The base price for a Silverado 2500 HD 2WD regular cab with the Vortec 8100 and the manual transmission is $28,205.
For the most grunt, GM is offering the Duramax 6600 diesel, which puts out 300 horsepower at 3100 rpm and 520 pound-feet of torque at 1800 rpm. Again, the transmission choices are the 6-speed ZF or the 5-speed Allison 1000 automatic.
The base price for a Silverado 2500 HD 2WD regular cab with the Duramax 6600 and the manual transmission is $32,605.
Any suspicion that those power numbers somehow do not translate to the real world disappears quickly in real world driving. These engines are the real thing and they will out-hustle the engines from Ford and DaimlerChrysler in virtually any situation you can imagine.
GM went to the trouble of renting a small private airstrip somewhere north of here and hooked horse trailers up to one of their own trucks and to solid models of the Dodge and Ford competition for a drag race. No matter which auto writer was driving which vehicle, the GM heavy-duty pickup won every single time, going away. It was very impressive.
While there's a distinct tone of mine's-bigger-than-yours about that (which certainly has large appeal for many buyers), there is also a strong rational defense to be made for this extra power. After all, while most of the regular pickups on the market are personal use vehicles, the heavy-duty models have to work for a living. That means hauling heavy things in the pickup bed and towing trailers for all sorts of purposes.