2024 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 ZR2 Interior Review: So Close to Perfection
Chevy has made huge improvements inside Silverado, but some choices still leave us bewildered.
When Chevrolet introduced its all-new 2019 Silverado, it received a great amount of praise. The new exterior was fresh and modern, and there were exciting new trims like Trail Boss and a slate of updated engines. However, there was one glaring issue that soured most of the reviews. The truck’s interior proved vastly underwhelming.
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Thankfully, the company heard the complaints and took the customer feedback to heart. In 2022 Chevy offered a refreshed Silverado complete with a modern new interior. Initial reviews were all positive, but the time spent with the truck was generally short. After living with this new interior and its features set in our long-term 2024 Chevy Silverado 1500 ZR2 for more than three months and 7,800 miles, we’ve formed some further thoughts on the subject.
A Single Interior Option for ZR2
While the Silverado lineup offers a myriad of interior material and color options, the ZR2 trim has just a single configuration. The Silverado ZR2 sports front bucket seats with a center console, and seating surfaces and interior panels are trimmed with two-tone Jet Black and Graystone perforated leather with yellow contrast stitching. As we’ve found with most GM products, the Silverado’s seats are on the firmer side, though they’ve so far remained comfortable and supportive, even on longer road trips. They do sit lower in the body than others in the class, which makes forward visibility tough (when combined with the ZR2’s tall hood cowl) for shorter drivers. We also appreciate that the heating and ventilation functions will remain on indefinitely and generally retain the setting (if there’s a wild swing in exterior temperature, the truck automatically adjusts). Our only real gripe about the front seats is the fact that the massaging function isn’t available on ZR2 as it is with the Silverado High Country or Sierra AT4X.
The truck’s power sunroof is a $995 option that we so far could have done without, as the only time it’s ever open is to watch the brushes at the ride-through car wash (and it already leaks a tad during car washes; we’ll have the dealer address this at its first service). However, to wax nostalgic, it’s simple enough to just look up and be reminded of the ’90s thanks to the sunroof’s small size and manually opened shutter. It’s still hard to believe that in 2024 Chevy doesn’t offer a panoramic sunroof for Silverado.
We’re also fond of the plethora of conveniently placed physical buttons. Unlike the Colorado, where almost every vehicle control has been moved into the screen, the Silverado keeps it old-school. Headlight controls, drive modes, and the four-wheel-drive selector are where they have always been, to the left of the steering wheel, while Chevy has moved the integrated trailer brake actuator to a far more convenient location on the right side of the column. Located directly below the infotainment screen is a row of buttons used to control everything from the lane keep assist and auto stop/start to hill descent control and the front and rear lockers. There’s a physical volume knob and power button for the radio, along with a button to return to the home screen. We still find ourselves using the steering-wheel-mounted audio controls far more frequently, though. A step below those is the full suite of HVAC controls, which are entirely physical with no need to enter the infotainment screen to manipulate climate control. This is a huge win in an age where everything has gone digital.
We genuinely appreciate Chevy’s attention to the screens and the ambition to do something fun with them. Upon entering the truck, both the driver information screen and the infotainment screen will play an exciting, animated welcome with dirt flying and off-road tire tracks along with the ZR2 and Chevy logos. Upon exiting, the driver information screen offers the ZR2 logo on a rugged dirt background. However, if you jump in quick and start the truck immediately, the animation stops.
Bro, Where’s the Lighter?
We’d never really thought about it because it has been a mainstay of automobiles since basically the beginning of time. However, when our futile search finally ended, we were shocked to find out that Chevy has done away with the standard “cigarette lighter” 12-volt barrel plug. We get it; there aren’t many accessories left that use this type of socket. That said, we were on the hunt for a convenient way to keep our 12-volt fridge/freezer powered up during a recent road trip. In the past, these barrel plugs had typically been constantly powered and the perfect solution for such a device. Lacking the barrel plug, we’re left to either use one of the 120-volt outlets or turn to an accessory battery.
Speaking of the 120-volt outlet, with this new interior, Chevy moved the plug inside the center console. It’s great—until you use it. Located in the top right corner of the console’s interior storage compartment, the outlet offers barely enough room for even a modest iPhone or iPad charge adapter. Plugging in anything larger, like a laptop charger, for example, makes it impossible to close the console lid. And if the cord is thick, there isn’t a great way to pass it out from the console. The only other 120-volt outlet is found in the bed.
Thankfully, the truck also offers a decent selection of USB ports with both USB-A and USB-C ports found on the dash, inside the center console, and on the back of the console for rear-seat passengers. Still, this could prove a bit troublesome if everyone needing to charge is carrying a USB-C cable, as it’s what most smart phones and tablets ship with today. We’re also impatiently waiting for the day when a truckmaker outfits a high-power USB-C Power Delivery port, which would be useful for charging devices quickly. We’d also be happier if the dash and rear console featured a pair of USB-C ports, with a single USB-A located inside the console for those stuck with old tech. It could be located next to the barrel plug. Hint. Hint.
Plenty of Nooks and Crannies
There’s always an abundance of trinkets that seem to find their way into a pickup. Whether it’s off-road recovery hardware, overlanding and camping gear, the plethora of DEF funnels and spouts and the engine block heater cable that go with having a diesel engine, charging cables for all sorts of electronic devices, or all the toys and accessories that come with shuttling children around, trucks seem to be magnets for junk. Thankfully, the Silverado offers a wealth of storage cubbies, some more useful than others.
The center console is a good size and plenty deep for most items, and it has a removable and reversible tray for storing smaller items. We’ve stashed a 13-inch MacBook Pro laptop in the console comfortably, but anything larger simply won’t fit. Sadly, the glove box is the only lockable storage. Another feature of the center console is found at the rear cupholders, which have an opening between the two intended to hold a tablet for the rear-seat passengers. We’ve found that it fits a standard 10.9-inch iPad. Sadly, it’s such a tight fit, you can’t have any sort of case on the iPad.
When this new interior arrived in 2022, we were pleased to see Chevy had kept the dual glove boxes. However, now that we have lived with it, we’re not sure what the point is. On the upside, both the upper box and its release button are well blended into the dash. But it’s quite small, and we haven’t found anything that fits inside the tiny cubby. Our previous F-150 Raptor offered the same dual-level glove box, but its upper compartment was much larger and far more useful in daily living. A similar story evolves for the rear underseat storage.
Like the aforementioned Raptor, the rear seat of the Silverado features an underseat storage cubby. Unlike the Raptor, the Chevy version of the underseat storage only extends about half the length and not quite the full height. It also plays host to the truck’s jack and tire-changing tools. This leaves very little space to store stuff. Ford’s version extended the full width and height of the underseat area, and the seats were lockable. After living with the Ford for a year, Chevy’s solution feels lacking.
The door pockets have proven useful, with not one but two bottle holders. There’s a small compartment on the passenger side of the center console along with a pair of small trays on the top side of the console and an odd space behind the infotainment screen, none of which are sized quite right to hold a Chick-Fil-A sauce packet, which is the only use we’ve come up with so far. And then there are also the pair of hidden storage compartments inside the rear seat back. The jury is still out on those due to their angular shape.
Updates Coming Soon, Again?
It hasn’t been long since Chevy rolled out the updated interior for Silverado. However, if the upcoming 2024 Silverado EV and 2025 Tahoe are any indication, there may be more in store for the flagship half-ton. The Silverado EV pairs a 17.0-inch center touchscreen with an 11.0-inch driver information screen while the Tahoe will offer an even larger 17.7-inch center touchscreen with the same 11.0-inch information screen. Both sacrifice physical buttons for the larger digital real estate. Will we see these appear in the standard Silverado any time soon? Only time will tell.
For More on Our Long-Term 2024 Chevy Silverado ZR2:
Jason Gonderman was born and raised in sunny Southern California and grew up with subscriptions to 4-Wheel & Off-Road, Four Wheeler, and many other off-road magazines. The off-road bug bit hard after a summer building up a Baja Bug with friends to drive in the sand dunes of Glamis (Imperial Sand Dunes Recreation Area). After that it was over and he bought his first 4wd vehicle, a 1999 Ford Ranger that eventually transformed into a capable desert pre-runner and back-country adventurer. Jason has logged thousands of miles off-road in many different terrains and vehicles. He has raced the Baja 1000, participated in the Ultimate Adventure, and covered Top Truck Challenge, Diesel Power Challenge, Real Truck Club Challenge, and many other big name events. When not behind the computer Jason can be found fabricating truck parts, shooting short-course off-road races, riding dirt bikes with his wife, or participating in any sort of other 'extreme' activity.
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