2025 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Diesel Review: Road Trip Royalty

It’s not the most glamorous vacation vehicle, but it makes the most sense.

Canada’s East Coast is gorgeous, and the distances between landmarks can be vast. For a five-day trip, my wife and I were presented with a few options, and landed on the largest: the 2025 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 High Country. It’d be right at home in the vast openness of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, we figured. Of the internal combustion choices, this would also be the most fuel-efficient, as it packed the torquey Duramax diesel.

As the only half-ton diesel still left on the market (not counting the GMC Sierra), is this fancy-pants Silverado a thing of the past or a unique advantage?

I hestitate to call the High Country subtle, because it has a grille big enough to make a Kenworth blush and is, like all full-size pickups these days, comically large. The black-on-black-on-black treatment of this Midnight Edition tester is giving undercover cop, too. Yet build a High Country up in Chevy’s configurator in any other color and without the black-out package and yep, that is one potent pickup. We’re so used to these overblown proportions that even 22-inch wheels seem fine.

I’m still no fan of the Silverado’s design, finding the Ram 1500 more handsome and the F-150 more modern. Yet in this particular spec, it’s probably the most acceptable I’ve found Chevy’s full-sizer.

Gosh I love this engine. It is everything I want from a modern pickup powerplant: effortlessly muscular, quick to respond but not overly sensitive, and with the grumbly, subdued soundtrack that suggests real, no-nonsense work. The V8s are all thunder and lightning, but the turbo diesel is the stoic, a compression-ignition Sam Elliott.

Recent updates see horsepower up to 305 backed by a stout 495 pound-feet of torque. General Motors’ 10-speed automatic is as good here as it is elsewhere, ably shuffling through gears when needed, but not hunting for the right ratio the way it does in Fords. (Ford and GM co-developed this transmission.)

Whether chasing low tide at Burntcoat Head park or navigating the surprisingly tight underground parking lots of Halifax, the High Country maintained a dignified feel behind the wheel. The rim has a reasonable amount of heft to it: not too much as to be tiresome on cross-country hauls, just enough to remind the driver there’s about 5,600 pounds surrounding them.

When the Silverado’s bluff nose did sniff out curvier roads like the ones leading to Peggy’s Cove, the pickup didn’t embarrass itself, keeping body motions tidy and needing little mid-corner adjustment. Crossing the Confederation Bridge into PEI—the world’s longest bridge over ice-covered water—the Silverado was unbothered by crosswinds. This is a predictable big rig, and just a pinch more responsive than other options.

That said, I didn’t love the left-pedal feel. The brake pedal lacked initial bite, which resulted in a few more abrupt stops than I’d have liked.

It’s a modern miracle that a half-ton truck riding on 22s isn’t filling-loosening levels of stiff. With the adaptive damping system on this High Country, Chevy’s big truck was as happy cruising between towns as it was threading its way through them. Uneven gravel roads could still give it some three-dimensional heaves, enough to jiggle my better half in her seat, but anything else proved easy doin’ for the Silverado.

Wind noise is about as you’d expect for a truck: reasonable at highway speeds but exponentially louder during passing.

Seat comfort is suitably truck-like: wide and accommodating thrones up front, with a slightly stiff cushion. The rear seats have a good cushion angle but feel even stiffer.

Cabin space is simply vast, as it is in all full-sizers these days. While this tester had a nicely weather-proofed bed cover, we elected to store absolutely everything in the back row with the seats folded up. Roller bags, shopping bags, fruit from roadside stands; it swallowed it all.

Chevy’s mid-cycle update to the Silverado cabin has aged well. There’s still more plastic in here than some folks might expect given the six-figure (Canadian) price tag, but largely it is par for the course in truck land—and overall quality is better than the Toyota Sequoia. The leather is soft, the contrast stitching is arrow-straight, and the bits of wood trim are tasteful without being OTT. Those with a more adventurous streak can option the blue or brown cabin color combinations.

A well-designed truck interior means plenty of storage solutions, too. The Silverado scores pretty well here: a cavernous center console, shallow bins around the shifter, and  vast door pockets all make for easy toss-it-and-forget-it options. The additional “second glovebox” ahead of the front passenger is tiny and of limited use, however. If back-seaters are of driving age they should be able to reach the pair of cupholders on the back of the center console, but kids? Probably not.

Chevy’s current infotainment system is one of the better ones out there, being super easy to use and customize. Best of all, this 13.4-inch iteration still offers wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto unlike the all-electric options. It’s a cinch to set up and pairs flawlessly every time—until we’re fuelling up 10 minutes from the airport terminal to end the trip, when any form of audio streaming simply doesn’t work. Harumph.

Befitting a range-topper, the High Country comes well-stocked with all manner of useful tech. A large, color head-up display (HUD) provides plenty of useful info right in the driver’s line of sight, and Chevy’s is one of the few to work reasonably well with polarized glasses. We weren’t towing but if we had, I’d have made use of the excellent assist and camera suite that allows drivers to save up to 10 different trailer profiles, see “through” the trailer, and have the blind-spot monitoring system take it into account. It’s all clever stuff.

I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention SuperCruise. While it is sadly only available on the High Country, GM’s hands-free highway drive assist remains one of the best in the business. Activation is easy, and the system makes natural movements while maintaining good lane positioning even through corners. Lane changes? You have the option for automatic ones should the Silverado encounter slow-moving traffic. And the wheel-mounted LED indicator remains a super-simple way to understand what the system is doing.

Top-trim trucks come with luxury-like stickers to match. The Silverado 1500 High Country starts at $68,395 ($87,999 CAD)including destination. Chevy’s US configurator lists the Duramax as the standard engine for this trim, yet oddly still tacks on $795 for it in the summary. That’s okay since there’s currently a $1,500 discount on the $1,080 High Country Premium package—yes, you read that right. In Canada, the 5.3L V8 is standard while the Duramax is a $1,195 CAD upgrade.

Add on the pricey 22-inch alloys ($3,295 / $4,190 CAD), SuperCruise ($2,855 / $2,495 CAD), Midnight Edition ($2,140 / $2,575 CAD), bed cover ($1,250 / $1,585 CAD), adaptive damping ($900 / $1,080 CAD) and a few other bits, and we’re talking $80,810 ($103,924 CAD).

After almost exactly one thousand kilometers, the 2025 Chevrolet Silverado High Country proved itself an accomplished road trip companion. Its cabin was comfortable and SuperCruise took the sting out of long highway stints. If Chevy would open up access to the latter across more of the lineup, the Silverado could have a real competitive advantage in Truck Town. As is, if you’ve got the coin and need to knock out numerous landmarks in a single tank, this is the best tool for the job.

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