Chevrolet SSR Review

welcome back to the channel today we're going to review this 2004 Chevrolet SS are super sport roadster so stick around after the intro will check it out the Chevrolet SSR was produced by Chevrolet for the model years 2003 to 2006 in their Lansing Michigan Lansing Craft Center assembly plant it was produced in association with ASC which was American sunroof corporation until it was renamed to American specialty cars in 2004 ASCO is responsible for designing and the installation of the retractable hardtop which is one of the main distinguishing features of this particular vehicle the prototype SSR was based on the Chevy s10 platform and it included a 6 liter v8 engine so the prototype debut set some expectations as far as the power-to-weight ratio being a smaller and lighter pickup with a 6 liter v8 engine when the production vehicle debuted it was a bit of a surprise that the size and weight had grown but the engine had not actually had shrunk down to a 5.3 liter v8 the production vehicle was based on the GMT 370 platform which was also used by the Chevy Trailblazer ext in fact the extended version frame was the basis for the frame here in the SSR that frame was taken and 13 inch section was cut out and reweld it so that would be the appropriate size for the body to be dropped on top of it for the SSR the production of the SSR was broke up into three different segments of production the first sellable batch of them were known as the Signature Series they're all ultra violet in color they each had a particular theme or story associated with them such as Doobie Brothers Band Gibson guitar company Hard Rock Hotel and Casino so each had a particular story theme and carried documentation and memorabilia that went with the vehicle plus they had a center waterfall badge that identified them as sudden such number of 25 and Signature Series on that badge I have a authorized reproduction of that particular waterfall badge it just says SSR on mine but the Signature Series will state that it's part of this thing Cirie's the actual production and how the vehicle started fairly late in the calendar year for 2003 but it was released as a 2003 model year in calendar year 2003 and beginning in 2004 calendar year it switch over to 2004 model year production continued until the early part of the 2006 model year and production was suspended at that point to evaluate the future plans for the vehicle and he evaluate the sales of the vehicle and the general automotive market it was decided that the SSR would no longer be produced after the remaining supplies were consumed so a final production run was set up and ran at that lansing michigan plant along with ASC and approximately 900 vehicles are included in that final production run they too are identified by a waterfall badge that says final production run but it's been available as a replacement part from Chevrolet dealerships so some vehicles may carry such a badge and may not actually be a final production run so I urge you to take a look at the VIN sequence at our place here on the video screen to identify the VIN numbers that are part of that final production run to confirm that your vehicles truly final production run or one you're looking at to purchase is actually one of those the production SSR had the following engine and transmission configurations for the 2003 and for model years they had a 5.3 liter v8 lm4 engine rated at 300 horsepower the automatic transmission was the only option at that point and it was a 4l60e beginning with the 2005 model year GM switched the engine to a 6 liter LS 2 engine and the automatic transmission was changed to the 4l 65 e in the automatic configuration and they also started offering a six-speed manual configuration at that point in time the engine horsepower ratings were a little bit different between the automatic and manual so for 2005 the automatic was rated at 390 horsepower and the manual transmission was rated at 395 for the 2006 model year some additional tweaks were done to the intake and a couple of small changes that boosted the horsepower rating from both of those respectively so a automatic transmission was at 395 horsepower and with the manual transmission you now have a 400 horsepower rating for a factory truck with a manual transmission rear-wheel drive so at that point in time in 2006 you could obtain a hotrod pickup with a 400 horsepower engine and a 16 manual pretty sweet deal at that point here are some interesting stats and factoids about the Chevy SSR the curb weight of the vehicle is 4865 pounds that's before any of course any passengers or cargo added to it so it's a fairly heavy vehicle a lot of its metal I mean retractable hardtop is all metal the hood is metal the fenders are metal you have the typical front and rear bumper fascia is that are plastic but a lot of metal in the vehicle plus it's based on the GMT 370 platform which is a heavy SUV platform to begin with so it just goes to say that it's a heavy vehicle to begin with without adding anything to it the gross vehicle weight rating for this is also at six thousand fifty pounds the factory rating for towing yes it is rated for towing of only 2500 pounds GM did provide a hitch receiver on the vehicle underneath the rear bumper fascia but it's a unique design such that you must buy the appropriate hitch insert for the vehicle it was produced by horas and/or insert is unique style that you have to basically use a key and twist the insert into the receiver from the bottom so it's not a typical class one two or three hitch receiver that you would have on most vehicles some people have replaced the hitch receiver with an aftermarket if that's truly what they need and some have even adapted the hitch insert with an adapter to convert it over to class one to two put like a bike rack so that's possible as well the vehicles not wire for towing there is the wiring harness that's available underneath the rear body to allow you to wire it for towing a trailer but it's not anything but taped up against the frame rail in the back so you have to complete that before you can properly tow with the vehicle the rating being a 2500 you can thinkwell why's it only 2,500 since other vehicles with the same you know engine and power trains have been able to tell more it's mainly because the airflow design through the engine compartment is restricted it's a wonderful design as far as their airflow across the vehicle so as low the lowest coefficient of drag for a pickup at that point in time but it's very restricted on the airflow through the engine compartment to do the proper cooling of the engine while it's under the additional load from towing so you can address some of that by changing the radiator if you so choose if you're going to do a lot of towing there are Tunes where you can change the radiator temps when it comes on at low and high speed you can add a transmission cooler for automatic transmission based SSRS so there are ways to get around the 2500 but to do it safely if you don't make any changes you and you tow more than 2500 in a hot environment you could be asking for trouble so it's well worth doing your research on that some of the parts sourced for this vehicle you would think it's just all Chevy Trailblazer well not really there are a lot of parts from various manufacturers in this vehicle such as I mentioned before the cooling fan that's actually a VW source cooling fan and that's one of the problems with the vehicle unfortunately over time the fan does fail it's not a matter of if it's a matter of when some of the interior pieces that you'll see on in the cab here the HVAC controls are actually sourced from Alfa Romeo the drawers for change and the cup holder are actually sourced from Audi so over the production run of the SSR some changes are made to correct some problems and add some new features to try to spruce up sales so here's the list of some of the major ones of course 2005 included the engine change from the 5.3 liter helm forward to the 6 litre LS to the transmission it was changed for the automatic from the 4l60e to the 465 e and then of course with the 2005 model year you get the six-speed manual transmission option to accommodate the fact that the clutch pedal will now be present in the vehicle potentially the passenger compartment floor pan was changed on the driver's side to a different width to accommodate the presence of the clutch pedals so if you're buying floor mats for the vehicle he 9 2003 and 4 are different than 2000 5 & 6 the hood prop rod was removed with the 2005 model year and the hood struts were added to help lift and hold the hood that eliminated the problem from the earlier model year with the hood blank it would get torn or the hood prop rod would be compromised before the door panels those were changed in beginning in 2005 and a slight recess was added to the door panel to allow your hand to successfully get to the side of the seat to allow you to operate the movement of the seat and also the heated seats the switch to control that's on the side so to be able to get to that they made it a little bit easier by adding that recess to the panel and those door panels can be retrofitted on to the earlier SSR it's just a change to the panel on the interior cabin side of it so the exterior part that Monts the door now it's just fine in fact I've done that change on this particular SSR so I've got 2006 door panels on my 2004 SSR there were some body color changes 2004 had ultraviolet 2005 aqua blur replaced the ultraviolet for that year 2005 and 6 had aqua blue available 2006 introduced two-tone color schemes from the factory so you could get existing colors in two tones like black over silver silver or black aqua blur silver you know various combinations like that not all colors were available in the 2-tone combinations but a good number of them were one of the good changes that he tried to address in 2006 was to increase sales so they of course I ever mentioned the two-tone offering from them for paint schemes but the base price of the vehicle was changed in the pricing structure option packages were changed for 2006 so the base price was reduced by a grand or so and then the option packages are available in the previous model years which were 1sa which was the base SSR a very low number of those were produced and the most common configuration was the one SB configuration for all the SS ARS from 2003 to 2005 with beginning of 2006 and the base price being reduced the option packages were changed to 1 SS which equals the 1 si from before 2 SS which roughly equals the 1 SB from before and then there was a three SS configuration package that you could get with the 2006 SSR and you could get slightly different options and including the exterior interior chrome which I've retrofitted onto this 2004 SSR so you can if you can find the pieces you can retrofit that on your vehicle as well some people have actually taken the satin chrome pieces on the interior and exterior and polished them takes a bit of time but they do return to a chrome-like finish so that's another way to do every vehicle has some quirks and yes SR is no exception to that and here's a list of some of the more common ones that I've experienced personally or heard of over the life of the SSR one of them that I had was at first a second gear shift flag I had a 2003 SSR that the first a second gear shift was extremely too late especially well going uphill took it into service they couldn't find any problems data loggers used no problems found so it was normal no it wasn't normal this root cause ended up being that the transmissions supplied for the SSR had a first a second gear servo though it had a plastic component in it the plastic piece is flexible and made it like in that delay was caused by that plastic piece the same transmission supplied in the Corvette of that time period had a aluminum metal piece of that same plastic piece so swapping the plastic for the metal version of that part solves that problem it's about 35 to 40 dollars for the part in about half an hour to install it so it's probably well worth to do that kind of change you'll notice the up shift is greatly firmed up and also the down shift from second reversible you'll notice the difference other issues I've noticed with the issue the SSR is water intrusion a couple of different areas I've had it with retractable hardtop ii first the second panel of the seal there from side to side actually has double sided tape acting as the water barrier i found and they wasn't present the full width of the seal so i ended up cleaning the seal and then putting some silicon sealant from side to side and that resolved the issue there in the cargo area of the top of the tailgate and cargo cover when that comes together there's about three different directions coming together and water supposed to come down from the sides and drain down the side of the tailgate but there's enough and and start draining into the cargo area I had one too that 2005 SSR that was so bad that after a rainstorm I came home and he was just almost like flooded with water in the back he was supposed to drain out but it was still pooled in there so it was definitely a problem so I added a ridge of silicone to the top of those seals and that actually has resolved the problem I posted that on SSR fnatic comm a long time ago and other owners have reported that has halted for them as well so that's probably worth checking out the drive shaft in the vehicle is one that's known to create a tinking noise the one supplied by GM it's a lone drive shaft and that particular drive shot if you changed the direction of force on it it would cause it to make a tinking noise the going from park to reverse or park to drive or even while driving letting off the accelerator pedal and pressing it again might put enough force in change of direction on it to cause it to make the noise the solution early on was there's a company that was making an MMC version metal composite drive shaft and that replacement one greatly eliminated if not totally eliminated the noise but they stopped making that particular drive shaft and only made an aluminum one so when I got this SSR I have the aluminum version of that it didn't eliminate it it may be reduced at forty fifty percent and then I found that if you properly lube the spline on the front of the drive shaft where it goes into the transmission that also greatly reduces it so that combination will help you reduce that noise if that's annoying to you the cargo lid when it opens we used the fob or the push button in the glove box it's supposed to open till it's fully open position they did when the vehicle was new but as time went on and not that much of time going on the cargo rule it started opening only a little bit and then GM stored or service departments are saying that was normal that wasn't normal the struts that were supplied by GM were getting weak or leaking or just not strong enough to begin with and in fact GM redesigned the whole mechanism at one point to try to give a little bit longer struck with a little bit different charge in it to try to alleviate that problem it didn't fix the problem so the solution ends up being that some aftermarket strut cartridges that you can get from simple - Janene calm or LST you can get those with a proper charge for your particular needs actually I got a slightly reduced charge on the ones I have so my wife has the ability to close it because they're quite strong afterwards but that's been the solution to that particular issue and I've been very happy with that also with the hood there's a retrofit kit available from those same places that includes struts that allow you to open the hood and support the hood while open because the 2003 and 4 model years came with a hood prop and the hood prop would potentially be compromised by not inserting it correctly at the proper point on the hood and tared the blanket on the other side of the hood so I would strongly recommend anyone that's doing anything underneath the hood because that hood is very heavy to make sure you retrofit it with the hood struts that are available from simple - engineering calm or LST one of the other unfortunately more common issues with the vehicle it's not specific to the SSR but it's the ignition switch not the key lock mechanism itself like you might have heard of and some other GM vehicles it's actually the ignition switch internal to the steering column that's which over time and usage the contacts get corroded and the proper amount of voltage is not sent through the switch and then the computer modules that rely on that being a proper you know 12 volts or at least 9 for certain systems it doesn't work right so you might get some weird behavior on the vehicle so one of the first Diagnostics when something really strange electronic wise in the vehicles going on change the ignition switch so it's a fairly straightforward repair swap out a lot of people will carry those ignition switches on with them on longer trips or I just carry one in general just in case that way I can swap it out if it happens I've had to swap it out once on this particular vehicle things were acting a little weird so I just walked it out as a precautionary statement some people switch out the battery and the ignition switch at the same time just as a precautionary measure the switch design was supposed to have been changed to an improved one with a gray and black plastic cover on it I found that one fails probably just as much as the previous one so it's just worth having a good spare with you and you might want to test it if you can but carry with you especially if you're going you're out in the middle of nowhere and you can't find an AC Delco switch to swap it out with the ABS module for this vehicle is another sore spot now that the vehicles are starting to get older the module is located underneath the passenger compartment on the driver's side on the frame rail and it's adjacent to the catalytic converter for the vehicle on the driver's side and that causes problems with apparently the solder joints and cold solder joints are beginning to fail there's four main ones that seem to be the main problem for that so luckily we have this is our owner community it's been really good about taking those and resolder am and there's been a very high success rate of that fixing the problem so if you can take out the computer module and send them off to the various people on SSR phonetic site they'll try to solder for you and you have a high chance of that solving the problem there are some companies as well that will take that same board and fix it for you and test it so you have those options but that's beginning to show up more and more in the last two three years the problem being next to the catalytic converter is I I'm surprised that it's so close to the catalytic converter so one of the aftermarket parts available in simple engineering - count simple - engineering comm is a heat shield for that same area it helps mitigate some of the heat transfer from the catalytic converter into the ABS module so you might want to check that out that's around fifty dollars for that heat shield it's about five minutes to install I think it's two or three bolts to install it the other issue that occurs because that same heat source from the catalytic converter is the automatic gear shift linkage cable endpoint that connects to the transmission and even some on the top at the gear shift but mainly down the transmission end where the neoprene piece that connects the cable to the transmission will get heated by the catalytic converter and or just general driveline heat and it'll begin to harden and then it'll crumble and fail and also and that cable pops off in the middle of nowhere USA and you've got no way to shift gears without going underneath and moving the the cable endpoint by yourself not the greatest solution so there's a kit available I believe also from central - engineering comm it was originally created by and his dick Belleville and also know his dictator on this is our phonetic comm he's got a replacement kit where it has a bolts that goes in place with the neoprene piece and that solves the problem and there have been a few occurrences of the top and neoprene piece failing as well so you might want to check that out on Dick's onedrive site which has a bunch of PDF files about various topics on the SSR and that's one of them that he covers but he is the originator of that fix and thank you dick for doing that and a couple more body related quirks on the vehicle the front hood has a decorative Chevrolet trim piece and it's made of plastic and it's surprising to me a large number of Chevrolet service departments that don't understand not to grip that it's plastic it's decorative only it's not meant to be used to grab to open the hood or to close it yet they do so there's been a large number of those trim pieces broken over time it is we're well worth figuring out the proper way to do this and to tell the people they're going to work on it to open it the correct way it's always best to open from the edges and potentially there's a sticker I have that's from simple engineering - comm that says to close by the hook or you can grab by the edge of the hood at the beyond the trim piece itself and you have to pull down the hood itself and latch it if you use that you'll not run into a problem and usually when I take it in for service I'll put some blue painters tape and says do not touch that's worked so far for me but your mileage may vary on that when it comes to the cargo lid the proper way to close the cargo lid is usually been some a learning experience for a new owner it's not exactly obvious especially if someone's removed the tag that was there originally from Chevrolet that you should open the tailgate prior to closing the cargo lid cover because if you attempt to have the cart the tailgate closed while bringing down the cargo hood cover the air in the cargo area has nowhere to escape so as you try to close it it's trying to all escape at that same point and you get a lot of rebound from that event taking place the air has nowhere to escape and some people get quite energetic and pushing down on it so I would suggest that you follow the proper closing procedure there's even a replacement tag if you don't have it that on yours from simple adesh engineering com2 remind people to open the tailgate first close the cargo lid close the tailgate and I also add a reminder that the tailgate isn't closed necessarily with one push I found a couple of my asses ours I can close with a single push on both sides will latch but I've had others that don't so if you push it close with one hand you might get typically I find the passenger side latches pretty easily it's the driver's side that usually takes a little extra push so make sure you hear two clicks as you close that cargo area tailgate and so how would I rate this vehicle and I'm gonna scale one to ten you'll see the overall score at the end but as far as styling I'd say it's a five in or six out of ten it's a unique style it was trying to be challenging and you know unique and draw people's attention so it definitely did that I think very effectively the acceleration for the vehicle the 5.3 liter first couple model years was okay the later model years ago 506 with the six liter engine especially at the manual transmission I'd probably rated a six or seven depending on your affinity to manual transmissions the handling is not only okay it's an SUV platform so you can beef it up by putting upgraded sway bars you can make it okay so somewhere in the four to five range as far as handling cool factor I think it's got a lot of cool factor it's very unique in the market so you can't find another retractable hardtop pickup anywhere so there's only twenty four thousand one hundred twelve production examples of that in the SSR the importance to the market at a point it was acting as a halo vehicle at least that's what Jim Chevrolet dealerships were stating to try to bring people into the dealership they were also using the Corvette to do that they were drawing on different people so I don't know if it was truly effective in doing that but as far as importance in the market I'd say it's a four or five it wasn't the big thing to draw people the mass-market in it was the people that wanted a factory hot rod to be able to bring them in and interest them in the Chevrolet and that one over several people including myself so it was effective in that respect the features it's a general vehicle as far as features it has cruise control and daytime running lights and a typical instrument panel of the time analog gauges with a Driver Information Center this one has a one-line Driver Information Center which we'll see in another segment of the video so it's average features there power plugs in the cab on both sides of the ashtray there's a power plug in the rear cargo area so ok features for the type of vehicle that it is the comfort level it's a little challenging uncomfort for longer trips the passenger compartment sides a little tight I sat in the passenger compartment a few times I wasn't all that comfortable of course I'm not that small so that's one factor but my wife even will complain after a longer trip that it's a little tight the driver side is sufficient for me I you know every few hours taking a break it's certainly necessary it's it's comfortable and up the seats are comfortable but I've sat in more comfortable vehicles but for an SUV style pickup it's fine the quality the build quality was overall ok it was probably in the 5 range there were some things as far as fitment that I found weren't always perfect but it was typical GM assembly build quality the retractable hardtop sometimes wasn't always assembled with the proper adjustments usually every SSR that I've ended up purchasing I needed to adjust the retractable hardtop to make it so it wasn't noisy because there is usually some adjustments either over time or just wasn't adjusted correctly from the initial assembly line that were just a bit off and would cause it to make clicking or clanking noises or as you go around they're wonderfully rough roads where I live here so it was ok assembly quality but not great the practicality it depends on what kind of vehicle that you need for your everyday life it's one of two vehicles I drive on a daily basis it's wonderfully practical for our family at this point we have our children out of the house so it's fine for us it's great for and cruising in the back hills with the nor calluses our club or any other club it's a wonderful vehicle to take on a cruise to cover up the hills it's just not going to be a sports car when you take it on those hills so it's okay as far as practicality I probably give that about a five the value retention for this vehicle in the used car market been quite high I bought this vehicle in 2009 for twenty four thousand dollars out of Carmack's in Roseville California and I added some accessories to it like the chrome trim on the interior and exterior and driveshaft change and you know change out the radios there's some accessories I know I don't get the money back for but I bought it when it had eight thousand miles on it and today in 2018 it has 42,000 miles and I believe I could sell this vehicle for approximately $22,000 you know I could remove the chrome trim I'm hoping I could sell that and get a little more value out of it but I think the base vehicle itself is somewhere around 22 so to me that's wonderful value retention for a used vehicle most vehicles drop off a cliff after a few years and this vehicle was doing that like most used cars in the market but like I said the cool factor started kicking in and the scarcity of them started kicking in so the value started coming up over time so so what's my overall score for the vehicle I think I would give this vehicle a 7 out of 10 overall the reason being that value retention I mentioned is so high the cool factor is so high I think and where else can you get a retractable hardtop pickup can't so I enjoyed driving the vehicle on a daily basis I share the seat time in this vehicle with my other vehicle by Chevy SS sedan so I love taking this out on the weekends dropping the top it's a single button to drop the top we had a 2004 Ford Thunderbird for my wife and whenever he wanted to drop the top and nothing if you had the hard top on you had to use a hoist to take it off and then you had the soft top that could go up and down so I love the fact that this is a retractable hardtop with one button to put it up and down so it's wonderful option so that's why I think it's a 7 out of 10 I've put together a Chevy SS our specific page on retro car guy 530 comm website which you can see the link to that page at the top of this screen and the links on that page go out to my youtube channel SS our playlist so you can see that link there the SS our wiki page that you can use to learn more information about the Chevy SSR the owners forum at SSR fanatic comm aftermarket parts and accessories at simple - engineering comm which I've mentioned in this video before and the SSR how-to library created by dick Melville that I mentioned earlier the link is a little bit complicated there so I don't know if you can type that in by him and you might want to go to my page and then click on the link from there so hopefully that's helpful to you to get to other resources available for the SSR I hope you enjoyed watching this video if you did please give it a big thumbs up if you're visiting the channel for the first time please subscribe and click the Bell icon to get notified when I upload new videos please follow at retro car guy 530 on Facebook Instagram and Twitter take care and have a great day

Channel: RetroCarGuy530

Views: 13,661

Rating: 4.7360406 out of 5

Keywords: ssr review, ssr review 2018, chevy ssr review, chevrolet ssr truck, chevrolet ssr, ssr chevy truck, chevy ss-r, chevy ssr truck, ssr, 2004 chevrolet ssr, chevrolet ss-r, ssr convertible, chevy ssr, RetroCarGuy530, chevy, chevrolet, convertible truck, retro pickup, trucks, car review, 5.3l v8, lm4, ls2, 4l60e, 4l65e, tremec tr6060, 6-speed manual, hot rod pickup, retractable hardtop, trailblazer, 6.0l v8, asc, american sunroof company, american specialty cars, ssr chevrolet

Id: ey38HswBalQ

Length: 29min 54sec (1794 seconds)

Published: Fri May 11 2018