Chevrolet Silverado 1500 available from $113,990
HSV has officially revealed the pricing of the highly anticipated Chevrolet Silverado 1500, General Motors’ formidable rival for the seemingly all-conquering Ram 1500.
Priced from $113,990 plus on-road costs, the Silverado 1500 will be offered in just a single guise Down Under, with the feature-laden LTZ Premium Edition slotting in at the higher end of the 1500 pick-up market when it hits showrooms from April 20.
Those wanting any sort of colour besides the standard ‘Summit White’ will have to fork out an extra $1250.
Weighing in at 2588kg and measuring 5885mm in length and 2063mm wide, the Silverado 1500 is certainly big, being 69mm longer and 95mm wider than its Ram 1500 arch rival, although the Ram does better the Chevy on payload capacity (845kg vs 712kg).
Under the bonnet there is a naturally aspirated 6.2-litre V8 petrol engine producing 313kW and 624Nm, driving all four wheels via a 10-speed automatic transmission and resulting in a maximum braked towing capacity of 4500kg.
Drivers have four different driving modes at their disposal depending on the journey at hand, those being Touring for everyday driving, Sport for increased throttle response, Off-road for slippery conditions and Tow/Haul for towing duties.
On the subject of towing, the Silverado 1500 LTZ Premium Edition comes with a collection of goodies designed especially for the task in addition to the aforementioned driver mode.
These include trailer swap control, hill start assist and auto grade braking while Chevrolet’s (optional) advanced trailering package adds hitch guidance with hitch view, integrated trailer brake controller, trailer theft alert and in-vehicle advanced trailering system, among others.
To help make the Silverado as adept off-road as it is at towing, Chevrolet has specced it as standard with high and low range, hill descent control, heavy duty locking rear differential, all-terrain tyres, skid plates and Z71 Off-Road suspension with Rancho twin tube shock absorbers.
For those less fussed with off-road performance, HSV is offering an optional, locally developed performance suspension tune and performance exhaust system.
As expected from a vehicle of this size, price and befitting of its Premium Edition nameplate, Australian spec Silverados score 10-way power adjustable, heated and ventilated leather front seats with memory function, heated leather steering wheel, leather rear seats (outboard seats also heated), dual-zone climate, keyless entry and start, powered sunroof, express front and rear windows, tyre pressure monitoring, 60:40 split-folding rear seats, auto-dimming rearview mirror and dual-zone climate control.
Entertainment duties are taken care of by Chevrolet’s Infotainment 3 Plus System, accessed and operated via an 8.0-inch colour touchscreen along with Apple CarPlay, Android Auto, advanced voice recognition, Bluetooth, colour head-up display and a seven-speaker Bose premium sound system.
On the safety front, lane change alert with side blind zone alert and rear cross-traffic alert, forward collision alert, low speed forward automatic braking, front pedestrian braking, Intellibeam automatic headlamp control, following distance indicator, front and rear park assist, safety alert seats, six airbags, electronic stability control, trailer sway control and hill-start assist are all fitted as standard.
Lighting front and rear comes courtesy of LED headlights, foglights and tail-lights while the 1776mm tray also features LED lamps controlled via a steering wheel mounted button.
The tray itself measures 1286mm between the rear wheelarches and comes with a spray-on bed liner, 12 cargo tie-down points and lockable powered tailgate.
Price-wise, the Silverado 1500 LTZ Premium Edition checks in carrying a $4040 premium over the top-spec Ram 1500 Laramie EcoDiesel Crew Cab ($109,950) before on-road costs, but offsets the difference with more standard equipment and slightly more cargo space.
2020 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 pricing*
| LTZ Premium Edition (a) | $113,990 |
*Excludes on-road costs
