With experience on both 21 and 22 I say very happy. 21 Premier and 22 Z71.
Awesome vehicle, 5.3 is plenty of power, the design and layout is modern and mostly clean. Some of the quirks are a matter of getting used to but once you do, great. biggest learning curve is the new shifter and the Electric Parking Brake.
Technolgy is comparable to others in this class even if some are part of option packages. I added the Performance Exhaust and great sound. Close to 6.2 sounding without the extra .50 a gallon or possibly more.
Two things to think about. The Premier is Luxury but some decent safety items that GM would not be wrong to offer even as option or package.
Biggest equipment loss from the 2021-2022 and remember 21 Premier and 22 Z71. The 22 Premiers should have similar equipment as 21. .
Don’t get me wrong the Premier was luxurious and decently equipped. The biggest drawback of the Premier for me at least was all the flash and Chrome. I get it Premier and High Country are luxury but way too flashy. At the time I couldn’t find any easy overlays or easy way to…..”Darken Ship“ and dull it down. The easiest way was to find a Z71. Fortunately both models were negotiated as in stock models. I got the Premier just before the dealer markups started, or at least for that dealer. MSRP at that time was the mark up. The 22 Z71 wasn’t as fortunate and had the $5K “Market Adjustment”. Dealer helped soften the blow by higher trade appraisal and showed me how to access the Costco and GM Military discounts. I don’t normally go with a full blackout accents on my vehicles but in this case the Black accents, wheels work real well on the Midnight Blue Livery…..The Black Chrome accents dull it down but all was me to maintain my rule about not owning black vehicles.
Design is the same, most equipment is the same between 21/22 models so I will highlight the differences between the y Tim levels.
Remember the 21 was purchased in August….That time frame was part of the Wireless Charging, Auto Stop/Start, and Steering Wheel igniton lock deletion.
The 22 Z71 was also part of that package but during my build date the Wireless Charging was returned…..I personally don’t like it and will probably remove the fuse. The charging pad area is way too bug and I can count about a dozen different ways to short out either the charging pad, phone or both. Emergency Braking with a cup holder full of Ided Caramel Macchiato, will send about 1/3 of the drink into the charging pad…..ask me how I know……..
Biggest equipment differences between the Premier and Z71, is losing the Adaptice Cruise, Interior mirrors Camera, Ventilated Seats, and the Quad Exhaust without getting the 6.2 and one other but Can’t remember off the top of my head.…Oh Yeah……..the TX Edition. ”22” rims, and TX edition badging.…. Wait one more….HUD, Z71 does not have a 22” option. Fortunately for me, I still had the Gloss Black TX Edition wheels and Michelin Defenders from the Premier to swap into. The only major loss for me was the Ignition Lock and HUD. The interior rear views mirror is too small and useless for me. I installed a clip on Panoramic mirror to help out. Even though I have the philosophy of not purposely wanting to take a $70K vehicle off road I like the blacked out accents of the Z71 better. Had the 21 Premier for three months and the Z71 for just over five. I thought of ordering thwe Z71 but the one I got was about 90% of what I would have ordered…….sliding center console, 2nd row Buckets, luxury package, Z71 O/R package etc. The only thing the 22 had I didngt really want was the rear seat med…. I would have traded the RSE for the 6.2. The alternate selection at another dealer was Satin Steel, 6.2 and RSE but they wanted way too much markup…..plus couldn’t give me a straight answer on when it was scheduled to arrive at dealer.
22 changed to the full digital instrument cluster and rolling equipment chordates as part of the gobal chip shortage.
I honestly think both are way good choices. A learning curve especially if your coming from a different platform or smaller SUV of any type. 2021 added about 7” to overall length so measure the garage first. My dog likes the 2nd row buckets, he can sit on the seat or lay and stretch out on the floor between the seats during longer road tips.