2025 Chevrolet Traverse: Better manners than its fancier cousin

2025 Chevy Traverse High Country FWD: A big midsize SUV.

Price: $54,995 as tested. No options on the test vehicle.

Conventional wisdom: Car and Driver lauds that the “third row is big enough for adults,” with “plenty of cargo space, available Super Cruise,” but bemoans “unrefined engine noises, overabundance of hard interior plastics.”

Safety: It’s a long list of features on the Traverse sale sheet, including intersection automatic braking, rear pedestrian alert, rear cross-traffic braking, front pedestrian and cyclist braking, side cyclist alert, and reverse automatic braking.

Marketer’s pitch: “Capability at your command.”

Reality: It is quite capable of moving people down the road.

What’s new: The High Country trim is all new for 2025, and that’s what provided all the nifty standard features. Two new paint colors come for 2026.

I was very happy to be visiting friends again in North Carolina, yet very disappointed to score a Chevrolet Traverse. I’d had such a lumbering, swaying experience with the Traverse cousin the Buick Enclave a few months earlier that I thought, “Oh no, my friends are going to be completely convinced that I cannot drive.” And also, “My readers are going to be tired of reading about the same vehicle.” Alas, it’s a small fleet in Raleigh.

Competition: Honda Pilot, Hyundai Palisade and Santa Fe, Kia Sorento and Telluride, Mazda CX-90, Nissan Pathfinder, and Toyota Highlander and Grand Highlander.

Up to speed: The Traverse doesn’t get too excited, but it moves OK. The 2.5-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine keeps up with traffic and passes well.

Car and Driver notes the 328-horsepower three-row SUV gets to 60 mph in 7.3 seconds, which is a fairly average time. The terrain around Raleigh and up to the Hillsborough area north of Chapel Hill is very flat, so no hill-climbing assessment could be made.

Shifty: The Traverse features a column shifter just like so many General Motors vehicles now. I don’t think I’m too against it, except for those vehicles that have a low button on the steering wheel.

On the road: One thing about having cousin vehicles to drive for the same trip is I got a real sense of comparison there. Probably even more than I get around home because I’m on extra high alert, being out of my natural habitat. The Traverse is much, much nicer on the driver than the Buick Enclave. The handling has a much sportier feel, in particular.

Let’s dial that back a little, though. I use “sporty" and should probably keep it in quotation marks on each usage because the Traverse was not sporty at all, but it handled competently and seemed to go where I pointed. The Enclave would drift and redirect itself every time I glanced at the infotainment or some other control, but the Traverse was much more forgiving.

We had some real downpours during our final day of visiting, and the Traverse handled the weather well. I’m sure the all-wheel-drive version would be even better.

The Traverse is also not too hard to park for a three-row SUV, whether it was nosing into parking lot spaces or parallel parking in street spaces.

Driver’s Seat: Mr. Driver’s Seat had no complaints here. We put lots of miles on the Traverse, and it was comfortable and supportive all the way.

The speedometer displays on both a dial and digital readout, and it’s easy to see.

Heated and ventilated seats come standard at this price point.

Friends and stuff: The space inside is quite similar to the Enclave. Plenty of legroom in all three rows.

The leather interior’s two-color combination was dubbed “saddle shoe” by our Philadelphia Art Institute fashion merchandising graduate, so you’ll probably love it or hate it.

The buttons lower the seat backs for cargo but only raise the rear row, oddly.

The transmission column stalk allows for big console storage and an under-console cubby up front.

Cargo space is 22.9 cubic feet in the back; 56.6 with the third row folded; and 97.6 with the second row folded. The Traverse tested seats seven people but eight-passenger models are available.

A trailer hitch comes standard on the High Country. Towing limit is 5,000 pounds.

In and out: Getting passengers out of the rear door became an issue on a busy street in town: It was especially hard to see behind because of the tiny rear row window.

Getting to the rear row is nice, with the middle captain’s chairs getting out of the way.

Play some tunes: Sound from the system was clear and crisp but not perfect, about an A-.

The volume dial on the screen is nice to have, except it’s really low-profile so it’s easy to scrape other things.

Keeping warm and cool: Black toggles under the touchscreen control all the functions and so does the bottom row of buttons on the screen as well. The vents blow kind of strong, but the passenger space is getting close to minivan territory.

Fuel economy: The Traverse averaged 24 mpg with its front-wheel-drive propulsion system on fairly level roads. Expect worse from an all-wheel-drive model up in the Philly region, especially if you live in hilly Chester County.

Where it’s built: Lansing, Mich. The U.S. and Canada supply 36% of the Traverse’s parts. Mexico makes 24%.

How it’s built: Consumer Reports predicts the Traverse reliability to be a 3 out of 5.

In the end: If you need big space, the Traverse is one of the best options — only the Grand Highlander matches its interior numbers among the vehicles mentioned in “competition” above.

If you want some fun for the driver, the Telluride is probably the way to go or the Highlander Hybrid.