Someone said it best: never buy anything revison 1.0, better wait for a few revisions while the bugs are ironed out.

That is the main reason I'm NOT updating to Windows Vista! At least not yet.

 

Well when I bought mine, the mileage was posted on the window sticker. The highway figure was the same as a normal 5.3L 1/2 ton. The city figure was 2mpg higher than a normal. This, however was not the reason I bought the truck. The dealer and factory incentives were over $12,000 which made it cheaper than any other trucks I'd looked at similarly equipped.

I am wondering that too. The owners manual talks about an 8 year warranty on hybrid items, but I just wonder what all is covered. It's probably one of those things that it covers anything except the broken/burnt up part.

Also to add to the discussion, the silverado goes slightly beyond being a simple start/stop hybrid. If you look at the front of the engine, there is only the air conditioner and water pump taking power from the crankshaft. Absent is the power steering, radiator fan (might be electric on all newer trucks, I'm not sure), and alternator. The power steering is electric as well as the fan. The battery is charged by the electric motor that starts the truck through regenerative braking, so I suppose the reduced strain on the engine allows for better fuel efficiency, more than just shutting off the engine at stop lights.

Of course that is all in theory, and introduces added complexity and components harder to fix/access than an engine mounted alternator, power steering pump, and mechanical fan, not to mention more expensive.

So far I have around 1300 miles on my truck and no problems to report aside from the drive shaft (not saying much). I suppose once I begin driving it again this fall I will have more to report.

 

I've been driving the hybrid silverado for over a year now, and still averaging about 16 to 17 mpg not the 20 to 21 a sales guy told me, well i didnt listen to him anyways

It's a "pretty neat truck" as my diesel buddies say it

I did alot of research about this truck before i bought it, and thought well i'll give it a shot, it's been an ok truck. i dont have anything horriable to say about it, and i bet my diesel buddies cant say they've powered almost their entire house durring a power outage, WELL I CAN

 

i've got 23,000 on my hybrid silverado and had a water pump and electric stering go out i guess thats why we have a Warranty

 

Just an update, I now have a whopping 2,100 miles on my truck since I bought it new in December (it sits a LOT). I did get a chance to pull my parent's 22' boat over memorial day weekend and I was happy with the performance. Of course, in tow mode, it doesn't shut off at all, so its really just a regular truck at that point. Afterward, I changed the oil and added a quart of Lucas oil treatment which seemed to help the mileage of my last car (99 Mercury Cougar 4cyl 5sp). Mileage with the boat hovered around 13-14 while traveling to and from the Allegheny river which is fairly hilly.

I will be taking it with me on a new long-term assignment, so I will be driving it much more than I do currently. I'll be sure to post back after I hit a more substantial milestone than 2,100 miles.

 

Well I finally got to drive my truck some more (about to hit 5k miles!). After I changed the oil I drove about 300 miles from Pittsburgh to Baltimore and averaged about 21mpg (what the sticker says!!). I filled up and then drove back and forth to work for two weeks in beltway traffic, sometimes creeping along, sometimes cruising along at 65mph...depending on the time of day and traffic. I ended up getting about 19mpg (sticker!!) after two tanks of fuel. I'm impressed, didn't know it was possible to achieve EPA sticker numbers!

Now its getting transported to Seattle, WA for my new assignment, so I'll see how it does commuting to work in I-5 traffic. I'd have to say my truck's got more getup than the Impala rental I have right now...I can't wait to drive it again!

 

Sounds good but I had a wild thought:
http://www.go-ev.com/

These folks are putting electric motors in the propeller shaft to the rear axle. I'm wondering if a retro-fit of one of their units might give a significant MPG boost for short trips?

Their system looks like the old 'over drive' retro-fit systems and they are strictly plug-in power. Still, electric power is about half the cost of gas . . .

Just a thought.

Bob Wilson

 

The Chevy 1/2 ton pickups,and SUV derivatives(tahoe,Suburban) tend to stay on the road a long time.Many, many of them make it well past 150,000 miles.It is true that the QC wasn't up to Honda/Toyota standards in the past, but they are much closer now.
18 mpg in mixed driving is very good.My Tundra V-8 accesscab(4400 lbs) never got better than 18 mpg hy(at 55mph),and only got 13.5 in pure city driving.It turned a lot or revs-2000 rpms-at 60 mph.
I recently bought a 1998 2wd Suburban(5.7) with 196,000 miles on it.It came with full maintenance records which showed the trans was rebuilt at 185,000 miles(1st time),and the AC, intake manifold gasket and several other items were replaced at 165000.The seller didn't have any reason to conceal the maintenace record-it was selling so cheap $2950 no point.It has the usual 10 yo car rattles, but otherwise is pretty nice.It get 12 mpg in pure short trip(2 miles or less with full cool down in between)city driving with the ac blasting.My scanguage shows it getting 20 mpg at 55mph,and about 19 mpg at 60 mph-not so bad for a 5400 lb brick.I expect that it will get 17-18 mpg on the same long trip route that the Pilot got 21 mpg on.In city driving the Pilot got 13-14 mpg.
Motor shutdown standing alone is a good thing.The V-8s use about .7gal per hour at idle(Pilot about .4 gal per hour).Most folks who spend 1 hour per day in city driving probably are stopped for 15 minutes of that hour-roughly .2 gal per day-65 gallons per year saved.
I'm pulling for GM.Their biggish vehicles-commercial pickups,SUVs-are what will make or break them in respect to USA manufacturing.
Charlie

 

My dad owns a hybrid Silverado.. He went and bought one when I told him that it was already available, according to a Chevrolet truck blog I follow.

 

hey ryan I have a 2007 with 2300 miles on it . It's a great truck I have a 7 ft. plow on it.It also has a speacial outlet in the rear of the tailgate to plug in power tools. But the problem i am having is finding production numbers.