What's new
CK5
Register an account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members.

Blazer Production Totals

Chief Brody said:
Wonder what happened in 1976 to make them stop making full verts?
Click to expand...
Ralph Nader happened. He went on crusade of how unsafe convertibles were after riding the high of attacking a few other cars at the time.
Insurance rates went thru the roof for rag tops and it was cheaper to kill them off than deal with the lawsuits and government.
On another note lowest numbers: first and last years of the Jimmy.
'70 Jimmy production numbers are unknown due to a fire at GMC, but rule of thumb is 10-25% of Chevy. Was also first yr for 2wd in both Chevy and GMC K5/K15 series. I'd take an educated guess at 1100 4x4 and maybe 100 2wd.
And in '91, only 3027 rolled off the line for all markets.
Add a diesel with SLE package and you're looking at maybe 200 trucks.
 
I suspect it was something other than the look, as eventually it started selling pretty well. Would also have to look at what Ford and Dodge sales were at the same time, see if they were taking some of GM's sales, or gas was an issue as was mentioned. It certainly was, and 1982 being first year of OD, that might have been part of GM's response.

Although as bad as economy was even with OD, was the three speed that much worse? :)
 
This is just speculation on my part, but I'm always of the mind to not buy a new car when they've just redesigned it. Want to make sure they've worked all the kinks out. I wonder if that's something that happens across the board, population-wise, and that's what causes sales dips when new models are released.
 
That's a pretty solid purchasing strategy, would certainly be interesting to see the various sales statistics of new vehicles.

Of course, for every one person that holds off buying a new vehicle because it's unproven, there are probably five that will buy a brand new model because no one else has one lol.
 
The CUCVs were produced from 84-86 so that explains the jump in production there. But when did the s10 blazers come out? I would think those would hurt K5 production as quite a few people don't need a truck as big as our K5s
 
Yep the explorers, cherokees, and s10s helped drive down the sales of the bid rigs. 4 doors and better milage for the average consumer.
 
All the statistics make me wonder how "rare" my trucks were...

I had a 72 K5 ,a 71 CST K5,and a 75 2wd Blazer...guess the chart is no help on the 2wd ,but I bet not many were sold then..I only saw maybe 2 others during the time I owned it..never saw one other 71 CST,but I did see quite a few "regular" 72 K5's...

I wonder how many Chalets and the Jimmy versions of them were made?..

I was told my 82 K2500 is a rare truck,being a diesel with a stepside 8 foot bed and dual tanks,I have seen only one like it and that was not long ago on craigslist,that was almost identical but in mint condition,that was a GMC dealserships "shop truck" they used to get and deliver parts and plow their lot with!...its asking price was 7500 bucks,and I think it did sell...they claimed in the ad fewer than 1000 1882's were sold that had that bed,dual tanks and the 6.2 TH400 drivetrain....
 
judging by all those numbers, they should all be fairly sparse...now the squarebody pickups are another story...I guess a good indication is this:

I see a ton of square bodies on a daily basis...99.99999999999% are pickups in the last 20 years I have only seen two full verts...

I saw a 1973-75 blazer yesterday at the light and was going the wrong way to get a real good look...that's the 2nd one in 20 years that I have ever seen around here...the 1972 at the Target was the 1st...well, technically, mine was the first...so make that three.
 
I am trying to get a visual image of how many 4900 Blazers looks like....if you put them in a parking lot how big would that be?

We don't have Pro Ball stadium of any kind here....how much space would 4900 1st gen Blazers take up?
 
2wd K5s are super rare. My first vehicle was a 79 2wd k5. While I drove it through High school (and 1 or 2 years after) I saw one other on the street and I saw one at the World of Wheels car show in Chicago. I have never seen one since I sold it :(
 
That would be 70 rows of 70 cars each. The normal parking spot is 20'x8'. So, without accounting for the space between rows, that would be an area of approximately 1400'x560'. That would be 784,000 square feet. IIRC, an acre is 43,960 square feet. That's 17.8 acres.

I messed that up. It's actually 43,560 square per acre, for 18 acres.
 
Last edited:
another way to look at it is (if they sold evenly) that about 100 per state.

Still fairly rare....
 
I saw several 2WD blazers yesterday at the Hot Rod Power Tour. Couple of 68-72 and a couple 76-79.
 
THe '75 2wd one I had was pretty rotted when I bought it,someone had covered the holy floors with aluminum roof flashing,which cause it to rot worse thanks to electrolosis!..I had to rip that all out and I had a sheet metal fab shop make me 16 gauge floors and I put new rockers and patch panels over the rusted rear wheel arches...truck was originally a 250 straight six with a three on the tree!..integral head,and someone had converted it to a floor shifter ,one of those cheap spark-o-matic ones,that sucked...I paid 150 bucks for it!...

I kind of wish I had kept it now...it isn't often you see a full vert 2wd Blazer around here!...the engine in it decided to strip the fiber cam gear one dark night about 10 miles away on the interstate,and rather than fix the six,I decided to put in a 307 V8 I saved from a 71 Suburban K-10 I parted out due to extensive rot...then a friend gave me a saginaw 4 speed from a '74 vega his kid was scrapping,and it bolted right up perfectly..thing went like a scalded ape with that engine and tranny!--the vega shifter was a POS though,it liked to jam up if you tried shifting it too fast..

I liked the truck a lot,I used it 98% of the time in the summer,when my other two K5's ,a '71 and '72,were not as smooth riding and comfortable as the '75 2wd was...I never did take the roof of of it though,after taking the ones off my older K5's I didn't feel like going thru all the weightlifting,and it seemed that we'd always get a thunderstorm the minute I put the roof on sawhorses,without fail!..
 
Here are the Chevy 2wd Blazer numbers for '70-'72.
1970- 985
1971- 1277
1972- 3357
I've had a few '72s 2wd. Only ever seen one '70.
As I said earlier, GMC records up to '73 were lost in a fire. There are only production totals, no breakdown of truck, Jimmy etc.
The Pontiac, Oakland GMC club has a good breakdown after '74.
http://www.gtcpoci.info/GMC%20Truck%20production%20figures.pdf
The later 2wd are all over the place out here. Always 3-4 for sale any week.
Nice one for sale.
http://inlandempire.craigslist.org/cto/3817495647.html
Another one:
http://losangeles.craigslist.org/ant/cto/3837866569.html
'82 was last yr for 2wd so watch out for those super rare '86 2wds!:D
 
So I've got the "1" in the 44,841 for the 73' K5's. Kool :)

Only reason I Don't have More square bodies is not enough space. Maybe that's a good thing lol! Otherwise I'd have A Lot
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest Posts

Top Bottom