Quick Look : El Truck-o Silverado Silverado

Though not one who can be branded a technophobe, still there are certain things I would prefer to be done the old-fashioned way. For starters, I would like to be the one to decide when I should turn on my vehicle’s headlights. Not the other way around, as the case in Chevrolet’s best-selling full-size truck, the Silverado.

In this truck, turn on the ignition, release the parking brake, and the daytime running lights – or if it’s dark enough, the headlights – switches on by itself. Fortunately, there’s a manual override button, but you have to push it four times successively for it to work.

Anyway, now that we have that out of the way...

The unit I used, the 4x4 Silverado 1500 Extended Cab to be exact, is one awesome, delightful ride. And it’s quite a looker too, in its own way. There’s a certain I-mean-business-don’t-mess-with-me appeal to it. The truck has an "Industrial" look and feel about it. It’s certainly has more conservative lines than other full-size trucks, particularly when compared to the Ford F-150 and the Dodge Ram. But the Silverado manages to be attractive in a straightforward, sans any macho swagger kind of way. The lines are clean, the styling neat, with the flareside style bed adding a bit of, well, flair to the design.

Inside the truck, this serious mien is also evident. The dash is pretty simple, the controls easy to operate, and the instruments are very legible. The column mounted gear shifter and foot-operated parking brake are lighter in actuation than those in other trucks or sport-utes. A simple push of a button selects four-wheel drive mode. There’s also a message center on the dash that informs the driver of everything, like low coolant and fuel levels to a cargo bed lamp that’s left switched on.

With available leather seats, power-everything and single in-dash CD player, the Silverado is luxurious enough, coming with all the toys most buyers in this segment wants. And because the truck has the biggest extended cab in its class, rear passengers are assured of the same level of comfort-and more important especially in pickups-legroom space that front seat occupants enjoy. Rear passengers, as pesky they may be, also deserve it. Their own air conditioning vents, for example.

Because of its size too, the Silverado is not that unwieldy to drive around town either. Just forget about parallel-parking or buying lunch via a McDonald’s drive-thru. But handling is competent, and the suitably weighted power steering has enough feel dialed into it for you to know the front wheels are touching the pavement. Highway ride is smooth and pleasant, and cornering is not a hair-raising adventure. There’s no mistaking the ride for something other than a truck, yes, but that’s fine by me. Duh, this thing’s a truck.

What more, the thing stops too. Though there’s a spongy feel in the brake pedal in the first inch or so of pedal travel – something we’ve noticed on the Suburban, the Silverado’s cousin, as well – but the large ABS-equipped four-wheel discs nonetheless does its job pretty well of hauling the truck down.

The Silverado sells for P1.268 million. Add another P100,000 and you get power leather seats. At that price, buyers get one seriously competent, no-frills workhorse they can take virtually anywhere. It is the-with apologies to Brad Pitt-the truck-o to get you to the next town-o. – Brian Afuang