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Payne: On Dasher, On Dancer, On Silverado! Christmas-tree shopping in Chevy’s pickup
Posted by Talbot Payne on December 28, 2024
West Bloomfield Township — My 2024 Chevrolet Silverado ZR2 is ready for anything that Michigan winter throws at it. Knobby 33-inch all-terrain tires to drift through three-foot Gaylord snowdrifts. Lifted 11.5-inch chassis lift to scale Holly Oaks’ off-road course. Beastly 420-horsepower oomph to merge with authority onto the (finally completed) I-696 racetrack.
But on a December Saturday, I just needed it to haul a Christmas tree.
For all the extraordinary physical attributes modern pickups have been endowed with, their signature feature continues to be that big box out back. It’s what defines pickups. They can pick up what other vehicles can’t. Mulch, trailers, motorbikes, go-karts … trees.
Like many of its performance pickup peers, the ZR2 only comes with one bed option: a standard 5’8” box. That’s enough. Mrs. Payne and I fished our tree base out of the closet and headed for English Gardens. We should have brought a ladder, too.
For off-road convenience, ZR2 has no running boards and that 11.5-inch ground clearance. Which is an inconvenience to my 65-inch-tall wife, who contemplated the climb into the truck’s passenger seat like it was the oak in our backyard. Woof, that’s high.
Thank goodness for A-pillar grab handles. The effort is worth it as the interior of the Chevy is posh and palatial. Like the Goodyear Wrangler Territorial MT tires and two-story grille, everything is supersized, including a digital 12.3-inch instrument panel and 13.4-inch touchscreen.
Beginning with the $49K LT truck, this state-of-that-art combo brings premium looks to the Silverado range of trucks above the Work Truck/Custom starter trims. Sometimes you just need a bed — but the digital wizardry makes the pickup a pleasant, everyday tool. The screens are powered by Google Built-in, and I instantly synced truck to my Google account in the cloud so that I could navigate on Google Maps like my phone — but without using up its battery.
“Navigate to English Gardens,” I barked, and we were off.
I should have taken the long way. Chevy’s base truck chassis is the best engineered in the business, and ZR2 feels sporty despite its Brobdingnagian dimensions and 5,500-pound girth (actually 300 pounds lighter than the, ahem, midsize Cadillac Lyriq EV). Firm steering. Multimatic shocks. I dialed the Drive Mode selector to SPORT and cracked the whip on the brawny eight cylinders like Santa lashing his reindeer into the night.
BWWAAAARRGHHH! My sleigh leapt across Oakland County.
“I thought we were going to English Gardens, not the race track!” said my wife, once again grabbing for the A-pillar handle. Take it easy, Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner and Blitzen, we don’t want to make Mrs. Claus uncomfortable. Or anyone else who might want to come along for the ride.
It was just my wife and I this day, but we could have packed all the North Pole’s elves in the backseat. Good gravy, these Silverado Crew Cabs are yuuuge. I’m impressed the Dodge Charger Daytona EV has gained four inches of legroom to 37 inches, but the Silverado has a yawning 43! You could pack in the elves plus Victor Wembanyama and you’d still have room for more.
There are even cubbies in the seatbacks to hide presents.
At English Gardens we selected our tree — a healthy seven-footer — and screwed on the base. Were we driving anything other than a pickup, we would have spent time securing the Fraser Fur to the roof, worrying about scratches or about it falling off on the way home.
Not with a full-size pickup. Silverado makes loading even easier with the Multi-Flex tailgate, an affordable $445 option on any Silverado starting with the $37K Work Truck. The tailgate features six configurations, with my favorite being the stairway. To deploy:
1) Drop the gate
2) Drop the middle gate
3) Drop the middle step
Voila! Two steps up and I was into the bed carrying our tree. Placed diagonally in the sprayed bed, the fur fit fine, base and all. No concern about scratches. I walked back down the stairwell, collapsed the gates and was ready to go.
To preserve the tree (and my marriage), I wasn’t tempted into any V8-powered antics on the way home. You can look up my review of the Silverado ZR2 in the Joshua Tree desert to see its enormous bandwidth, from trail-running in OFF-ROAD mode to rock-climbing using the two-speed transfer case and locking differentials.
In addition to the Google Built in system where I managed my most-used icons (just like my Android phone home screen), Chevy’s brute boasts superb steering-wheel ergonomics. Forget the touchscreen, my hands never left the wheel on the drive home — and subsequent trips around Metro Detroit.
With my left thumb, I set Cruise Control with a downward pull of the dimpled steering wheel roller. Rolling up/or down adjusted speed. Punch it upward and return to the set speed. All the while, I followed directions to my destination in the instrument display.
I scrolled through favorite radio stations with the buttons on the left, back-side of the steering wheel. Settling on Sirius XM’s Comedy Greats, I adjusted the volume using the buttons on right, backside of the wheel.
Back home, I easily walked tree-from-bed using the Multi-Flex stairway. The most difficult task was getting my wife down from her seat.
Hey, Chevy, Mrs. Payne wants to know if you’ve thought of a Multi-Flex stair-step solution for the cab? Would make a great Christmas present for 2025.
Next week: 2025 Kia K4
2024 Chevrolet Silverado
Vehicle type: Front-engine, rear- and four-wheel-drive five-passenger pickup
Price: $37,445, including $1,695 destination charge ($72,560 ZR2 as tested)
Powerplant: 2.7-liter, turbocharge inline-4 cylinder, 5.3-liter V-8, 6.2-liter V-8, 3.0-liter Duramax diesel inline-6 cylinder
Power: 420 horsepower, 460 pound-feet of torque (6.2L V-8 as tested)
Transmission: 10-speed automatic
Performance: As tested — towing, 8,900 pounds; payload, 1,440 pounds
Weight: 5,500 pounds (est., as tested)
Fuel economy: EPA: 14 mpg city/17 highway/15 combined (6.2L V-8)
Report card
Highs: High-tech, big-screen interior; Multi-Flex tailgate
Lows: 35-inch tire option, please; gets pricey
Overall: 4 stars
Henry Payne is auto critic for The Detroit News. Find him at hpayne@detroitnews.com or @HenryEPayne.