Chevy Silverado vs. Ridgeline

[flymuck]

Hello ROCers,

This past week I had a bunch of family in town (hence my lack of presence on the ROC) and since we only have the Ridgeline and an Insight (2-seater), we traded the Insight with a friend for a vehicle that could seat 4+ people... our friend lent us his '04 Chevy Silverado (V10, crew cab, seats 6, with a full bed). Here's my review of the Chevy (which we still have, unfortunately, even though all the family is gone... can't wait to have the 'skate back!).

Pros:
- The Chevy seated 6 -- which came in handy when I had to bring 5 people back to the airport at once. We put the luggage in the bed of the truck inside plastic garbage bags cuz it was raining (here in SoCal!).
- The Chevy has waaaaay more power -- it being a V10 and all. It easily smoked the RL in a little race my SO and I had...
- This Chevy is all jacked up, with huge tires and a lift kit, so I'm sure it would be better for off-roading, although I didn't attempt any. No running boards/side-steps, so getting in and out was like climbing a tree.

Cons:
- The Chevy rides like poo. Seriously. The suspension is so stiff, and especially with no one else in the car, you just get constantly jiggled.
- The stock radio in the Chevy is poo. Poor sound quality through small, dinky speakers, although the FM reception was better than the RL, interestingly enough.
- The seats in the Chevy are soooo uncomfortable compared to the RL. My back would start hurting almost immediately from the lack of lumbar support (and it didn't help that I couldn't raise the driver's seat up, so I'd have to crane my neck to see over the steering wheel...).
- The big tires, while macho and all, made for some really sloppy handling. Once I'd dropped everyone off at the airport and was making my way home through the rain, I really noticed how much I was slipping and sliding all over the road. It was really scary. The smallest puddle would make the behemoth grab and pull, and was very tiring to drive.
- I couldn't tell if the Chevy was in 4wd all the time, or what... but it was terrible at getting up my driveway (which is very steep in some parts). The back tires would slip & grab, slip & grab, leaving little track marks on the road surface (concrete). My SO had the same problem so don't try to blame this one on my driving.
- The bed extender (which our friend had included because he had an old dresser in the back that was intended for the dump but he didn't have time to get rid of it before we picked up the truck) only fits in the truck with the tailgate down! That's right, you can't attach it to the front of the bed, you can't flop it in at the end of the bed, because the wheel wells get in the way. I give that giant LAME points.

All in all, it was super-nice of our friend to lend us his multi-passenger vehicle, but we can't wait to get the Insight back from him. My SO and I fought (jokingly) about which one of us had to drive the poo truck, and which could drive the cozy RL (we often needed both trucks to get all 7 of us, sometimes 9 of us, to where we wanted to go). Now I have to drive the poo truck into work for the rest of the week, cuz my garage is 4 inches taller than my SO's, and he had trouble fitting in his yesterday...

I haven't checked mpg yet, but I am curious, so I'm going to check when we fill it up before returning it.

Hope you enjoyed my report!

edit: I meant to say it's a crew cab not extended cab...

[VetteBlue]

Are you sure it was a Chevy? The General doesn't have a production V10 engine.

[flathead]

I trade a Silverado for my Ridge. The Chevy was a nice truck, but at 20,000 miles I had already:
1) Replaced U-joints
2) Replaced all 4 ABS sensors
3) Replaced a frozen tailgate latch
4) rear rotors were rusted/warped and needed replacement

Granted, all the stuff was still under waranty, but these are things that should not happen on a truck with this mileage driven by someone who doen't beat his vehicles.

It rode pretty stiff. The traction was not very good in winter unless you had 400# of weight in the bed.

On the plus side it rode nice and high with plenty of clearance on the stock sneakers. The stereo was kick-butt. A nice looking truck (black) that turned heads. It would haul/tow an elephant (not much call for that around my neighborhood though ). Not being an extended cab, I couldn't toss crap in the back.

[flymuck]

Originally Posted by BlueVette

Are you sure it was a Chevy? The General doesn't have a production V10 engine.

I'm definitely sure it's a Chevy -- got the emblem on the steering wheel and all. My SO was the one who told me it had a V10, I didn't actually verify that... maybe it's only V8... now I'm curious and will have to check when I'm home tonight!

[TheRidgester]

Did a google search and found this

Monday, May 16, 2005
GM Kills V10
According to a post in GMInsidenews (HT: Angry Engineer), GM is stopping work on a pushrod V10 engine that was supposed to be an even higher performance motor than the large V8's they sell.

GMInsidenews has learned that the highly anticipated LS derived V10 slated for production in several upcoming GM vehicles has been terminated. According to GM insiders, the V10 was scrapped due to fears of fuel consumption and the redundancy of its power output compared to the Supercharged 6.0L LS2. Apparently after being tuned, a Supercharged LS2 is capable of up to 608HP. However it is more likely that GM will send out its Supercharged LS2 with a 500HP/500lb.ft torque rating. While the V10 would not have required premium fuel (as does the LS2 SC), it's ratings would be lower than that of the LS2 SC, while retaining the same power numbers.