With the Silverado's on-board computer nagging us that it was time for a tuneup, we took in our Truck of the Year for its first maintenance visit just shy of 12,000 miles. The local Chevrolet dealer charged us $381.06-not exactly miserly-but the bill did include a lengthy list of services: an oil change, a full inspection, a tire rotation, and cleaning of the throttle body, induction, and fuel injectors. In addition, the technicians performed a recall on the battery under warranty (charge and test) and also remedied the pesky passenger-seat airbag light that had blinked at us unnecessarily from time to time.
OTHER MT VOICES
Made a great trip up to Big Bear a while back and beat the snot out of the truck pre-running some trails on the west side of the lake, even got the airbag sensor to pop on a few times because of excessive vibrations. Dealer said they cleaned off quite a bit of dust from the sensor connections. Definitely a tough truck and seems to like getting dirty. Tires are beginning to squeal a bit in back and fronts sure like to slide when pushed. Find myself flipping to AWD when I know I have some twisties coming or a 270-degree freeway transition coming up just to keep as much traction at each wheel as possible. Coming back from Big Bear, I reset all the fuel economy numbers and trips and by the time I pulled into my driveway, granted having come from 7100 feet to 1850 feet of elevation, I did average 20.6 mpg, highway and freeway driving. Of course, I did feather-foot it quite a bit and didn't feel the need to get into the fast lane. Reasonable driving with an eye on the wallet . . . 20 mpg from a 6.0-liter V-8 with 360 hp -- not bad at all. -MARK WILLIAMS
| 2007 Chevrolet Silverado |
| Months/miles in service | 8/12,947 |
| Avg econ/CO2 | 13.7 mpg/1.33 lb/mi |
| Unresolved problems | None |
| Maintenance cost | $381.06 (15K service-see text) |
| Normal-wear cost | $0 |