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MOTOR TREND Magazine Names '99 Truck of the Year

19 October 1998

MOTOR TREND Magazine Names the Chevrolet Silverado as '99 Truck of the Year

    PONTIAC, Mich., Oct. 19 -- MOTOR TREND magazine today
announced the selection of the Chevrolet Silverado as the publication's '99
Truck of the Year.  In selecting the Silverado for its highest truck award,
MOTOR TREND cited the Chevy's excellent performance, comfortable and roomy
cab, well-tuned suspensions, technical innovation, outstanding versatility,
and exceptional value.
    The Truck of the Year award program is a sister event to MOTOR TREND's
highly recognized Car of the Year, Import Car of the Year, and new
Sport/Utility of the Year awards.  It was inaugurated in 1989 in response to
the dramatic rise in consumer interest in truck-based vehicles for personal
and recreational use.  In choosing the Truck of the Year, MOTOR TREND editors
considered all new or significantly changed '99 pickups and full-size vans,
weighing such factors as value, performance, livability, technological
advancement, and overall impact on the automotive market to identify the most
significant vehicle of '99.
    The all-new Silverado is the first major redesign of Chevrolet's full-size
pickups in a decade and, with over half a million sales last year, represents
the division's single largest-selling vehicle line, car or truck.  In its
clean-sheet approach to this new generation, Chevrolet achieved an excellent
blend of rugged utility and comfortable livability.  A new line of Vortec
V-8 engines, ranging from a gutsy 4.8-liter/255-horsepower to a stump-pulling
6.0-liter/300-horsepower, provide plenty of power for towing or hauling, plus
each features a limp-home mode in the event of a cooling system breakdown,
which will let the truck be driven to help rather than being stranded by the
side of a road.  In addition, the half-ton Silverado boasts the roomiest cab
in its class, with new front seatbelt designs that anchor to the seat for a
more comfortable fit.  Silverado pickups are available in a multitude of
configurations -- including two- and four-wheel drive, regular and three-door
extended cab, half- and three-quarter-ton platforms, three bed styles, four
suspension choices, and three trim levels -- ensuring buyers a truck that will
fit their individual needs and lifestyle.
    MOTOR TREND editors call the Silverado "a more sophisticated, tougher, and
more versatile benchmark among full-size pickups," and state that "the
Silverado clearly raises the pickup standard with an array of improvements
that will certainly touch many people's lives."  They go on to say, "Bigger,
faster, and stronger, the '99 Silverado has had every bolt and nut massaged
for better and longer performance," and sum up their praise by saying, "We
applaud the Silverado's breakthrough technology and design, enormous platform
flexibility, standard-setting overall performance, carlike comfort, and
outstanding value."
    The complete report on the '99 Truck of the Year can be found in the
December 1998 issue of MOTOR TREND, on sale November 3, 1998, or on MOTOR
TREND's internet site at http://www.motortrend.com.  MOTOR TREND magazine is
published monthly in Los Angeles by The Petersen Companies, Inc.