(Before I go any further, this is not my truck, it's my father's. I'm sixteen and I drive it almost every day, so I'm really familiar with it.)

My father bought this truck from a private seller in 2001 for $2700. Why such a low price? This truck wasn't taken care of by the previous owner(s). The tailgate is rusting a bit, the paint is peeling in various places, and some moron spraypainted the hood which doesn't look like the rest of the truck's color. I could go on about the condition but I'd be here for hours.

The C1500's interior isn't really pleasing to the eye, but of course, no car from 1988 is unless it's a Ferrari or something of the sort. I would have to say if it was up to me, I wouldn't've bought this truck. It's ugly. It's falling apart.

The seat in the truck is actually one seat (of course) and it's not very comfortable. If you sit in it for an hour or more your lower back will begin to ache. You'll either be dead or in critical condition if you take the truck on vacation.

The speakers make me nauseous. The original radio in the truck doesn't work, or wasn't cool looking enough for Mr. Moron (the previous owner), so he decided to put a radio in where the tape deck goes, underneath the air vents which looks horribly retarded and doesn't make anything sound better. The antenna doesn't work, or moron didn't hook it up, so if you pass by a tree or the smallest structure with the radio on, it'll cut out and turn into static until you pass by. The bass is, well, what bass? I've heard meaner bass in Celine Dion's voice.

The air and heat actually works very well for a 15 year old truck. Controls are easy to figure out with a LCD screen beside it reminding you of what you have set, picturing a little guy with arrows pointing towards him for the direction of where the air is blowing. Nice technology for such a old little vehicle. Air speeds range in low, medium and high, and at low if you leave it on long enough, you can still freeze you or someone else out.

Same goes for the heat, you'll suffocate or melt if you don't crack a window. Passengers have no problem cooling down or warming up in the cab. That's about the only luxury for this vehicle.

The speedometer and other gauges are rather hard to read in the daytime, because a solid white bar goes across the display and you can barely see it during a sunny day. However at night time the gauges of course light up, in a green color and makes them very readable.

The defroster is amusing and works in a snap. Windows can be completely fogged and turning it on high will get rid of it in about 10 seconds.

Parking this thing is a nightmare. I feel like I'm driving a 18-wheeler. I'm in fear of taking out every Tom Dick and Harry, along with their cars at the mall parking lot.

Acceleration is very powerful in the C1500. We have the V8 model of the C1500, so I can usually blow everyone away at a green light if needed.

When it comes to gas, our truck is Godzilla. We have to go to the pump about every other day. Once we put regular unleaded in it, about $15.00 of it, and we ended up having to gas up again about two days later. Not sure on the MPG but it seems very low. What makes it even more fun is our gas gauge likes to stop reading at half full, so we keep a log of the mileage and just guess when we need to put gas in.

You can do about 80mph and you won't hear any wind noise, at least in our truck. Road noise is kind of loud at speeds over 55 and you have to yell to make yourself heard, even in such a cab as small as the C1500's.

Going to the grocery store in our truck, GO IN SOMETHING ELSE. Unless you have a toolbox, getting groceries in this truck will make you cry. It's either putting it in the toolbox, in the bed of the truck with risk of the groceries flying out into traffic, putting them behind the seat in the cab and having to lean forward all the way home, or putting them on top of your feet in the floorboard.

The exterior of the truck is kind of boxy and long and looks odd (we have a long-bed). The back window doesn't roll down or push out or anything, but of course if you're hot, you can always rely on the trusty air conditioner.

The tailgate is beginning to get hard to shut and you have to slam it for it to latch. Same goes for the doors up front. You almost have to either roll down a window or slam it with all of your might to get them to shut.

We basically bought a lemon, I hate hate hate our truck with a purple passion. But, I guess if we spent out money, which would probably be double what we even paid for it, it could be a nice truck.

Other features include interval wipers, AM-FM Radio w/ cassette and four speakers (which you WILL want to upgrade), air conditioning, heat, power windows and locks (the lock buttons decided to snap in our truck, however), rear window defogger.

Please examine this kind of vehicle before you buy it. Buy it from a dealer if you can. If you buy from a private seller, (especially in the south where most people do stupid things to cars), you're liable to run into problems.

The C1500 can seat 3 people, but very very uncomfortably, with no arm room and no leg room. You gotta squinch up your butt if you're in the middle, too.

On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd rate the '88 Chevrolet C1500 Silverado a definite 3.




Amount Paid (US$): 2700
Condition: Used
Model Year: 1988
Model and Options: '88 C1500 Silverado V8