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The revised Chevrolet Silverado 2500 HD lands with fresh styling, a better interior, 4500kg towing and a 1322Nm V8 diesel. But how do you live with such a behemoth?
The updated-for-2024 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 HD feels about as politically correct as Barnaby Joyce lying drunk on the Canberra pavement.
Like the Honourable MP, excess is a bit of a thing for this American full-size pickup. For starters, it’s even fuller-of-size than its Silverado 1500 little brother.
At almost 6.4 metres long, this mega Chev needs an extra half-metre to park than a 1500, or a full metre more than our nation’s best-selling Ford Ranger, which seems positively small.
Then there’s the Silverado HD’s 3762kg kerb weight, and an enhanced-for-MY24 6.6-litre Duramax turbo-diesel V8 engine now boasting 350kW and – brace yourself – 1322Nm of torque.
Those needing to tow giant vans and boats rejoice! Environmentalists and those navigating clogged city streets? These things should fly to the top of your vitriol list.
A Silverado 2500 HD (Heavy Duty) is the largest thing you can drive with an Aussie car licence. It’s rated to tow up to 4500kg (5142kg with truck licence), but in America, private owners of the HD allowed to tow nearly twice that. In other words, there’s ability overkill in spades here.
GM Specialty Vehicles (GMSV) – formerly HSV – performs the right-hand-drive re-engineering in Victoria, and for MY24, this 2500 HD welcomes revised styling, more power and torque, enhanced safety and towing technology, and a redesigned and more refined leather-appointed interior.
Despite costing $163,000 plus on-roads (no change from 2023), these things aren’t as niche as you may think. Over 1100 Silverado 2500 HDs sold here last year, trumping its chief rival RAM 2500 by a few hundred trucks.
The slightly smaller (but still gargantuan) Silverado 1500 is the more popular Stars ‘n Stripes rig, but key difference with the 2500 HD is its diesel-guzzling V8, as opposed to the 1500 rivals – Ford F-150, Toyota Tundra, Ram 1500 and Silverado 1500 – with their V8 or turbo V6 petrol engines.
Competition wise, Silverado 2500 HDs are around $30,000 pricier than a smaller Silverado 1500 ZR2 (also with 4500kg tow capacity), but around $10k less than its RAM 2500 Laramie rival.
Can we talk about fuel economy? Well, GMSV won’t. Apparently they don’t have access to the MY24 2500 HD’s drinking habit, although our test showed you can expect over 14L/100km without towing, or lugging anything in its substantial tub.
Greenies should look away now. There’s no word of anything hybrid or electric coming for these mega trucks. Chevrolet USA is close to launching an all-electric Silverado, promising up to 640km range, 0-100km/h in under five seconds and towing to 4500kg.
Pictured: the Silverado EV
But Jess Bala, GM Australia & New Zealand’s MD, said: “the efficiency and capability just isn’t there yet that meets the customer needs that we have,” when addressing bringing the giant EV here.
Another issue is that General Motors has been painfully hamstrung by delays and problems with its EV production rollout. With just a trickle of Silverado EVs heading down the production line, Australian deliveries remain a very low priority.
Of course, the EV’s circa-640km range would tumble if towing; Australia’s charging infrastructure is mediocre at best, and cost’s a factor. The Silverado EV, with a start price of US$74,800 ($113,000) is far pricier than rivals such as the Rivian R1T or Ford F-150 Lightning.
But let’s just celebrate these diesel monsters while we still get them. Head-on, glaring into the C-shape LED headlights, this Silverado HD is yee-haw in-yer-face American muscled brilliance to behold. It’s simply humongous.
The very black front end’s been revised for ’24 with new fascia, headlights and grille. The 20-inch rims shod in all-terrain tyres, bonnet vent, skid plate, door handles, body trim, badging and recovery points are black too, enhancing the menace.
Side on, its 4036mm wheelbase is longer than an entire Toyota Yaris. Then there’s the cargo area. It’s 2089mm long and 1814mm wide, with 1317mm between the arches. Compare those to a Toyota HiLux’s 1570mm, 1645mm and 1105mm figures respectively.
If it wasn’t already obvious, this thing’s pitched at the open road, not for peacocking around city streets declaring ‘mine’s bigger than yours’. You’ll bore of that very quickly. Parking, turning, manoeuvring and just trying to stay between road markings gets very tiresome.
There’s just the sole LTZ Premium 4WD crew cab grade with standard bed size for Australia. Stateside, their 2500 HDs come as regular, dual and crew cabs, with standard or long beds, and with 2WD or 4WD.
The Americans get more choice because they buy hundreds of thousands of these things each year. Our far smaller market’s kept to a single, high-specification model.
Standard inclusions for your $163,000 plus on-roads include:
Exterior goodies include:
Move inside and features include:
You’re lumbered with an old-school column shift, while paying extra for a tow ball and tonneau cover (soft, hard rolling, trifold or electric-retractable) stings a bit.
There are four colour choices: Slate Grey metallic (it’s the best), Summit white, Red Hot and Black.
The V8 is a brawny torque monster, helping this giant rear-up when you floor the throttle. There’s an ungodly roar as that 6600cc starts drinking, and its eagerness to get up to speed reminds of a charging hippopotamus: despite appearances, an animal faster than Usain Bolt.
There’s no laborious wait for response, with acceleration rivalling a modern hot hatch. The wall of twist arrives really early in the rev range, and is smoothly delivered via a 10-speed Allison transmission to the rear wheels, or all four at the touch of a button.
From the seat of this rig, you can literally feel the power and torque coursing through the body and chassis. We’re told its engineers – while also unleashing that 1322Nm – improved low-end performance by up to 25 per cent. If you’re hauling something seriously heavy or climbing steep hills, such immediate guts are all-important.
Settle into cruise mode and it’s pretty docile. The big diesel can’t hide its rumble like our smaller four-cylinder diesel utes manage, but it’s far from unpleasant.
Low speed ride with no load in the back is a dash jittery, but there’s no really uncomfortable or nauseating bounciness. Steering’s vague, as expected, and you’ve got to put some effort in to get proper brake feel.
But a multi-link front end gives a bit more suspension travel in the nose, and a dash more steering feel than commonplace in a mega truck – but it’s still lifeless by normal car/SUV standards.
If roads are wide enough it’s liveable in the corners. Yes, there’s body roll, but if you keep control inputs smooth and gentle it feels safe and composed in turns and roundabouts.
It’s a gem on the highway. You sit so high that you’re treated to a panorama through giant windows, while at speed it settles into a lazy, easy tempo and you cosy back into the wide-seat driver’s chair ready to cross a continent.
These trucks are absolutely at their best like this. The 2500 HD competently does the luxury bit, giving no qualms about a 10-hour driving session. Flick on the heated or cooled seats, crank up the Bose audio (it does a decent job) and it’s King of the Road stuff. Outside noises are kept well at bay.
Radar cruise control – including if you’re towing – helps the serenity, and you appreciate the convenience of massive storage to hand, plus a really well-placed wireless phone charger, and its wireless phone connectivity.
The column shifter’s a letdown. It feels antique in this otherwise modern cabin, and its action is clunky.
I often selected the wrong gear, and if you want to dictate the gear changes there are fiddly buttons on the stalk rather than easier paddle shifters. It doesn’t automatically shift into Park when you switch off – a welcome safety feature on Ford’s trucks.
We had a brief off-road test where this all-terrain tyre’d Chevy showed ample ability. With auto locking rear diff and easy-select low range I’ve no doubt it’ll chomp through most terrain.
But our off-road tracks are, in general, too skinny for this truck. You’re constantly worrying about scrub to the side and trees overhead.
Its huge wheelbase won’t be great over mounds, while tight bends will necessitate multi-point turn frustration. I’d also not be keen trying to dig out 3.7-tonnes worth of Chevy if it bogged.
But you’re buying these for heavy towing, right? We hitched up a 2.6-tonne caravan, which felt akin to asking a heavyweight boxer to throw an empty backpack over his shoulder. With the van behind, I noted no extra effort required from the big V8.
Lugging it up an incline was effortless, while a smart Diesel Exhaust Brake (like a truck’s compression braking) proved highly useful.
When driving down a hill when towing, you just flick this switch and it arrests progress smoothly, meaning you don’t need to stand on (and over-work) your brakes – four wheel discs in this case, by the way.
After a full day in the saddle, I came out the other side reasonably refreshed. The biggest sweats come when trying to park.
I forgot this was a RHD converted machine, everything feeling factory good with no dodgy alignment or rattles noted.
Cast your eyes over the outgoing Silverado 2500 HD and you’ll see the mighty step-change for MY24. To bring this in at the same price as the old car is a welcome surprise.
Previously the infotainment screen looked like a postage stamp in a giant dash, but now a 13.4-inch widescreen job holds fort.
This makes best use of the myriad, excellent cameras for safe parking and towing (see safety, below), but also serves well for good sized navigation and wireless CarPlay/Android Auto.
A legacy of its left-hand-drive origin is the shortcut menu tabs on the far left of the touchscreen, meaning a lengthy reach for the driver.
Climate is thankfully easy-use knobs and dials, while the digital driver display has reasonable customisation plus off-road details in easy view. A colour head-up display adds more information, and is configurable to give just the key details. Appreciated.
Seats are jumbo and adjustable to the nth degree, meaning you can strike a balance of lazy recline while still enjoying a commanding view.
Pictured: the US-spec Silverado HD
The leather quality feels okay without being next-level pampering (it’s still a truck, remember), but there’s an overriding sense of spoil-yourself luxe in here. Most plastics are soft touch until you get down the doors.
While I can’t abide the cheapie column shifter, at least it frees up acres of central space. An iPad fits ahead of two giant cup holders, while there’s esky-like storage under the padded centre armrest. More room’s available in a glovebox and a second box in the dash in front of the passenger.
There’s room for three adults across the back, which is furnished with air vents and a couple of USB ports.
Pictured: the US-spec Silverado HD
The middle seat’s firm of base, but incredibly wide, while head and leg room for all is monumental. So much so it feels wasteful to not have sliding rear seats, which would allow the otherwise upright seat backs to recline a bit.
Soft door plastics, heated chairs and decent carpet are welcome, while there’s storage under the split-fold seat bases, plus clever storage for the likes of a first aid kit or the kids’ snacks in a little door in the rear seat backs.
Kudos to Chevy for recognising how high up the pickup’s tub is to access. There are mega-sized jutting out steps behind the rear doors, helping you lean in to reach things at the back of the cargo area. Rear bumper corner steps do likewise for the front of the tub.
The tailgate’s a fair chunk of metal, so it’s a boon having it automatically lower and raise.
The tub is seriously huge, but you must be conscious of the payload. It feels undergunned at 733kg, but this is down to legislation rather than ability. If you have a truck license, allowed payload jumps to 1386kg.
You’ll easily fit motocross or quad bikes in here, while there are a handy 12 fixed tie-down points.
This pick-up has no ANCAP safety rating, nor does the US equivalent, the IIHS, have crash test results because trucks are exempt from being crashed in American labs.
Understandably, it’s easy to feel almost indestructible in a vehicle so massive.
But considering the 2500 HD’s mass, longer stopping distances and cumbersomeness during emergency avoidance, active safety is key. You really don’t want to lose control of one of these trucks.
Pleasingly, to go with its six airbags, Chevy’s fitted adaptive cruise control, head-up display, lane change alert with side blind spot alert, lane departure warning, rear cross traffic alert and forward collision alert with low speed AEB and front pedestrian braking.
The latter’s imperative: the nose of these things is basically at head height.
Our test proved the systems to be pleasingly non-invasive. Little buzz warnings go through the driver’s seat base if detected problems such as an obstacle in the blind spot when turning, or lane transgressions.
Most useful are the parking features. With a brute like this you need all the help you can when parking in spots clearly not designed for American trucks.
There are sensors front and rear, and the 360-degree camera offers an excellent 14 different views, easily flicked through on the touchscreen.
For those towing, a superb safety feature is the Transparent Trailer View. Using AI, the available cameras build a picture to allow you to virtually “see through” compatible trailers.
We used it with our caravan, and while the rear-view mirror is filled with van, the central screen simply shows its outline and a completely clear view behind.
A red graphic on the monitor flashes to the fore if your trailer’s in danger of clipping an obstacle while turning. It detects steering angle and when it reaches a certain point, prioritises this side-of-van view to show dangers like posts and parked cars. Really handy.
A hitch view camera let me back up to the caravan with the accuracy of a NASA lunar module commander; then I could scroll through a HD surround view, rear top-down view, bed view and inside trailer view.
If you option enough cameras, there are 14 available unique views. Pablo Escobar’s mansion never had this many CCTV spies.
Ongoing bills are more akin to fancy city restaurants rather than truck stop cafés.
Fuel economy? I can’t recall the last time I covered a new car launch and official figures weren’t released. Just because they make for uncomfortable viewing, doesn’t mean Australia should be denied them.
Unladen, our test returned 14.3L/100km over 138km of mainly highway and rural road driving – typical journeys for a 2500 HD. The figure climbed to an average of 16.5L/100km when some mild off-roading and 20 kilometres towing a 2.6-tonne caravan was included.
Fuel tank’s a bath-like 136L, so if diesel’s $2.10 a litre (current average price), you’ll not see much change from $300 when refuelling. At around 15L/100km, that tank lasts around 900km.
Warranty’s poor by today’s standards. You get a mere three years/100,000km – that matches RAM’s effort, but Ford Australia gives its RHD F-150 truck a more palatable five-years/unlimited-km backing.
Service intervals are 12 months/12,000km, and sadly there’s no capped price servicing. We’re told “servicing costs may vary by dealer due to labour rates and transactional part pricing.” A bit of digging suggests you’re looking at around $2200 for the first three services.
On a positive note, you get three years roadside assist thrown in.
We must judge cars on being fit for purpose; doing the job they were designed for. The Silverado 2500 HD is there to tow mighty things with effortless comfort, ease and safety, and here it excels.
The V8 turbo-diesel is a muscled monster, its otherworldly torque proving standout, and the slick 10-speed auto aids smooth progress.
Cabin and tech modernisation are big wins for 2024, making this brute easy to recommend. But only to the correct buyer.
It’s simply too big, too cumbersome, too thirsty, too polluting and too expensive – especially next to petrol-powered 1500 American pickups – for anyone not towing close to 4500kg.
GMSV needs to improve its warranty and get busy exploring hybrid and electric options for Australia. But, just for now, let’s just enjoy the mad excess of this mega truck.
Key specs (as tested)
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