TRAVIS LANGNESS: Welcome to Wyoming.
I'm Travis Langness for Edmunds.com,
and this is the all-new 2019 Chevrolet Silverado.
Basically, it's redesigned from the ground up, from the frame,
to the body, to the powertrains.
It's bigger.
It's longer.
It's wider.
But we want to know if it's the best Silverado Chevy's ever
made, so we're going to take it out for a drive.
So we're in the mountains in Wyoming
and we're driving around in the new Silverado 1500.
And really, this feels like an updated Silverado.
It doesn't feel completely redesigned.
It feels really familiar.
So what's changed about the Silverado?
The frame is built using different materials.
It's a longer wheelbase.
It's longer from nose to tail by almost two inches.
Pretty much all of the towing improvements across the board
for the Silverado come from the fact
that the truck is 450 pounds lighter
than the previous generation.
Now, that's coming from differences
in steel, the aluminum hood, aluminum tailgate, aluminum
doors, differences in the strength of steel
in the chassis.
They took 80 pounds out of the frame, another
80 pounds out of the bed of the truck,
so instead of one stamping, they've
used three different pieces, which
also makes the bed of the truck as much as seven inches wider
in the bed.
And also, you're looking at the first up and down
power tailgate in any full-size truck.
Kind of a no-brainer on trucks these days.
Everybody's using a power lift gate in SUVs.
Why haven't we done it on a truck?
Under the hood is the 5.3 liter V8.
Now, people from the last generation Silverado,
if you own one of those, you'll think, oh, so same engine.
Well, yes and no.
There is a 5.3 available with the old six-speed automatic
transmission, but the one we're driving
has the new eight-speed automatic.
And it's the updated version of that 5.3 liter V8.
So basically, what you get is a different fuel management
system that Chevy says will increase fuel economy.
And it-- for my butt [? dyno-- ?]
hasn't changed the way the truck drives much, which is good.
Gives you good power uphill, gives you a good burst
as you're going to pass somebody.
But what has changed with the eight-speed
is it's quiet in here.
There's several other power trains.
So you can get a diesel.
You can get the base V6.
You can get this V8 or the six-speed transmission
with the older version of the V8, different fuel management.
And you can get the 6.2 liter, as well as that turbo four
cylinder.
If you don't need as much towing or hauling capability,
that turbo four cylinder, that may be the motor for you.
For me, I'd probably go with the 5.3 or the 6.2.
They feel a little bit better, have a little bit more thrust.
We don't have the optional 22-inch wheels
on this truck, which is absolutely something
I would avoid, because with the standard wheel and tire
package, ride comfort's great in this.
These seats are not the high-end leather seats.
They're cloth, and they feel great.
Going up a mountain road, they feel just fine.
The split heating function works great.
And really, if you're going to go on a 1600 mile road trip,
tow a trailer, and take your family on vacation,
this is an easy place to do it.
Also, this center console comes up.
Take it up real quick, so you can have a third person
up front sitting here.
Chevy did say that the drag has changed.
As their dynamics have gotten better,
drag has decreased with the front end redesign.
And that's a small marginal increase in fuel economy,
along with what will probably be marginal increases
from the eight-speed automatic.
This one is, I believe, 19 MPG combined
with the 5.3 and the eight-speed.
Along these roads-- they're not perfect, obviously,
these aren't highly maintained city roads-- the Silverado
feels really good.
It's not a bouncy ride quality.
Big sharp impacts aren't really making their way
into the cabin.
Everything feels pretty well-insulated from underneath,
especially when you've got a good amount of tire
sidewall, which this truck has.
There's not a lot of body roll.
If you're worried about ride quality on a pickup truck,
this one is doing just fine.
So this is the interior of the new Silverado.
It's not so much a redesign as much as it is an evolution.
For starters, we'll go with this big monolith of a center
console.
This is just one giant piece.
It's not as high-content as it could be.
We're in kind of a mid trim level, something
that's a little bit more typical for buyers.
And basically, you've got auto stop start function.
You can put the tailgate down here.
Traction control.
A nice little button that puts all four windows down
at the same time.
There's a couple of buttons missing.
There are some things that we could have on this interior.
There's no plug here, but on the higher trim levels
you do get that full three-prong plug.
We've got one USBC, one USB port.
It's got Apple CarPlay, Android Auto.
And it's got a really crisp look to it.
This one is the same size as the previous generation,
but it's a little bit nicer looking.
It's a little bit crisper.
Graphics, it's really easy to read.
You've got the swipe from one side, swipe to the other.
You can control most of the stuff happening here.
The steering wheel is much the same.
The TFT, the center driver display here,
is a little bit better, and everything is easier
to see at a moment's glance when you're
looking down from the road.
Super helpful when you're towing or hauling
and you just want to spot your temperature
or spot your oil pressure.
It's definitely a good display.
And then Chevy has moved over here some of the stuff
that you use for towing, to the left of the driver.
There's a little toggle here that you
can change between sport mode or they've
got a little dynamic racecar flag, and tow mode--
changes the shift schedules, things like that.
Then you've got the selector between
two-wheel and four-wheel drive.
You've got the terrain selector to tell the truck
if you want hill descent control if you're on rock or sand.
Then you've got the controls for the lights,
and most of the stuff over there.
And pretty much, this is what you
get inside the interior of all the Silverados,
and it's a really intuitive layout.
It's not fancy.
It's a lot of new stuff, but not a completely different design
that you have to get used to something new.
Now, with that said, this mid-level content
does have some plastic materials that aren't awesome,
but really the touch points, those things are good.
They feel sturdy.
One of the nice things that GM has, Chevy as well,
is these split level seat heating.
So you can heat just your back, or your back and your butt.
Heating just your back is perfect for long road trips.
Anybody with back pain should demand this feature
be put in every car.
It makes the seating so much more comfortable.
It's fantastic.
Overall, this interior is a likeable place,
and definitely somewhere I can see myself sitting
for a long time on a road trip.
So now we're in the backseat of the Silverado
and it's huge back here.
There is an additional three inches of rear leg room.
The truck itself is only 1.7 inches longer, nose to tail,
but they put a lot of that, and then some, into the rear.
So four adults can sit totally comfortably, probably a fifth,
maybe even a sixth when you get that third seat up
in the front.
But if you've got four six-footers,
there's tons of space back here for everybody.
And it's pretty simple, pretty standard back here.
A couple of USB ports, couple of vents, which is nice.
Keeps the air flowing back here.
These seats are similarly firm to the center seat up front.
But it's a 60/40 split back here.
And it's really easy to fold these up.
So this one just quick up, quick down.
There's no straps to pull on.
No handles.
And then also, there's some pretty cool features back here.
This is typical, the center console with the cup holders,
not new in any way.
But then this side seat opens up and you have access
to behind the seat.
And the seat materials are similarly nice to the front,
that same checkerboard pattern.
Pretty flat across the bottom and the back.
There's not a lot of bolstering back here,
but the cushioning is good.
This angle's not too bad.
It'd be nice if it were a little bit further slanted back,
but it's decent for a road trip.
So we've spent all day driving the new 2019 Silverado.
And basically, what we've discovered
is that Chevy has taken a good product and made it better.
This new truck is more capable.
It's more quiet on the inside.
There's more space in the back seat.
You can tow more.
And there's that wide array of engines
that we talked about, which will make
it more economical and better towing in the long run.
It generally feels like a good refresh,
but they've added some good updates to it.
But if you're asking the question
is it the best Silverado that Chevy has ever made, well sure,
but only by a small margin.
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