2026 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Reviews, Pricing & Specs

The 2026 Chevy Silverado 1500 lineup is vast. The truck is available in regular cab, extended cab, and crew cab styles with short, standard, and long cargo-bed lengths. Rear-wheel drive (RWD) and four-wheel drive (4WD) are available, as well as turbocharged four-cylinder, turbocharged diesel six-cylinder, and two V8 engines. Chevrolet also offers nine trim levels: WT (work truck), Custom, Custom Trail Boss, LT, LT Trail Boss, RST, LTZ, High Country, and ZR2.

Base prices range from $39,695 to $74,595, including the $2,795 destination charge. For this test drive, we grabbed the keys of a Silverado 1500 RST 4WD, a crew cab, short bed, the standard turbocharged 2.7-liter four-cylinder engine, and the new-for-2026 RST Select Package. It arrived with Sterling Gray paint, which is free on a Chevy Silverado but nonsensically costs $495 extra on a GMC Sierra. The test truck’s manufacturer’s suggested retail price (MSRP) came to $60,555, including the destination charge. However, the window sticker listed an RST Select Package and TurboMax engine credit of $6,350, for a final tally of $54,205.

The new RST Select Package makes for a good-looking truck with trendy, blacked-out styling. With 4WD, all-terrain tires, and all-weather floor mats, it’s ready to get dirty. Assist steps make it easy to climb in and out, and the spray-on bedliner readies it to haul whatever you want to drop, slide, or place into the cargo bed.

Inside, the RST is basic but livable. Modern technology and decent-quality materials are paired with a front bench seat and cloth upholstery to provide six-passenger seating in a roomy cabin, while metallic accents add some much-needed visual contrast. The interior design is more sophisticated than the average pickup's, because trucks generally either look cluttered or like half-finished projects with exposed structural elements.

Due to the front bench seat, the transmission shifter is an old-school lever on the steering column—a delightful throwback to a past era that we enjoyed using. However, when placed in Drive, it blocks access to the stereo volume knob.

Equipped with Chevy’s TurboMax turbo-four powertrain, the Silverado boasts 310 horsepower and 430 pound-feet of torque, the latter available at a relatively low 3,000 rpm. The 2.7-liter four-cylinder engine motivated our test truck through an eight-speed automatic transmission and an Autotrac 4WD system with low range.

According to the EPA, it should have returned 18 mpg in combined driving. With Autotrac in Auto mode; we averaged 15.4 mpg on our mountainous Southern California testing loop (14.5 mpg in city-only driving). Those results did not include off-roading and suggest that, if fuel economy is a priority, the available Duramax 3.0-liter turbodiesel inline-six might be worth the $2,390 surcharge on a Silverado RST. The Duramax is rated to get 23-24 mpg in combined driving.

While the TurboMax engine is powerful enough for daily driving, it doesn’t sound good at idle or when accelerating, and mid-range punch for passing is in short supply. The TurboMax engine also caps the Silverado Crew Cab 4WD at 9,000 pounds of towing capacity—just 1,300 pounds more than the midsize Chevy Colorado—while the Duramax can handle up to 13,000 pounds. You lose about 150 pounds of maximum payload capacity with the Duramax, but that trade-off seems worthwhile, especially in light of the TurboMax's disappointing real-world fuel economy.

We didn't venture off-road due to poor local trail conditions following a series of rainstorms, and other versions of the Silverado, such as the Trail Boss and ZR2, are better equipped for that anyway. Instead, the RST handled daily driver duties in the Los Angeles suburbs and an evaluation route including city, freeway, mountain, coastal, and rural environments. It’s competent in all of those situations, but boring to drive, partly because of the engine’s bleating under acceleration. The steering also feels slow, light, and disconnected, and the RST’s suspension bucks over speed humps, vibrates over speed bumps, and makes the truck skitter on bumpy mid-curve pavement.

More concerning was the brake overheating notification we received while driving in the mountains following a couple of hard braking events to avoid debris in the roadway. The digital instrumentation warned us to “reduce braking to avoid overheating”. That’s helpful, of course, but a worry in a vehicle designed to tow heavy loads. Aside from those two hard braking events, we weren't driving in an unusual manner while descending to sea level from about 1,800 feet of elevation.

Bench seats used to be common in pickup trucks, but these days, a center console divides the driver's seat from the front passenger seat. Our Silverado RST’s 40/20/40 bench seat was unusual and ensured the truck could carry six people if necessary.

Our test truck had cloth upholstery, heated outboard front seats, and a 10-way power-adjustable driver’s seat. It was firm but reasonably comfortable, though after a couple of hours, it just felt hard. Because the Silverado is a full-size pickup, it offers plenty of room for taller, larger people. The RST Select Package’s step rails significantly helped with entry and exit, but they also restrict the truck’s breakover angle when you’re off-roading.

Rear-seat room seems limitless on the three-person bench, which provides plenty of legroom and good thigh support. Something under the driver’s seat was clicking when our feet pushed away to exit the truck, suggesting that whatever it was could break. Chevy provides rear-seat passengers with small floor-level climate control vents, USB charging ports, a power outlet, and decent storage, but no center armrest.

When you don’t need the Silverado RST’s front center seating position, the backrest folds down to create a storage console with armrests, cupholders, and storage trays. All you’re really giving up is the console-mounted shifter. In addition to the storage provided by the makeshift console, the truck has a deep dash-top tray tucked behind the infotainment screen, upper and lower glove compartments, the usual door-panel storage locations, and front under-seat storage. Rear under-seat storage is optional.

The RST is ready to carry cargo with its EZ Lower and Lift tailgate equipped with power locking and remote release. CornerStep bumpers make it easy to climb into the bed when necessary, and LED cargo area lighting helps to find or secure items after dark. Chevy includes a spray-in bedliner with the RST Select Package, encouraging owners to use the truck as, well, a truck.

Two different interiors are available within the Silverado lineup. In the WT, Custom, and Custom Trail Boss, you get a dashboard designed to standards that existed during what we’ll call the “old GM era”. It has cheap plastic, doughy topography, and looks busy and unsophisticated.

All other Silverados benefit from the superior dashboard in our RST, which has a modern appearance, clean lines, smooth surfaces, and impressive technology. In front of the driver, a 12.3-inch digital display conveys vehicle data, while the 13.4-inch touchscreen infotainment system provides split-screen functionality to show the navigation map and media information. The infotainment system features Google built-in, including Google Maps, access to apps via the Google Play Store, and Google Assistant.

Google Assistant is excellent technology, and while we had to finesse our conversational requests for directions to a Starbucks and a Chipotle, the system proved fast, responsive, and accurate. Wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto connectivity is supported as well, if you prefer. Pairing an iPhone to the Silverado proved effortless, and it was no trouble to stream Apple Music or Pandora to the six stereo speakers. They won’t satisfy audiophiles (a Bose premium sound system is available for them), but sounded decent enough to us. SiriusXM 360L and OnStar connected services with Wi-Fi hotspot access are also available.

Our Silverado RST also had a towing package with a hitch receiver, trailer connections, a trailer brake controller, and Hitch View and Hitch Guidance technology to make the task easier. However, no matter how much money you have to spend, you can’t get a semi-automated trailer reversing system on this truck. Rivals such as Ford and Toyota offer that feature.

Chevy's Safety Assist is standard on every Silverado 1500 trim level. It's a package of driver-assistance systems that includes forward-collision warning with pedestrian detection, automatic emergency braking, lane-departure warning, lane-keep assist, and automatic high-beam headlights.

The Silverado also has a rear-seat reminder system, a Buckle to Drive system for an extra layer of safety (which you can turn off), and Teen Driver technology. If you have a young driver in your household, Teen Driver allows you to monitor how they’re driving and using the truck when they’re away from home.

However, our test truck lacked other common driver-assist features, including blind-spot monitors, rear cross-traffic alert, and parking sensors. The left-side blind-spot mirror and high-definition reversing camera helped to alleviate visibility issues, but in some parking situations, we missed having the sensors. And without lane-centering assist, adaptive cruise control, or Chevy’s Super Cruise hands-free highway driving assistance technology, we had few safety features to evaluate aside from the lane-departure warning and lane-keeping assist systems. They did not cause undue irritation, and when lane-keeping was necessary to correct course, it did so decisively.

At the time of writing, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) had not released crash-test ratings for the 2026 Silverado 1500, while results from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) were subpar. The IIHS gave the Silverado a “Marginal” rating in the small overlap front evaluation, a “Poor” rating in the updated moderate overlap frontal impact test, and an “Acceptable” rating in the updated side impact test. Headlights and front-crash prevention tech received “Poor” and “Acceptable” ratings, respectively.

Chevy prices the Silverado a little lower than other full-size pickup trucks, but not by enough to make a significant difference in cost-effectiveness. The first scheduled maintenance visit is on the house, but again, that’s not generous enough to move the needle. The fuel-efficient Duramax turbodiesel engine is what gives the Silverado 1500 a leg up over its rivals because they don’t offer an equivalent.

The Silverado’s IIHS safety ratings are worse than those of rival full-size trucks, too. The Ford F-150 and the Ram 1500 received the same “Poor” rating in the updated moderate overlap front assessment, but have better ratings in other categories. In this class, the Toyota Tundra is the safety rock star with a Top Safety Pick+ award for the 2025 model year.

Overall, the Silverado RST seems like decent value. The Ram 1500 Black Express is a similarly priced and themed value leader, and you can outfit a Ford F-150 XLT or Toyota Tundra SR5 for about the same price, if not with matching equipment. Over at the GMC dealership, a Sierra 1500 Elevation Select is available, with similar equipment for a slightly higher price than you’ll pay for a new Silverado. And that’s before paying extra for paint colors that are free of charge on the Chevy.