During my trip to the last winter 2019 Detroit Auto Show #NAIAS2019, our friends at Ford were kind enough to loan me a 2019 Raptor during my stay. So when someone hands you the keys to a Raptor, YOU GET OUT AND DRIVE!
IT was fun to explore outside of the city for the first time at my pace but I noticed something different on my Sunday drive. I spied the all new 2019 Chevy Blazer not wearing MFG plates, but normal consumer tags. It was weird to see because there had been no media launch drive. It was wearing this miserable 'Sunlit Bronze Metallic' color. If I were have had to name it after seeing it in person it probably would have been 'Sunlit Bronze Turdtallic'. Trust us, in person it DOES NOT get better.
Without getting into too much inside baseball, the auto companies normally have a number of press drives BEFORE the vehicle hits the showroom floors. The goal is to have all the reviews and video up THEN to dealer sales floors. But this time that didn't happen.
Stay with us and keep reading, because this gets even weirder.
I called 00R (in a hospital bed right now in NJ with pneumonia so send him some love in the comments) and said is the Blazer already out and he said yup, all over dealers here in NJ. I say man that's strange there was no press drive.
So I forget about it until this weekend where i find out there IS a press launch right here in good old San Diego as we speak but are you ready for this??? Wait for it...The media attending is under EMBARGO until Feb 4th and cannot post anything. SO, the vehicle has been in dealers for close to a month. People have been BUYING them and you or I can go to a local dealer to photograph the cars there and post anything we want. But the media has to keep their mouths shut until next month?
Tell us, WHAT are we missing here? What mental giant made that call?
So we ask, is it just an error, or did they do it on PURPOSE because they were afraid of underwhelming media reaction that might slow sales out of the gate?
Spies, discuss...
