2024 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 ZR2 Review: Diesel Power!

It’s a good time to be a truck fan. If you’re a buyer shopping for an off-road pickup, the options available are staggering. We continue to be impressed with the terrain that new 4x4s can tackle straight off the showroom floor while still managing to be comfortable daily drivers. Brand, size, powertrain—take your pick, there are options aplenty.

But ever since we got behind the wheel of Chevrolet Silverado’s top off-road trim, the ZR2, we knew it was special. Its combination of locking differentials, dynamic spool valve Multimatic dampers, and a mild lift (that allows it to fit 33-inch tires) place it in a sweet spot. It’s not too wide, and its suspension eats up just about anything you can throw at it on the trail without compromising its highway manners. We raved about it when we first drove the truck in 2022, but even then we wondered how it would fare with the brand’s 3.0-liter Duramax diesel rather than the fan-favorite 6.2-liter gasoline V-8. (We wish we could take the credit for Chevy equipping the 2024 ZR2 with the inline-six diesel, but we don’t have that much sway.) Nonetheless, we jumped at the opportunity to try out this new-for-2024 powertrain.

The Duramax-powered Silverado 1500 ZR2 looks exactly like its 6.2-liter V-8-powered counterpart, but the engines’ sound and feel are markedly different. The inline-six has a distinct diesel growl at idle. The personality of the 3.0-liter Duramax—its smoothness, rumble, and subtle turbo sound—never lets you forget you’re driving a diesel. Performance is potent: tip into the throttle and the engine responds with immediate, effortless torque. Even climbing grades on the highway, engine speeds rarely climb above 2000 rpm, instead letting boost do the work. Really get on the throttle, and the turbo spools up as the engine easily revs toward its peak power of 305 hp at 3750 rpm. It wasn’t long ago that the ubiquitous 5.3-liter V-8 was producing 305 hp. Of course, the 3.0-liter Duramax produces its power in a more relaxed manner. Peak torque arrives at just 1500 rpm.

Specs: 2024 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 ZR2

• Price: $71,795/$75,800(Base/as tested)
• Powertrain: 3.0-liter inline-six turbodiesel, 10-speed automatic transmission
• Output: 305 hp, 496 lb-ft of torque
• Layout: Four-wheel-drive, four-door, five-passenger full-size pickup truck
• EPA Fuel Economy: 20 mpg city, 22 mpg highway, 21 mpg combined
• Competitors: Ford F-150, GMC Sierra, Nissan Titan, Ram 1500, Toyota Tundra

Before we ventured off-road, we used the ZR2 just like any other pickup in Los Angeles: running errands, heading to the next town over to get lunch, and tossing hardware store purchases in the bed. We’d logged about 90 miles of mixed driving before the digital fuel gauge seemed to register anything other than a full tank. We expected to see this big, blocky truck and its 33-inch tires to take a bigger toll on the fuel economy; compared to the 6.2-liter ZR2’s EPA rating of 14 mpg city, 17 mpg highway, and 15 mpg combined, the Duramax ZR2 has a rating of 20 mpg city, 22 mpg highway, and 21 mpg combined. In practice, that seems laughably underrated. The city rating seems about right, but we easily exceeded the highway rating if the truck’s dash readout is to be trusted. After we noted the strangely sluggish fuel gauge, we decided to top off and hit the highway again to get a more accurate test. We got on Highway 101 and headed west out of California’s San Fernando Valley. With the air conditioning on, and without any hypermiling tricks such as drafting behind semis, we saw a reported 30 mpg over an 18-mile stretch. The 60-mile loop we had planned saw us briefly encounter traffic in each direction, dropping to a reported 28 mpg average. That seems like a reasonable number that could be hit on longer drives.

Even with our slow-going, dirt-road driving through the hills of Santa Clarita and the initial giddy, lead-footed romps to uh. . . evaluate the Duramax’s throttle response, our total average fuel economy easily bested the EPA’s 21 mpg combined rating by 15 percent. Double-checking the dash’s calculated mileage with the odometer and our receipt from the pump, we found the onboard computer to be highly accurate. It underreported fuel economy by just a tenth of an MPG.

Off-road, the Duramax ZR2 was just as willing to take on rutted trails and sandy whoops as its gasoline counterpart, however, it came with a tradeoff. Despite its aluminum block and cylinder head, the diesel’s turbocharger and associated charge cooler add a bit of weight to the front of the Silverado. It’s not much, but it’s noticeable. The diesel removes only 100 pounds off the gasoline ZR2’s tow rating, so we’d assume that correlates to the added mass. For slow going up tough sections of trail, the 3.0-liter’s abundant torque and the transfer case’s low range make for a formidable team.

Chevrolet has positioned the Duramax as the base engine in the ZR2, with the excellent 6.2-liter V-8 a $1695 option. The V-8 is rowdy, with excellent throttle response and a willingness to hoon. It’s the devil on your shoulder goading you to send it over the whoops and kick up a rooster tail on the dune. The Duramax is on the other shoulder, suggesting you load up some gear and venture to that quiet camping spot way out in the desert, letting the truck’s range and sure-footed crawling ability ensure you get there and back. It’s a testament to the Silverado ZR2’s versatility that it can have such disparate, perceptible personalities. Of course, if you decide to send the Duramax ZR2 a bit too aggressively off an incline, or in our case, misjudge a bump on a trail, the suspension will shrug off what would have otherwise been a jarring jolt. The Multimatic dampers’ ability to soak up impacts remains impressive, even seven years past the date they first appeared on the Colorado ZR2. Compared to the ¾-ton GMC AT4X AEV that we recently tested, the ½-ton Chevy counterpart is more maneuverable and offers a smoother ride, as to be expected.

Whether or not the 3.0-liter Durmax makes sense for you will depend on what you ask of the truck. You’ll have to do the math for yourself and also factor in the cost of filling the Duramax’s Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) tank every few thousand miles. For our test, which we did in Southern California, diesel was closest in price to 87-octane gasoline. It often comes in even cheaper, albeit by a slim margin. Considering the mini-Duramax returns an EPA-estimated 40 percent increase in fuel economy compared to the ZR2’s 6.2-liter V-8, which requires 91 octane, the savings could add up over the course of the vehicle’s lifetime.

There’s not much we’d change about the ZR2. However, we wouldn’t mind if the ZR2’s awesome suspension and lockers were an option package rather than a trim. And as comfortable and decked-out as the ZR2’s interior is, we’d like the choice to configure a Custom trim with all of the ZR2’s capabilities of the ZR2 without a mandatory leather-wrapped interior. To its credit, Chevy does let buyers build a Custom Trial Boss with a factory-installed lift kit. Further, we know that crew cab, short-bed trucks are the most popular, and we do have a propensity for craving the forbidden fruit, but a Double Cab ZR2 with a slightly longer bed that has the same overall length might fill an interesting niche for those looking to build an overlander’s basecamp that favors extra bed capacity.

Sigh … such a rig would probably only sell in the triple-digits, so we understand. Sort of.

2024 Chevrolet Silverado ZR2 1500

Highs: Do-it-all suspension. Smooth, quiet powertrain with impressive fuel economy and range.

Lows: Opting for the diesel means no raucous and rowdy V-8. ZR2 suspension comes with a towing capacity penalty: an 8700-pound rating for the diesel compared with 8800 pounds for the 6.2-liter gasser.

Takeaway: The 3.0-liter Duramax ZR2 feels like a special truck—unique in its class for its mix of raw performance and real-world practicality.

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