What would you reccommend I buy?

First off, Hi, my name is Troy and I'm a GM guy. Right now I drive a '96 Camaro, but I'm moving soon and need something to get around in the snow with. So I'm looking into getting a 4wd blazer/jimmy/bravada type deal, as the Camaro, as fun as it is, doesn't work all that well in the snow.

So I've come to you guys! My main interest is the 95/96 body style, as I'd like to get out of the boxy 80s style, and from there I'm only limited by money. Now I've seen a decent amount of these cars going for 2-4 grand, and that's about what I'm looking to spend, so I think I have some options, at least according to craigslist. So are there any specifics I should look for when checking these cars out? Any years that are not so great, or better than others? What is the 4.3 good for as far as mileage?

I'm mechanically inclined and do all my own repairs, and realize for the price, I probably won't get a mint car, but that's alright with me. So what are your suggestions?

Here's a pic of my car, pre lowering/stainless accents for the helluvit

http://img6.imageshack.us/img6/859/img1515g.jpg

TIA

Well, you should be able to get a decent Blazer really, really cheap. Always haggle on the price. Blazers, like all SUV's are tough to sell these days.
Furthermore, Blazers have a poor reliability record, which makes them tougher to sell than average.

for $2-4K, you should be able to get a newer one than '96-97.

Try looking here www.carsurvey.org for several hundred owner-written reviews.

Frankly, the owners rate the Blazer much, much worse than the average car rated on that site. I can understand a few owners may have unreasonable expectations about the Blazer, but these bad reviews number in the hundreds. Not all of them can be wrong or unreasonable.

When reading the reviews, look for problems that are mentioned by many owners, particularly the front wheel bearings and ball joints. That will give you an idea of what to look for when buying.

BTW, please do not slag me for being anti-Blazer. I have owned 2 S-10's. I like the Blazer and I like GM. But I am under no illusion that the Blazer has many serious problems that make it a poor choice for someone who will rely on it for their only means of transportation.

On the other hand, if you get one really cheap and you know how to fix/repair cars, and are willing to work on it, you may get a decent deal.

Well I'm not set on this car either. I'm open to suggestions for decent small 4wd suvs, so long as it's american. Thanks for your input.

The site seems to be bias, however, as it seems most of the people that take the time to review the cars, review them because they hate it. If I had a car that I was not in any way disappointed with, but not thoroughly thrilled about, I probably wouldn't write a review. Likewise, if I had a car that I really liked, I probably wouldn't review it either. I believe, for me anyway, the only thing that might drive me to write a review about a car, is sheer anger and frustration. I know the Camaros (particularly the v6 model) is quite a reliable car, with the exception of some small things like the window motors and other minor repair issues, but the majority of the reviews on the site say how terrible the car is. I've talked to many many many Camaro owners, and know these things can go well into the 200ks and not have any serious problems. I also checked out mid 90s explorers, which I have heard things about, but never had any problems with in the 7 years of ownership other than a u-joint issue, and they seem to be a majority negative as well.

Also, I did notice a lot of wheel bearing and ball joint issues, but I would personally consider those maintenance issues, and not very serious ones, either. I also noticed that a fair amount of people that noted these problems were in high mileage cars, like upwards of 150K. IMO, any car over 150K is going to need a bit more TLC than your average low mileage car.

Well I'm not set on this car either. I'm open to suggestions for decent small 4wd suvs, so long as it's american. Thanks for your input.

The site seems to be bias, however, as it seems most of the people that take the time to review the cars, review them because they hate it. If I had a car that I was not in any way disappointed with, but not thoroughly thrilled about, I probably wouldn't write a review. Likewise, if I had a car that I really liked, I probably wouldn't review it either. I believe, for me anyway, the only thing that might drive me to write a review about a car, is sheer anger and frustration. I know the Camaros (particularly the v6 model) is quite a reliable car, with the exception of some small things like the window motors and other minor repair issues, but the majority of the reviews on the site say how terrible the car is. I've talked to many many many Camaro owners, and know these things can go well into the 200ks and not have any serious problems. I also checked out mid 90s explorers, which I have heard things about, but never had any problems with in the 7 years of ownership other than a u-joint issue, and they seem to be a majority negative as well.
.

I do agree on your psychological assesment of the people doing the reviewing.....

As you suggest, a lot of the review's value comes down to expectations. Look at the reviews for the Pontiac Fiero. They are almost always very positive, even though Fieros had terrible reliability problems. This is because pretty much all surviving Fieros are owned by enthusiastic owners who know and expect the problems as part of ownership. So not all reviews are inclined to be bad.

I appreciate the negative reviews. They are much more helpful for a mechanically-inclined guy such as myself. I want to know what will go wrong, even though reading the hate-filled opinions gets a little tiresome.
The positive reviews are imho pretty useless.

Also, a lot of those reviews are written by people who bought the trucks new, (for lots of $$$) then feel ripped-off when it breaks. If I buy a really nice one for $2K, I do not mind such problems, because I got a great deal.

FWIW, when I have bought used vehicles for less than $10k, I have looked at a category of car, (ie, luxury, comact SUV, etc), then bought the best deal I could find, regardless of manufacturer.
Imho, you should consider the Explorer, Cherokee, Grand Cherokee, Durango, Pathfinder etc. All these trucks have their good and bad points. Go for the one in the best condition, for the lowest price, and don't necessarily stick to one brand.

Personally, I am more inclined to stick to a domestic brand, simply because parts are cheaper.

BTW The ball joints, bearings etc do wear out fast. Although people had 150K+ miles on them at the time of reporting, usually the joints and bearings were replaced at much lower mileage intervals.

FWIW the car that produced the worst reviews on that site is the first-gen M-class Mercedes SUV. That truck is virtually universally hated, not only because it sucked but because people paid big money for them.

I'll certainly look into the durango. That one came to mind as I was driving to lunch today. Without any research yet, I feel they might be a little spendy, though. As much as I like Grand Cherokees, I know too many individuals that own them, and I've talked to them and read through the repair bills, and there is a little bit too much going on for me there, as this will be not my only car, but likely my only car in the winter months. I'll take a look at standard Cherokees though. Imports are out of the question for me at this point. While I have a slight GM bias, I'm not opposed to other domestic cars, but I draw the line there.

pros and cons of a 4.3 vortec blazer from a 94 s10 owner. engine has plenty of power, corners decent for a 4wd, and its a chevy. gets about 18mpg with a mix of highway/city driving. common problems include ball joints, front wheel bearings, cpi(spider), egr requires cleaning 2 or 3 times a year, and oil lines leaking. none of these are major if you can do the work yourself. i have 223k miles and no problems other than those listed, which i think is good for the mileage. one aggravation when driving on snow and ice is the touchiness of the abs system, so i remove the fuse to avoid it. i think the blazer is a good buy, but i also like the jeep cherokee with a 4.0 in a manual tranny. i have one of those too, with only minor issues in the 216k miles i've (wife drove it the first 4 years) owned it,

Well, before I decided I was moving, I was planning on getting a luxury sedan like a lesabre, park ave., town car, or CTS, but with the thought of all the snow, I started looking into SUVs. After some consideration, I'm realizing that for the same price, I can get 4 times the car in an old man car, and could probably get around fine in the snow with a good set of studded snow tires. I'll keep my eye out, and would still like to here your guys' opinions, but I may just end up with a 4dr sedan.

if you go with an old man car, make sure its a fwd. crown vic's and other rear wheel old man cars suck in the snow. at least with a 2wd truck you can put a load of wood in the bed for weight. hill climbs and decensions are where 4wd is great. especially downhill, put it in 4 low and let her walk at her speed. how much snow you moving into. are the roads maintained or real hilly. if its flat and scraped fwd will do you, but no matter what anyone says you never get "good" at driving in the snow, you get experienced, and the more experienced you are the less likely it is you'll do something stupid.

It's mostly flat with some fairly steep but short hills, and other very steep hills, but hills I wouldn't need to routinely drive. It sounds like they gravel the roads and plow them pretty good, and I'm sure they spend extra time on the main hills, which would be where I would drive. I've been told the normal maximum is around 10-12 inches, and the snow seasons can be as long as 6 months.

PS: I know how driving a RWD car in the snow is. My Camaro has been through several winters, but a max of 6-8 inches of snow, and where I live now is on a big hill, so I had to park at the bottom and hike up until the plows got to the main hill roads to my house. Never had chains or snow tires on the car, so I'd say I've been close to RWD in the snow at it's finest :P.

Just to add my $.02 even though I am sure the OP has made his mind up already. My 1999 GMC Jimmy is a great little truck. I got it for a really good price and I have been happy with it. Decent gas mileage and excellent towing power. Sure is easy to load up the wife and kids and all their stuff and do whatever I have to. The 4WD kicks ass in the snow too, truck goes through 1'+ of unplowed snow with relative ease.

Now for the bad. I am also a mechanic which is good since these trucks seem to require near constant wrenching. I have had the fun of replacing ball joints, CV axles, radiator, heater core (real nightmare), shocks, brakes, etc.... I bought my truck knowing full well it would most likely need lots of love and care. I am still ahead of the game since I still couldn't buy a better truck than I have for what I have into it.

As everyone said, weight the good with the bad. I would personally avoid Dodge products, but that is based highly off my opinion. Ford Explorers are a MUST avoid since they are simply junk and very very expensive to fix. My personal 2 choices would be a Jeep Grand Wagoneer or a S10/S15 Blazer/Jimmy. The foreign trucks are nice but pricey and parts are just as pricey. The S10/S15 trucks are a good mid point between decent prices for the actual truck and decent parts prices. As for Jeeps, I just love them, even though Chrysler has killed some of their spirit.

I had my issues with our Blazer when we bought it USED a 97 Blazer LS 4x4 in 08. It had 87,000 miles & I felt I paid too much for it but in reality The 30 day dealer warranty brought the cost way down. Our Blazer gave me fuel pump, missing codes, A/C compressor, right after we bought it. The Honda dealer in Prescott AZ where we bought it took care of ALL the problems plus gave us a new Honda Accord coupe to drive for two weeks while they had the Blazer ALL FOR FREE. Since, we have put 32,000 miles on it & a heater core has been the only problem. I burned the tranny & a couple of services & a B&M SuperCooler fixed that. But that was on me.
It has had a piston slap for all these miles but keeps on running great. I just don't run over 3000 RPMs & I don't have an issue.
I like the Blazer quite a bit. We have a Jeep Grand Cherokee Limited 5.9 that is a good SUV also.
We get 18-21 MPG with the Blazer, it is a real tough 4x4. We have driven the crap out of it off-road. It is comfortable, drives great, good looks with good LT tires handles snow great. We owned an 04 Chevy TrailBlazer 4x4 & I like the Blazer much better in all ways except the 4.2 I-6 had more power with the same gas mileage. The TB was good off-road once I tore all the plastic bumpers off. That didn't take long, & not on purpose either.
I'm looking for a 1999 or newer Blazer now, I would like an LT model.
So I would buy another.

Hmmmm im just gonna butt in... Well I'm a GM Blazer fan as well; and I believe they are better than Jeep Cherokees in many ways (me being biased) , I'm also very openminded, so don't attack me. Nevertheless I would recommend a Ford Escape.. My mom owned a Ford Escape up in Boston and it has proven to be a very tough car in the snow, as well as good fuel mileage..Yeah she got it brand new but has droven it to 80k than sold it..