The Chevrolet Silverado can trace its roots back to the 1930’s when Chevrolet introduced the first pickup trucks known as the C/K line. Silverado was actually a term used to describe the higher trim level of these trucks, which were produced hand in hand with the GMC Sierra, both manufactured by General Motors. Throughout their years of production, these trucks have usually outsold competiting companies like Ford for most of their history.

Chevrolet Silverado “The Premium Trim”

The actual term “Silverado” was coined in 1960, to signify the highest trim possible for the Chevrolet C/K trucks. GMC used variations of the “Sierra” name to signify this in their version of the truck, designating the level of trim using a number of prefixes and suffixes such as “High Sierra” and “Sierra Classic”. These trim level designations also came with other markings to signify four wheel drive and two wheel drive, until they all were dropped in 1999.

Silver VS Sierra

Both trucks manufactured by GM, the Silverado and Sierra, basically have the same entire history. The main difference between these two trucks is that the Sierra represents a “higher class” truck that is available with more luxury features. This is very similar to the difference between Honda and Acura vehicles. At first, the trucks had different engines as well as equipment, but current models have only slight differences between the two.

Birth Of The 1500

In 1999 the model number 1500 was designated to the light pickup truck version of the Silverado, and a heavy duty (HD) model was released in 2001. These trucks are available in a 2 door regular cab, a 3 or 4 door extended cab, or a front hinged 4 door crew cab. There are also 3 different sizes of cargo beds, short (69.2 in), standard (78.7 in) and a long box (97.6 in). In 1999 only the regular cab and the 3 door were available, as well as the Vortec 4300 V6, Votec 4800 V8 and the Vortec 5300 V8. The 4 door extended cab was added in 2000, the engines power also increased by 15 HP. In 2001 a 6.0L Vortec 6000 V8 was introduced to the heavy duty models, with 300 HP.

High Performance Path

In 2003 Cevrolet launched the Cevrolet Silverado SS, which was a high performance truck based on the standard 1500 Silverado. This model included upgrades in the drive train as well as its interior. It uses a 345 horsepower Vortec 6.0 liter V8, the same used in the second generation Cadillac Escalade, known as the VortecMax. Originally the truck was standard with all wheel drive, but was later changed to the now used rear wheel drive format. Also used are the Z60 performance suspension and 20 inch chrome wheels. Dale Earnhardt licensed this vehicle in 2006 to be released as an “Intimidator SS”, which included appearance upgrades, as a special edition.

Luxory

The GMC Sierra, which we mentioned before was the luxury side of the Silverado, is available with many options such as hybrid and other luxurious add ons.