While driving heard popping noise and notice undercariage caught on fire, and within minutes car exploded . Dealer was notified. Resulted in an accident
Exterior Lighting 333 Read
The contact owns a 2007 chevrolet trailblazer. The contact stated that the driver and passenger side low beam headlights failed to function due to the head lamp driver module overheating. Also, the fuse box melted and there were no flames visible. Whenever the vehicle was driven at night, the high beam headlights were…
The contact owns a 2007 chevrolet trailblazer. On several occasions, the low beam headlamps failed to illuminate. The contact, an auto mechanic, stated that the headlamp driver module (hdm) overheated and failed. The contact also stated that the hdm was melted. The vehicle was not repaired. The manufacturer was…
The contact owns a 2006 chevrolet trailblazer. The contact stated both headlights on the vehicle were inoperable. The vehicle was taken a mechanic who previously replaced the fuse within the fuse box; however, recently there was smoke coming out of the fuse box causing the failure to recur. The vehicle was not taken…
Air Bags 246 Read
Inertia reel on seatbelt failed. No air bag deployment. 2006 trailblazer, full straight head on crash
Dt: the contact's boy friend was traveling at 78 mph when he lost control of the vehicle, and it was involved in a frontal impact. The vehicle rolled over six times. Upon impact, the air bags did not deploy. The contact and passenger sustained injuries. Manufacturer was not contacted
Air bags did not deploy. Horn did not work. Caught on fire
Power Train 204 Read
The contact owns a 2021 Chevrolet Trailblazer. The contact stated while driving 65 MPH the contact struck a deer on the front passenger side causing minor damages to the vehicle. No one was injured. The contact was able to stop on the side of the road. The contact smelled a burning odor and noticed that smoke was…
While driving at freeway speed, 65-70 mph, a grinding, ratcheting sound was heard from the drivetrain and the lights on the transfer case switch moved back and forth from 2wd to 4hi and 4low. After the vehicle was towed to the dealer, they first completed the recall #01065 to reprogram the transfer case. When they…
My daughter was stopped at a stoplight and the auto-stop engaged. The light turned green and she began to accelerate when all of the error lights on the dash lit up, then the dash info system and infotainment system went out followed by the engine turning off and not restarting. While all of this happened, the vehicle…
Fuel/propulsion System 166 Read
My gas gauge had begun acting up. It would say empty even when filled. I would fill it up and the gauge would go to half then back up to full. I did not know for sure how much gas was in the vehicle. I was driving and the car stalled out because it ran out of gas even tho the gauge said full and I was rear ended
Took to mechanic due to strong fuel smell coming from engine area. Mechanic said not safe to drive - fuel rail leaking and must be replaced - vehicle could catch fire or explode! I drive grandchildren in this vehicle and was shook up! Vehicle towed to GM dealer who said I was 3400 miles passed my warranty but they…
Very strong gas smells coming from under the hood. After driving a few miles, fumes enter the passenger compartment. Had to stop parking it in our garage for fear of a fire before I could get it into the dealer. I've been told it's a fuel leak associated with the fuel rail system. I'm 20 days past my warranty and only…
Steering 108 Read
The contact owned a 2007 chevrolet trailblazer. While driving approximately 45 mph, the steering wheel became loose without warning. The driver lost control of the vehicle, crossed over the median, and crashed into a truck on the opposite side of the road. The air bags deployed, but the engine started to burn. The…
I was slowing down as I was entering an intersection and there was traffic in front of me. I suddenly lost all power steering and power brakes and struck the car in front of me. None of the occupants of either vehicle was hurt, per police report. On my way to the collision center near home, the cab of the truck filled…
While traveling down the road at approximatly 35-40 mph with my two minor children, the steering was not responding properly and the car kept attempting to veer to the right. I let off the gas to slow down since the brakes were also not seeming to respond well. Upon attempting to brake and execute a left hand turn,…
Service Brakes 100 Read
Brakes failed and myself and others were in harms way. To my knowledge the car was totaled as the air bags did deploy
A loud popping noise heard through the radio when light pressure applied to brakes. Noise loud enough to scare the hell out of all the occupants in the car. Brakes squeaked when car was in reverse. Tried to slow down on wet pavement. Car started to veer to the right. Forward collision warning nor automatic emergency…
While driving the 2008 trailblazer I started to experience a loss of brake pedal with the travel going all of the way to the floor, with hardly any braking function or stopping action. It was intermittent and would not happen more then once or twice at first. Then when I was in a parking lot, the brakes failed again…
Trailblazer years to avoid — and the clean ones
Complaints per model year. More reports usually means more cars on the road as well as more trouble, so read the crash and fire columns alongside the count.
| Model year | Complaints | Top system | Crashes | Fires |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | Electrical System,service Brakes,engine | — | — | |
| 2025 | Electrical System | — | — | |
| 2024 | Electrical System | 3 | — | |
| 2023 | Air Bags | 4 | 1 | |
| 2022 | Air Bags | 3 | — | |
| 2021 | Air Bags,forward Collision Avoidance | 7 | 3 | |
| 2009 | Air Bags | 4 | — | |
| 2008 | Air Bags | 9 | 11 | |
| 2007 | Air Bags | 16 | 54 | |
| 2006 | Air Bags | 24 | 56 | |
| 2005 | Air Bags | 52 | 23 | |
| 2004 | Air Bags | 45 | 30 | |
| 2003 | Air Bags | 55 | 20 | |
| 2002 | Air Bags | 89 | 29 |
The same model year, different builds
Every complaint carries the first 11 characters of the VIN — plant, year, body and engine. That is a production series, and complaints are spread across them very unevenly.
| Measure | Value |
|---|---|
| Distinct production series | 750 |
| Average complaints per series | 8.6 |
| Worst single series | 64 complaints |
| Average age at failure | 5.4 years |
A model average of 8.6 hides a worst series at 64. Enter a VIN above to see the numbers for that exact build instead of the model as a whole.
Owners reported these. Find out if yours is one of them.
- Complaints matched to the exact production run, not just the model
- What the car is worth given what tends to fail on it
- The original window sticker and factory options
- Full research report as a PDF for the pre-purchase inspection
- No ads, on every page
- No ads, no tracking — and much more
How we count
Every figure here comes from complaints owners filed with NHTSA — 1,100,006 of them, covering 1,982 models built between 1981 and 2026.
A complaint is an unverified report: someone wrote down what happened to their car. It is not a confirmed defect and not a recall. What makes the volume useful is the pattern — when thousands of owners of the same build describe the same failure, that is a signal no marketing brochure will give you.
Two things we do that the source does not. First, we compute the age of the car at the moment of failure from the incident date and the model year. Second, we group complaints by the first 11 characters of the VIN — the production series — so a bad plant run does not disappear into a model-wide average.
Frequently asked questions
What are the worst years for the Trailblazer?
By complaint volume, 2005, 2006, 2004 drew the most owner reports. Bear in mind that popular years put more cars on the road, so check the crash and fire columns too.
Which Trailblazer years are the cleanest?
2026, 2025, 2009 have the fewest complaints on file. For recent years that can simply mean the cars are young.
How many complaints does the Chevrolet Trailblazer have?
6,478 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, covering 2002–2026. Of those, 311 describe a crash and 227 a fire.
Are these complaints verified?
No. They are unverified reports from owners. NHTSA publishes them as filed and investigates only a fraction. The value is in the pattern, not in any single report.
Can I check complaints for one specific car?
Yes — enter its VIN above. We match the first 11 characters, which identify the plant, year, body and engine, so you get complaints on that exact production series rather than the whole model.