Silverado gets new facelift for 2016

[Patches]

GM offers nothing bigger than the 5.3 in a half ton unless you go Denali($60,000) and the last I checked, nothing lower than 3.83's. My last GM, an '04, 5.3 half ton Avalanche ordered with 4.10 gears was a passable tower, but nothing special. Prior to the Avalanche I owned a bunch of GM half tons with both 5.7 and 5.3's, but with 4.10 gears; none of them got exceptional mileage. I realize the new cylinder out engines are more efficient, but at what cost; I remember the 4-6-8 Cadillac's and in a word, POISON. Your hp/torque #'s are better than I expected, but as I said, I haven't looked seriously at GM in some time

 

[Grateful11]

To me your numbers are reasonable and typical for Toyota, but keep in mind that is still below the class MPG leaders. I normally do about 50% city/highway with my GMC with 5.3L V8, 4x4, crew cab, and my tanks average 19-21 MPG at the next fill up. On tanks where I am biased to mostly highway driving and country roads, it will come in around 22-23 MPG (country roads at about 50-55 mph are the sweet spot, as the truck loafs along on just 4 cylinders with very little throttle input). The only time I see a tank's average go below 19MPG is when I mix in some towing or an abnormal amount of idling or city driving, or in the dead of winter when all the numbers skew lower. Aside from an all-towing tank that was down near 13-14, the worst mixed towing/commuting tank I ever saw was still in the 17s.

When I combine all the specs and numbers I see reported on forums like this, Toyota is consistently about 6-7 MPG lower than the most efficient competitors, apples to apples. It's just the way it is. Their window sticker numbers also reflect this. Surely they can improve this with more engineering. I expect them to take a leap with their next generation to keep pace.

The other night I saw Chevy advertise a Chevrolet Custom, lower priced but had a nice look to it. I tried to do a Build&Price one but was never able to find that particular model. I was telling my wife about it and all I know is she started shaking her head no and was to get out of her chair and come over here to me. She said, "don't even think about it". She likes that Tundra that much. We've owned a few trucks over the years, an '86 Chevy K10 5.0L V8 3.08 gearing, decent mileage, built like a tank but no power. Then it was '94 Chevy 1/2 ton 2WD extended cab 5.0L V8, spent more time in the shop than on the road, then a '97 Ford F150 they could not get a transmission leaked stopped and they bought it back under the lemon law. That was the last truck we owned for many years until we inherited her Fathers '02 Chevy 1500 4WD loaded with every option in '08. I drove it on my 75 mile commute a few times and was it costing me close $20/day to drive it to work and it had some sorta tranny problem that no one could quite figure out. We traded in on a car for our sons to go back and forth to college, they were 13 months apart and went to the same college.

Off Topic: We were thinking the other day as to why we went so long without a PU and remembered how difficult it was for our late son, who had a mild form of MD, to get in and out of a PU and we resorted to smaller SUV's for many years. He's been gone now for 4 years, been a very difficult time, losing a child at 21 years of age just isn't right, at any age for that matter, should have been us first.

 

[s219]

GM offers nothing bigger than the 5.3 in a half ton unless you go Denali($60,000) and the last I checked, nothing lower than 3.83's. My last GM, an '04, 5.3 half ton Avalanche ordered with 4.10 gears was a passable tower, but nothing special. Prior to the Avalanche I owned a bunch of GM half tons with both 5.7 and 5.3's, but with 4.10 gears; none of them got exceptional mileage. I realize the new cylinder out engines are more efficient, but at what cost; I remember the 4-6-8 Cadillac's and in a word, POISON. Your hp/torque #'s are better than I expected, but as I said, I haven't looked seriously at GM in some time

You can get the big V8 (6.2L) in the mid line GM 1500 models (i.e., SLT trim or better on the Sierra).

 

[s219]

Off Topic: We were thinking the other day as to why we went so long without a PU and remembered how difficult it was for our late son, who had a mild form of MD, to get in and out of a PU and we resorted to smaller SUV's for many years. He's been gone now for 4 years, been a very difficult time, losing a child at 21 years of age just isn't right, at any age for that matter, should have been us first.

Sorry to hear about that -- it is a tough thing to deal with, been through it with children of relatives and friends, and it's not something I can ever come to terms with.

 

[clemsonfor]

The 5.3L V8 has 355HP and 383ft-lb torque. Lower than Toyota, but not so much that it justifies 25-30% worse MPG numbers in my opinion. If more power and torque is needed, there are other engine options available in the other brands, but you cannot get a more efficient motor from Toyota -- they don't even give customers that choice. My point being, the other brands cover both ends of the power/efficiency spectrum. Toyota is stuck on one end only, which is very uncharacteristic for the brand.

Toyota though does not have their motors buring quarts of oil with less than 100K miles, or pistons slapping around and loosely falling out of the motor when the rod bearing are removed!!! And yes i had a budy with that happen to his, those 5.3 AFM motors have had thier share of trouble. The dealer that put a new short block in his...under warrenty said they do a couple a month under warrenty repair. this is a small town dealer too!!

I like the chevy truck, i have an old one and like the 5.3 motor just needs to have that technology perfected into a 300k mile flawless motor like thier older ones were. And for full decloration i do like Toyota, i dont have a truck newer than the 04 sequoia made by them and yes they consistently turn in horrific MPG numbers. i wish they would fix that once they do they will be unstoppable and the hands down best choice unless you need to be in the HD truck class.

 

[s219]

Toyota though does not have their motors buring quarts of oil with less than 100K miles, or pistons slapping around and loosely falling out of the motor when the rod bearing are removed!!! And yes i had a budy with that happen to his, those 5.3 AFM motors have had thier share of trouble. The dealer that put a new short block in his...under warrenty said they do a couple a month under warrenty repair. this is a small town dealer too!!

I like the chevy truck, i have an old one and like the 5.3 motor just needs to have that technology perfected into a 300k mile flawless motor like thier older ones were. And for full decloration i do like Toyota, i dont have a truck newer than the 04 sequoia made by them and yes they consistently turn in horrific MPG numbers. i wish they would fix that once they do they will be unstoppable and the hands down best choice unless you need to be in the HD truck class.

It seems common to want to point out other brand's perceived disadvantages (true or not) as some excuse for Toyota's poor gas mileage, but I still think Toyota should be able to give us a truck with their great reliability *and* good gas mileage. Never mind me griping as a truck shopper, I would think every Toyota owner would want that too. I think they are missing an opportunity in this market that the other brands are capitalizing on.

 

[RollingsFarms]

I think Toyota should offer different rear end ratios on their truck, not just the 4:30 across the board on the 5.7.

 

[clemsonfor]

The other night I saw Chevy advertise a Chevrolet Custom, lower priced but had a nice look to it. I tried to do a Build&Price one but was never able to find that particular model. I was telling my wife about it and all I know is she started shaking her head no and was to get out of her chair and come over here to me. She said, "don't even think about it". She likes that Tundra that much. We've owned a few trucks over the years, an '86 Chevy K10 5.0L V8 3.08 gearing, decent mileage, built like a tank but no power. Then it was '94 Chevy 1/2 ton 2WD extended cab 5.0L V8, spent more time in the shop than on the road, then a '97 Ford F150 they could not get a transmission leaked stopped and they bought it back under the lemon law. That was the last truck we owned for many years until we inherited her Fathers '02 Chevy 1500 4WD loaded with every option in '08. I drove it on my 75 mile commute a few times and was it costing me close $20/day to drive it to work and it had some sorta tranny problem that no one could quite figure out. We traded in on a car for our sons to go back and forth to college, they were 13 months apart and went to the same college.

Off Topic: We were thinking the other day as to why we went so long without a PU and remembered how difficult it was for our late son, who had a mild form of MD, to get in and out of a PU and we resorted to smaller SUV's for many years. He's been gone now for 4 years, been a very difficult time, losing a child at 21 years of age just isn't right, at any age for that matter, should have been us first.

Being a somewhat new father of a 21 month old this almost brings me to tears so sorry to hear that . Cant imagine what you and your wife feel and how you can deal with it. Our son is truly a gift from god and means the world to me.

 

[clemsonfor]

It seems common to want to point out other brand's perceived disadvantages (true or not) as some excuse for Toyota's poor gas mileage, but I still think Toyota should be able to give us a truck with their great reliability *and* good gas mileage. Never mind me griping as a truck shopper, I would think every Toyota owner would want that too. I think they are missing an opportunity in this market that the other brands are capitalizing on.

I am with you!!!! i am very "cheap" as some would call it. MPG means a lot to me. I cant wait for toyota to figure out how to make a reliable and fuel effecient engine and let it get some age on it so i can afford to buy it!!!

I am the one pointing out the fuel economy flaw as well. I also pointed out one GM flaw. I have owned and currently own vehicles from Toyota, GM and Ford!

 

[Patches]

Come on guys; you're buying a TRUCK, not a Prius