Unlike most people in developed countries, Americans often use pickups like cars. The vehicles that Europeans and Japanese choose for commuting, shuttling their children and grabbing groceries could park in the bed of the Chevrolet Silverado 2500 HD. Then again, this Chevy is more of a leviathan than most pickups. This grown-up Tonka toy and its General Motors twin, the GMC Sierra 2500 HD, are the closest many drivers will get to operating heavy machinery.
Looking for your own heave machinery? Call Ron Westphal Chevrolet now at 630-898-9630 or visit our website and get your own HD Silverado.
For those not overly familiar with pickups, the Ford F150s, Chevy Silverados and Rams we see most often are 1500s. These are solid trucks that carry wallboard and tow motorbikes when they aren’t doing family duty. Hauling the clan in a 2500 series is like cutting butter with a chain saw. Excess is fun — until you need finesse. Spoiler alert: This Silverado actually has some.
Ford and Ram also make 2500s (3500s, too, but let’s not go there today). Pickups are all about numbers and bragging rights. The 2500s are serious work rigs that, in the Silverado’s case, can tow up to 18,100 pounds. Its maximum payload is 3,534 pounds. That’s about 500 pounds more than the weight of a Toyota Prius.
Did you know that trucks in this class are not rated by the Environmental Protection Agency? The 2500 HD I drove was equipped with the revised 6.6-liter Duramax diesel V-8. I saw 17 miles per gallon, a stellar number considering Silverado’s 7,300-pound weight.
That engine, rated at 445 horsepower and a jaw-dropping 910 pound-feet of torque, is paired exclusively with a six-speed Allison transmission. The column-mounted shift lever often slides straight into “low” rather than “drive,” so pay attention. The small manual shift buttons on the arm are a bit awkward to use. Steering wheel paddles could be useful here.
Like many diesel engines, the Chevy’s uses urea fluid to keep the engine emissions in check. The tank requires an occasional refill of the urea, though that’s as easy as topping off windshield wiper fluid. But the tank does impinge on the front passenger’s work boots a bit. (A Seattle law firm specializing in automotive class action lawsuits has accused GM of programming an emissions cheat, a case similar to one against Volkswagen. GM denies the accusation. The government has not stepped in at this time.)
You can choose between rear- and four-wheel drive. There’s a towing mode, including a trailer-sway control that pulses the Silverado’s brakes to help stabilize the load. Adjustments can be made to the trailer brakes, and an engine brake setting helps save the physical brakes when lugging heavy cargo down steep mountain roads. Just like the big rigs.
Chevy Veterans Day Bonus Cash Back on our most popular new models.
Thank to Veterans. “Thanks to all who put—and have put—on the uniform looking for nothing in return. The selfless act of serving our country deserves the highest level of respect and gratitude we have to offer. When I see a veteran in public, my frown or bad mood turns into a grin and happiness knowing that our country is safe because of these men and women. May peace always be with you.” –Giovanni Moujaes
The entire staff at Ron Westphal Chevrolet salutes all our Veterans and their familes–past, present and future.
0% apr for up to 72 months is available on select remaining new 2016 Chevrolet models. But hurry…last day for 0% x 72 is scheduled to be 11.11.16.
Veterans Day Cash Back Bonus Tags are here and they’re bigger than ever. And, we’ve got’em on all the most popular models.
Visit www.WestphalChevy.com to browse our inventory. Or, call our customer care team at 630-898-9630 to schedule a no-obligation test drive.
These pages will display the nationally advertised lease payments on our most popular Chevy models. Your payments may vary. Remember, all advertised lease specials do not include sales tax, doc fee and license plate fees. Required down payments vary. Each payment comes with it’s own disclosure. Mileage requirements, downpayment etc. are all listed in the disclosure but if you have any questions, just call our Customer Care Team at 630-898-9630. Or, drop by our showroom anytime.
Reasons to Lease
Clients that like to drive something new every few years or so generally prefer leasing because it’s so easy.
1: You are guaranteed not to have any negative equity. Try getting out of a 72 month finance contract after two years and you’ll find out about negative equity.
2: When your lease is over you just walk away. No trade-in hassle. There is a $350 disposition fees but that is usually waived if you re-lease or purchase another Chevy.
3: You have no maintenance headaches. Your vehicle is under warranty pretty much the entire time of your lease. And, 4 free oil changes are includes at no additional charge. You could actually lease a new Chevy for 24 months and pay ZERO in maintenance during that time.
4: Clients get to drive something new all the time. It’s kind of like waiting for the latest smartphone. No one wants to wait for the latest and greatest. Why wait for all the newest features when you can get something new every few years?
5: Lease Loyalty. GM often offers additional incentives to those folks that are currently in a GM lease to encourage them to re-lease. Hey, extra rebate money is always good, right?
Is it worth it to put nitrogen in our tires? Is there any advantage to nitrogen?
Sort of. From the top: Air is 78 percent nitrogen, just under 21 percent oxygen, and the rest is water vapor, CO2 and small concentrations of noble gases such as neon and argon. We can ignore the other gases.
There are several compelling reasons to use pure nitrogen in tires.
Nitrogen tires. Are they worth it?
First is that nitrogen is less likely to migrate through tire rubber than is oxygen, which means that your tire pressures will remain more stable over the long term. Racers figured out pretty quickly that tires filled with nitrogen rather than air also exhibit less pressure change with temperature swings. That means more consistent inflation pressures during a race as the tires heat up. And when you’re tweaking a race car’s handling with half-psi changes, that’s important. When your driving your Chevy sedan to work every day…it’s probably not that important.
Some dealerships and tire stores claim that filling your tires with nitrogen will save you money on gas while offering better performance than air. But a closer look reveals that nitrogen has few benefits and much higher costs. For starters, a typical nitrogen fill-up will cost you about $6 per tire.
Tire Pressure Check
Visit Ron Westphal Chevrolet on the corner of routes 3o and 34 in Aurora, IL. We are located right next to Plainfield and Naperville. We’ll be happy to check your tire pressure at no charge.
Need more service? Schedule an appointment online or call our service department today at 630-898-9630.
Why Nitrogen?
The Get Nitrogen Institute Web site says that with nitrogen tire inflation, drivers will note improvements in a vehicle’s handling, fuel efficiency and tire life. All this is achieved through better tire-pressure retention, improved fuel economy and cooler-running tire temperatures, the institute says.
This sounds great in theory but let’s take a closer look at each of those claims.
Better tire-pressure retention: Over time, a tire will gradually lose pressure. Changes in temperature will accelerate this. The general rule of thumb is a loss of 1 psi for every 10-degree rise or fall in temperature. The institute says that nitrogen has a more stable pressure, since it has larger molecules than oxygen that are less likely to seep through the permeable tire walls.
In 2006, Consumer Reports conducted a year-long study to determine how much air loss was experienced in tires filled with nitrogen versus those filled with air. The results showed that nitrogen did reduce pressure loss over time, but it was only a 1.3 psi difference from air-filled tires. Among 31 pairs of tires, the average loss of air-filled tires was 3.5 psi from the initial 30 psi setting. Nitrogen-filled tires lost an average of 2.2 psi from the initial setting. Nitrogen won the test, but not by a significant margin.
Improved fuel economy: The EPA says that under-inflated tires can lower gas mileage by 0.3 percent for every 1 psi drop in pressure of all four tires. The theory is that since nitrogen loses pressure at a slower rate than air, you are more likely to be at the correct psi and therefore get better fuel economy.
If you are proactive and check your tire pressure at least once a month, you can offset this difference with free air, and you won’t need expensive nitrogen. We think this invalidates the “better fuel economy with nitrogen” argument.
For many people, however, this kind of maintenance is easier said than done. Most people either forget to regularly check and top off their tires, or never learned how to do it in the first place. Even Edmunds employees (typically a pretty car-savvy group) were under-inflating or over-inflating their tires, according to a tire-pressure study we conducted a few years ago.
And though tire-pressure monitoring systems (TPMS) now come standard on cars, a 2009 National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA) study found that only 57 percent of vehicles with TPMS had the correct tire pressure. That’s because most systems are only meant to signal that a tire has very low pressure, not to show that the pressure is optimal.
Cooler running temperatures: When air is pressurized, the humidity in it condenses to a liquid and collects in the air storage tank you use at the local gas station. When you add compressed air to the tire, the water comes along for the ride. As the tire heats up during driving, that water changes to a gas, which then expands, increasing tire pressure. Because nitrogen is dry, there is no water in the tire to contribute to pressure fluctuations.
But this fluctuation in temperature isn’t as significant as you might think. A 2008 ExxonMobil study plotted the changes in temperature over the course of various inflation pressures. The lines on the graph were virtually on top of each other. In other words, the change in temperature when using nitrogen was negligible.
Cost and Convenience
Let’s say a person bought a set of tires at Costco, a place that uses nitrogen to fill all the tires they sell. If he needs to top off the tires with more nitrogen, he won’t be able to go to just any gas station. He can use regular air if there is nothing else available, but that would dilute the nitrogen in the tires. He’ll have to go back to Costco and wait until the tire technicians can attend to the car. On a busy day, he could be there awhile.
Nitrogen is free at Costco and at some car dealerships we called, but these are rare cases. We called a number of tire shops that carry nitrogen and found that the prices for a nitrogen fill ranged from $5-$7 per tire. Assuming our consumer was diligent about checking his tires monthly, he could potentially spend about $84 a year on nitrogen alone per tire. Compare that to the most gas stations, where air is free or a 75-cent fill-up for all four tires at the most.
Finding tire shops with nitrogen could be an issue, too. We called a number of large chains, including America’s Tire Co., Discount Tire and Walmart. None carried nitrogen.
Is Nitrogen Worth It?
The air we breathe is made up of 78 percent nitrogen, 21 percent oxygen and a few other elements. To get the desired benefits for tires, nitrogen needs to be at least 93 percent pure, according to nitrogen service equipment providers quoted on Tirerack.com. So we’re basically talking about adding an extra 15 percent of nitrogen and getting rid of as much oxygen as possible.
Based on cost, convenience and actual performance benefit, we don’t think nitrogen is worth it. A much better use of your money would be to buy a good tire-pressure gauge and check your tires frequently. This is a good idea even if you have a tire-pressure monitoring system in your vehicle. The warning lights aren’t required to come on until you have less than 25 percent of the recommended tire pressure. Having the correct tire pressure will get you many of the benefits of using nitrogen and will ensure that your tires last longer.
Are your cars valve stems green? Generally green valve stem caps mean your tires are filled with nitrogen.
