The blazer with the lightning bolt
04/23/2026
If there had been a second proof needed after the Opel Kadett E that General Motors distributed its car brands randomly across the world's markets, it would be shown in the picture above: the Opel Blazer - the American SUV design that was offered exclusively on the Indonesian market from 1996 under the German name.
Of course, the rather primitively pasted-over emblem was not the only change compared to the original. Instead of a 4.3-liter V6 and all-wheel drive, the right-hand drive vehicles assembled at the General Motors plant in Bekasi were only equipped with a 2.2-liter four-cylinder engine from Holden, which only drove the rear wheels. It was not until the 2000 model year that the six-cylinder came to East Asia - as a Chevrolet.
The two models ran in parallel for a good two years before the Opel became a Chevrolet in India in 2002. In Europe, unlike the Frontera or Monterey, General Motors had refrained from the outset from giving a foreign model a local name. Anyone ordering a Blazer from a friendly Opel dealer in this country had to wear "Bowtie" instead of Blitz - or have an emblem sent from Asia.
