The Chevy SSR Was a Crazy $50,000 Retro Convertible Pickup Truck

this is a 2004 Chevrolet SSR it's a two-seat roadster it's a pickup truck it's a retro styled convertible it's really really weird obviously I'm gonna show you around the SSR because this wouldn't be a Doug de Muro video without a tour of this thing's quirks but folks I think you'll agree before we get to that we have to discuss how this thing came to exist in the first place only I have no idea how it came to exist the SSR came out in 2003 and it was sold through 2006 only for model years now in the early 2000s General Motors wasn't doing much experimenting they were mainly making bland sedans and bland minivans and bland SUVs that were way behind what the competition was already putting out and in fact there were only a few years away from bankruptcy which came a little bit later with the economic collapse they absolutely should not have devoted any resources to a retro styled muscle car convertible pickup truck and yet and yet they did the SSR debuted in 2003 with a 300 horsepower 5.3 liter v8 made it solely to a four-speed automatic transmission and that powertrain continued through this the 2004 model beginning in 2005 General Motors ditched the 5.3 and the SSR and they replaced it with a 390 horsepower six liter ls2 v8 a near 100 horsepower increase over the prior model year which must have pissed off everyone who got an SSR in the first two years beginning in 2005 it was also the first year you could get an SSR with a six-speed manual transmission but nobody really did in fact the Chevrolet only sold 22,000 of these over the four model years meaning that nobody really bought the SSR much at all probably because nobody was really in the market for a two-seat retro-styled convertible pickup truck especially one with a base price of 41 thousand dollars in 2004 which translates to about $55,000 in today's money nonetheless I've always wanted to check one of these out because it's just so unique so unusual so weird so unlike anything else that was being made by General Motors at the time or by anyone so today I'm gonna take you on a tour of this SSR and I'm gonna show you all of its weird quirks and its unusual features and then I'm gonna get it out on the road and find out how this thing drives and then I'm gonna give it a dug score and for more of my thoughts on the SSR experience click the link below to go to autotrader.com slash oversteer now I'm gonna start in the back I told you this was a pickup truck and yet you can see it has a trunk or a tonneau as General Motors calls it but it opens up and if you look back here you'll see that there's no keyhole so how do you open it well you push a button on the key fob and then it pops right open automatically delivering you to your cargo storage space but obviously it's difficult to lift things into the bank from here so you just get in here pulling a little handle and then you're in the back now when you're back here you'll notice a couple of interesting things one of which is the interior handle to open the tailgate it is the exact same handle they use on the doors so technically this vehicle has two doors but three door handles but the most unusual thing back here is the process of closing the tunnel or the large trunk now you think if you just want to toss something in here you could just open it up and then toss it in and close it but that's not how this works in fact in order to close this this has to be open so opening it is easy just push the little button on the key fob and it pops open but closing it first you're gonna do this and then this and then you can close it which makes things a little bit challenging it's a three step process to close it after only a one step process to open it that might sound confusing but you won't be confused if you just look at the little warning label under the tonneau it tells you exactly what you have to do this isn't some process that SSR owners prefer because it preserves the rubber or something this is something you actually have to do if you want to close the tonneau now it may seem stupid to have a pickup truck with a pickup truck bed and a trunk over it but this trunk can easily be removed the owner tells me it takes only a few minutes and it's a little bit cumbersome but it's not really all that difficult there's a couple of bolts at the front of it and after that you just sort of pull it forward and lift it right out and the owner has transported some things in this vehicle that would make it seem like an actual pickup truck including a treadmill that wouldn't fit in the back of a big SUV so technically the SSR really is a pickup truck a couple of other interesting things about the giant rear trunk now it is really a pickup bed back here it's a complete one-piece unit it's plastic you can throw whatever you want back here you can hose it out and another interesting thing like I showed you before the easiest way to open the rear is with the key fob just push the button and it pops open but that isn't the only way there's no easily visible button in the interior to open the trunk but there's a hidden one pop open the glove box and feel your hand around to the left and you will see that there is a little button there that allows you to open the tunnel in case you lose the key fob or you can't access it for whatever reason and you still want to get in back but ultimately in addition of being a pickup bed this is also a trunk and so by federal law it must have what are these little trunk releases and so if someone ever tries to kidnap you and take you away in the back of a Chevy SSR now you know how to get out so I've already convinced you that this is a pickup truck or at least it's a vehicle with a giant trunk but I also told you that it was a convertible and I'm going to prove that to you now now in order to put the convertible top up or down you press a little switch in this center console that has on it the silhouette of the SSR which is a nice little touch I think it looks kind of cool you press that and well you can watch the top go up I know some of you enjoy doing that here goes [Music] and now the top is in place and when it looks like this you can barely even tell that it's a convertible especially in this dark color you can't really see the seams in the top and the owner tells me a lot of people don't even believe him that it's a convertible pickup until he presses the button again and then [Music] and then the top is down now there are a couple of interesting things about the top beyond just washing and go up and down one of which is the trunk has to be completely closed in order for the top to go up and down because the little cover for the top otherwise might intersect the trunk so it has to be closed or it can be off which means that you can drive this car around tall and stuff in the back like a pickup truck and you could have your roof down like a convertible you can't do that in anything else unless you have a 1980s Dodge Dakota convertible the other interesting thing is that the slot here where the top is stowed can also be used as storage if you need extra storage beyond the giant trunk just put the top back up and then stop the operation while the cover is up and you can stick stuff back there but you get remember that you're stuck stuff back there because otherwise when you put down the top it'll hit the stuff and then all sorts of things will probably break next we move on to the rest of the SSRS quirks which are also fairly plentiful starting with the window switches now the window switches are not mounted on the door like in virtually every other car instead they're mounted in the middle which isn't that weird except for the fact that the traction control switch is mounted right next to the window switches and it's the same size so you might go to roll down your window and instead and turn off the traction control which is sort of an interesting place to put that in addition it's also next to the power lock switch so the windows the power lock switch to things you use fairly frequently and then the traction control something you probably never really want to turn off and speaking of interesting switches inside his car I told you this thing had a forty one thousand dollar MSRP so it's loaded that means it has leather and it has heated seats but the heated seat buttons won't where are they they're not in the middle next to the power windows and the traction control button instead they're on the side of the seats and when the doors are closed good luck trying to reach your hand down there and turn on the heated seats assuming that you can even figure out which button on the side of the seat turns on the heated seats and which one are the seat controls it's a very odd placement of the heated seat button and moving on I wouldn't do the SSR justice if I didn't talk about its automatic transmission gear selector which is quite bizarre it's mounted directly in front of the power window controls and it's this little silver knob sticks up from the middle I think it's intended to replicate an old retro car shift knob but it has a couple of interesting quirks one of which is the fact that the button for it is on the top so if you want to shift gears you push the button down on the top and then you shift any gear but that's not the strangest part the strangest part is the fact that the gears aren't labeled even though there's a rather large area around the base of the shifters where they could have put the gear labels and they didn't so the only way to see what gear you're in is to look in an engage cluster while you're actually shifting if you look down there you're just sort of guessing where you are next up you may have seen that little black thing next to the transmission lever well that is the cup holder the factory cup holder in this car they didn't install one in the center console and start at this little plastic piece that sort of sticks out and here's the other cool thing it's removable you can take it out if you don't want the cup holder to be stealing your valuable passenger legroom you can just pull it out and get rid of it or you can mount it on the driver side which makes absolutely no sense because if you actually had a drink in there would completely block your ability to touch the brake pedal let alone the accelerator pedal we would be right in your way it's hilarious that they have clips for it on both the passenger and driver's side but for some reason they do now interestingly there's also another cup holder in this car also unseen it's hidden in the dashboard you push this little button and then the cup holder but racks and you can use it for your drinks and next up we have to talk about the seats which are rather unusual now they're pretty comfortable leather seats and from your angle they probably look completely normal but they have one very odd quirk about them namely there are three ways you can move the backrest there's a lever on the backrest that pulls it all the way forward in case you want to get to the non-existent back seats then there's another lever that pulls the backrest forward a little bit in case you want to get to the non-existent back seats less and then there's the power control that moves the backrest forward also so in other words the backrest can be moved forward by three different things which have three different functions which is already weird but it's especially weird on a car with only two seats and no back seat so there's no real need to move the backrest forward at all but there is one reason you might need to get behind the seats in the SSR now there's nothing behind the passenger seat but behind the driver's seat there is a tire kit it comes out and it contains a tire inflator and sealant in case you have a flat tire because this car has no spared normally in a lot of the exotic cars I film up behind the seats there's storage but not in this car only that tire kit behind the driver's seat however there are a few interior storage items in this car there little tiny storage pockets on the door panels and also there is a little glovebox and in the center of the SSR there's this oddly shapen interior storage compartment where you can put some more stuff and still more interesting SSR into your quirks the top obviously is operated automatically but if you need to manually operate it and you can lift it into place like in most convertibles and then you have to tighten it down and that is a rather unusual process first you have to take off this little cap you take that off and then there's a little mechanism and in order to secure the top in place if you're closing it manually you have to use this tool and it isn't just a regular screwdriver or an allen wrench instead they have this bizarre proprietary head on this thing and that's the only way you can get it in place and if you lose your little tool good luck because Chevrolet is not making any more of them another interesting interior cork on the SSR is the climate control vents this car obviously has climate control vents like every car but the interesting thing is that in this car they're rather small in their vertical I was kind of expecting there to be weird stylized circles or something but no they're these tiny little small rectangles now I certainly wasn't expecting that but I really wasn't expecting this next quark this car has four cigarette lighter power sockets four of them even though it only has two seats now there's one of the actual cigarette lighter that comes out of a panel mounted below the climate controls and you expect that but there's another cigarette lighter power socket in the passenger side foot well underneath the airbag and there's another cigarette lighter power socket in the driver side foot well underneath the gauge cluster and then there's a final one a place that well you wouldn't really expect its back here in the bed you flip up this little thing and it reveals the last cigarette lighter power socket now that's kind of a cool idea let's be honest if you want to tailgate or play anything back here that requires power you can do that with this Chevy maybe they were thinking when they created the back of this car and since I'm back here another interesting quirk behind the SSR would be the back it's not located under the hood like the battery and virtually everything else and it's not in the trunk instead it's beneath the trunk the best way to describe where the battery is located is the passenger side exhaust pipe it's basically right back here underneath the license plate which is truly a terrible place for a battery in order to change the battery in this car you basically have to jack it up in the air fortunately there is a jump point underneath the hood like in a normal car so if the battery dies you can jump it under the hood and you don't have to jack it up just to jumpstart it next up we have to talk logos for being such an in-your-face bold design this car is surprisingly short on logos in fact the only exterior SSR badge is right here on the back there's none in the front there's none on the sides and on the doors this isn't like a Focus RS where there's an RS badge at literally every flat surface and most curved ones this is the only SSR badge on the outside of this car there are a couple of other interesting logo placements however for example the front reflector and the rear reflector have the Chevrolet logo in them just a little Chevy bowtie in front and in back and maybe the craziest one you will also find a Chevy bowtie on this little rubber part where the door links up to the rest of the car near your headrest I've never seen anything like that I don't know why they bothered to waste money putting a Chevy bowtie logo there but once you notice that it is kind of a cool little feature I also like the fact that when you get in the SSR and start it instead of playing a full-color movie like a modern car when you turn on it just uses the driver information center to say Chevrolet SS are in rather unassuming green print now I'm done with the quirks but before I move on we just have to discuss styling what is this thing how did this emerge from mid 2000s General Motors in the front you have this low mounted body coloured grill with Chevy's distinctive silver line across the entire car and back there's that long flat tonneau cover and circle brake lights mounted on those giant rear fenders and can we talk about the fenders they're huge sticking out like eight inches beyond the body itself this car looks like nothing else on the road especially when it's purple so those are all the unusual features and the cool corks of the SSR and now it's time to get this thing out on the road and find out what it's like to drive a pickup truck that's also a muscle car that's all so a two-seat roadster made by the same company who brought us the Lumina all right driving the SSR now you might see an SSR logo back here the owner of this car Greg he told me that that is actually an aftermarket piece that he put on it's like a little wind deflector so that doesn't count with the SSR logos that I mentioned before the stock exhaust on this thing sounds really nice and Mediate sounds like it's really roar like a muscle car driving this thing around is rather interesting first off I like the fact that the windshield frame is shielding me from the Sun right now the windshield frame comes surprisingly far back and Greg the owner he told me that it the result of that is that there's not actually a lot of wind rush I'm a highway when you have to if you have the windows up and the windshield frames far back you actually are kind of in a little bit of a cocoon here in your SSR all right driving this thing over these speed bumps it's a little rough the ride quality is sir I mean look if the thing is it's a pickup truck or it's a sports car call what you want neither those things we're focused on luxury and comfort it's a wonderful experience being able to drive what is basically a bizarre a work of art concept car whether you want to call it a beautiful work of art or an odd work of art it is certainly more of a piece of art than a regular automobile all right I'm gonna give it some gas here oh man listen to that the transmission is surprisingly smooth it's actually surprisingly smooth for a GM vehicle from the 2000s and the exhaust sounds really nice but this isn't exactly the fastest vehicle on earth it's not slow I would say but it's not exactly quick I mean you know it's a 2000 pickup truck using existing parts they weren't gonna make something crazy I'd be interesting driving in LS to see what change or what effect the larger motor had especially with the stick shift I'd be interesting to see if the stick shift really had any any effect over the 4-speed there's an aftermarket back up camera at the aftermarket stereo system which is very useful in this car because it's rather long back there and it's kind of hard to see precisely where it ends I wonder how weird people think I am when I see these on the road I I assume the driver is very weird and has some strange interests that's that's our buddy the problem with the windshield frame being so tight over you is it does block access to the you can't really see the stoplights especially if you're my height it kind of makes it difficult when you go over a bump there is some shake with the windshield frame the dashboard steering wheel that sort of thing and it doesn't it's not the most well put together car be a lot of the switch gear and stuff feels like a you know regular General Motors car everything is pretty reasonably laid out the gauges are normal fuel gauge temperature all that stuff nothing particularly unusual about that there's a lot of purple you can see the purple here but there's also an entire unbroken line of purple going around the entire dashboard of this car so the exterior color kind of makes its way in the car is actually not as unusual or weird to drive as I was thinking it might be it drives a lot like you know like a convertible pickup truck you would think would I mean it doesn't it's not per ticket Sun incredibly fast it doesn't handle incredibly well the exhaust does sound nice the seats are comfortable there's enough room up here I think most of the weirdness of this car was in the style of it and all the stuff I just showed you the trunk with the bed I mean that stuff is so strange the actual driving experience you know General Motors had to use existing parts of these an existing powertrain and existing transmission a lot of existing switch gear and things like that and so as a result of driving experiences that substantially different than you know you'd expect in a lot of GM trucks especially SUVs at that time yeah there is a little bit of body roll and stuff through corners mean it's not a sports car it's actually kind of funny depending on your opinion it's either a great combination of a sports car and a pickup truck or it's not enough of either but if you're looking for you know a sports car that has more practicality a sports car you can haul stuff or a convertible that you can all stuff it's kind of your only choice and if you're looking for a pickup that's like more fun and stuff you don't have a lot of choices either and so ladies and gentlemen that's the 2004 Chevrolet SS are just your average everyday Chevrolet pickup convertible muscle car thing I figured if I spent the entire day with this car I would have some idea what Chevrolet was thinking when they made it but I'm still at a loss and yet there's a little part of me that kind of wants one okay it's a big part of me anyway on to the dug score starting with the weekend categories and styling this one is very controversial some people love these but most car enthusiasts think this truck is just a little too over styled for its own good and it gets a four out of ten acceleration the early models with the smaller engine do 0 to 60 in 7.5 seconds which according to the Doug score acceleration scale earns that a 1 out of 10 handling is fine not great a little below average and it gets a 4 out of 10 cool factor is a tough one I personally think these are cool and if I saw one of these at cars in coffee I'd go check it out before yet another mg or stance to be 46 m3 but there's a lot of disagreement here since some people think these are earth-shatteringly uncool so I'll compromise and give it a 6 out of 10 there's no compromise on importance though this thing is weird and interesting but not significant to the car world except that it probably helped accelerate the General Motors bankruptcy and it gets just a 5 out of 10 bringing the total weekend score to just 20 out of 50 not so great as for the daily categories starting with features the SSR was decent for its day but it's outclassed by modern cars and it gets a 3 out of 10 Comfort is fine the seats are nice but the ride is a bit harsh and it gets a 5 out of 10 quality is OK the powertrain is dead reliable but interior materials could use some improvement and it gets a 5 out of 10 as for practicality the SSRS cargo area offers 23.7 cubic feet of space which is ample and should earn it a 5 but two seats knocks that down to a four out of 10 finally there's value and I got to be honest the average asking price for one of these on auto trader is 24 grand which is insane these hold their value shockingly well and it's one of the most eye-catching vehicles on the road that isn't a supercar it gets an easy 7 out of 10 bringing the total daily category to 24 out of 50 right in the middle add it all up and the total dug score is 44 out of 100 not great the truth is in trying to be a sporty convertible and a pickup truck the SSR fails at both but the person I borrowed this SSR from likes it for the same reason I do not because it's earth-shatteringly awesome like some SSR owners mistakenly believe but because it's cool weird interesting unique it may not be a great pickup or a great sports car but if you're sick of all cars looking the same with the same equipment and the same styling and the same colors well the SSR is the antidote with a tire inflator and a can of sealant in case you have a spare and that's because this car in case you have a flat back thanks may be the craziest one on this little rubber part where the door links up to the Cova hmm maybe the craziest one this little all right driving the SSR SSR when you turn on it just uses the Driver Information Center to say Chevrolet SSR and rather unassuming green print just so you remember what you're driving what if it said that aluminum alright now as I've demonstrated for you keep clicking keep clicking and I'll come in there and give you something to click about

Channel: Doug DeMuro

Views: 2,436,501

Rating: 4.8347855 out of 5

Keywords: chevy ssr, chevrolet ssr, ssr, chevy ssr truck, ssr convertible, chevrolet ssr truck, chevy ssr purple, chevy ss-r, chevrolet ss-r, doug demuro, demuro

Id: 0-eWzZuXUQg

Length: 23min 25sec (1405 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 21 2017

Reddit Comments

[u/blue_bomber697]

The people who convinced corporate this was a good idea must be one hell of a smooth talker. They could probably convince anyone of anything.

[u/Madkows]

USA: We want Utes!

GM: Well okay, how about this?

[u/The_Russian]

/u/Doug-DeMuro i notice that you often mention the emergency release mechanisms when going over trunks for cars. Given that you already make it a thing to get in and out of the back of all coupes and try out the convertable..mechanism, and more that i cant seem to remember at this time, i think it would be a welcome addition to have you demonstrate just how escaping from certain (more peculiar) vehicles actually works and would look. It's clearly an untapped market and you are the best person to demonstrate it!

[u/icecreampopncereal]

I haven’t seen one of these driving in nearly 10 years.

[u/[deleted]]

If you think about it, we got a lot of weird and interesting American cars in the 2000s.

SVT Lightning, Lincoln Blackwood, Escalade EXT, Prowler, Ram SRT-10, Thunderbird etc.

Come on Doug, find us a Blackwood :)

[u/graham_excess]

I don't think Doug gets enough gratitude for the uncut side-on shots of the convertible mechanisms working. So thank you, Doug. Seriously. Thanks. Doug.

[u/blue_bomber697]

"Keep clicking and I'll come in there and give you something to click about."

Solid way to end the video Doug haha.

[u/Seeker80]

Just imagine if we could have gotten the Holden Maloo instead of this...this...thing.

[u/XxDrsuessxX]

The rear wheel being off centered made want to kill the designer more than anything else on this thing.