1995 Chevrolet C1500 Silverado review from North America

Alternator went out at 89,000 miles.

Starter went out at 93,000 miles.

Throttle position sensor went out at 94,000 miles.

The air conditioning recently quit, but I think it's just low on refrigerant.

Currently, it needs ball joints (they aren't excessively worn, but the rubber seals on them are all ruptured). The oil cooler lines need to be replaced.

I really love this truck overall. I use it for its intended purpose as a truck, for example hauling stuff and towing a camper. And I use it as a daily driver occasionally (my wife and I work in the same place so we travel together and alternate between the car and the truck). It's ten years old, so I expected some of the issues to crop up, and most of them are quite typical for a vehicle in this age/mileage range.

This is our first truck and I don't know how we ever got by without it. It's such a handy vehicle! It's an extended cab, short box 2 wheel drive model, which is exactly what I wanted. Thankfully, my wife leaves all of the vehicle purchasing decisions up to me, which prevents a lot of arguing! I was originally looking for a Ford F-150, but I couldn't find one that fit my requirements (I'm not knocking Fords here, just for the record, just couldn't find the "right" one). Then we came upon this Chevy one Sunday afternoon. The next day we test drove it and bought it. We've never regretted buying it!

The dashboard is laid out fairly well, and it's the newer style dash, which is certainly nicer to look at in my opinion than the odd, blocky looking dashboards in the 1988-1994 models. There's a lot of nice convenience features inside, like cup holders aplenty, little storage bins, and a huge center console with lots of storage space, which all makes up for the small glove box. My only real complaints about the interior are that most of the interior panels are plastic, which squeak and rattle, and there's no comfortable place to rest my left foot when I'm driving. The seats are pretty comfortable though, and there's lots of glass area so visibility is excellent.

It does have its drawbacks, too. Parking it is a real pain because of its length and wide turning radius. The ride is smooth on the highway, but it gets mighty rough on bad roads. And of course, it's got a healthy appetite for gas. But I can't hold those things against it too much; it is a truck, after all.

The acceleration is decent and the engine has plenty of power for hauling and towing. The automatic transmission shifts nicer than some cars I've driven, very smooth. The brakes do an excellent job of stopping such a large vehicle.

The next truck we buy will probably be another Chevy (or GMC, which is very similar).

As a side note, I chose "not applicable" for previous vehicle owned, because even though we've owned many cars before, this is our first truck.