10 Biggest News Stories of the Week: Chevy Silverado 1500 Off-Road but on Top, Jeep Cherokee Trails
You can get a bigger, badder off-road-ready pickup truck than the 2025 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 with Z71 Trail Boss upgrades — but why would you want to? That goes for most civilian truck shoppers, at least, as this off-roaded-up pickup strikes a near-perfect balance between asphalt-eschewing awesomeness and on-road excellence. In Cars.com reviewer Conner Golden’s comprehensive critique of the 2025 Silverado 1500 Z71 Trail Boss — the No. 1 article on this week’s countdown of most-read stories — we get the down-and-dirty details of fording flash-floodwaters and crushing craters, as well as hitting the highway.
Related: 10 Biggest News Stories of the Year: Hyundai Palisade, Toyota Grand Highlander Soar in 2024
The Z71 Off-Road Package adds a well-balanced slate of available equipment, such as hill descent control, skid plates, off-road shocks, all-terrain tires and rear wheel-well liners. The Trail Boss version further adds a 2-inch suspension lift and flourishes like red tow hooks, a black badge and identifying graphics. It all combines for an imposing presence further emphasized each time you hoist yourself up into the roughly 6-foot-6-inch-tall truck. During his time with the Trail Boss, Golden took on Texas terrain of both the desert and deluge varieties with true grit — but not at the expense of its on-pavement prowess.
“Too often, off-road packages sacrifice daily drivability in the name of capability, but the Trail Boss has found a sweet spot,” Golden states in his review. “Its 2-inch lift meant cornering was a conscious activity, but the Silverado handled better than I expected. It rode beautifully, too, with jolts from even the craggiest Dallas roads sopped up by those package-specific Rancho shocks and fat tire sidewalls.”
For our full take on the 2025 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Z71 Trail Boss — including Golden’s one gripe with the pickup truck — follow the link below to our No. 1 article of the week.
Also popular this week for unpopular purposes — a federal safety recall — was our report on a drive-power defect in model-year 2017-19 Jeep Cherokee SUVs. The recall affects some 63,000 vehicles with a mechanical problem that can result in an unexpected loss of power or failure of the Park function when the vehicle is not in motion, in either case increasing the risk of a crash. Jeep manufacturer Stellantis will begin notifying owners Feb. 13.
For full details on the Jeep Cherokee recall — including how to contact the automaker or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration with questions in the meantime — follow the link below to the No. 3 news story of the week.
Beyond that, we’ve got headlines on the Ram 1500, Lincoln Nautilus, Volvo EX30 and much more — so don’t stop reading till the digits double. Here are the top 10 news stories Cars.com readers couldn’t get enough of in the past week:
1. 2025 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Review: The Star-Spangled Swiss Army Knife
2. Here Are the 11 Cheapest Electric Vehicles You Can Buy
3. 63,000 Jeep Cherokees Recalled for Transmission Issue
4. These Cars Are Discontinued for 2025; Which Ones Can You Still Buy?
5. Which Electric Cars Are Still Eligible for the $7,500 Federal Tax Credit?
6. How Much Is a 2025 Ram 1500?
7. How Proposed Tariffs on Canada and Mexico Could Make Your Next Car More Expensive
8. Long-Range 500-Mile Ram 1500 REV No Longer Coming in 2026
9. 2025 Lincoln Nautilus Gets Standard BlueCruise, Starts at $53,485
10. One Small EV for the US, One Giant Leap in Price: 2025 Volvo EX30 Now Starts at $46,195
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