1,100-Mile Chevy SSR Is A Timewarp Example Of GM’s Confused Retro Truck

Is it a truck? Is it a roadster? Is it just a Trailblazer with a 1950s cosplay fetish? The distinctly confused Chevy SSR is all of those things, which might explain why it bombed despite making its debut in an early 2000s car market still obsessed with retro design.

A distinct lack of under-hood firepower to back up the hot rod swagger didn’t help. Early cars came with a tame 5.3-liter Vortex V8 that only netted 300 hp (304 PS) and was hooked up to a mandatory four-speed automatic transmission. Realizing its mistake, GM upgraded the SSR to the 6.0-liter LS2 V8 found in cars like the C6 Corvette for 2005, the additional 90 hp (91 PS) transforming the performance, and a new six-speed manual transmission option adding to the appeal.

But it wasn’t enough to save the SSR. GM canned its retro mashup in 2006 having sold only 24,000 units, though a quick look on eBay shows you won’t struggle to find one today. There were 30 on the auction site at the time of writing with prices starting at under $15,000, but you’ll need to shell out much closer to the $46,400 the SSR seen in these pictures cost when new to take this particular purple truck home.

Related: Toyota’s Retro FJ Cruiser Is Getting As Collectable As The Classic FJ Trucks That Inspired It

As a 2004 model, it left the factory a little too early to benefit from the LS engine upgrade, but offsetting that is an impeccable history that reveals it has covered only 1,105 miles ( 1,775 km) in the hands of one owner. Whether that owner simply never found the time to drive the SSR, or whether he bought it and mothballed it thinking it would be worth a fortune one day, the listing doesn’t make clear, though since the Florida-based dealer selling it is asking $37,995 and obviously paid the original owner thousands less for it, he certainly didn’t make any money.

What is clear is that anyone looking for an SSR is going to struggle to find a nicer one. The leather interior looks showroom fresh, as does the wood-trimmed rear deck (an $895 option when new), and that Ultra Violet color scheme is arguably much cooler than the reds and yellows you normally see these trucks wearing. It’s almost enough to make you wonder whether people were a little hard on the SSR two decades ago. Hey, we said almost.