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G12 AUTOMOTIVE THE CAR PAGES Hauling the burden of a foolish economy


They are work vehicles, engineered to carry and pull heavy loads. Their pride is in horse- power, the overall amount of work their en- gines can do; torque, the ability of those en- gines to exert twisting power on drive wheels; payload, the amount of weight that can be car- ried onboard; and towing capacity, the weight of a trailer or other wheeled object to be pulled. Lately, because of global concerns over po- tentially ruinous climate change and energy sourcing and conservation, other numbers have gained importance. They include fuel ef- ficiency, the amount of work (usually meas- ured in miles traveled) that can be done per unit of fuel used (measured in gallons in the United States) and the amount of tailpipe pol- lutants emitted (measured in grams per mile). The problem for vehicle manufacturers is


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that many of those numbers are frequently at odds with one another. More horsepower and torque tends to negatively affect fuel efficiency and economy, the latter referring to the cost of fuel used. Better fuel economy and efficiency tend to negatively affect horsepower, torque and payload and towing capacities. A pickup truck that gets a high city-highway mileage score, but can’t pull its weight at a construc- tion site, is a useless wimp in the truck world. And so it is a large credit to General Motors


that the company has managed to reconcile most of those numbers in its 2011 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 LT crew-cab pickup truck, equipped with an optional turbocharged Du- ramax 6.6-liter diesel V-8 (397 horsepower and a humongous 765 foot-pounds of torque). The Duramax turbo-diesel costs $7,195 more than the standard gasoline-fueled 6-liter V-8 engine (360 horsepower, 380 foot-pounds of torque) that comes with the new Silverado 2500 crew-cab pickup. But as a work truck — note the differences in engine horsepower and torque — the Duramax turbo-diesel makes a better partner on the job. Because it is a more powerful engine than its gasoline counterpart, the Duramax turbo- diesel requires stronger, heavier ancillary parts — steering knuckle, new independent front suspension, a rear suspension with wider leaf frames, a fully boxed ladder frame to sup- port the truck’s body and chassis components — to do its work effectively. But even with all that added weight, the Duramax turbo-diesel gets more miles per gallon than its gasoline ri- val — an estimated 19 miles per gallon on the highway, vs. 12 miles per gallon for the gaso- line model.


he automobile industry is a numbers game that sometimes works against common sense. Consider the matter of heavy-duty pickup trucks.


2011 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 LT NUTS&BOLTS


Bottom line: Cargo-box covers should be standard on pickups intended for use as work trucks. Unprotected cargo beds make no sense on vehicles designed to carry large, abrasive loads.


Ride, acceleration, handling: A new independent front suspension makes this pickup ride like a large passenger wagon. But that rear leaf-spring suspension will bounce you like a truck on rough roads. Handling is excellent — as long as you’re on a paved highway. The diesel is slower off the mark than its gas counterpart.


Head-turning quotient: Aggressive, authoritative and perhaps unintentionally intimidating. Beware of other drivers’ skittishness.


Body style/layout: Layout is front engine with available four-wheel (as tested) or rear-wheel drive. There are 28 iterations of the 2011 Chevrolet 2500 heavy-duty pickup, including regular cab (two side doors), extended cab (two side doors, two narrow rear access doors) and crew cab (for full-size side doors). Available cargo boxes are 6.5 feet and 8.2 feet long, depending on cab type chosen.


Engines/transmissions: The standard engine is a 6-liter, 16-valve gasoline-fueled V-8 (360 horsepower, 380 foot-pounds of torque) mated to a six-speed transmission that can be operated automatically or manually. The optional engine recommended by this column is the turbocharged (forced-air) Duramax 6.6-liter diesel V-8 (397 horsepower, 765 foot-pounds of torque), linked to a heavy duty, six-speed Allison transmission.


CHEVROLET


WARREN BROWN On Wheels


But here is where common sense takes a


flogging. Weight affects miles per gallon. GM, Ford, Dodge and other makers of pickup trucks don’t seem to mind increasing that weight if it increases horsepower, torque and other aspects of bragworthy pickup prowess. But they apparently mind awfully much when it comes to doing one of the easiest things they can do to better serve the work-truck con- sumer — adding a composite or other bed lin- er to the truck’s cargo box as standard equip- ment. It’s simply outrageous. It makes no sense. The Chevy Silverado 2500 LT driven for this column came with a handsome steel-green metallic paint job — an expensive and exten- sive paint job with multiple undercoats and a polyurethane finish that made the body glis- ten even on a gray day. Unfortunately, that


same paint job was used in the cargo box, where I loaded metal and concrete pieces, rocks, chunks of wood torn from a demolished car port, and brush from an overgrown yard. My efforts to protect the cargo box with a tarp came to naught. By the end of my refuse run, the box’s paint job was demolished, trashed, brutally scratched. Why? Again, the answer is in the auto industry’s obsession with numbers. A composite cargo box cover could have added 50 to 100 pounds to the weight of the Silverado 2500 LT, depending on box cover quality and design. That extra weight would have hurt Chevrolet’s bragging rights — doing everything to reduce fuel efficiency and econo- my while doing nothing to increase horsepow- er, torque, payload and towing capacity. Also, adding a composite cargo-box cover as standard equipment would raise the retail price of the truck. In the car business, that comes down to guesses about what buyers are willing to pay for. The current industry thinking is that more consumers are willing to pay for extra horse- power than are inclined to pay for cargo-box protection. But I think the trashed, scratched and dented cargo box returned to Chevrolet represents ample ground for disagreement. brownw@washpost.com


Capacities: The crew-cab Silverado 2500 seats six. With the Duramax diesel it can support a payload of 4,192 pounds and pull a trailer weighing 17,800 pounds. The standard gasoline version supports a payload of 3,123 pounds and pulls a trailer weighing 13,000 pounds. Fuel capacity is 36 gallons in both versions. But you get 12 miles per gallon on the highway in the gasoline version and 19 miles per gallon highway in the Duramax diesel.


Safety: Standard equipment includes front and rear ventilated disc brakes, four-wheel anti-lock brake protection, emergency braking assistance, electronic stability and traction control, OnStar emergency communications system, and tire-pressure monitoring.


Price: Base price of the 2011 Silverado 2500 LT crew cab with standard gasoline V-8 is $38,860. Dealer’s invoice price on that model is $36,140. Price as tested is $55,850, including $15,995 in options and $995 destination charge. Dealer’s price as tested is $51,212. A $1,500 customer rebate was available at this writing.


on washingtonpost.com Chat with Warren Brown


11 a.m. Fridays at washingtonpost.com/discussions. Also, listen to On Wheels with Warren Brown from noon to 1 p.m. Sundays on WMET World Radio (1160 AM) or www.wmet1160.com.


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