2003 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 HD 4x4 Crew Cab Test Drive
Casey's List: The Good
The Bad
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Fool for ParkingMan - this is a big truck. Granted I don't regularly drive trucks, so I don't really have any comparisons, but it felt huge. Fun to park thanks to the size, but we'll go into that later.
I drove a dark grey metallic model. It was a wonderful color, although I don't want another dark car. The interior was either black or dark grey, with leather seats. The interior looked a bit dated. There are cubby holes everywhere including a big one on the lid of the center console which you can't store anything in since you'd dump it all every time you needed in the console. Not sure why it's not just a padded top; maybe to discourage people from letting their children sit there. I asked about all the cubby holes and the salesmen told me it's partly because they don't put tape players in them anymore (that only explained away one of holes).
The driver's seat has full power adjustments, including lumbar support and side bolsters that grow and shrink. It was pretty cool although I never did get it perfectly comfortable. The driver's seat had position memory so if I had found the perfect spot I could have kept it. The headrest was a bit far forward for my taste (I don't like to lean on them but couldn't help it with this one) but I never looked to see if that was adjustable.
I had a little trouble getting the truck out of the parking spot but it wasn't too bad. We headed out onto a feeder road and then down some nice backroads in Bryan. The truck has 300 horsepower, tons more than my Miata (142). I expected it to be a bit quicker than it was because of the power, but it also weighs quite a bit more than my Miata so it wasn't quite as quick as I hoped. It wasn't slow, though; I didn't find myself urging it on or anything like that (come on baby! You can do it!). Eventually I moved my seat up and that helped because I could actually reach the gas pedal. It drove fine, nothing to write home about, but nothing bad about it, either. Chris suggested we find a rough paved road to take it down because we'd read that it had sort of a rough ride. On the smooth pavement it was fine, but once we hit the rough stuff the ride deteriorated quickly. Chris was sitting in the back and complained quite a bit, and it wasn't much fun up front either. We felt every little crack and bump in the road and were very happy to quit testing that part of the ride. The salesmen brought up the point that it will ride much better when towing or hauling, but the majority of the time we would have the truck empty so that didn't appease us.
Some of the roads we took in Bryan have very narrow lanes and I had some trouble staying in them. I also thought that others cars were too close to me in the neighboring lanes, but that's because I'm used to the Miata; I'd grow accustomed to that eventually.
Once we got back on the lot I tried parking first next to someone and then in between the other trucks. What a mess! They park their rows of trucks sort of close to each other, but not unreasonably so. When I first started driving the truck I was overcompensating the steering, thinking the truck would take more room to turn (which backfired because the truck doesn't turn tightly at all). When I tried to park I wasn't overcompensating, but still didn't set up right to get into the spot. I backed up and tried it again a few times but finally gave up and got out before I took the rear fender off the truck to the right. I was about an inch from it. Chris was heckling me from the back seat so I told him to give it a shot and see if he could do any better. He of course hopped in, got it out of the mess I had gotten it into (I was scared to even back it up at that point) and parked it with no problem (although not completely straight...HA!).
Meanwhile I checked out the backseat. The backseat is a full sized seat with tons of room. It's better than some sedans I've been in! The seat was very comfortable and slightly reclined unlike the seats they used to put in these things. It was comfortable enough for a fairly long roadtrip, I think. I could make the ride to California no problem (that has become our measurement for road trips since we drove there in October). The seats fold flat and allow a LOT of storage in the back, for all those rainy Texas days. Probably a good place for big dogs too, if you don't want them on the leather.
All in all I was impressed with the truck. I've hated Chevys since my mom's 1987 Astro fell to pieces (that thing was NOT well made, but in Chevy's defense 1987 was the first year of the Astro), but I'd definitely consider this truck if I was in the market. It was easy to drive, comfortable, had fairly responsive acceleration (especially once I moved the seat up and really romped on the pedal), and it looks great. I didn't like the new front end at first, but it's growing on me.
Since we were shopping for a car for Casey, I rode in the back
of the 1500 HD. The back seat in this thing was plush. The seat was huge!
I know I should have expected it since it has four full sized doors, but
it was still a bit of a shock.
The ride was pretty smooth over the smooth roads. However, once the pavement got rough, things got pretty dicey. You could really feel the bumps in the road as they traveled through your spine. The salesman said that it was because the truck was a Heavy Duty model that had a heavy duty chasis. Even still, it seemed to ride a little rougher than my brother's one ton Dodge dually.
The length of this truck was incredible. Casey seemed to have an ok time
driving it till I suggested that she park it on the lot. Then she
realized why I kept mentioning that the SS was a shorter truck.
It was tough to park, but I managed it better than her!