Bison Territory: Chevrolet Colorado Poised to Head Further Off-road

Steph Willems
by Steph Willems

With its jacked suspension, cutaway front fenders, and upgraded rubber, the Chevrolet Colorado ZR2 appeals to midsize pickup buyers who aren’t in the habit of staying on dry, safe pavement over the course of a weekend. But, while the ZR2 is the General Motors vehicle most cut out for Oregon Trail work, there’s always room for improvement.

In a bid to satisfy these adventurous customers, GM appears ready to offer a better off-roader.

A trademark application filed by the automaker on April 2nd suggests the company plans to put a rugged concept truck into production, Off-Road reports. The name “ZR2 Bison,” which GM hopes to apply to a production vehicle, heralds a brawnier, off-road ZR2 based on the Colorado ZR2 AEV SEMA concept — a collaborative effort between GM and American Expedition Vehicles, the Montana-based vehicle outfitter.

GM showed off the concept, which appears ready to take John Rambo into the heart of some Asian ground war, at the 2017 SEMA show.

Apparently, GM isn’t casually pursuing the idea. A production-ready ZR2 Bison was shown to dealers at a recent meetup in Las Vegas. “The AEV truck they revealed looked nearly identical to the concept vehicle with some minor differences,” one dealer told Off-Road.

The Bison revealed by GM lacked some of the more extravagant add-ons seen on the concept, the dealer said. The snorkel, bed rack, and air compressor panel did not carry over into the production version, though it’s assumed buyers could still turn to AEV to complete the package. Lewis and Clark never had it so good.

What would carry over? Most likely, the concept’s fender flares, long-travel Chevy Performance suspension, other upgraded suspension components (including Multimatic DSSV spool-valve dampers), greater underbody protection, and beefier tires. GM and AEV shod the concept with 35-inch BF Goodrich KM2 Mud-Terrain rubber.

If GM pulls the trigger on the Bison, expect a price bump from the ZR2’s after-delivery MSRP of $42,995.

[Images: General Motors]

Steph Willems
Steph Willems

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  • Cdotson Cdotson on Apr 11, 2018

    Bison is a strange appellation to apply to a truck from a corporation so enamored with sedan designs of a Buffalo-butt nature.

  • Hummer Hummer on Apr 11, 2018

    I wish they would hire someone to make these packages look cool, whoever designed this must have driven a riced out Honda in high school. It's a very unattractive 'minivanesque' design that screams street queen. The V6 seals the deal that it's not meant to do any actual off-roading. Sure that might be fine on a base extended cab but a 4 door with 35s that isn't named Jeep is embarrassing itself with that minivan engine. The snorkel is quite realistically the funniest part, I highly doubt they designed the same electronics going into the O'Reillys special as is going into this to be sealed to protect against water that high. It's not an Humvee, H1, or hell even an H2 was designed with the intake nearly 5 feet off the ground.

  • 28-Cars-Later TTAC: Something seems to be wrong with the formatting (specifically spaces/spacing) on comments since around Thursday. I thought it was my machine but the more I play with it I don't think its me. We used to do mid week deployments after we went to VSO nine years ago so the timing of Thursday is suspect IMO. Thanks.
  • Turbo Is Black Magic Barra’s total compensation is .048214% of what the musktard wants… that’s the actual number… .048214%… why on earth would anyone pay the musktard thousands of times more to dive bomb Tesla into the ground?
  • 1995 SC North Wilkesboro
  • Akear Is there anything Toyota cannot do.
  • Tele Vision A girl whom I went to school with was given a new 1969 Volvo sedan like this one on her 16th birthday in 1986. Her Dad bought the car when she was born. It had 400 miles on it when she got it. 4-speed manual, so we all learned to drive manual in it. Amazing car.
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