1994 Chevrolet K1500 Silverado: Regular Car Reviews

[00:00] You ever get stuck behind a guy holding up the line at Wawa? He's got a lidless cup of black coffee and fingers covered in honey barbecue flavor twist frito dust and he's going back and forth with a cashier because he's pointing at the smoke

[00:13] he wants, but she's not getting the smokes he wants. And then when she finally gets the smoke he tells her, you know what? Let me also get this thing of cow tails and a couple of zins. Oh, and a scratch-off ticket. Actually, make it five scratch-off tickets, direct deposit, just hit.

[00:29] And let me get 1750 on pump. I don't remember. Just put it on the pump with a Chevy truck. He tells her as if that narrows it down. And then he realizes he left his wallet in the truck. Of course he did.

[00:42] So he says, you know what? I'm just going to leave this coffee here real quick. Hold my spot. And then he gets in his truck, pops in his CD of custody rock, and drives off to his job at the kids

[00:54] these days. Don't know how to do anything factory. The 1994 Chevrolet K-1500 isn't the official truck of a guy holding up the line at Wawa. It IS the guy holding up the line at Wawa. It's a stubborn old

[01:11] mule that makes your day longer and is always threatening to tender its resignation from this mortal coil. Yet it's somehow still going. Never pleasant, never even efficient, never functioning well

[01:25] enough to feel good about driving it, never functioning poorly enough to justify the expense of replacing it. A GMT 400-era back-road battle wagon with the downcast face of an unsmacked ass and

[01:39] body roll that tells the world my field sobriety tests come pre-failed. 11 minutes with this handling, and I was more anxious than a giraffe on a helipad. But I'll tell you this, a man who owns a

[01:52] truck can reasonably presume that his choice in vehicle explains him to the world on his behalf. But a K-1500 forces us to question, is a work truck actually useful when the work is keeping the truck

[02:07] alive in the first place? And more pressingly. Will this make my bottom five? Honestly, who even cares? I'm the Roman. This is race to the bottom. Let's make like a tree and go.

[02:20] I don't like this truck. I don't like this truck. This truck made me sick and I said I don't like this truck. There are vehicles you respect because they're good, and they make life better. They make

[02:33] life happier. Maybe they make life easier. And then there are vehicles you respect because they refuse to die. This is the latter. You would never know it from any of the reviews I've actually done.

[02:52] But I love trucks. I'm jealous of truck guys because I harbor a deep seated desire to be a truck guy, to one day be the type of guy who's not only seen as rugged and useful but actually is rugged and

[03:06] useful as opposed to soft-handed and easily startled. But what I realize now is that liking trucks hell even owning a truck wouldn't make me a truck guy because I don't have the patience required

[03:19] of an actual truck guy. Look, I like the GMT 400 platform. I like trucks, but I hate this truck.

[03:31] This truck made me sick. Literally, the ride was so unpleasant I actually got motion sick. I'm getting motion sick now just remembering it and that's never happened to me before as a driver.

[03:45] Oh, it's happened plenty of times as a passenger. But how bad does a drive have to be for you to control the tempo of the experience yet still feel like you got on the T-Cup ride during a hangover?

[03:58] Even going nowhere, this truck is rough. This is one of the only vehicles I've driven where it felt like the engine was still trying to turn over once it was already up and running. It's a 6.5 liter

[04:11] diesel hot turbo so not intercooled and the tune gets you an extra 50-ish horsepower. So with this setup you're going from around 180-ish stock horsepower to about 230 to 240 at peak and roughly 400

[04:28] pound-feet of torque according to my magnificent volunteer Gabe who's thrown in some additional quality of life modifications on top of this. Starting at the beginning, the first thing

[04:40] I was replaced was the injection pump. 94 was the first year of the electronic DS4 injection pumps and what usually goes bad on them is something called a PMD which this one's been relocated

[04:53] right here but GM and their infinite wisdom decided to put it right on the side of the injection pump which is underneath of this intake manifold and gets nice and hot and cooks the electronics. Transmission was rebuilt as a 4L80E. Transmission just overheats whenever you try to tell anything

[05:14] with it. I put a deep pan and a double row cooler on it and that keeps the heat down to around 190 degrees when I'm telling. A buddy of mine bought an old Willie's Jeep out here in Pennsylvania. I towed it out

[05:29] to Colorado for him and when I was pulling into his driveway it blew a turbo so I bought a 2003 Dodge diesel and towed this thing back with the brand new, well, new to me Dodge. So it was the most expensive

[05:45] turbo in charge of ever bought. It honestly breaks my brain trying to imagine how much of worse this would have been without Gabe doing all of this. I don't care what the platform is, keeping a rust eaten 32-year-old

[05:57] truck alive is something you should be able to put on a resume. With that said, none of it really makes this truck good, it just makes it functional. Yet I still have a kind of grudging respect for

[06:11] this truck because while it's true that Gabe is the reason this is running at all, the fact that so many of its factory components are still functioning speaks to the overall durability and resiliency of

[06:24] the GMT 400 platform. But it also speaks to how a company with its back to the wall is far likely or to build value out of nothing than a company who's rolling in green like the toxic avenger.

[06:38] Basically in 1994, GM was still recovering from some hard years at the start of the decade that led them to cutting some 70,000 jobs as they restructured and turned towards trucks to dig themselves out

[06:53] of a hole so deep you'd think they were pinning their financial future on striking oil. The GMT 400 platform debuted in 1988 and it was huge for the company because it helped streamline engineering.

[07:07] Light trucks, heavy-duty trucks, even SUVs could be spun out from this single modular platform that was arguably more versatile than the square body CK trucks of the previous generation. But it took

[07:22] until 1994 for the GMT 400 to show just how valuable it could be because in 1994 GM launched their value pricing strategy as a way to cut down on dealership haggling and simply get people out the door

[07:41] in a GM product. The strategy meant that for select models, GM limited standalone options and grouped the more desirable features into just one or two option packages and then set lower non-negotiable

[07:56] sticker prices as a compromise. Dealers hated it because the sticker prices dropped but the wholesale prices stayed the same. But customers loved it. The LA Times noted in 1994 that value-priced vehicles

[08:12] accounted for more than 70% of all GM sales that year, despite fewer than half of the cars available for sale that year being value-priced. And I've got to believe that this had a hand in GM putting out

[08:27] a more reliable truck than they might have otherwise because these GMT 400 trucks were manufactured with fewer options, meaning they were less complex and the end result was fewer reported build quality

[08:42] errors, at least from what I could find. Now that still doesn't mean these trucks were necessarily good, but they were reliable and sometimes that's better than good. Granted, you were still fighting

[08:55] an uphill battle on fuel economy, but even then, while Gabe tells me that he might get 14 miles per gallon on a good day, that's honestly more than I was expecting on a three decade old truck.

[09:09] But really the best thing you can say about the K-1500 is that it refuses to die despite Gabe's best efforts to kill it. Gabe learned maintenance by wrenching on this truck and I like when a vehicle

[09:25] essentially teaches you how to keep it alive because there's virtue in a truck so mechanically straightforward that it can be the equivalent of a donor body in a medical college. Actually, that analogy doesn't work because those bodies aren't living, but nevermind. I look at this truck

[09:43] and I'm manifestly unsatisfied with it. But as with everything, I feel like it could be so much worse, at the very least, this isn't one of those modern Cummins diesels for guys who never tow anything.

[09:59] They just drive to an office job and hop on restricted internet to jorket to prank invasion kissing videos. And then he gets fired and has to find out how to break the news to his girlfriend who's now left to wonder, does it reflect negatively upon me to be the most important person in the world

[10:16] to someone who sucks. Chevrolet K-1500. The anti- Cummins. A K-1500 owner will justify and defend why they continue to drive it and why they continue to keep it alive against all reason. And it's for

[10:33] the same reason you don't get rid of a tube of toothpaste just because it's flatter than a moron's conception of earth. There might still be a little bit left and it's worth finding out how much longer

[10:45] you can stretch it. But a Cummins owner will behave like their engine is a get out of maintenance free card. Like I have a Cummins, I am your superior and also can I borrow a few hundred dollars till

[10:59] Friday. And then they drive like the medication for their personality disorder is distributed through exhaust fumes just out here on the road man spreading their undercarriage across yellow lines.

[11:14] I think it was Confucius who said the man explains a K-1500 to his community. A Cummins explains the man to the world. Can you tell I've had a lot of obnoxious encounters with modern Cummins owners?

[11:30] 89 Dodge Ram you're fine. I'm mostly talking about tailgators in modern rams who love to hog the left lane and have headlights brighter than God's eye shadow. But hey I'm sorry if you drive one I'm sure

[11:43] you're an absolute gem. But keeping it squarely within the confines of what the K-1500 signifies, I think it feels a lot more honest than some modern trucks out there and I'm certainly not going to say

[11:58] all modern trucks because this isn't really a case of the past being better just different. But I call these honest because at no point did I think that what I saw was not also going to be what I

[12:11] got. On the one hand it's better in overdrive and getting up to 70 miles per hour is enough to smooth out the ride so you don't feel like a pile of socks loaded into the spin cycle. But then once I get up

[12:24] to 70 visibility is a problem because the side mirror gets blown out of position any time you're going faster than 40 miles an hour and the steering is all over the map. It's like I have to make these

[12:36] big dramatic cuts to the wheel to make a turn because it only ever wants to go straight. And while I understand that this is not going to be a problem on every K-1500, I do think it's emblematic of the

[12:48] types of things you put up with when you have a truck of this vintage. And I do think a lot of the people who own these trucks recognize and understand that and it informs their decision to continue

[13:01] owning them. But for me personally, I don't think I'm a patient enough person to put up with a truck like this because it's like dealing with the guy holding up the line at Wawa every single day. Oh great

[13:14] he's jumped the cue to complain about the automatic soap dispenser in the men's room because those things don't give you enough soap. They just give you an octogenarian money shots worth of hollow suds and then you try and wave your hand underneath the thing for more soap and you end up looking like

[13:32] air traffic control just to end up activating the hand dryer by mistake. And by the way those things are way too loud he says to no one in particular. Oh just spill some gas on your hands and try to wash

[13:46] it off your equilibrium is going to be fucked for a week. And now he's asking for a power ball ticket and then a receipt because he's going to write this off as a business expense. What business? A lucrative little venture known as none of yours. And then he adds another play to the power ball ticket

[14:02] because his failure to achieve any of the dreams he had in youth has led him to outsource those dreams to the national lottery. And yet because there is always an end yet. For as much of an inconvenience as

[14:18] this truck can be to one's daily life a thing doesn't lose value simply because it makes your life stressful. As we've established Gabe developed the confidence and knowledge base to wrench on vehicles

[14:34] through this truck that's valuable. And even though it ran like garbage at times it's still ran even as it consistently overheated due to all of the modifications even as parts broke down and costs

[14:48] mounted it's still ran. But then what's the point in keeping something alive when it has one flip permanently in the grave as Gabe himself told me if you're looking for a truck to use as a truck

[15:04] look elsewhere. And I understand that I really do on the one hand it's rewarding to keep it running because it reinforces that not only are you skilled enough to do that it validates getting this truck

[15:18] in the first place as the right decision. But the decision to get this truck is only the right one if you're willing to do the work. And there's every possibility that it'll stop being worth the

[15:32] effort long before it actually stops working yet I think overall you can hate a thing and still acknowledge it has value. I hate this truck yet I deeply admire its mechanical resiliency.

[15:52] In that sense the K-1500 is worth preserving even if I wouldn't say it's worth recommending.

[16:08] Okay so before I get to the ranking a new two-hour episode of RCR Stories is now live and add free on Patreon detailing a unique piece of automotive adjacent history that's part of American

[16:23] history. It's genuinely one of my favorite things I've ever made right up there with the NASCAR history and the 2000 mile race around the world my two favorite things I've ever done so I'd love it

[16:35] if you check them out. Now on to the ranking this is in my bottom five obviously and I hate putting it there because we already have a Chevy truck and this is what I mean how can I say I like trucks

[16:47] and virtually every truck I drive ends up in the bottom five and what can I say other than that I ask people to give me bad trucks and they come through for me ironically or coincidentally whichever

[16:59] because I didn't hate this as much as my bottom two the Chevrolet K-1500 takes the number three spot from the other Chevrolet truck on this list which means after two years we finally bid adieu

[17:15] to my brother's Dodge journey. Now after three years in the bottom five the Nissan Centra is close to graduating the list as it sits at number five followed by the 2001 Chevrolet

[17:29] Silverado 2500 at number four the 1994 Chevrolet K-1500 at number three the Mercedes Benz E320

[17:41] wagon at number two and at number one celebrating a full calendar year in the lead of the race to the bottom the 2013 Ford E450. I've linked each of these reviews in the description so you can learn

[17:56] more about why they're in those spots but please remember this is not a judgment of the entire model line just the specific model I got to drive it's all one guy's subjective opinion and it's all

[18:08] in good fun so please don't take this seriously because I sure as hell don't I'm just looking to have a good time and I did have a good time shooting with Gabe and his wonderful wife who offered me an

[18:20] anti-motion sickness pill to help me at the end of the shoot when I struggled to regain my bearings now if you have something interesting we haven't done before that you think Brian might like to review like a Hummer or Volkswagen Sheraco or something or you have a car so completely awful you

[18:39] think it could win the race to the bottom and you'd like me to review it please email me at regular cars the Roman at gmail.com that's regular cars the Roman at gmail.com and please specify whether it's

[18:55] for RCR race to the bottom or either before warned that we can only accept those willing to come to us in southeastern Pennsylvania but if that sounds like you please reach out if you'd like to support us

[19:07] then like the video comment subscribe tap the bell icon to be notified for every new video check out the merch links in the description or join us on patreon for just a dollar thank you so much for

[19:20] watching and have an outstanding rest of your week this truck made me sick this truck made me want to route this truck made me want to go home just so I could route this truck made me sick this truck made

[19:35] me sick this truck made me want to go home just so I could route like guess I guess that's what's just one way to do it I don't know what's gonna happen I don't do Nick my name is Nick I'm a really

[19:49] 20 person in my name is Nick I'm a really 20 person in my name is Nick oh