No doubt about it, the 2014 Silverado is a good looking truck. While Ford and Ram have more aggressive styling, the Chevy is no shrinking violet. Its size is more subtly carried and stated with some strategically placed bulges in the hood and fenders. This truck is one of the more aerodynamic on the road as well.

In our quest to have a real world week with the truck I put it to work almost instantly. Granted the payload wasn’t too crushing but I hauled five loads of leaves and sticks into the woods with it at the Lohnes manse. The bed is an honest six feet deep with minimal protrusion from wheel wells and it was lined as well. This truck came with an optional LED cargo box lighting package ($60) and optional moveable tie downs (also $60). That lighting was cool and far superior to the traditional spotlight on the back of the cab (which the truck also has). The bed liner made cleaning up stuff a snap and I threw all kinds of material in the bed over the course of several days and it took all of the abuse in stride.

As this truck has the long running Z71 off-road package I wanted to stretch the truck’s legs off the pavement as well. I went exploring some fire roads in a big state park and eventually ended up at a beach that’s normally regulated for access during the busy season. Since this is the off season, I cruised out on the sandy road, kicked the truck into 4×4 mode and crossed over the dunes to the beach itself.

To get to the hard packed sand you see the truck sitting on here, I had to traverse some really loose stuff. I was nervous because even though this is a Z71 truck it has very little ground clearance and the tires are certainly not on the aggressive side. The four wheel drive and locker helped get us through the really loose stuff and facing the Atlantic. Note the steps in the corners of the bumper here. These are SUPER handy and cool.

Call me a stickler, hardcore, whatever but if I am buying a truck with the off road package, I DO NOT want running boards. I am not a fan of running boards on much of anything built after 1934, so they were not on my list of favorites here. If you cannot climb into this truck you need to have the seat on your Rascal scooter adjusted higher. This is not a high riding truck.

Chevrolet has been touting the quiet nature of their cabs in advertising and promotional stuff. Let me say that this is less a truck cab and more a vault. It is shockingly quiet. I mean that in the most honest sense. There was a point when I looked at my wife and said, “This is creepy.” Back in the “good old days” when these things had the aero of a bread truck and the sound deadening qualities of a timpani drum, long rides were not all that fun. This truck is literally quieter than a few luxury cars I have been in lately. High marks on that Chevrolet.

Here you can get a little more sense of what I was saying about the truck having bulges in the right places to give it a more muscular feel. See how the front fenders flare slightly? That additional width helps to really fill the truck out. If this truck did not have that added girth to it, the design would lose all of the beefy feel and seems small.

One of the things that I’ll complain about now and a little bit deeper into the story is the Z71 “off road” package. As you can see from this photo, there is not much ground clearance happening there under that front air dam. I understand completely that the air dam is a vital piece of the mileage and economy puzzle but the whole off road package is being watered down almost beyond any recognizable level now. Yes, the truck has a locker in the back and the Rancho mono-tube shocks, but that and a skidplate don’t an off roader make.

The headlights are cool and a little on the creepy side. It literally appears as though the truck is looking at you from some angles. Either that or I’m going crazy, but seriously, look at that. Staring contest. I lose again.

I’m a big fan of these optional 20″ wheels. They are a pricey $1,395 option but they look great. Chevy has always done a nice job with the factory optional wheel selection. These are nice pieces. Note big disc brake behind it.

I can report that these tires are quiet on the road, handled sand, some dirt, and puddles well with no signs of hydroplaning. Would I want these guys in a mud pit or on slick rocks? No, but then again I wouldn’t want this truck there either.

As mentioned previously, these steps in the corners of the bumper are genius and I used them a bunch. Whichever engineer did these should get extra cookies at snack time.

Forward facing mud flap? Nope. That is an aerodynamic aid. Look at most new cars/trucks and you’ll see them in varying sizes. This is one of the larger ones I have seen but apparently, breaking the air before it gets to the tire really helps in the aero efficiency department.

The Silverado, like all new cars has an array of safety features (some passive, some active) built into it. The turn signals in the mirrors is one of the neater looking ones.

Over the years, the Z71 badging style is largely stayed the same but the placement and sizes have been different. There is a grill emblem, emblems on the upper rear corners of the bed, on the sill plates, and a small logo on the dash. Pretty much perfect in our eyes. If you went overboard bragging on the off roading capability here you could get shown up by a lesser looking product.

Our guess is that the majority of 2014 Chevy trucks you will see will have some form of the optional chrome grill. Truck buyers are like the last bastion of chrome lovers out there and many buyers do opt for the chrome grill. Happily I had the blacked out version in this truck and I like it the best.

So here’s a photo that more thoroughly illustrates my ground clearance point. My grass isn’t all that long and look how close that air dam is to the ground. Not good on anything other than flat ground.

There are a pair of V8 gas engine options for this truck. There’s the 5.3L engine and the 6.2L “big block” I was hoping for the 420hp 6.2L mill but this truck had the 5.3. These are both part of the new LT series of engines, meaning that they have direct injection, cylinder deactivation, variable valve timing, full aluminum construction, and all the other bells and whistles GM engineered into them. The simply fact is that the 5.3L in this truck feels a lot like the 6.0L engine from the outgoing models. There is absolutely no indication when the motor drops to four cylinder mode nor is there when it picks back up again. You can hear the injectors working at idle. Not anything scary or clattery but you can here them firing under the hood. Neat in some sense but I know some old guy is going to bring it into the dealer thinking a lifter bought the farm.

The motor is set back pretty well in the truck. You can see that the last two plugs are firmly under the cowl there. Access is not bad and running plugs into this thing is still better than anything from the 1970s or 1980s.

A possible scoop?! Note the sticker regarding diesel engines! Ram has the Eco-Diesel model out now, Ford is rumored to have something coming, Nissan is bringing a Cummins into their lineup and I sure as heck hope the 4.5L baby Duramax is coming back to life in these trucks.

Here’s the strange looking LT valve cover with the big bumps for fuel injectors and other stuff in there. The 5.3 engine makes 355hp and has a nice flat torque curve that the six speed automatic likes to live in the middle of. Lingenfelter has already stuck a blower on one of these engines in their truck and jammed it deep into the 13s.

There’s lots of stuff that looks LS-like with this engine but with the valve cover-cover removed you can tell it isn’t an LS engine right quick. I bet a cold air intake is worth more than a few hp on one of these trucks. There was so much concern with noise killing on that air inlet that I just know there is horsepower lurking in there.

So Chevy and other companies will tell you that their customers view trucks as a “tool” and they do their best to make them as useful as possible on that front. Without overly gushing, let’s just say that Chevrolet spent lots of time and money on this cab and it paid off. There’s storage everywhere, the textured surfaces are nice, it exudes a refined feel, is quieter than being locked in a bank safe, and seems to be in place to work FOR the driver. If you are a hoarder you’ll love this truck. It would take a month just to fill all the space in this door!

Everything about the cab of the truck is BIG. From the windows to the amount of rear seating space, the cab is a study in space management. The days of a crew cab being a pair of bench seats that six people could barely wedge into are long over.

Since the front seats are heated and air conditioned there are ventilation ducts coming out for rear seat passengers.

Cavernous. I am 5’10 and could ride cross country in complete comfort in the back of this truck. My son is taller than average for his age and even in his car seat he could not kick the back of the driver’s seat when we were cruising.

The center console is wide enough to stick a flat box of a dozen donuts on with room to spare. It is wide enough to stick a lap top on, note pad, etc. Again, functionality is key in this segment and the console is one of those things designed to aid someone in using the truck as a working vehicle. The donuts were good, BTW.

Buttons and plugs! Ok so we’re in a weird transitional period with regard to automotive technology. In a couple years, everything will be touch screen but here’s the problem. There are old people out there who want buttons and companies know old people have money and they buy things. For this reason, you have touch screen HVAC controls and you have standard button controls. Department of redundancy department. The switches below the HVAC stuff perform functions like, pedal adjustment, traction control on/off, cargo light, parking assist on/off, hill descent, and lane keeping assist. That lane keeping deal is interesting. If you veer towards the white or yellow lines, it vibrates your seat to “wake you up” and get you moving in the right direction.

The fold down armrest and cup holders in the rear are capable of handling Big Gulps a-plenty. Kid tested…no mess. That says a lot.

So this truck had the trailer towing package and that means we got the hitch, the integrated trailer brake controller, the 3.42 rear axle ratio, and a 7,200lb rated rear end.

Remember the glory days of having to actually wire your own trailer stuff? Those days are over.

The other days that are over involve the use of a lever to shift a transfer case into 4WD. This knob is ok but completely unsatisfying with respect to “doing stuff” in the truck. Pulling the handle down and either hearing stuff clunk into position or seeing an indicator light come on used to be cool. A flip of the wrist has you in one of the three 4WD modes.

Since this truck was equipped with the LTZ trim package, it was packing the sweet Bose audio system. I spent the week with the XM radio cranked up and the speakers booming. High quality sound here.

So yeah, the front seats in the truck were heated and air conditioned. While I can’t complain about how nice they were on cool mornings and would be in the summer, is this really the kind of thing you want in your truck? Not me. I enjoyed using them and they worked well but c’amon, this is a truck not a luxury sedan. Man up. Wear thermals or something.

Gauge cluster was cool and I’m always happy to see more than two gauges in any vehicle. Almost unheard of to have a cluster with six…count ’em SIX actual gauges!

I told you that functionality is king. I broadcasted a live internet radio show from inside the cab of this sucker one night. Laptop plugged into the outlet on the right and phone charging off of one of the USB ports on the left. I gave the 12v ports the night off.

The center console up front is epic. Kids under the age of 12 can pretty much fit in it comfortably. The cup holders are one thing.

I’ve  been on boats with shallower fish wells than this thing! You could easily get 20-30 beers in here, multiple lap tops, files, groceries, it is cavernous. I’m not sure how to describe this other than comically large in a good way.

GM’s MyLink system is the best, easiest, most intuitive on the market. The 8″ touch screen is large and vibrant and simple to use.

GPS never led us astray and the large screen makes it was safer than trying to read your phone while driving.

The front seats have memory positions you can program in for multiple drivers. I made the mistake of pressing one button and I nearly had my sternum crushed because apparently one of the lollipop kids was driving this thing before me.

Switch gear on the door is standard fare, nothing really awesome or bad to report on here.

The heated wheel was nice with a thick gripping surface and spokes that allowed me to position my hands wherever I wanted them to be.

Modern cars and trucks are becoming like Formula One cars with the amount of inputs we have on the steering wheel. You can’t argue with it though. Far safer to move your thumb and handle a task than look off the road.

Cruise controls on the left side are flanked by the on/off control for the heated wheel.

Outside of the Ford Lightnings of the 2000s, this truck has the nicest truck buckets I have ever sat in. They actually have some bolstering on the sides, they fit the body very well, and they give the driver a good feeling of control when cornering. Best truck seats from Chevy probably ever.

The seats are basically infinitely adjustable as well. The button on the right was for inflating/deflating the lower lumbar support.

Driver and passenger are really treated to a nice experience in these seats. I am interested to see where else they are in the lineup. Probably Escalade/Suburban.

While it may sound weird, kudos to Chevrolet to fooling everyone but me into thinking that this was an actual stitched on dash pad. The texture and feel really makes it seem that way but it is not. Well done!

This is where the action happens. Note the less intrusive wheel housings, bed lining, moveable tie down hooks, etc. The bed works.

The Rancho mono-tube shocks do a nice job of controlling the suspension on the road. on sand the axle did wrap if there was any sort of wheel spin, but that is a virtually universal condition with leaf sprung trucks.

Mondo by large driveshaft is made of aluminum and ready for whatever you throw at it.

The rear stake pocket of the bed is shaped like a hand grip so you can use the step in the bumper and pull yourself up. It works great. Again, a small thing but a huge factor for the truck being a useful tool for the owner.

So that’s it! I really enjoyed my time with the 2014 Chevy 1500 Z71. This would be an exceptionally cool truck to live with on a day to day basis and it can handle work as well as play. I saw mileage of over 23 on the highway on flat ground and about 16 around town when I was driving normally. With heavier feet those numbers dipped obviously. The list price of $50,475 for this truck is steep but stripping away lots of the luxo stuff and keeping the good bones would still net you a fantastic truck that will get you where you need to be comfortably and efficiently. Congrats to Chevrolet on the release of this all new piece. They did their homework on both the engineering and consumer side and it really shows.