Is it a truck? Is it a roadster? Is it only a Trailblazer with a Fifties cosplay fetish? The distinctly confused Chevy SSR is all of these issues, which could clarify why it bombed regardless of making its debut in an early 2000s automobile market nonetheless obsessive about retro design.

A definite lack of under-hood firepower to again up the recent rod swagger didn’t assist. Early vehicles got here with a tame 5.3-liter Vortex V8 that solely netted 300 hp (304 PS) and was hooked as much as a compulsory four-speed automated transmission. Realizing its mistake, GM upgraded the SSR to the 6.0-liter LS2 V8 present in vehicles just like the C6 Corvette for 2005, the extra 90 hp (91 PS) reworking the efficiency, and a brand new six-speed handbook transmission possibility including to the attraction.

Nevertheless it wasn’t sufficient to save lots of the SSR. GM canned its retro mashup in 2006 having offered solely 24,000 models, although a fast look on eBay reveals you received’t wrestle to search out one right this moment. There have been 30 on the public sale website on the time of writing with costs beginning at underneath $15,000, however you’ll have to shell out a lot nearer to the $46,400 the SSR seen in these photos price when new to take this specific purple truck residence.

Associated: Toyota’s Retro FJ Cruiser Is Getting As Collectable As The Traditional FJ Vans That Impressed It

As a 2004 mannequin, it left the manufacturing facility slightly too early to profit from the LS engine improve, however offsetting that’s an impeccable historical past that reveals it has lined just one,105 miles ( 1,775 km) within the palms of 1 proprietor. Whether or not that proprietor merely by no means discovered the time to drive the SSR, or whether or not he purchased it and mothballed it pondering it could be price a fortune in the future, the itemizing doesn’t clarify, although for the reason that Florida-based vendor promoting it’s asking $37,995 and clearly paid the unique proprietor 1000’s much less for it, he definitely didn’t make any cash.

What is evident is that anybody on the lookout for an SSR goes to wrestle to discover a nicer one. The leather-based inside appears showroom recent, as does the wood-trimmed rear deck (an $895 possibility when new), and that Extremely Violet coloration scheme is arguably a lot cooler than the reds and yellows you usually see these vans sporting. It’s virtually sufficient to make you ponder whether individuals have been slightly laborious on the SSR twenty years in the past. Hey, we stated virtually.