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8 speed, Automatic
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All Wheel Drive, Front Wheel Drive
Photo: Ron Sessions
For 2024, Chevrolet offers the Traverse in basic LS, well-equipped LT, off-road-oriented Z71, and sporty, check-every-box RS trim levels. The LS, LT, and RS come with a choice of FWD or, for $2,000 extra, AWD. The first-ever Traverse Z71 features standard AWD.
The 2024 Traverse is currently on sale. Base prices, including the $1,395 destination charge, are as follows:
During a media test-drive review south of Atlanta, Georgia, I drove several examples of the new Traverse, including the Z71 pictured in this review, both on- and off-road. Chevrolet assembles the 2024 Traverse in Lansing, Michigan.
Chevrolet equipped the Traverse Z71 test vehicle with an optional Enhanced Driving package (Super Cruise, a rearview camera mirror, enhanced active parking assistance, a driver monitoring system, and a 10-speaker Bose premium audio system) and an optional panoramic sunroof. The final price, including the $1,395 destination charge, was $53,050.
Photo: Ron Sessions
Continuing the current trend in midsize SUV design, the redesigned 2024 Chevrolet Traverse gets truck-like styling cues with a taller hood, larger, more upright grille, and, in RS and Z71 trims, a blacked-out grille center and black lower fascia. The buff look gets amplified on the Z71 with red tow hooks and an aluminum front skid plate. At the rear, stylish LED taillamps wrap around and fan out along the sides of the rear fenders. Quad exhaust outlets add a sporty touch.
In profile, the new Z71 gains an overlander-capable look with 1.2 inches of added ground clearance and knobby, all-terrain tires.
The front bucket seats are generous in size and just firm enough to offer a modicum of support to their comfort. Chevrolet equipped the Z71 test vehicle with grippy cloth seat fabric, which buyers can upgrade to optional faux-leather EvoTex seat coverings. The Z71's front seats and steering wheel are heated. Interior materials are a pleasant surprise, with very few hard plastic pieces.
For 2024, the dashboard design features a pair of large and bright color displays, including a configurable 11-inch driver screen and an expansive, 17.7-inch infotainment touchscreen, the latter of which Chevrolet says is the largest among current three-row midsize SUVs. The large touchscreen also incorporates the vehicle's headlamp controls and an expanded array of tri-zone automatic climate control and seat comfort options.
Also new is a steering column-mounted transmission shifter. This frees up space in the front console, with dual cupholders, a wireless phone charger (except for the base LS), an open bin under the dash, a covered bin for small items such as a remote key fob, plus storage under the center armrest and an open area at floor level for a purse, tablet, or small camera bag.
A total of six USB ports help keep the driver and passenger's mobile devices connected and charged.
Except for the base LS, which comes with a second-row bench seat, all 2024 Traverse SUVs feature individually adjustable captain's chairs in the second row. A robust, single-handle feature in the Z71 provides a tilt-and-slide operation that eases access to the 60/40 split-folding third-row bench. While its bottom cushion is low, the third-row bench has enough headroom and legroom to handle a pair of adults with a smaller person in between.
Standard is a power-operated liftgate that gives easy access to the cargo area, which can open up to nearly 98 cubic feet of space with the second and third-row seats folded flat. Under the cargo floor is a hidden storage bin big enough to handle an airport roller bag, valuables such as a purse, computer bag, or camera, or it can hold several grocery bags in place to keep their contents from rolling around.
Photo: Ron Sessions
The infotainment system in the 2024 Traverse is easy to use. I like the landscape orientation, which keeps my eyes closer to the road view than portrait-oriented screens in some competitors, with me looking down closer to the console. The 17.7-inch size lets you see and tap larger icons in a moving SUV more easily than small ones.
The system retains a rotary volume adjusting knob, which is great for quick adjustments on the fly, and a dedicated Home icon at the upper left corner of the big screen for getting back to square one quickly when a few menu screens deep.
I quickly and easily paired my Samsung phone for hands-free calls. The new Traverse features Google Built-in, including a voice assistant, maps, and quick Google Store app access. Often, the native voice-assistant tech in other models comes up short, but in the Traverse, I could use natural language to easily find and navigate to a pair of local points of interest that I knew by name only.Â
The system also supports Apple CarPlay and Android Auto.
For 2024, the Traverse significantly expands the coverage of its safety and advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) technologies. Standard on all trims for 2024 are adaptive cruise control, a surround-view camera, rear parking sensors, traffic-sign recognition with speed limit assist, enhanced automatic emergency forward braking, reverse auto braking, rear pedestrian alert, and side bicyclist alert.
In addition, the 2024 Traverse gets upgraded from simple blind-spot warning to active blind-spot detection with counter-steering and basic rear cross-traffic warning to one with automatic emergency braking.
A haptic Safety Alert Seat is also standard in the new Traverse. It buzzes the driver's seat cushion if the vehicle detects an evolving threat or to signal that the status of a system has changed and requires the driver's attention.
The surround-view camera, rear parking sensors, and rear cross-traffic warning with emergency braking proved their worth when maneuvering the Traverse around crowded small-town parking lots during my drive.
Also onboard for the 2024 model year is General Motors’ (GM) Super Cruise hands-free driving system. Optional with the LT and Z71 and standard on the RS, it works on a route system expected to exceed 750,000 miles of roads in the United States and Canada by 2025, including many secondary, two-lane highways.
Although I'd need some time to get accustomed to using Super Cruise on two-lane highways with oncoming semi-trucks roaring past just a few feet away in the opposite direction, the system worked about as well as it does on limited-access multiple-lane interstates and freeways, albeit with fewer uninterrupted sections.
Photo: Ron Sessions
For 2024, the Traverse moves to an all-new turbocharged 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine from the previous year's 3.6-liter V6. With 328 horsepower and 326 pound-feet of torque, the new engine gains 18 hp and 60 pound-feet of torque over the old V6.
Low- and mid-range engine response is noticeably improved compared to the previous generation, as is fuel economy. GM estimates AWD versions of the 2024 Traverse at 21 mpg in combined driving compared to an EPA-estimated 20 mpg combined for 2023's V6 model. I observed 22 mpg in 52 miles of mixed small-town/highway driving.
The new 2.5-liter four-cylinder engine’s sound isn't quite as melodic as the V6, with a raspier, higher-pitched sound at full throttle. On the plus side, despite their aggressive, open tread pattern, the Z71's grippy 265/65R18 Goodyear Wrangler all-terrain tires were remarkably quiet at speed.
A 30-minute off-pavement excursion allowed a chance to experience this first-ever off-road-enabled Traverse in the dirt. On a 2-mile-long section across an open field at 50-60 mph, the wider-track Z71 felt stable. The Z71's ZF FE4 shocks with built-in hydraulic rebound stops controlled the SUV over dips and moguls, and the standard twin-clutch AWD system studiously apportioned engine power to each rear wheel based on available traction.
Later, in a hilly two-track trail through a 2-mile-long wooded section, I engaged Terrain mode via the drive mode selector button at the lower left side of the dashboard. Designed for slow-going through technical sections and functioning like an electronic low range, it allows for near one-pedal driving, slowing the vehicle significantly the moment the driver lifts off the accelerator to better focus on steering and maneuvering.
Photo: Ron Sessions
Sporting a new eye-catching design, roomy interior, higher-output engine with improved fuel economy, and substantially upgraded infotainment, safety, and ADAS tech, the third-generation Chevrolet Traverse checks many boxes in the midsize three-row SUV space.
An expanded trim lineup with a sporty, wide-tired RS and the first-ever off-road Z71 with all-terrain tires and added ground clearance give the new Traverse a broader net to compete with three-row competitors such as the Ford Explorer, Honda Pilot, Hyundai Palisade, Kia Telluride, and Volkswagen Atlas.
Ron Sessions is a seasoned vehicle evaluator with more than four decades of experience. In addition to his contributions to jdpower.com, he has penned hundreds of road tests and buyer's guide reviews for Road & Track, MotorTrend, Car and Driver, and AutoTrader.
