I recently took the Silverado on a road trip into the Santa Cruz Mountains to take my 13 year old son to a Scout leadership camp. The Silverado seemed impossibly large - way too big for my taste. Once on the highway heading from Santa Monica to the Central Coast of California, I was pleasantly surprised. The truck was fun to drive on the highway, and when we arrived in the mountains, my wife, always distrustful of narrow, windy mountain roads, soon shared my enthusiasm. The truck handled equally well on steep twist backs and eroded dirt roads.
I'm 6'3", and never once felt uncomfortable on my 1,000 plus mile trip. My wife commented several times about the quality and placement of the door handles - one on the door and the other on the inside door frame, to help her climb into the cabin. She also liked the front seat belt, which in other trucks cuts into her neck. The rear seats were amazingly simple to fold back to make room for additional cargo. No fumbling for hidden latches here! Just pull straight up on the bottom seat and the whole things folds back on itself. My son, of course, loved the DVD player in the rear seat and the wireless headset. He was ecstatic about traveling to his camp in such a manly truck- great bragging rights! Later in the trip, my son and wife traded seats, and she soon complained that the rear seat belt dug into her neck. This was the only drawback we encountered in terms of comfort.
While I enjoyed the power and the ease of steering of this enormous truck, I have to agree with my colleagues that this is not a vehicle for casual use or for the city. It is almost impossible to park, taking up nearly the whole width of most standard parking spots, and extending a good foot and a half beyond most neighboring vehicles. And it is very expensive to operate. If you can afford to spend $40,000 on a truck, you can probably afford the fuel cost that comes with it - but this is way more than I want to spend. However, if you live in the country and need a powerful truck that is comfortable and fun to drive, then the Silverado is a great choice.
Thomas Blood, Executive Director, Web Production Operations
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