[0:00] Do you ever get stuck behind a guy
[0:01] holding up the line at Wawa? He's got a
[0:03] lidless cup of black coffee and fingers
[0:06] covered in honey barbecue flavor twist
[0:08] Frito dust and he's going back and forth
[0:10] with the cashier because he's pointing
[0:12] at the smokes he wants, but she's not
[0:14] getting the smokes he wants. And then
[0:16] when she finally gets the smokes, he
[0:18] tells her, "You know what? Let me also
[0:19] get this thing of Cow Tales and a couple
[0:22] of Zynns. Oh, and a scratch-off ticket.
[0:24] Actually, make it five scratch-off
[0:26] tickets. Direct deposit just hit. And
[0:29] let me get 1750 on pump Oh, I don't
[0:32] remember. Just put it on the pump with
[0:33] the Chevy truck." He tells her as if
[0:36] that narrows it down. And then he
[0:37] realizes he left his wallet in the
[0:40] truck.
[0:41] >> [laughter]
[0:41] >> Of course he did. So he says, "You know
[0:42] what? I'm just going to leave this
[0:44] coffee here real quick. Hold my spot."
[0:46] And then he gets in his truck, pops in
[0:49] his CD of Custody Rock, and drives off
[0:52] to his job at the Kids These Days Don't
[0:54] Know How to Do Anything Factory.
[0:57] The 1994 Chevrolet K1500 isn't the
[1:01] official truck of a guy holding up the
[1:03] line at Wawa.
[1:05] It is the guy holding up the line at
[1:08] Wawa. It's a stubborn old mule that
[1:11] makes your day longer and is always
[1:13] threatening to tender its resignation
[1:16] from this mortal coil. Yet it's somehow
[1:19] still going. Never pleasant, never even
[1:22] efficient, never functioning well enough
[1:25] to feel good about driving it, never
[1:27] functioning poorly enough to justify the
[1:29] expense of replacing it. A GMT400
[1:32] era backroad battle wagon with the
[1:35] downcast face of an unsmacked ass and
[1:38] body roll that tells the world my field
[1:40] sobriety tests come pre-failed. 11
[1:44] minutes with this handling and I was
[1:46] more anxious than a giraffe on a
[1:47] helipad. But I'll tell you this, a man
[1:51] who owns a truck can reasonably presume
[1:53] that his choice in vehicle explains him
[1:55] to the world on his behalf.
[1:58] But a K1500
[2:00] forces us to question,
[2:02] is a work truck actually useful when the
[2:05] work is keeping the truck alive in the
[2:07] first place?
[2:09] And more pressingly,
[2:12] will this make my bottom five?
[2:14] Honestly, who even cares? I'm the Roman.
[2:17] This is Race to the Bottom. Let's make
[2:19] like a tree and go. I don't like this
[2:21] truck. I [music] don't like this truck.
[2:23] This truck made me sick and I said I
[2:25] don't like this truck.
[2:27] There are vehicles you respect because
[2:29] they're good and they make life better.
[2:32] They make life happier. Maybe they make
[2:35] life easier.
[2:37] And then there are vehicles you respect
[2:41] because they refuse to die.
[2:44] This is the latter.
[2:47] You would never know it from any of the
[2:49] reviews I've actually done,
[2:51] but I love trucks. I'm jealous of truck
[2:54] guys because I harbor a deep-seated
[2:56] desire to be a truck guy. To one day be
[3:00] the type of guy who's not only seen as
[3:02] rugged and useful, but actually is
[3:05] rugged and useful as opposed to
[3:07] soft-handed and easily startled. But
[3:10] what I realize now is that liking
[3:12] trucks, hell, even owning a truck
[3:15] wouldn't make me a truck guy because I
[3:17] don't have the patience required of an
[3:19] actual truck guy.
[3:22] Look, I like the GMT400 platform. I like
[3:25] trucks, but I
[3:27] hate this truck.
[3:30] This truck made me sick. Literally, the
[3:34] ride was so unpleasant I actually got
[3:36] motion sick. I'm getting motion sick now
[3:40] just remembering it, and that's never
[3:43] happened to me before as a driver. Oh,
[3:45] it's happened plenty of times as a
[3:47] passenger, but how bad does a drive have
[3:50] to be for you to control the tempo of
[3:52] the experience, yet still feel like you
[3:54] got on the teacup ride during a
[3:56] hangover.
[3:58] Even going nowhere, this truck is rough.
[4:02] This is one of the only vehicles I've
[4:04] driven where it felt like the engine was
[4:05] still trying to turn over once it was
[4:07] already up and running. It's a 6.5 L
[4:10] diesel, hot turbo, so not intercooled,
[4:14] and the tune gets you an extra 50-ish
[4:16] horsepower. So, with this setup, you're
[4:18] going from around 180-ish
[4:22] stock horsepower to about 230 to 240 at
[4:26] peak, and roughly 400 lb ft of torque,
[4:29] according to my magnificent volunteer,
[4:32] Gabe, who's thrown in some additional
[4:35] quality of life modifications on top of
[4:37] this.
[4:38] >> Well, we're just starting at the
[4:39] beginning. The first thing that was
[4:40] replaced was the injection pump. '94 was
[4:43] the first year of the electronic DS4
[4:46] injection pumps, and what usually goes
[4:48] bad on them is something called a PMD,
[4:51] which this one's been relocated right
[4:53] here. Um the GM in their infinite wisdom
[4:56] decided to put it right on the side of
[4:57] the injection pump, which is underneath
[4:59] of this intake manifold, and gets nice
[5:02] and hot, and cooks the electronics.
[5:04] Uh transmission was rebuilt. Uh it has a
[5:06] 4L80E
[5:09] uh transmission
[5:11] just overheats whenever you try to tow
[5:13] anything with it.
[5:15] Uh I put a deep pan and a double row
[5:17] cooler on it, and that keeps the heat
[5:19] down to around 190° when I'm towing.
[5:23] A buddy of mine bought a an old Willys
[5:25] Jeep
[5:27] out here in Pennsylvania. I towed it out
[5:28] to Colorado for him, and uh when I was
[5:31] pulling into the into his driveway, it
[5:33] blew a turbo.
[5:35] Uh
[5:35] so, I bought a 2003 Dodge diesel,
[5:39] and towed this thing back with the brand
[5:41] new, well, new to me Dodge. So, it's the
[5:44] most expensive turbocharger I ever
[5:45] bought.
[5:46] >> It honestly breaks my brain trying to
[5:48] imagine how much worse this would have
[5:50] been without Gabe doing all of this. I
[5:53] don't care what the platform is. Keeping
[5:55] a rust-eaten 32-year-old truck alive is
[5:58] something you should be able to put on a
[6:00] resume.
[6:01] With that said, none of it really makes
[6:04] this truck good. It just makes it
[6:06] functional. Yet, I still have a kind of
[6:09] grudging respect for this truck because
[6:12] while it's true that Gabe is the reason
[6:14] this is running at all, the fact that so
[6:16] many of its factory components are still
[6:19] functioning speaks to the overall
[6:21] durability and resiliency of the GMT 400
[6:25] platform. But, it also speaks to how a
[6:28] company with its back to the wall is far
[6:30] likelier to build value out of nothing
[6:33] than a company who's rolling in green
[6:35] like the Toxic Avenger.
[6:38] Basically, in 1994, GM was still
[6:41] recovering from some hard years at the
[6:43] start of the decade that led them to
[6:46] cutting some 70,000 jobs as they
[6:49] restructured and turned towards trucks
[6:51] to dig themselves out of a hole so deep
[6:54] you'd think they were pinning their
[6:55] financial future on striking oil.
[6:58] The GMT 400 platform debuted in 1988 and
[7:02] it was huge for the company because it
[7:04] helped streamline engineering.
[7:07] Light trucks, heavy-duty trucks, even
[7:09] SUVs could be spun out from this single
[7:13] modular platform that was arguably more
[7:16] versatile than the square-body CK trucks
[7:19] of the previous generation. But, it took
[7:22] until 1994
[7:24] for the GMT 400 to show just how
[7:27] valuable it could be because in 1994, GM
[7:32] launched their value pricing strategy as
[7:35] a way to cut down on dealership haggling
[7:38] and simply get people out the door in a
[7:40] GM product. The strategy meant that for
[7:43] select models, GM limited standalone
[7:46] options and grouped the more desirable
[7:49] features into just one or two option
[7:51] packages.
[7:53] And then set lower, non-negotiable
[7:55] sticker prices as a compromise.
[7:58] Dealers hated it because the sticker
[8:00] prices dropped, but the wholesale prices
[8:03] stayed the same.
[8:05] But customers loved it.
[8:07] The LA Times noted in 1994 that
[8:10] value-priced vehicles accounted for more
[8:12] than 70% of all GM sales that year,
[8:16] despite fewer than half of the cars
[8:19] available for sale that year being
[8:21] value-priced.
[8:23] And I've got to believe that this had a
[8:25] hand in GM putting out a more reliable
[8:28] truck than they might have otherwise,
[8:30] because these GMT400 trucks were
[8:33] manufactured with fewer options, meaning
[8:36] they were less complex. And the end
[8:38] result was fewer reported build quality
[8:42] errors, at least from what I could find.
[8:45] Now, that still doesn't mean these
[8:47] trucks were necessarily good, but they
[8:50] were reliable and sometimes that's
[8:52] better than good. Granted, you were
[8:54] still fighting an uphill battle on fuel
[8:56] economy, but even then, while Gabe tells
[8:59] me that he might get 14 miles per gallon
[9:01] on a good day, that's honestly more than
[9:04] I was expecting on a three-decade-old
[9:07] truck.
[9:08] But really, the best thing you can say
[9:11] about the K1500
[9:13] is that it refuses to die, despite
[9:17] Gabe's best efforts to kill it.
[9:20] Gabe learned maintenance by wrenching on
[9:22] this truck, and I like when a vehicle
[9:25] essentially teaches you how to keep it
[9:27] alive, because there's virtue in a truck
[9:30] so mechanically straightforward that it
[9:32] can be the equivalent of a donor body in
[9:34] a medical college. Actually, that
[9:36] analogy doesn't work because those
[9:38] bodies aren't living. Never mind. I look
[9:41] at this truck and I'm manifestly
[9:44] unsatisfied with it. But as with
[9:47] everything, I feel like it could be so
[9:51] much worse, right? At the very least,
[9:53] this isn't one of those modern Cummins
[9:55] diesels for guys who never tow anything.
[9:59] They just drive to an office job and hop
[10:01] on restricted internet to jork it to
[10:04] prank invasion kissing videos. And then
[10:06] he gets fired and has to find out how to
[10:08] break the news to his girlfriend who's
[10:10] now left to wonder, does it reflect
[10:12] negatively upon me to be the most
[10:14] important person in the world to someone
[10:17] who sucks? Chevrolet K1500
[10:21] the anti-Cummins.
[10:24] A K1500 owner will justify and defend
[10:27] why they continue to drive it and why
[10:29] they continue to keep it alive against
[10:31] all reason. And it's for the same reason
[10:34] you don't get rid of a tube of
[10:35] toothpaste just because it's flatter
[10:37] than a moron's conception of Earth.
[10:40] There might still be a little bit left
[10:43] and it's worth finding out how much
[10:44] longer you can stretch it.
[10:47] But a Cummins owner will behave like
[10:49] their engine is a get out of maintenance
[10:51] free card. Like, I have a Cummins. I am
[10:54] your superior and also can I borrow a
[10:57] few hundred dollars till Friday? And
[11:01] then they drive like the medication for
[11:02] their personality disorder is
[11:04] distributed through exhaust fumes. Just
[11:07] out here on the road manspreading their
[11:10] undercarriage across yellow lines.
[11:13] I think it was Confucius who said, "The
[11:16] man explains a K1500 to his community."
[11:20] A Cummins
[11:22] explains the man to the world.
[11:26] Can you tell I've had a lot of obnoxious
[11:27] encounters with modern Cummins owners?
[11:30] '89 Dodge Ram, you're fine. I'm mostly
[11:32] talking about tailgaters in modern Rams
[11:35] who love to hog the left lane and have
[11:37] headlights brighter than God's
[11:39] eyeshadow. But hey, I'm sorry if you
[11:41] drive one. I'm sure you're an absolute
[11:43] gem. But keeping it squarely within the
[11:46] confines of what the K1500 signifies, I
[11:50] think it feels a lot more honest than
[11:53] some modern trucks out there. And I'm
[11:56] certainly not going to say all modern
[11:59] trucks because this isn't really a case
[12:01] of the past being better, just
[12:03] different. But I call these honest
[12:06] because at no point did I think that
[12:07] what I saw was not also going to be what
[12:10] I got. On the one hand, it's better in
[12:13] overdrive and getting up to 70 miles per
[12:15] hour is enough to smooth out the ride so
[12:18] you don't feel like a pile of socks
[12:20] loaded into the spin cycle. But then
[12:22] once I get up to 70, visibility is a
[12:25] problem because the side mirror gets
[12:28] blown out of position anytime you're
[12:30] going faster than 40 miles an hour. And
[12:32] the steering is all over the map. It's
[12:34] like I have to make these big dramatic
[12:37] cuts to the wheel to make a turn because
[12:39] it only ever wants to go straight. And
[12:40] while I understand that this is not
[12:42] going to be a problem on every K1500,
[12:46] I do think it's emblematic of the types
[12:48] of things you put up with when you have
[12:50] a truck of this vintage. And I do think
[12:53] a lot of the people who own these trucks
[12:55] recognize and understand that and it
[12:58] informs their decision to continue
[13:00] owning them. But for me personally, I
[13:03] don't think I'm a patient enough person
[13:06] to put up with a truck like this because
[13:08] it's like dealing with the guy holding
[13:10] up the line at Wawa every single day. Oh
[13:13] great, he's jumped the queue to complain
[13:16] about the automatic soap dispenser in
[13:18] the men's room because those things
[13:20] don't give you enough soap. They just
[13:21] give you an octogenarian money shots
[13:24] worth of hollow suds and then you try
[13:26] and wave your hand underneath the thing
[13:29] for more soap, and you end up looking
[13:31] like air traffic control just to end up
[13:34] activating the hand dryer by mistake.
[13:37] And by the way, those things are way too
[13:39] loud, he says to no one in particular.
[13:42] Oh, just spill some gas on your hands
[13:45] and try to wash it off, your
[13:46] equilibrium's going to be [ __ ] for a
[13:48] week. And now he's asking for a
[13:50] Powerball ticket and then a receipt
[13:52] because he's going to write this off as
[13:53] a business expense. What business? A
[13:56] lucrative little venture known as none
[13:59] of yours. And then he adds another play
[14:01] to the Powerball ticket because his
[14:02] failure to achieve any of the dreams he
[14:05] had in youth has led him to outsource
[14:08] those dreams to the National Lottery.
[14:11] And yet,
[14:13] because there is always an and yet,
[14:16] for as much of an inconvenience as this
[14:18] truck can be to one's daily life, a
[14:21] thing doesn't lose value simply because
[14:24] it makes your life stressful.
[14:27] As we've established, Gabe developed the
[14:30] confidence and knowledge base to wrench
[14:32] on vehicles through this truck. That's
[14:36] valuable. And even though it ran like
[14:38] garbage at times, it still ran, even as
[14:41] it consistently overheated due to all of
[14:44] the modifications, even as parts broke
[14:46] down and costs mounted, it still ran.
[14:51] But then, what's the point in keeping
[14:53] something alive when it has one foot
[14:55] permanently in the grave? As Gabe
[14:58] himself told me, if you're looking for a
[15:01] truck to use as a truck, look elsewhere.
[15:06] And I understand that, I really do. On
[15:09] the one hand, it's rewarding to keep it
[15:11] running because it reinforces that not
[15:14] only are you skilled enough to do that,
[15:16] it validates getting this truck in the
[15:18] first place as the right decision.
[15:22] But the decision to get this truck is
[15:24] only the right one if you're willing to
[15:27] do the work. And there's every
[15:29] possibility that it'll stop being worth
[15:32] the effort long before it actually stops
[15:35] working.
[15:36] Yet I think overall, you can hate a
[15:39] thing and still acknowledge it has
[15:42] value.
[15:44] I hate this truck.
[15:47] Yet I deeply admire its mechanical
[15:50] resiliency.
[15:52] In that sense, the K1500
[15:56] is worth preserving.
[15:59] Even if I wouldn't say it's worth
[16:01] recommending.
[16:08] Okay, so before I get to the ranking, a
[16:10] new 2-hour episode of RCR stories is now
[16:14] live and ad-free on Patreon detailing a
[16:18] unique piece of automotive adjacent
[16:21] history that's part of American history.
[16:24] It's genuinely one of my favorite things
[16:26] I've ever made, right up there with the
[16:28] NASCAR history and the 2,000-mile race
[16:30] around the world, my two favorite things
[16:33] I've ever done. So I'd love it if you
[16:35] check them out. Now onto the ranking.
[16:38] This is in my bottom five, obviously,
[16:40] and I hate putting it there because we
[16:42] already have a Chevy truck. And this is
[16:44] what I mean. How can I say I like trucks
[16:47] and virtually every truck I drive ends
[16:49] up in the bottom five? And what can I
[16:51] say other than that I ask people to give
[16:53] me bad trucks and they come through for
[16:55] me? Ironically or coincidentally,
[16:57] whichever, because I didn't hate this as
[17:01] much as my bottom two, the Chevrolet
[17:03] K1500
[17:05] takes the number three spot from the
[17:08] other Chevrolet truck on this list,
[17:10] which means after 2 years, we finally
[17:13] bid adieu to my brother's Dodge Journey.
[17:17] Now, after 3 years in the bottom five,
[17:20] the Nissan Sentra is close to graduating
[17:23] the list as it sits at number five,
[17:26] followed by the 2001 Chevrolet Silverado
[17:29] 2500 at number four, the 1994 Chevrolet
[17:34] K1500
[17:36] at number three, the Mercedes-Benz E320
[17:40] Wagon at number two, and at number one,
[17:44] celebrating a full calendar year in the
[17:47] lead of the race to the bottom, the 2013
[17:50] Ford E450.
[17:52] I've linked each of these reviews in the
[17:54] description, so you can learn more about
[17:56] why they're in those spots, but please
[17:58] remember, this is not a judgement of the
[18:01] entire model line, just the specific
[18:03] model I got to drive. It's all one guy's
[18:06] subjective opinion, and it's all in good
[18:08] fun, so please don't take this seriously
[18:10] because I sure as hell don't. I'm just
[18:12] looking to have a good time, and I did
[18:14] have a good time shooting with Gabe and
[18:17] his wonderful wife who offered me an
[18:19] anti-motion sickness pill to help me at
[18:22] the end of the shoot when I struggled to
[18:24] regain my bearings.
[18:26] Now, if you have something interesting
[18:28] we haven't done before that you think
[18:29] Brian might like to review, like a
[18:31] Hummer or
[18:33] Volkswagen Scirocco or something, or you
[18:36] have a car so completely awful you think
[18:39] it could win the race to the bottom, and
[18:41] you'd like me to review it, please email
[18:44] me at regularcars theroman@gmail.com.
[18:49] That's regularcarstheroman@gmail.com.
[18:53] And please specify whether it's for RCR
[18:56] Race to the Bottom or either. Be
[18:58] forewarned that we can only accept those
[19:00] willing to come to us in southeastern
[19:02] Pennsylvania, but if that sounds like
[19:04] you, please reach out. If you'd like to
[19:06] support us, then like the video,
[19:08] comment, subscribe, tap the bell icon to
[19:11] be notified for every new video. Check
[19:14] out the merch links in the description
[19:15] or join us on Patreon for just a dollar.
[19:19] Thank you so much for watching and have
[19:22] an outstanding
[19:23] rest of your week.
[19:26] >> This truck made me sick. This truck made
[19:28] me want to ralph. This truck made me
[19:30] want to go home just so I could ralph.
[19:32] This truck made me sick. This truck made
[19:35] me sick. This truck made me want to go
[19:37] home just so I could ralph, I guess. I
[19:40] guess [music] that's what just one way
[19:41] to do it. I don't know what's going to
[19:43] happen.
[19:44] I don't
[19:45] >> [music]
[19:46] >> Nick, my name is Nick. I'm a really
[19:49] corny person and my name is Nick. I'm a
[19:50] really corny person and my name is Nick.
[19:51] Uh