It was an uneventful weekend in the Silverado. Mostly family duty with its bed empty and its rear seat filled with babies. The truck handled it well, but honestly, it wasn't much of a test. "Ooooo...
It can take a young family of four to IHOP for dinner. Impressive."
Still, I did notice a couple of things that are troublesome. One: Our truck's black cloth upholstery collects lint like a wool sweater. The seats are comfortable, but always seem to be in need of a brushing. Two: One of the images is already rubbing off the truck's key fob. The unlock button is looking a little worn. At just over 11,000 miles, this seems premature.
Scott Oldham, Editor-in-Chief @ 11,388 miles
sddoc07 says:
01:55 PM, 03/19/07
lint on seats? is that really a serious drawback to this truck?? And if you don't really test the car (i.e. drive it to IHOP), how about not releasing a comment at all.
desmolicious says:
02:07 PM, 03/19/07
My Golf 1.8T (not dearly departed) had the worst lint grabbing seats. It seems the fabrc was made of some kind of mouse fur, that pilled and caught everything. And I was careful. So as I'd expect much more from a truck, a vehicle that is not used so tenderly, I think that this is a valid criticism.
kratas101 says:
02:24 PM, 03/19/07
My key fob on my 2002 Accord has completely worn out on everything after 5 years. I'm sad because my mother also has a 99 and her fob still looks brand new and I can tell mine feels cheaper.
duh_rel says:
02:27 PM, 03/19/07
After 11K and the unlock button is already worn out? Gosh. I have over 17K on my Honda and you can hardly tell it's been used.
In regards to the lint grabbing seats, isn't that sort of a good thing? I had similar seats in my old Camry and everytime I got out of the car in my dress slacks, it seemed like I went over my bottom with a lint brush. Granted the seats would look quite dirty.
billt9 says:
02:52 PM, 03/19/07
Wow a built-in lint remover. Chevy should advertise that. Cool idea.
I suppose Chevy should also include the lint remover's lint remover with the truck.
desmolicious says:
05:42 PM, 03/19/07
Brilliant! From now on I'm going to line my BMW's seats with double sided sticky tape! No more needing to use lint brushes for me! (I may regret this decision when I wear my shorts though...)
matt2583 says:
07:38 PM, 03/19/07
Wow lint on seats and a "worn" key fob. Thats major. I have the same type GM fob and car has 24k on it, still looks new.
crowb says:
07:36 AM, 03/20/07
Some of you are making fun of Scott's post for being somewhat meaningless, but didn't he sort of do that himself? He was being sarcastic about the Silverado handling the trip to IHOP, wasn't he? And maybe noticing the lint collecting seats is minor to some people, but at least the Edmunds folks are being thorough. Now none of us can say we weren't given fair warning if we ever ride in or own a Silverado.
kurtamaxxxguy says:
10:20 AM, 03/20/07
Yup, both of my GM key fobs have worn out the same way. The Saturn ION lasted 6 months, the '04 Mailbu's about a year and a half.
Double injected rubber buttons would hold up, but GM has apparently gone for the cheapo painted rubber approach.
rennf says:
10:36 AM, 03/20/07
I did not find this to be a meaningless post. (a) There are plenty of neat freaks out there (I'm one), (b) legibility and premature wear of the markings on key fobs is a valid concern for some. Let's just say a whole bunch of folks chimed and said "Hey, my Chevy's fob has also worn off after XYZ miles" -- could point to a (dumb) cost-cutting measure on the manufacturer's part. Conversely, if most people commented in the negative or made no comments period, could be viewed as an isolated incident, not a big deal to potential shoppers.
Bottom line: different strokes for different folks, and while some users could care less about nitpicky comments on the interior, that's exactly what some other users might look for (i.e. what they don't get from the standard performance, hauling capacity, interior dimensions blah blah blah data available elsewhere).
Keep up the good work, Edmunds.
jerrywimer says:
04:44 AM, 03/21/07
I don't know what determines how well the key fob buttons hold up. I've owned several GM vehicles with the RKE since 97 (1 1997, 1 2003, 2 2004, 1 2005, and now a 2007). One or two have had the buttons wear as shown in the photo, but never in under 20,000 miles. Most of them held up until well past the 50k mark. But I still take the method used to imprint them as relatively cheap, because I'd like them to not wear off at all.
graboske says:
07:00 AM, 03/23/07
The buttons on my '02 Trailblazer's fob are still fine. It's about to turn 102,000 miles. Maybe I'm easier on my buttons?
oldmanshirt says:
01:19 PM, 03/23/07
I didn't know you could get remote start on the Silverado now. Of course, due to the pristine condition of the button, my guess is that the testers don't use that feature much.