2022 Chevy Silverado Review _ Hitting All the High Notes

I'm psyched about this new Silverado because in the past, General Motors has left me disappointed. Interior quality, the base engines, the ride, they were all worse than Ram or Ford. Well, the world must have changed because this Silverado hits all the high notes, and this isn't a fully loaded model. It's a mid-price trim that you can actually afford. Before you buy, sell your truck first with CarGurus. Type a few details, get a cash offer from thousands of dealers nationwide. If you like it, they pick it up and pay you. The 2022 Silverado is a refresh. When this generation came out for 2019, it felt old. Competition makes everyone better, so now here we are. Don't get confused, though. You'll see the 2022 Silverado Limited on sale alongside this Silverado. The Chevy Silverado can't seem to keep a straight face. It keeps changing. This is a refresh, so you get brand-new headlights, different grille designs. That's tweaked from the 2019 version when this was all new, and it's different still than the HD models. So there's so many choices. You get about six different grille choices depending on which of the nine light-duty trims you can buy. But all of them have this similar treatment here. This one, thin LED headlights. You got these nice boomerang or bracket-shaped LED lights. LED lights are just doing a lot of cool things these days that you could never do on a truck. Pretty stylish, all the chrome. That does not come standard because the baser trims have a black plastic. This is the one you'll want. You can buy a Silverado with a regular cab, an extended cab, a crew cab, a short bed, a standard bed, or a long bed. This is the LT crew cab, and instead of explaining the hundreds of possibilities, you can see some of them above. Only the WT has the regular and the long bed. It actually has every single bed and cab configuration you can buy. Now the double cab is only on the WT, custom, LT, and the RST. For a few hundred dollars, you can get a tailgate that does all this. Acts as a nice step. It also folds in so many different ways. A little cumbersome, but you get used to it. You also have to be careful that this part doesn't go on top of your ball hits. But there's a lockout if you press this button for three seconds. Nice little label inside the bed to prevent that from happening. Also, this has a remote tailgate release from inside the truck, which is a nice feature. It's also on your key fob. And on some Silverado models, you can power up. That's a very nice luxury. There's four engines to choose from. The two familiar V8s, the 5.3 and the 6.2. You can also get a 3 liter turbo diesel 6. That one's pretty good. But this is the 2.7 liter turbo 4. Now I know that this engine has been out since 2019, but I hadn't driven one until this week while it had the vehicle. And wow, 430 pound feet of torque and 310 horsepower. Now the old Vortec V6, that 4.3 liter, couldn't even hold a candle to this one. Pretty impressive. But if you're trying to tow, the four cylinder can only do 9,000 pounds. Only. That's 100 pounds less than the 6.2 liter V8. And it's the same as the diesel. So you're not lacking in power. When I first started this truck up, it just sounded weird. It sounded weird to hear a four cylinder rattling under the hood rather than a six, you know, like that brawny sound or the very deep grumble of a V8. It just feels really out of character with a giant pickup truck like a Silverado. And when you tell people this is a four cylinder, they kind of laugh at you and say, hey, what's wrong with the world? Why are they doing stuff like this? You tell them the specs, they still don't believe it. But guess what? It responds really well. It responds really, really well. This eight speed automatic, I think it also is a little better than the 10 speed automatic that you'll find with the rest of the Silverado's engines. Maybe that's just me, but it shifts smoother, downshifts quicker. And even though I don't have paddle shifters, there is a sport mode. This is a large four cylinder engine. The Ford F-150 uses a V6 with turbochargers with the same 2.7 liter displacement. So lop two more cylinders off the engine, but give it the same size. And that's why this delivers so much torque and horsepower. It's pretty incredible. When you drive, it's not really all that loud either. Under full throttle and medium throttle. Yeah, it kind of groans a little bit, but it's kept under control. And it honestly makes me feel like I'm in a regular car. I hear that turbo whoosh from time to time. And it's just a strange, strange experience. I guarantee you'll actually like it because I was prepared to hate it knowing that this is a four cylinder in such a large vehicle. But because it's the four cylinder, it's many hundreds of pounds lighter than the 5.3 or the 6.2 liter V8. This LT runs on street friendly tires. They don't have the knobby tread that you'll find on vehicles like the Silverado ZR2. So it makes the ride a lot more quiet, a lot more agreeable, definitely more car like. The steering too, it feels like it's almost like a brand new truck. I know it's not. This is a refresh. Chevy did not touch any of the mechanicals. They just really touched the technology and all the interior appointments going on here. But I swear it's so much better than I remember. The longer I drive this Silverado, the more I'm convinced I'm in a crossover. It rides that well and it's just responsive. Really weird to say that about a full size pickup truck on the road. It really shouldn't be any of those things, but it is. Every time this four cylinder engine gets up to speed without any problem, it still surprises me all the time. I will tell you that if you're expecting big fuel economy, you should not expect big fuel economy because GM does a really good job with their V8 engines. If you get the 6.2 liter V8 in four wheel drive, the same configuration as my truck, it's rated at 15 city and 20 highway. The four cylinder gets 17 city and the same 20 highway. There's no getting around it. Every time you put a smaller engine in a larger vehicle, it's going to have to work harder than a larger engine. That's typically the rule, especially in a truck. Carries over to the Ford F-150. Those turbo V6s are hardly any better than the V8s. Even if you get a few MPGs more when you don't have any load, a pickup truck is designed to carry weight, to tow, to have payload, to have a lot of cargo on board. And as soon as you do that, any advantage of fuel economy with the smaller engines disappears. One thing that would help the Silverado achieve better fuel economy numbers is if there was a hybrid option. There is none. Not even a mild hybrid, you know, like the 48 volt system you'll find in the new Ram 1500s. Doesn't have it. There's also no full hybrid like the Ford F-150 power boost. That's not on here. So those trucks do deliver better fuel economy with more power. Not a ton more, but it would be really nice to see a hybrid option. Yes, I know there's a full Silverado EV on the way, but it's years out and I'd like to save some fuel right now while gas is more than $5 a gallon. Yes, I would. This Silverado has four driving modes, normal, sport, off-road and terrain. It also has an automatically locking center diff that can switch between two high and four high. This one does not have a low range transfer case. Again, that also saves weight. And if you're not really off-roading, doesn't really matter that much, but that's available as an option. It may be because this is one of the lightest Silverados you can buy, but the brakes do feel pretty good, a lot better than other GM trucks. Big news, a Chevy interior that will not embarrass you. This look, long overdue, and it's only available on LT and above trims. So if you get anything below that, the custom, the custom trail boss or the work truck, you get the bad old interior and you don't want that. For a $55,000 truck, this is what you get. Modern, expensive, the materials and fit are finally good. This Silverado has the bench seat with seating for six. Certain powertrains will let you upgrade to the console when you get the console shifter instead of this column. I still don't think the seats are as comfy as the Rams or the Fords, but overall it's pretty decent. Plus, there's tons of storage, including inside these rear seat backs. There's also two glove boxes. Upper trims like the High Country have real wood trim. This one's probably fake, but it looks convincingly real to me. And of course, the shining element of this entire interior, these two very sharp screens. 13.4 inches in the center, 12.3 on the instrument panel. At this price, you don't get a panoramic moonroof, actually no moonroof whatsoever. You don't get Super Cruise driving assist, you don't get massaging seats, no auto-dimming rearview mirror. But there's lots of value because LT trims and above get this brand new infotainment using Google. Chevy already had a really good infotainment system. It's fast, quick, easy to use, but the size, only about this. Now I get a whole other section of the screen. Over here I can see a clock, trailer status, audio, and Google Maps. Because this isn't GM's system, it's actually Google's system. So that means you got native Google Maps that you don't need to use Android Auto or Apple CarPlay. Those are both available in here as a wireless connection, but honestly, it works better here. Everything works with the Google Assistant, so there's no GM voice commands. It works actually a lot faster. Take me to CarGurus headquarters. And just like you'd use on your smartphone, it just works. My truck does not have the HD surround vision, which is all the 360 cameras, but this standard camera is actually pretty decent. And it can show some trailer lines, the ball hitch, if you have one. Chevy's Trailer app is good for novices and experts alike. It'll show you if the lights are working. It'll give you a whole checklist on what to do, so you can say, Hey, my tire is properly inflated. Are the wheel chocks removed? Yes. Good to know. Plus, it'll let you know if you've exceeded the gross combined weight rating of the entire vehicle. The instrument panel looks so good as a full digital display, and you can change exactly how it looks. I like all the animations even better. You can change what's on the right-hand side, the left-hand side, and you can even change the lower gauges. Say you don't want to see the volt meter or the oil pressure, you can take them away or put some in and take some out. The LT is the middle ground. If you want more off-road technology, get the ZR2. If you want some more on-road luxury, get the LTZ or the High Country. $36,595. That's all it takes to get a 2022 Chevy Silverado. But to get to the mid-level truck I have, you need $55,895 with Destination. That's for the Crew Cab 4-Wheel Drive LT. Add larger engines, more options, and before you know it, you're at $60,000, $70,000, and $80,000. That's normal for a full-size pickup truck. Now, it should be absurd, but the Silverado works like a truck, and it pampers like a car. And the price is right in line with the Ford F-150 and Ram 1500. With the new interior and all the technology inside, 2022 Silverado is redeeming itself. I always thought it was pretty basic and cheap next to an F-150 or a Ram 1500, but I think it's going to bring a lot of ex-Chevy buyers back to the fold. This is now a desirable truck with some very unique features. So what do you think? Do you prefer the GMC Sierra? Well, we reviewed that one. We reviewed all of the competitors. Light-duty, heavy-duty, everything. Check it out at CarGurus.com, YouTube.com slash CarGurus. We have videos every week, all the time. We'll see you next time.