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It was a bright summer day when I arrived at my local Chevy dealer for a prearranged test drive of the new 2008 Silverado 3500HD 4X4 pickup truck. The one I wanted to see was an "Extended Cab Long Bed Dually with the Duramax Diesel". It wasn't hard to see that the truck I wanted was parked nicely on a concrete pad in front of the showroom. It had been freshly washed and water still tricked onto the concrete from various places along its lower edges. Flashes of bright sun light reflected off the huge bright chrome bumper as I strolled toward it.

As I got closer, I could feel the summer's heat radiating off the truck's shiny black painted body. I was eager to climb inside and get the A.C to blowing cold air on my face. While I walked around this huge beast of a truck, my dealer assigned salesman, Roger Spivey poked his head out of a showroom door and yelled, "I'll get the keys so you can check it out." Yeah, I thought, that would be a real bright idea. I caught a glimpse of the young blond-haired Mr. Spivey as he headed back into the showroom to retrieve the keys. I wonder why the management would put such a young green kid up to this tough assignment. I'm going to tear this kid's head off....how can he teach an old seasoned pro, like me, anything about a truck?

I began a slow examination of the truck as I waited for Mr. Spivey. Man, everything about this truck shouts, "Macho".....from the raised stamped letters on the swollen hood that read, "DURAMAX".....to the powerful high-tech 6.6 liter, all aluminum turbocharged intercooled diesel that provides locomotion. This power-plant makes 660 lbs. of torque that twists through a heavy duty Allison six-speed transmission like the ones designed for big work trucks. The exhaust flows through a huge pipe that runs under the truck and exits through a six inch megaphone at the rear.

The rear fenders extend from the sides of the long bed and flair out ominously to cover the huge dual 17 inch chrome rear wheels and fat rear tires. This beast is set up to easily yank a 16,000 lb. trailer down the road like it's nothing. A quick look underneath reveals all manner of thick steel mechanical gizmo's, axles, strong suspension arms, transfer cases, drive shafts and innumerable nuts and bolts that keep everything in place.

The big full-sized bed is shoulder height and is equipped with built-in tool boxes, thick reinforced surfaces, and other related items all capped off by an EZ lift tailgate. Bright decorative 4X4 labels add a touch

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