2022 Chevy Colorado ZR2 First Drive Review: The Bare Necessities

Here’s some inside baseball for you: location is everything when you test a car. The wrong (or right) setting can drastically affect what a car does, how it does it, and what you think of what it’s doing. The best of us can weed all that out and evaluate a car solely for what it is, but even then, location, location, location. So, where better to test the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 than Colorado?

The Centennial State’s off-road scene has exploded in recent years, and vehicles like the Colorado now frequent many of Rocky Mountain National Park’s trails. So, with the keys in our pocket, we set out to see what the Centennial State had in store, and if you should wait for the Ford Ranger Raptor instead.

There’s plenty of ZR2 badging to let you know what you’ve bought as well. Some of us here at CarBuzz have come around to shiny wheels with black accents, but we would’ve preferred some more interesting wheels. At the front, the gaping maw of a grille leads you to think there’s much more engine under the bulged hood than there really is, but we’ll forgive it because it looks so damn good.

Finally, paint. Chevy’s Bright Blue Metallic contrasts nicely with the ZR2’s black accents (which includes a spray-in bed liner), and it’s easily worth the $395 you’ll spend at the dealer optioning it. In all, it’s not a radical new design, but not a terrible one either. We’re happy with the ZR2’s manly man looks, and you likely will be too.

The Colorado ZR2 is powered by the most powerful engine option Chevy can fit under the hood: a 3.6-liter naturally-aspirated V6. It’ll produce 308 horsepower at 6,800 rpm and 275 lb-ft of torque at 4,000 rpm. That power gets routed through what is best described as “just a gearbox.” It’s really not much, but we’ll get to that down in the driving impressions. What it is in actuality is an eight-speed automatic transmission.

But the big news here is Chevy’s Multimatic suspension dampers. Sitting right next to those, which Chevy says will improve ride and handling both on and off-road, are a pair of locking differentials. One is situated at each axle and paired with Chevy’s real-time selectable 4WD knob located to the left of your knee in the cabin.

The tires, as we mentioned beforehand, are Goodyear Wrangler DuraTrac tires, measuring 265/65/R17 at all four corners. Brakes are simple steel ones, but they are paired with GM’s Hill Descent Control, useful for almost EV-like one-pedal driving on the trails. All said and done, the ZR2 tips the scales at between 4,715 and 4,954 pounds in Crew Cab guise.

Driving the ZR2 feels old school in some ways. That’s partially because of what you’re greeted with when Chevy hands over the keys. We can’t remember the last time we drove a car with a turn-key ignition. But, that slightly aged feeling in the interior does translate to a “get in and go” truck. There’s no faffing about with parking sensors or electronic handbrakes or stupid touchscreen climate control menus. Turn the key, throw that sucker in drive using a shift knob, and go get on with business.

By “business,” we are of course referring to off-roading. We set out for one of Colorado’s many off-road trails, and the time we spent on the highway en route taught us some things. First, old-school cruise control has been eclipsed by adaptive cruise, something this vehicle lacks. Second, Chevy’s Multimatic dampers are a little too stiff for the street. And third, 308 hp is more than enough to get where you’re going. Additionally, this interior is beginning to age, something you really start to notice once the off-road tire’s road noise begins seeping into the cabin. But that $44,200 price tag has to come with some compromises.

Once off-road, the ZR2’s shocks start to make a little more sense. Just a little. They help keep uncomfortable body roll to a minimum, yes, but there is a tradeoff. In early spring, much of Colorado’s dirt roads are heavily rutted, if not impassable, as a result of snowmelt from the high Rockies. This is where those Multimatic shocks fall apart. The ride on any sort of rutted road is harsh, and a lack of insulation in the cabin makes your discomfort very apparent. Thankfully, the transmission knows what it’s doing regardless, and doesn’t make itself known at any point.

This is an incredibly friendly “my first off-roader” truck. Controls are legible, clearly labeled, and easy to understand. Anyone could get in and put this thing up a rock face. The “auto” mode on the ZR2’s selectable 4WD is nice, but we found adjusting between 2WD and 4WD manually a little more efficient. Hill descent control works well, but we often ended up simply doing the work ourselves instead. Perhaps it makes more sense on longer trails. Regardless, it’s clear this is where the money was spent on the ZR2, with the locking diffs getting us out of more than one awkward situation.

Speaking of awkward, we’re not sure how else to broach the topic of the Colorado’s interior. We found the Colorado’s simple interior to be horribly dated. That infotainment unit is not only tiny, it’s seriously aged. However, it does still respond well. While our loaner did have an optional $75 wireless charging pad, you can tell it was from an era before smartphones got too big. We couldn’t fit our generation-old Galaxy S10 in there. This didn’t matter since the Android Auto requires a cable.

The leather seats felt good to the touch but broke down over long journeys. This is not a road trip truck, especially with the stiff ride. That said, storage is ample for a midsize truck like this, and we had no problem fitting various items like large water bottles in various places. However, much of the car is bathed in scratchy, cheap plastic. At least we know it’ll be cheap to replace when it inevitably gets busted up. Until then, we wait for a refreshed interior.

Let’s talk about who wants to buy one of these. In our eyes, this is clearly aimed at the person looking for a capable truck to take to the trails on the weekend, without shelling out big money on a luxury interior. If a bare-bones, simple, fun truck is what you want, this is a solid choice.

However, even the most aloof of buyers will notice the elderly interior, despite its easy-to-use simplicity. The Colorado ZR2 delivers on its off-road looks, and we had plenty of fun with it. But, be warned. This is not a super-serious off-roader, at least not without recovery gear. Eventually, the snow still present on Colorado’s trails led us to turn back, and even locked diffs couldn’t help us past a certain point. The Colorado Rockies are still the Colorado Rockies in early spring, snow and all.

If you’re asking us, we’d wait to see what Chevy has in store for the 2023 MY truck. While simple, we found the ZR2 lacked the refinement it needed to be a truly great bargain truck, especially inside. At a bare minimum, Chevy must soften the ride and update the infotainment for this to be considered a truly dual-purpose daily off-roader.