The 2022 Chevy Silverado ZR2 Is an Almost-Raptor

This is the new 2022 Chevy Silverado ZR2 and it's an off-roader pickup truck. Off-roader trucks are hot right now. The Ford Raptor and the Ram TRX have been huge hits and this is Chevy's response although it doesn't quite measure up to those. Today I'm going to review the new Silverado ZR2 and show you everything. Before I get started be sure to check out Cars and Bids which is my enthusiast car auction website for cool cars from the modern era. Now with free listings you can list your cool car for free and auction it on Cars and Bids. And we've had some great sales recently including this Shelby GT350R Heritage sold for over $110,000. This fantastic Mercedes C43 AMG brought $22,000 and this bizarre Mitsuoka weird Japanese thing sold for over $14,000. We like the weird stuff on Cars and Bids. If you're looking to buy or sell a cool enthusiast car from the modern era, the 1980s and up, Cars and Bids is the place to do it with daily auctions and great selection at CarsandBids.com. So let's talk Silverado ZR2. Like I said, Chevy's full-size off-roader pickup truck. It's going to start around $70,000. It comes with V8 power and it has 33-inch tires. And today I'm going to show you all that and everything else. First I'll take you on a thorough tour of the Silverado ZR2 and show you all of its interesting quirks and features. Then I'm going to get it out on the road and drive it and then I'll give it a Doug's score. All right, I'm going to start the quirks and features the Silverado ZR2 with its ZR2-ness. And that means it's off-road upgrades, but also the name ZR2. Not quite as compelling as Raptor or TRX, T-Rex, but it's a name Chevy has used before. They have the Colorado ZR2, which is the off-road version of their smaller Colorado pickup. And they also use ZR2 on the Blazer in the late 90s, early 2000s for an off-road version of that. And there was an S10 ZR2 around the same time that was also an off-roader model. So the ZR2 name does have some history and some clout, although this is the first time they're using ZR2 on a Silverado. And as you might imagine, Chevy has given the Silverado ZR2 some impressive upgrades to back up that ZR2 name, probably the most important of which is the suspension. This truck uses an upgraded Multimatic off-road suspension system, sort of like what you find on the Colorado ZR2, but obviously enhanced even further for bigger and better off-road adventures. Now, Chevy says the suspension has been lifted about two inches compared to a standard Silverado, which will obviously help for traversing the trails. But the real benefit here is wheel travel. This suspension setup allows for dramatically more wheel travel, which working with the added ground clearance gives this truck a lot more ability to articulate and roll over difficult obstacles when you're on the trails. And this Multimatic suspension is a major benefit the ZR2 has over the Silverado Trail Boss, which used to be the top off-road model in the Silverado's lineup. The Trail Boss is still in the Silverado lineup, but I guess it isn't the boss of the trails anymore now that the ZR2 exists. The two trucks have about the same lift, roughly two inches over a regular Silverado, but the ZR2 has the trick suspension. And as you might imagine, there are a lot more off-road upgrades to the Silverado ZR2 beyond just the suspension. You can see quite a few of them from your angle right here. One is the tires. These are 33-inch off-road all-terrain tires. That's a larger tire than you get on the Trail Boss and obviously a lot larger than what you get on a standard Silverado, but there are more upgrades still. A lot of them come to the front end. For one thing, it's just more aggressive than the standard Silverado front end. You can see this big black gaping grill looking like it wants to swallow up the trails or something, I guess. It's supposed to look kind of cool and distinctive compared to regular Silverado's and it's designed in a way to help increase the approach angle. It doesn't like jut out with excessive bodywork. Instead, it kind of pulls back and underneath the grill, you can see a skid plate there. So if you do scrape on stuff, it obviously won't damage any important components under the truck. Interestingly, approach angle for the Silverado ZR2, about the same as Raptor and TRX. So pretty competitive in that regard, which is kind of nice. Now, other upgrades to the front, you can see these bright red recovery hooks up here. So if the truck gets stuck, you can pull it out or more likely it can pull out other stuck vehicles. You also have a bumper up front. Of course you do, but it has removable end caps. This little piece here, you have that on both sides and you can remove and replace them relatively easily. That way, if you're off-roading, you damage them on some rocks, some trail, you can just replace them without having to replace the entire front bumper or the entire front bodywork, like on some lesser vehicles. Also worth noting with these end caps, you can see they curve in around the edge of the truck to provide some daylight directly in front of the wheels. This is again intended for off-roading rock crawling. So stuff can come up and get into this area without damaging or scraping the bumper end cap. Now that bumper end cap design is kind of cool. And speaking of cool design up front, how about the Chevy logo in the grill, which is hollow as you can see. Air can pass through it and then get into the engine for improved airflow and cooling. Chevy calls this the Flowtie, which is a play on the fact that their logo is called the Bowtie, but it says air flows through it. It's the Flowtie and that is cool. Now you'll notice the Flowtie is trimmed in red. That's because that's the special color of the ZR2. You can see it in the badge. The two is red and so the Flowtie is red to match. And there are other interesting quirks up here in the front. One, when you turn on the headlights, the marker lights on the side illuminate this little Chevy logo, which is kind of a cool touch. That's something most people would notice, but it's there and it's sort of neat. Also worth noting, when you turn on the headlights of this truck, the large distinctive sort of scoop shaped running lights turn off or dim in order to allow the headlights to take full charge in front, as you can see. Now, interestingly, when that happens, this tiny running light turns on in place of the larger ones. The headlights come on and so does this little flat running light in the grille. Not exactly sure why it's not regulatory, but it's there. Now, one other lighting related quirk up front, the turn signals come on and they sweep a little bit in the front, just like so many modern cars doing cool sweeping turn signals. Well, this truck has them too. But anyway, moving on from the quirks of the lighting onto more off-road stuff with this truck. For one thing, you have extra wheel arch protection. You can see this plastic trim around the wheel arches on this truck in order to protect the fenders and the paint from damage when you're out on the trails. Chevy also tells me that the wheel arches don't quite go down as far. On Trail Boss models, there's like a mud flat behind the front wheels and also a plastic panel in front of the rear wheels, but those would get damaged doing the kind of rock crawling Chevy expects people to do with the ZR2, and so they're gone from this truck. Also on the side, you can see rock rails here, which are nice when you're off-roading. Chevy says these are an accessory, not an option, but you can get it fitted from the dealer, and they can screw into the same supports for the running boards. So if you have running boards in this truck, you can just pull them out and stick on the rock rails, and you'll be ready to go off-roading. Also worth noting in this vicinity, the paint in the lower half of the truck has been fitted with like a rock guard protection. You can see it if you look into the light. Chevy says they're doing this from the factory, and of course they're doing it to help try to keep the paint finish protected, even if you go rock crawling and rocks come up and hit your paint in this spot. And next up, we move around back where you have one important off-road upgrade for the ZR2, and that would be the exhaust. Chevy says they've rerouted the exhaust positioning and changed the angle in order to improve the departure angle of this truck. You can see it's kind of stuffed up in there, and in fact it does improve the departure angle, and it helps again make it competitive against off-road pickup truck rivals. So approach and departure angles are pretty impressive for this truck, but it has some drawbacks when you compare it to the other off-road trucks. Ground clearance is one of them. Chevy says 11.2 inches of ground clearance here, which doesn't match the 12 to 13 inches that the Raptor and the Ram TRX have, so it's already at a bit of a disadvantage there. Then there's the look. The Silverado ZR2 is cool. It looks reasonably nice and pumped up for off-roading, but the Raptor has this amazing wide body that gives it so much more of a muscular off-roady look. And same deal with the TRX. Wide body, cooler wheels, it just looks so aggressive and mean. And if you go back to the ZR2 now, you can see the look just isn't there. No wide body, no major off-road looking upgrades, just some bigger tires and a different front end. It's actually a shame because the Colorado ZR2 does have a wider body compared to the standard Colorado, when previous ZR2 models did too. The Blazer and the S10 in the 90s and early 2000s, but not here. ZR2 has some upgraded suspension and other benefits, but it just doesn't look any cooler. And then there's the tires. 33-inch tires in this truck is an upgrade over other Silverados, but the Raptor comes with up to 37-inch tires and the TRX has 35. So you're playing at a disadvantage in terms of tire size for this truck as well. But although it may seem the Silverado ZR2 has some disadvantages compared to the other off-road trucks, it has an ace up its sleeve. And that would be a standard V8. You can find it under the hood, which has this big power dome on it, black painted in all ZR2 models, regardless of which color you get. And it says 6.2 V8 on the side to let you know what lurks underneath. And indeed, 6.2 liter naturally aspirated V8, big power, big muscle, which is a big deal since the Raptor only has a V6. There's just one problem. The V8 here has 420 horsepower and 460 pound-feet of torque. The Raptor with its turbo V6 has 450 horsepower and 510 pound-feet of torque. So even though this has the big brawny V8, Raptor's got more power and torque. And don't even think about the Ram TRX, which has 700 horsepower, far exceeding both the Raptor and this truck. With that said, even though the ZR2 is down on power compared to its rivals, it does sound cool with the big V8. Take a listen. But back to the whole power thing. Now, this wouldn't really be an issue. The fact that this truck is down on power to the Raptor and down in a few other areas too, it wouldn't really be an issue if it was priced a lot lower than the Raptor. This seems like a lesser Raptor and so it should be priced less too. And that is the real problem with the ZR2. Pricing for this truck starts around $69,000 with shipping. Pricing for a Raptor starts around $70,000 with shipping. Now, this truck is better equipped than a base Raptor, but it doesn't have the stuff. The wide body, the bigger available tires. The Raptor has more power and more ground clearance and the Raptor has this historic name. For 10 years, the Raptor has owned this segment and everybody knows that and it's the truck they want to be seen in and to be driving around. And compared to the TRX, just forget about it. That truck is obviously going to be more capable than this and more insane with over 700 horsepower. Now, it's a lot more expensive, around $10,000 more base price than a ZR2, but it delivers the goods for that extra power. The ZR2 to me just doesn't quite measure up to either of these trucks and especially at this price point. Frankly, I thought this would be cheaper, more like around $60,000 slotting in under the Raptor for people who don't quite want to spend that money or get all that truck. But priced just like the Raptor, it's kind of a tough pill to swallow. So maybe the ZR2's benefit over its rival off-road trucks is that it's nicer on the inside. And indeed, it is pretty nice in here. The ZR2 launches for the 2022 model year to coincide with a general update to the Silverado line overall, and that includes an improved interior. And that includes, for one thing, a lot of screens. One is a big gauge cluster screen over 12 inches and it's very high resolution, provides good information and the center panel is configurable so you can have it show kind of whatever you want. It's a nice screen that shows a lot of good stuff. Now, you also have a heads-up display, which is very large and provides very much information, including your off-road driving, as you can see here. It's showing like your angles when you're off-roading, pitch and roll, which is kind of cool to be able to see, projected directly in front of you so you don't have to check some screen in the interior when you're off-roading and you want to see how you're situated. Now, the other big screen in here is the center screen, 13.4-inch center infotainment touchscreen, and it has a lot of good things about it. For one thing, tremendously intuitive and tremendously easy to use, just like all of the latest General Motors infotainment systems. They don't always have the latest, coolest cutting-edge features, but they're simple, easy, and they have everything you need. And in this case, it does have some cool cutting-edge features like Google Assistant, which you can see right here, and Google Maps is integrated into the so you can just use that system directly in your car's infotainment. You also have a fantastic camera system in here. I think General Motors trucks have the best cameras on the market, period. You have 10 zillion angles where you can see anything for towing, for parking, and now for off-roading. It's really helpful to be able to see like corners of your car, etc., in very high resolution. And beyond that, this screen is just tremendously responsive. Tap it, it does exactly what you want, and you can see it has multiple panels, so it can show two things at once, a map on one side, radio on another, which is nice. This is a good system, a good screen, and definitely better than what you get over at Ford. And there's more to like than just the screens in this interior. For one thing, you get this gear lever, brawny and muscular, and makes you feel like an off-roader. This is the same one they're using in the Hummer EV, the off-road electric pickup, which is kind of a cool tie-in with this truck. But beyond just the brawny styling, there's also some upgraded muscle in this interior. For one thing, you have four-wheel drive high and four-wheel drive low, so there's a two-speed transfer case in here. You can switch between them for better off-roading. You also have differential lockers, both rear and front and rear together, which is a nice ZR2 benefit that enhances this truck's performance off-road. And next to those buttons, you got this one, which is hill descent control, which helps make it easier to go down steep off-road hills. The car will do some of the work for you to make sure you don't have some sort of problem. Now, other off-road benefits in here, this little dial to the left of the steering wheel, you twist it and it changes your drive mode. There's a normal mode and then there's off-road, but there's also a special terrain mode, which is intended to be used for rock crawling. It'll help kind of keep you going at a very slow rolling pace if you're in four-wheel drive low, in order to creep over rocks that you might encounter out on the trails, which is a cool idea. Now, beyond all that, it's worth noting that a lot of the materials in this interior are unique to the ZR2. In fact, Chevy told me that the materials were specifically selected to be washable, not necessarily with a hose, but you can easily just sort of wipe it off when you get mud and dirt in this truck after you go off-roading. Also exclusive to the ZR2 is this tire tread pattern in the seats, which looks kind of cool and fits with this truck's purpose. And ZR2 models get this yellow stitching. You can see on the seats, some yellow contrast stitching, same deal in the center console, yellow stitching on the dashboard and in a few other places. Now, I'm not exactly sure why they went with yellow since the ZR2's color is red, like I showed you on the badge, but they did. ZR2 models get the yellow stitching. Now, interestingly, not really any ZR2 badges in here. You have one on the door sill when you open the door, but that's it. You don't even have ZR2 printed on the headrest. Very different from the Raptor and the TRX, which go out of their way to tell you exactly what cool truck you're sitting in when you're inside. And next, we move on to the backseat in the Silverado ZR2, which I must say is absolutely huge. You can basically lie down back here. There's so much comfort. You can just relax. It's amazing being in the back of a pickup truck and have this much space. And it further proves that you really can use these as family vehicles if you want. Now, a few interesting quirks back here. For one thing, heated rear seats, which is a nice luxury to have, and rear climate control vents, which you don't always see in trucks. You also have USB ports, A and C, back here for rear passengers to charge their devices. And you have some cool hidden storage options back here. Pull on this little loop in the seat back and it opens up, revealing a hidden storage place in the seat. And you have the same thing over on the other side. Pull the loop, it opens up, and there's a storage compartment. And the base of the seats can lift up. Lift it up, there is your extra storage back here, which would be nice to have if you have important, valuable items that you don't necessarily want to put in your bed, where they might get stolen or exposed to the weather. And next up, we have the tailgate in this truck, which is a cool advantage that the ZR2 has over its off-road truck rivals. At first glance, it just looks like a normal tailgate from outside, but you get closer and you see there are two buttons to open it, not just one. The upper button opens the upper part of the tailgate. You push it and it lowers, which allows for a cutout in the tailgate. If you want to stick in larger items like wood planks that are too long for the bed, well, you can do that here. And there's a little panel at the end that you can pop open, and then that stuff won't, like, push out into traffic as you accelerate in your truck. So there's, like, a tailgate within a tailgate. And it gets even cooler. You can close all this stuff up, the upper part of the tailgate, and then use the second button to lower the entire tailgate. And from there, you reach back under and use the original button to drop this piece, push down a panel, and now you have a step that makes it easier to get into your bed if you want to find some stuff that you have back here. And there's even a little rail on the side of the bed that you can stick in place so that you can put your hand on it, climb on the step, and then get inside your truck bed, which really does make for a far more practical bed than the Raptor or the TRX. And so those are the quirks and features of the new Chevy Silverado ZR2. Now it's time to get it out on the road and see how it drives. All right, driving the Silverado ZR2. Now, if you've watched this video this far, your first impressions of this truck might be that this is sort of like a almost Raptor. A Raptor that they tried but didn't quite get there. And after spending the entire day with this truck and driving it around, my conclusion is the same. There's a lot to like about this truck. And I actually think this would be an awesome truck, incredibly cool, if we didn't already know the Raptor existed. But unfortunately, we do. To me, the real shock here was the price tag situation. This truck at $70,000, $69,000 starting, I just really, really, really didn't expect that. I thought it would be about 10 grand cheaper. I thought it would be cheaper than the Raptor. And being about the same price, dollar for dollar versus the Raptor, it's just a tough pill to swallow. It's just, it's hard when the Raptor has this brand name that everybody knows and this brawny arches and big power. And that's just the truck. That's just what you get. And in order to compete with it, you kind of got to go above and beyond, which is how the TRX put itself on the map, more power, more insanity. But doing smaller tires, lower ground clearance, less power, it's just, it's just not going to measure up. And I think that they're gonna have a tough time selling these. Now, with that said, there are a few benefits to this truck over the Raptor. One of them I mentioned earlier, which is technology. The Raptor has great tech. It really does. But this truck, the center screen is fantastic. Some of the features it has, the Raptor just doesn't offer and they work really well and they're easy. And I just love General Motors infotainment, which I can't believe I'm saying for so many years when I was a kid, GM was not a technology leader, but they really are now. The infotainment in this truck is great. The center screen or the gauge screen is great. The heads up display is great. There's a lot of really good tech in this truck. The rear view mirror, that's a screen. Ford doesn't have that yet. There's a lot of benefits. There really is. And I think that that could be a plus of this truck over the Raptor, but that's the kind of thing people buy a Silverado over an F-154. When they're going into the off-road world, they're really more concerned with off-roader benefits. This truck doesn't have those great advantages over the Raptor. Now, in that realm, the other advantage this truck does have is the performance. And I don't mean by that the horsepower and acceleration, because it's not gonna measure up to the Raptor. What I mean is that it has the V8 sound and feel. And frankly, there's actually some good strategy by General Motors to this truck, giving it a big V8 as opposed to a twin-turbo V6 or something else, which they obviously could have done. But they know there is at least some portion of Raptor buyers who misses the V8. Even though the six has more power, more torque, it's a better powertrain on paper, some people miss the V8. And so this truck is down against the Raptor in some ways, but it has that V8. And that's no small thing, is the V8. That's pretty nice. I mean, come on. It's just nice. You don't get that in a Raptor. You simply don't. Now, driving this truck is nice. It feels nice and comfortable. You're sitting in great seating position. You're sitting up high. But the Raptor does all that stuff just as well. The Raptor is just as comfortable. It's nice. It feels good. The Raptor has a nice interior, just like this truck does. Now, I will say, and I do want to point out that this is a really nice truck. It's a cool truck. It's got great tech. Like I said, feels nice, comfortable in here. I got a heated steering wheel, heated and cooled seats. We got differential lockers. We got Google Assistant. I mean, there's a heads up. There's a lot of great stuff in here. And I bring this up because I suspect this truck is going to be cheaper than a Raptor. Not from an MSRP perspective, but you know what I'm saying. Raptors are just higher demanded, and I suspect they're going to be bringing more money in the market. I suspect that this truck will ultimately be cheaper when you actually go to buy a vehicle. And so there's a dollar amount in which the transaction price makes this truck make sense. Is it five grand? Is it eight grand? I'm not exactly sure. But to get, you lose the widebody, you lose the big tires, you use the Raptor name. But if it's five, six, seven grand less, and you get that V8 rumble, suddenly I could start to see this truck make some sense. And so as these things are on sale and as the market starts to do what it does and actual transaction prices start coming out, we'll see. I'm very excited for a chance to take this truck off road and really beat on it out there. But I just can't. I love the Raptor. And I think a lot of people love the Raptor. It's had 10 years to build that love in the community. And this truck just isn't enough to come and take it down. And so that's the new 2022 Chevy Silverado ZR2. This is a cool truck with some nice benefits, some cool styling, a big V8 and some nice off-road capabilities. But it's no Raptor or Ram TRX. And I still find those trucks to be more compelling if you can find one without paying a crazy dealer markup. For now, it's time to give the Silverado ZR2 the Doug's score. And the Doug's score is here, 60 out of 100, which places the Silverado ZR2 here against rivals. It's competitive with the Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, which is an excellent pickup truck, but the ZR2 falls behind the major players in this segment, the Raptor and the more expensive Ram TRX. Truthfully, the ZR2 is a desirable pickup truck with V8 power, excellent upgraded suspension, and good technology. But at this price point, I'd get a Raptor hands down.