If pick-up trucks could communicate with one another, I’m sure there would be lots of chatter as they came to life inching their way down the assembly line.
As frames, fenders and tailgates aligned with transmissions, suspensions and electronic gizmos to produce another of North America’s jack of all trades, perhaps the trucks might learn something about their destiny.
What will they eventually be used for? Are they a special order for a young entrepreneur’s landscaping business in Regina, Saskatchewan or headed to a dealer’s lot in Tucson, Arizona where they might end up hauling a fifth-wheel RV to sunny locals across the southern U.S.? Will they go to someone who doesn’t give a hoot about them or end up in the yard of a truck nerd to be pampered and fussed over? Or will they be one of the lucky ones that end up in a collection for what they are or something they will do?
Plenty of vehicles come and go in our driveway thanks to the nature of our business. It’s a variety of cars and light trucks I get to know as we rotate them through eight or nine Atlantic Canada-based automotive journalists who evaluate them and write reviews in outlets across North America.
For a variety of reasons last summer a 2019 Chevrolet Silverado Trail Boss came and went from my possession so many times it seemed it was mine.
I imagined how the flashy pick-up would have felt exiting its assembly line realizing it was headed for a stint in Chevrolet’s PR department before being sold. Was it the Trail Boss decal on the rear fenders that made it stand out? What about the Hot Red paint job with black wheels, grill and accents and a two-inch, factory installed suspension lift kit.
After rail and carrier transport to Montreal’s West Island Chevrolet dealership for a pre-delivery inspection, the trail of this Trail Boss continued. Strapped to a car-carrier to Quebec City, it was then assigned to me as a support vehicle for the media launch of the 2019 Chevrolet Blazer.
So the first ten days of its licensed life consisted of checking drive routes, hauling journalists and Chevy executives to and from the airport and as my mobile office during the event.
I was surprised how quiet it was on the highway, even with the knobby Goodyear Wrangler DuraTrac 275/65R 18C MT tires. I loved the muted growl of the engine when pressed. I thought it was a 420-horsepower 6.2L V-8 until I checked the spec sheet. The Silverado Trail Boss was actually powererd by a 5.3-litre engine with a $3,195 LPO Performance Upgrade Package that includes a special intake/exhaust system. This option adds 15 more horses to the engine’s 355 horsepower output and makes the Trail Boss sound like a muffled NASCAR racecar heading down the back stretch of Alabama’s Talladega Superspeedway.
I said so long to the Trail Boss at the end of the Blazer launch and it was shipped back to Montreal and spent five weeks on loans to Quebec media outlets. I assume it hauled families to cottages, lumber to renovation projects and journalists to meetings as its ego got stroked by all the fuss over its bold appearance and cool performance air intake/exhaust set-up.
Then, in mid July I flew to Montreal to pick it up. It was like a reunion with an old friend on the drive to Halifax. Of course I imagined owning the truck but I rationalized needing the towing capacity of a 2500 HD. I also couldn’t buy a red truck because twin Larry has one and the same face is enough twinning at our age. But with its naughty sound, black wheels, Rancho monotube shock absorbers and roll bar over the front of the bed the Trail Boss was an engaging road companion.
The truck spent the next eight weeks with Atlantic Canada’s #eastcoasttester auto journalists and appearing on websites, in newspapers and magazines across North America. It visited a string of business bosses, off-roaded in Cape Breton and completed a dusty backroads drive on New Brunswick roads less travelled.
As the odometer clocked up, the Silverado Trail Boss’s life in the limelight was coming to an end, but not before one more assignment. This time as the mainland support vehicle for the media launch of the Cadillac XT6 on Îles de la Madeliene in late September.
Shortly after its return to Halifax, word came it was time to retire the truck from its life in the spotlight. My friends, and even Mum, loved the big red beast. It was capable off-road, comfortable and surprisingly agile in town and on the highway. It ended up at a local dealership where it will be sold.
Hopefully whoever purchases our summer hit Chevrolet Silverado Trail Boss will provide the fun and respect to which it grew accustomed on its corporate pre-sale assignment.
Late at night the new owner might get a sense of it reliving the tales of its trail through the mountains of Charlevoix, the cobblestone streets of Quebec City, over Confederation Bridge and along the back roads of Atlantic Canada.
