2006 Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD Duramax

Where were you on the day gas hit $3.50 a gallon? I'll tell you where I was - plowing through the Internet, looking for a heavy-duty pickup that wouldn't suck down half of America's Strategic Petroleum Reserve on my upcoming week's trip. And then I hit upon an idea: Don't use gasoline at all, dude! Go the diesel route. And so I did.


The week's plan of transporting motorcycles, driving to a high-altitude trailhead, cruising into stiflingly hot Death Valley and then into the high desert warranted a pickup with some real capability, so the Chevrolet Silverado 2500HD Duramax diesel began to make sense. We knew from the motoring journals that diesel-powered cars could put down some pretty impressive fuel-economy numbers, such as an estimated 44 mpg Highway for the VW New Beetle TDI six-speed. So why couldn't a diesel pickup also trounce its gas-powered competitors in the mileage department? It was worth a try.

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When the Silverado diesel clattered up the street I wasn't sure whether it was the test truck or Joe the UPS man. It was the pickup. The Isuzu-built 6.6-liter V8 is quieter and less smoky than previous diesels due to its direct injection technology, but it still exhibits plenty of "personality" that diesel diehards love—and some others don't. Over a week and 800 miles of driving I grew to like the noise, but to each his own.


Loading a pair of motorcycles, two mountain bikes and a toolbox into the bed, and packing a week's worth of stuff for two guys inside, left an honorable amount of room to spare. I always tell people with bikes to get the eight-foot bed because you can close everything in more securely. But we found the Chevy's 6.5-foot adequate if we attended to details. We even added a big rolled-up Persian rug that my buddy had to deliver.


After topping up the tank with No. 2 diesel fuel and zeroing the trip odometer, on Saturday we headed straight to the vintage races at Willow Springs in Southern California. On the highway, the second most noticeable thing about the big Chevy soon made itself known—glorious, abundant, radiant, seamless and boundless torque. Rated at 650 lb.-ft., the Duramax leaps to the command of the drive-by-wire throttle. Man! I hadn't remembered a three-ton vehicle accelerating like this before. Suffice it to say, it's not your father's Oldsmobile diesel. All that power is partly the result of an intercooled variable-geometry turbocharger, which has the added benefit of delivering full power even at high altitudes.