2025 Chevrolet Traverse Review: Flawed Crowd-Pleaser

I can’t believe I’m saying this but I miss the old Chevy Traverse. The last-gen model surprised the hell out of me, with its no-nonsense, honest family car vibes. I know, it looked like a snoozefest but it was comfortable, felt like it was built well enough, and practical. There was a sturdiness to it that I appreciated. It made me feel like an adult. This new 2025 Chevrolet Traverse, though, feels like the opposite. 

In many ways, though, the 2025 Traverse is exactly what customers want. It’s big, it’s spacious, it’s got loads of cabin tech, and it looks tough. It’s certainly a helluva lot cooler than the vanilla-looking previous gen, especially in the sportier RS trim. But in other ways, it exemplifies everything that’s wrong with the auto industry at the moment. It’s heavy, inefficient, sloppy to drive, and, with the Z71 package, far less tough than its looks suggest. 

For anyone who just needs a spacious, cool-looking family hauler, the Traverse will do just fine. However, I’d argue that there are better cars for similar money that do the same job more effectively. It’s style over substance. 

The Basics

Even though this new generation of Traverse only dropped last year, I’m already starting to see tons of them on the road. That isn’t a surprise given its looks, size, and relatively low entry cost. For 2025, nothing has changed, so you still get the same boxy looks, the same interior and technology, and the same weak-sauce powertrain. 

I’ll be the first to admit: the Traverse looks good. Its big, butch styling gives it an attitude that the last one just didn’t have. Whereas the outgoing model blended quietly into the sea of suburbanite crossovers, this new one shouts from the rooftops. It’s mostly shouting about how its owner wishes they could afford a Tahoe but, hey, at least it’s shouting something, right?

The Z71 package makes the shouting even louder, with its aggressive wheels, all-terrain tires, and adorably ambitious red front tow hooks. It’s cute that it thinks it’ll be used off-road, though. However, credit where it’s due: my test car’s Rubystar Metallic paint was killer. 

Chevy also seems to be getting very German with its interiors. Not with its build quality but with its same-sausage-different-length styling. If you’ve seen the inside of any modern Chevy, you already know what the Traverse looks like. It has the same steering wheel, the same dual-screen gauge and infotainment setup, and similar climate controls. The Z71 adds red bits, though. To be fair, it all works well and is mostly ergonomically set up. GM’s infotainment system is as crisp and functional as ever, the climate controls are easy to use, and the steering wheel buttons make sense. Well, mostly. Not only are volume/media buttons on the back of the wheel dumb, but the left one stopped working on me. 

Peek under the absolutely massive hood and you’ll find what seems to be a comically small engine. A 2.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder isn’t abnormal to see in a crossover like the Traverse but it looks hilariously underwhelming in the chasm that is this engine bay. And while its 328 horsepower and 326 lb-ft of torque look good on paper, they’re equally as underwhelming on the road. The little engine has enough power to move the Traverse just fine, but it never feels especially energetic. It’s coarse, and it makes a lousy noise, like a blender on its lowest setting. 

OK, so I’m being overly harsh to the big Chevy. There are many objectively good qualities about this new Traverse, especially with the Z71 package. For starters, it’s spacious—positively cavernous inside. Kids in the second row will have enough leg space to feel like they’re on a private tour bus. Put them in the third row and they’ll still have about as much legroom as they would in the back of a normal midsize sedan. I managed to fit four adults and two kids in the Traverse and everyone was more than comfortable. Not to mention, the kids could easily enter the third row betwixt the second-row captain’s chairs (a must-have option for families, if you ask me). 

Driving the Chevrolet Traverse

It’s also comfy. The ride is soft and floaty, likely aided by the Z71’s massive tires with their squishy sidewalls. Along with the quiet cabin, that pillowy ride makes it relaxing to lug the family around. There may be an “RS” badge on this Traverse but don’t let that scare you into thinking it rides (or drives) anything like, say, the gone-but-not-forgotten Camaro RS. Here, those two letters only signify that the Traverse’s owner spent more money to look marginally tougher than their neighbor. 

In fact, things fall down quite a bit for anyone behind the wheel. The steering is bad. Not because it isn’t direct or sporty but because it’s vague, light, and slow, so it’s hard to ever really feel in command of the Traverse. And that’s a problem because it’s big. I’m an average-sized fella but seeing over the hood of the Traverse was no easy task. I’m not sure I’d be able to see anyone under five-foot-six standing in front of the damn thing. It’s absurd. With such a massive front end, I want some steering accuracy and the Traverse has none. 

Oh, and its brakes are almost frighteningly bad. The top of the pedal is mush and it doesn’t bite until halfway down, so every stop is nerve-wracking until you learn to go hard on the pedal every time. You should’ve seen the first time I hit the brakes in a different car after a week in the Traverse. My wife’s still annoyed at me for her glasses flying off her head onto the dashboard. 

The Highs and Lows

The best parts of the Traverse are those that crossover customers arguably focus on the most. Its spacious cabin, excellent infotainment technology, and macho good looks will sell tons of these things. However, there are some other interesting pros to living with a Traverse. Like most Chevys, it will warn you in your butt if there’s a car coming while backing out of a parking space by vibrating the seat in the direction of danger. It’s a little thing, but it’s helpful. Outward visibility is also mostly great, giving its passengers a commanding, comfortable view of the road. 

However, there are some really frustrating things about it, too, outside of how it feels behind the wheel. For instance, the gauge cluster is a mess, with too much information in too small of a space. The lack of a wiper stalk to the right of the steering wheel is dumb, too, as Chevy built the wiper controls into the left stalk. Speaking of the left stalk, all GM vehicles have the most annoying turn signal noise and cadence. When you flip them on, they don’t initially make noise at first, there’s a pause where the first blink should be. And the cadence is odd, breaking away from the typical cadence of almost any other car. It sounds like a simple thing, but I made countless lane changes where I didn’t know if the turn signal was on right away because of it. 

Chevrolet Traverse Features, Options, and Competition

The standard $38,995 price tag seems like a decent value for the Traverse, considering it comes with eight seats, 18-inch wheels, and a massive 17-inch infotainment screen. Can we pause and talk about how the screen is almost as big as the wheels? Anywho, that price jumps to $40,995 if you want all-wheel drive. 

If you jump up to the Traverse Z71, like this test car, you get the more advanced twin-clutch rear differential (which is neat but will almost never be used by its suburbanite owners), different 18-inch wheels with all-terrain tires, the highly aspirational red tow hooks up front, and many Z71 badges. For all of that, you’re going to pay a minimum of $47,795. Hey, if you wanna look tough, you gotta pay up.

However, no matter how tough the Z71 might look, it’s still a Traverse, which means it’s still a full-size unibody crossover in a sea of other full-size unibody crossovers. Cars like the Honda Pilot, Toyota Grand Highlander, Hyundai Palisade, and Kia Telluride are only a few of the cars the Traverse has to contend with. And aside from its try-hard looks, there isn’t much that elevates the Traverse. It’s a bit cheaper than some of its competitors, like the Grand Highlander, but not by enough to make a difference once you start climbing up the trim-level ladder. 

Fuel Economy

One of my biggest beefs with SUVs of this size is the fact that they’re stuffed with gravelly, boring turbocharged four-cylinders and still get poor fuel economy. According to the EPA, the all-wheel-drive Traverse gets 19 mpg city, 24 mpg highway, and 21 mpg combined. I averaged a bit less than that, hovering between 19 to 20 mpg, likely due to the all-terrain tires. But that’s only a few mpg better than what you’d get from a V8 Tahoe and marginally more efficient than the Honda Pilot’s burlier V6, per the EPA, so why stick with the puny four-pot? 

That isn’t a knock on the Traverse, specifically, though, as many of its competitors get similar fuel economy. The gas Grand Highlander gets a few more mpg but not much. However, the Grand Highlander offers a hybrid powertrain that’s even more fuel efficient, while the Traverse does not. 

Value and Verdict

At its most basic, the 2025 Chevrolet Traverse offers good value. For under $40,000 to start, you get eight seats, a spacious interior, and all the cabin tech you need. If you add on all-wheel drive, you’re still only a smidge over 40 grand. As a do-it-all family hauler for customers who couldn’t care less about how it drives, the Traverse is a solid option. However, when you start to add trim levels and packages, it starts to make less and less sense. 

If you enjoy driving, even a little bit, there are better options than the Traverse. However, judging by the amount of new Traverses I’ve seen just in my neighborhood alone, I don’t think many customers do. Objectively, the Traverse is a flawed car that gets too pricey too quickly. Its brakes are bad, its steering is bad, and its engine is both gutless and inefficient. But what it gets right is what most customers want—macho looks with a spacious cabin and three rows of seats. 

In that context, it’s hard to fault Chevy for focusing on and giving the people what they want. But given the name of this website you’re reading right now, we can’t help but wish it was better in other areas.

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