2024 Chevy Silverado ZR2 Diesel First Drive: Good, But Is It Enough?

The world of off-road pickup trucks seems to grow every year; if you want something fast, powerful, and capable of tackling tricky terrain, you’re spoiled for options. But with so many options at hand, you’ve really got to pull out something special to stand out from the full-size crowd. By building a narrower truck than the competition and adding a diesel engine option, Chevy is hoping it can make the 2024 Silverado ZR2 stand out from the crowd, but after having a chance to try out the machine, I’m not convinced the truck has enough to shine through a packed crowd.

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Full Disclosure: Chevy invited me out to Palm Springs, California to get my hands on every member of the ZR2 off-roading family, including the Bison trims.

Photo: Jalopnik / Elizabeth Blackstock

The 2024 Chevy Silverado LD ZR2 is the off-road equipped version of the brand’s mainstay full-size pickup truck. New for 2022 is the optional 3.0-liter Duramax I6 turbo-diesel that I had the chance to drive; it makes 305 horsepower and 495 lb-ft of torque. If you’re still in need of towing capabilities, the ZR2 can tackle 8,700 lbs, with an additional payload capacity of 1,500 lbs.

Because it’s a ZR2 trim, you’re looking at some additions and alterations that are designed to ensure the truck can easily navigate the gnarliest of obstacles. Multimatic spool-valve dampers, 33-inch off-road tires, tucked-in bumpers, and high-mounted muffler all promise to keep you from clobbering any significant off-road obstacles. If you’re keen on even more capability, Chevy also offers this truck in a ZR2 Bison trim, which adds AEV heavy-duty skid plates and steel bumpers to the truck.

I only had about an hour behind the wheel of this machine, with roughly 20 minutes spent in very mild off-road conditions, another 20 spent driving through downtown Palm Springs, and an additional 20 on the highway. As you can imagine, that didn’t give me tons of time to see just how capable the Silverado ZR2 could be, but it gave me just enough context to help situate it in the larger full-size off-road pickup sphere.

Photo: Jalopnik / Elizabeth Blackstock

If anything stands out about this truck, it’s the Duramax turbo-diesel. The powertrain is smooth, you get plenty of beefy low-end torque, and there’s also not any turbo lag offsetting your acceleration — something that I definitely appreciated in the mild off-road course. A gentle touch of the accelerator, and I was able to move forward with a planted assurance that was much appreciated on the sandy terrain.

The Silverado ZR2 is also a bit narrower than its other off-road counterparts, and while I’m sure that plays an important role on the trail, my off-road section was fairly open and fairly flat, so I didn’t get a chance to see just how it could handle a tight, rocky squeeze. That being said, a slightly trimmer truck made highway driving way more relaxed; I’m always afraid that the full-size trucks I test drive are spilling over into every lane but the one I’m supposed to be in, and while the Silverado is still big, it’s not desperately unwieldy.

Photo: Jalopnik / Elizabeth Blackstock

The Multimatic DSSV dampers also help the truck shine. They’re passive dampers, not electronically controlled, and on the highway, you glide along with the svelte ride of a luxury car. Hit the trail, and those dampers dramatically soften what would normally be teeth-rattling undulations. It was nice to drive a truck over some sandy drifts and not worry about how many bruises I was acquiring in the process.

Those are all great things, of course, but the full-size off-road pickup truck market is stacked right now, which means Chevy is going up against a whole slew of other highly capable trucks that kind of have it beat at its own game. The Ford F-150 Raptor is about the same price ($79,975 for the Raptor compared to the $71,895 for the Silverado ZR2) and offers larger tires, more power, and a hell of a lot of speed. The outgoing Ram TRX is quite a bit more expensive, but you’re getting a hell of a lot of truck and power for the money. The Silverado ZR2 is pretty damn good at what it does, but it’s also more on the level of an F-150 Tremor than a desert-running Raptor, and you’re paying a higher premium for it.

The Chevy is narrower than its competition, though, and the diesel option also gives it a strong leg to stand on for the folks who want to opt for that low-end torque. It’s also damn good at what it’s designed to do, which is to navigate trickier and rockier terrain than, say, the speed-focused F-150 Raptor. Is that enough to convince off-road truck enthusiasts to leave their brand of choice behind to try something new? I can’t say I’m terribly convinced, but Chevy is. We’ll see if the market follows.