Is The Chevrolet Silverado 1500 The Best Bang For Buck Truck?

The Chevrolet Silverado line-up has been around for 20 years now. In that time, its biggest rivals are the Ram 1500 and Ford F-150. Since I have only driven the F-150, it would be wrong to compare the Silverado 1500 to the Ram 1500, so I am going to leave it alone. This model Silverado 1500 is around a thousand dollars cheaper at $35,000 compared to the F-150 I drove a while back but there are some huge differences between the two. So, I shall tell more here.

Styling on the Silverado 1500 compared to the F-150 is very similar to be honest. Both trucks have big front ends with squarish headlights. The difference being is that each of the headlights on the F-150 are built into one housing per side. The Silverado is also different because chrome fills up some of the grille and the blinkers are separate from the lights. From the wheel arches to the back, the two look almost completely similar, except for the F-150 looks like it has been in the gym, bench pressing semis its whole life. The 4x4 stickers are also similarly placed behind the back wheel but the Silverado has it placed higher and the font is much more different. For a regular person, they would only be able to tell what kind of truck it is with the badges. I did this 1500 because I wanted to make a fair review and this is what I get. Two trucks that are different but nearly identical with the styling.

Now, onto the interior. This is where I started to immediately see the differences between the Silverado and the F-150. For starters, the doors are manual, the side mirrors are manual and everything seemed so spartan. To me, it seemed dreary. At least in the F-150 everything is powered except for the seats. There was so much lacking of style and controls that I almost could not believe that the Silverado is supposed to be the competitor to the F-150. I get that there is a thousand dollar price difference, but come on, it should not be this bad. The steering wheel had only enough buttons to use for the cruise control, the infotainment system was blander than unsalted buttered macaroni and the cluster is just for decoration with some gauges to tell me my speed, what gear I am in, and how high the engine is revving. The only 2 nice things about the interior I have to say is how comfortable the seats are, and the middle arm rest that folds down to hold my personal belongings. That is literally it. Oh, and before I forget, the ride height is pretty high, so to those who lift their trucks because it looks cool are just moronic. I could see the Philadelphia skyline from stock height if I really wanted to. To those people jacking up their truck and not taking it off the pavement should be punished by watching it be lowered to the ride height of low riders and giving it horrible bits to make sure the ride comfort is worse than a skateboard on gravel.

So, what then do I get for a truck that has the same price tag as a Nissan Maxima? Let me check the build list for this model. It has for safety teen driver mode, airbags for the driver and passenger in the front and on the side and outboard seat side head curtain, electric assisted steering, StabiliTrak stability control with trailer sway control and hill-start assists, ABS, tire pressure monitoring, and day-time running lamps. For the interior, the Silverado has 40/20/40 bench seats, power door locks, cruise control, driver information center, tilt steering wheel, back up camera, USB ports, and Bluetooth connectivity with Chevrolet MyLink Audio System. The additional option that is on this Silverado is the engine. It is a 5.3L EcoTec3 V8. This adds more torque and power to move heavier loads and trailers. How much can it trailer? 7,000 pounds. Exciting, isn't it? No? Me neither. The only good that comes of this is the safety rating from the government. It has an overall score of 5 stars. The lowest score to be given is in the rollover test in which the Silverado received a 4 star rating.

Performance for the Silverado is acceptable in my opinion. The steering is light thanks to it being electronically assisted. The power delivery is only good due to it being a Chevrolet V8. This makes the exhaust sound a bit angry when the throttle is wide open. The suspension keeps everything as tidy as it can with minimal body roll. For the fuel economy, it is actually worse than my old '87 IROC Camaro. It gets 16 miles per gallon in the city, 22 on the highway, and 18 miles per gallon combined. It gets the same fuel economy with the 4.3L V6 as well. The F-150 spends the fuel more wisely than that by a couple of more miles per gallon. The only thing that is good is the towing capacity and payload capacity of the Silverado 1500. The payload capacity for the 1500 is 1,880 pounds. As stated before, the towing capacity of this Silverado is 7,000 pounds thanks to the V8 and 4x4.

So, is the Silverado the best money to spend? I would say yes, but only if I was looking for a workhorse with that much of a towing and payload capacity. If it wasn't for that, then I would go right for the F-150 I test drove in a heartbeat and not have to rethink my decision. It is as simple as that. The F-150 offers more bang for my buck, even with the slightly higher price tag and lower capacities.

I would like to take a moment to thank Lucas Chevrolet for allowing me to use their vehicle for this review. I appreciate their cooperation and professionalism.

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