15 January 2025

The Chevrolet Silverado isn't Australia's favourite US 'pick-up', but maybe it should be

| James Coleman
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The Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Premium LTZ is nearly as big as Tharwa Bridge. Photo: James Coleman.

Technically, yes, we invented the ute.

You probably know the story about how a Victorian farmer’s wife wrote to Ford in the 1930s, asking for something they could use to go to church on Sunday and take the pigs to market on Monday.

But it took the Americans to inject it with a Big Mac dose of steroids and call the result – quite aptly – a ‘pickup truck’. And in recent years, they’ve been bringing them over here to show us the handiwork.

We’ve had the Dodge RAM since 2018, now of Yellowstone fame, the Ford F150 is another, and just recently, Toyota announced its Tundra is going on sale here from $155,990.

Then there’s this, the too easily forgotten Chevrolet Silverado. The one the RAM has repeatedly outsold in Australia nearly two-to-one.

It arrived in Australia a couple of years ago, with the steering wheel on the wrong side, and it’s the job of a factory in Dandenong, Victoria, to make this right and sell it as a General Motors Special Vehicle (GMSV), for $128,000. Or a good deal more than they cost in the US.

And last year, the price went up even higher – $2500 higher, in fact, for my 1500 LTZ Premium model, which makes it the most expensive of the pickups after the Tundra.

But you do now get a sports exhaust as standard, and believe me, that’s worth it all on its own. In Australia, the LTZ also comes with the ‘Z71’ off-road package, which throws in an automatic rear-locking diff and black Chevy ‘bow-tie’ emblems for good measure.

The first thing you – and everyone around you – will note is that the Silverado is enormous. Like properly enormous – 1.93-metres-tall-by-5.9-metres-long enormous.

This means that when entering an underground car park in central Sydney, there were moments when the bonnet-mounted antenna traced the roof like a record needle. According to the height limit, nothing else was going to suffer, but I still found myself – heart thumping in my mouth – watching the concrete pass mere inches above the sunroof.

The 1500 Premium comes standard with a ‘Z71’ off-road package in Australia. Photo: James Coleman.

Then there was the actual parking bit, which required a million-point turn followed by a lot of stomach-sucking to get myself out of the driver’s door.

And this isn’t even the biggest model.

The Silverado 1500 LTZ Premium is, in the words of GMSV, the “all-rounder” and “ideal for urban drivers who still require a tough vehicle for towing or long-distance driving, with the bonus of refined comfort”.

In other words, the one you drive on the highway with a caravan in tow, a beefy arm on the window sill and Garth Brooks on the Bose sound system.

The tailgate is electric. Photo: James Coleman.

But there’s also the 1500 ZR2 “ultimate off-roading companion” with a “two-inch factory lift, wide stance, and 33-inch off-road tyres”. And as of this year, there’s all 6.3-by-2-metres of the 2500 HD – “the ultimate tow partner”, with a 6.6-litre turbo-diesel V8.

Despite all this, the Silverado isn’t actually as hard to manoeuvre as you’d expect. And not just because it doesn’t care about pesky things like kerbs and gutters and small mountains. It’s basically just a big rectangle.

The side mirrors are big, and there are cameras that form a handy birds-eye view of the car on the centre screen. These also make up for the rear-view mirror, which – while you can flick it to a camera view – looks like it’s off something much smaller – a Holden Barina, perhaps.

As for when the parking sensors detect you’re getting close to things, there’s the option for it to … um, vibrate your bottom. For the record, I found the beeping less off-putting.

I kept the lane-keeping assistance on for the drive out of Sydney, but turned it off soon after and never touched the button again. And yes, thank you, Chevy, for giving everything its own physical button. Whoever did this deserves a knighthood, or whatever the American version is (a cabinet position?)

It rocks and rolls under pressure as you’d expect from a tower block, but it handles its weight well. On the highway, it just floats. Need extra oomph? Plant your foot and you feel a wave well up from underneath you, carrying you towards the horizon with astonishing ease.

It has the same stonking great 6.2-litre petrol V8 used in the SS Commodores, so this sensation is best accompanied by turning the dial by your right knee to ‘Sport’ and opening the small gun portal in the back window – via a switch near the rear-view mirror – and listening to the roar. You’ll feel all fizzy inside.

Fuel consumption isn’t appalling either. On the highway, I got it down as low as 10.3 litres per 100 km, while around town was up around 14. That’s coming from a 96-litre tank, mind you, so filling the beast’s belly with premium fuel does still cause shooting pains from the hip pocket.

The Dodge RAM offers an extra seat where that glovebox is. Photo: James Coleman.

In the end, then, there’s only one problem, and it reared its head when I went to pay the parking man in Sydney.

In the notebook where he recorded details of all the cars under his care, he had “white Dodge” written next to my number plate. It seems the Chevy Silverado will always play second fiddle to the RAM when it comes to the desirability of the big US pickups. And that’s a pity.

We’ll blame Yellowstone.

Prices start at $130,500. Photo: James Coleman.

2024 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 LTZ Premium

  • $130,500 (plus on-road costs)
  • 6.2-litre petrol V8, 313 kW / 624 Nm
  • 10-speed automatic, automatic 4WD (with high and low range)
  • 12.9 litres per 100 km claimed fuel consumption, 96-litre fuel tank
  • 4.5-tonne max braked towing capacity
  • 2552 kg.

Thanks to GMSV Australia for providing this car for testing. Region has no commercial arrangement with GMSV Australia.

Original Article published by James Coleman on Riotact.

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The trill commentary by Dave and the good Dr cannot go unchallenged. A member of my immediate family has recently purchased a Chevrolet Silverado 1500 ZR2 and it is hands down the most comfortable vehicle I have had the pleasure of being in. I’m 6’5″ and my family member 6’8″ so you can imagine the joy of having adequate leg room front and back, not bumping shoulders or elbows in the front seats, plenty of cup holders for keeping our fluids up, etc. Another strength is it’s prodigious towing capability making 3-4 tonne of trailer seem like one of those little 6×4 box trailers you see out at the tip and it also excels off road. I should mention being a bit taller on the road also gives you a much better view of impending dangers such as those small car drivers who like ducking in front of trucks and brake checking them, etc. What’s not to like apart from the price tag?
As for my fellow commentators and their ilk, everyone is entitled to their opinion however if I was inclined to agree with you then we’d both be wrong and ditto for the conspiracy theory about the Regional somehow selling its soul to publish such an article. The beauty of this fair country that we live in is that’s it’s a democracy and people are entitled to have different views and opinions other that your own and that’s OK, however this cancel culture nonsense of blocking the Regional (and presumably any other e-mag) from their in box for publishing such an article and all the other carry on shows the mentality of some who don’t appear to be able to cope with others perhaps having an alternate view.
I would respectfully suggest they need to fill out a hurt feelings form and send it to someone who cares about these things, probably some inner city (our maybe NSW south coast hippy commune) faux leather moccasin vegan car hating organisation whilst they seek solace in their deconstructed double shot decaf skim latte lactose free skinny coffee.
Who am I to judge?

Dr Hein Vandenbergh1:42 pm 22 Jan 25

Thank you, Dave, for your supportive comments. And – I totally agree with your statements as to fellow road user dangers. This is the main reason why our road-toll continues to grimly rise, despite the fact all vehicles are 1000 x safer than a generation ago. However, mass and survival space discrepancies between ‘responsibly adequate’ family cars and these ‘things’ – I cannot find an adequate term for them – undoes any and all advances made in active and passive safety equipment in the former. It’s all lunacy, and as a responsible community we should be doing much more. A yob is a yob and always will be, but we must not let them rule the world. BTW, my plumber drives an ordinary ute and can easily carry what he needs, and get to where he is required, which is mainly rural. He, too, ridicules the need for mega-trucks. And he should know!

Good on you Dr. Vadenbergh. Not only that but it represents the ungodly hellhole of selfishness that Australian citizens are developing further into. In this monster you are likely to kill any pedestrian that gets in your path, kill anybody else in a smaller vehicle, and choke everybody else in the voluminous dirty exhaust gases coming from this monster.
Also I believe about regional must be selling its soul to even consider publishing this sort of article. Big greedy business will do anything to corrupt anybody.
My final comment is, and I’m threatening an segue here; its the equivalent of the gazebo on the beach. Stuff anybody else, I’ll do whatever I want whenever I want and stuff everyone else.

Dr Hein Vandenbergh2:36 pm 15 Jan 25

Irresponsible articles like this, glorifying the most eco-unfriendly, unneccessary yobbo machinery are enough to seriously think about blocking About Regional from my inbox. And, idiotically, it has nothing to do with ‘regional’. Just go away, will you.

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