I Drove America’s Only New Half-Ton Diesel Pickup Truck, It Got 30 MPG And Hauled Like A Bigger Truck

America’s relationship with diesel power has long been complicated. Diesel engines rule trucking, construction, and heavy industries, but you won’t find many consumer-grade vehicles sporting compression ignition engines. If you want diesel power in a new vehicle without a CDL, you usually have to get a three-quarter-ton or larger pickup truck – but there is one exception. General Motors sells the only half-ton pickup truck in America with a diesel engine. I drove a 2026 Chevrolet Silverado RST Duramax and saw 30 mpg when driving it unloaded, and also drove it with a huge trailer to test its hauling ability. Help! I’ve fallen so deeply in love!

General Motors was the king of diesel power in America through much of the 20th century. GM, through its subsidiaries such as the Electro-Motive Division, the GMC Truck & Coach Division, and Detroit Diesel, had a domineering grasp of diesel-electric locomotives, the bus industry, and even highway tractor engines. In the late 1970s, General Motors even managed to sell hundreds of thousands of diesel-powered passenger cars across more than two dozen models.

General Motors has since pulled back from most of those efforts, and GMC doesn’t build highway tractors or buses anymore. EMD was handed to Progress Rail, and Daimler Truck now controls Detroit Diesel. You will not find a single new Class 8 truck with a Chevrolet badge, either. Recently, GM has even cancelled its medium-duty line  of trucks (that’s an example below). Likewise, you will not find a single new passenger car in America with a GM badge and a diesel engine.

But GM didn’t completely give up on diesel in the 21st century. Back in the 2010s, GM capitalized on what was then renewed American interest in diesels by ending its more-than-two-decade American diesel passenger car hiatus to introduce the Cruze diesel.

Then came the Volkswagen Dieselgate emissions cheating scandal.

In short order, the reputation of diesel was tarnished. Diesel sales plummeted, even in Europe where diesel was pretty much the default choice for any passenger vehicle. But one company didn’t want to give up. To General Motors, diesel wasn’t the problem; Volkswagen was. So, in the wake of Dieselgate, General Motors decided to fill in the void left by Volkswagen’s failure with a lineup of diesel-powered cars, crossovers, and trucks.

Soon enough, any American could waltz into their local GM-brand dealer and roll out in a diesel-powered Cruze, Equinox, Terrain, Colorado, Canyon, Silverado, or Sierra. GM wouldn’t be alone. While Ford and FCA didn’t put out diesel passenger cars in America, they did come out swinging with their own diesel half-ton trucks. The Jeep Gladiator was also available with a diesel. Mazda finally finished its diesel engine and started slinging an oil-burning CX-5. Even Jaguar managed to land a handful of diesels on our shores.

Sadly, nearly all of them are gone. None of these automakers succeeded in making diesel popular in America again in a post-Dieselgate world. Ford never even bothered to make a modern diesel Ranger, and Ram didn’t sell a mid-size pickup at all. Ford and Ram would eventually cancel their diesel half-tons, too.

I said “nearly” all of them are gone because there’s still one vehicle from GM’s plan to rule light-duty diesels that, somehow, remains on the market. Long after everything else has been canceled, you can still buy a Chevrolet Silverado 1500 and a GMC Sierra 1500 with a 3.0-liter Duramax straight-six diesel. I just got to spend a week with one, and I can’t stop thinking about it.

(Full disclosure: General Motors loaned me a 2026 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 RST diesel with a full tank of fuel to use for the week of EAA AirVenture Oshkosh.)

The Basics

Drivetrain: 3.0-liter Duramax LZ0 straight-six turbodiesel.

Drive: Rear-wheel drive.

Output: 305 horsepower and 495 lb-ft of torque.

MPG: 23 mpg city, 28 mpg highway, and 25 mpg combined (RWD), or 22 mpg city, 26 mpg highway, and 24 mpg combined (4×4).

Base Price: $51,145 before $1,999 destination.

Price As-Tested: $63,435 (RST, destination fee included).

How Does It Look?

One of the greatest advances in modern truck design came in the 1990s when the designers behind the second-generation Dodge Ram decided to borrow some traits from big rigs. It looked bold, it looked imposing, and it had presence. Practically overnight, the Ram suddenly made the competition look antiquated.

Truck design hasn’t really moved far from that idea since then, though I would argue that the Silverado 1500 doesn’t really mimic a highway tractor. Today’s Class 8 trucks are on a mission to be as slick as possible, resulting in smoother designs. Apparently, some people didn’t like how restrained the third-generation Silverado looked, so when making this new one, which launched in 2019, GM made it look like it chugged a few Monster Energy drinks before visiting the weight room.

The front end looks like it can barely contain what’s behind the grille and the hood. The headlights struggle to secure real estate in a sea of mostly black. The bulging fenders make the truck appear ready to pounce on an unsuspecting trailer. Then, there’s a classy character line at about the beltline. That’s my favorite part. I’m generally not a fan of today’s era of vehicles that look like they want to rip your face off. I also don’t quite get the need for modern ICE vehicles to have front ends that are about 85 percent grille. But I do appreciate some graceful lines when I find them.

If making a statement was what customers wanted from their trucks, I think Chevy succeeded. If you want a half-ton truck that appears absolutely jacked without looking like Wrestlemania-era Hulk Hogan, the Silverado is probably the best in the game. Not even the GMC Sierra goes as hard on the muscles.

The RST, or Rally Sport Truck, is essentially an LT with an appearance package. My tester also had the option of the Redline edition. Basically, this is an LT with loads of black trim and some red accents here and there for a more sporty look. Even the HDMI port-style exhaust pipes are blacked out!

One of the great parts about this diesel truck being based on a half-ton is that it doesn’t look like you’re driving a skyscraper around. I’m 5’6,” and even a 2500-class truck feels like a giant. If I open the hood of one of those trucks, I have to look up and then down at the engine. I have to get creative just to close the hood on one of those trucks, and their bed rails also reach shoulder level. That’s all to say that those rigs are rather huge. I don’t have to be as tall as an NBA player to slide a generator into the back of the Silverado.

The absolute shortest that a Silverado 2500HD crew cab gets is 250 inches, while this RST crew cab short bed is 232.75 inches long. That’s a foot and a half shorter than the big truck. It even sits shorter, too, at 75 inches, compared to the 2500’s 79.8 inches of height. For another way to look at the size of it, this is a diesel truck that fits in a parking garage that simply wouldn’t fit a 2500.

If you like the general vibe of this design, but think there’s room for improvement, the new-generation 2027 Silverado might have what you’re looking for. It looks like the grille of that truck will be smaller, with the boomerang-style DRLs getting larger and the headlights moving a bit lower. That new truck, which will have the diesel available, looks a little bit closer to what Chevy’s HD pickups currently look like.

In The Cab

The interior of the Silverado 1500 RST crew cab is straightforward and devoid of most of the gimmicks that plague the automotive industry today.

A big highlight for me is the glorious inclusion of buttons. Want to turn on the heated seats? Hit the button! Want the air blowing on your face, but not your feet? There’s a button for that. Even the dual-zone climate control is button-controlled.

That means the 13.4-inch infotainment display with Google built-in can be used for music, your phone, navigation, and trailering settings. That’s honestly refreshing. In a world of screen-controlled vents, glovebox doors, and HVAC, more automakers should be like Chevy and not force people to use a screen for everything. There’s nothing wrong with buttons! This interior does not look or function any worse with buttons.

Speaking of functions, I was surprised to see so few gadgets in this truck. The mirrors do not automatically dim, the truck does not warn of blind spots, there’s no HUD, there are no ventilated seats, and there isn’t even a sunroof of any kind. The truck didn’t whine at me with parking sensors, and it didn’t even have adaptive cruise control. A part of me was shocked to find that I couldn’t even find a button to adjust my pedal height. Compared with most modern vehicles, the Silverado is barren.

The couple of techy bits I did find were a lane-keep assist, road sign recognition, and a frontal collision avoidance system. Technically, the truck also has auto-stop, but it rarely ever activated.

I think the quality of the interior was about fine. As I said, this is basically a sporty LT, or in other words, a volume model. There’s a lot of hard plastic mingling with soft-touch materials here. Nothing feels nasty, but nothing feels amazing, either. I don’t even have much of a note about the leather seats, either. They feel neither cheap nor very luxurious. It’s just a fine place to be. I do think GM could get a little more creative with its hard plastics than giving them a pebbled pattern. Maybe geometric shapes?

My one complaint about the interior is the heavy use of piano black plastic. This plastic is absurdly easy to get fingerprints on and, over time, will almost certainly gather faint swirl marks and scratches. I would have rather these bits been fake silver or stainless-look rather than piano black.

The tech inside the cab was also easy to live with and use. I liked being able to customize the three panels on the instrument cluster. While towing, I had one panel viewing transmission temperature, one showing fuel economy, and one showing directions. Later, I had the panels showing average fuel economy, outside temperature, and instant fuel economy.

The seven-speaker Bose Premium stereo was also like the rest of the interior in that it was pretty much in the direct middle of the road. It was neither the best stereo I’ve used, nor the worst. It was fine enough. My music came out mostly clear, and the bass was heavy enough to my liking. Cranking the volume up did result in distortion, but it was still playable. Again, it wasn’t really anything to write home about, but I also don’t really have any major complaints, either. I would be more than happy with the Silverado RST’s stereo in any of my cars. Mercedes Jam Session Approved.

How Does It Work As A Truck?

This review is over a year in the making. I’ve driven lots of heavy-duty diesel pickup trucks. I’ve driven lots of diesel passenger cars. I have not driven a half-ton diesel truck. Sadly, the last time I tried getting a Silverado 1500 diesel as a loaner, there were none available in the Chicago press fleet. So, I was irrationally excited to get behind the wheel of this one.

Honestly, I’m still amazed. The 3.0-liter Duramax straight-six under the hood, which you can read the history of by clicking here, is a wonderful mill.

At idle, it’s so quiet I can barely tell it’s running, and the engine emits only the faintest vibration. GM says that the diesel flavor of the Silverado was designed to drive and feel just like a gas-powered Silverado. That’s the reason why GM went with a straight-six for its diesel half-ton when the competition was building diesel V6s. GM wanted to take advantage of the smoothness of a straight-six. But that’s not all, as the truck also has a centrifugal pendulum absorber torque converter to further smooth out the diesel motions.

The result is that, even when I was hard on the throttle, the character of the engine was almost un-diesel-like. My wife’s Volkswagen TDI shakes a lot more than this truck does. According to Car and Driver, the Babymax is at 71 decibels at wide-open throttle, or quieter than a 6.2-liter gas V8.

But that doesn’t mean that the engine doesn’t perform like a diesel. Oh no, it’s just the opposite. Drop the hammer, and the engine quickly boosts up, lights the rear tires up, and then the truck proceeds to scamper down the road while painting down a black 11. The speed of this rig threw my head for a spin. Apparently, these diesel trucks can hit 60 mph in under 7 seconds with a skilled right foot, and I believe it. This truck builds speed like a Boeing 737 thunders down a runway. I get a big initial kick, and then it’s off to rotation speed.

Let me put this speed in another perspective. A first-generation Audi TT with the 225 HP tune will hit 60 mph in the mid-6-second range. This 5,700-pound truck is very nearly just as fast with a diesel engine. The truck seemed entirely unbothered with the trailer on the back, too. Transmission temperatures went up a few degrees at the most. I wish the Autopian’s Nissan Murano CrossCabriolet had a transmission that steady.

The firepower doesn’t go away when you hitch up a trailer, either. For this year’s EAA AirVenture Oshkosh, I hauled my family’s 2007 Adirondack 31BH, which comes in at 35’5” and more than 6,292 pounds. It’s my favorite trailer to use to test trucks out. In the past, I have used a 2010 Ford Expedition EL, a 2011 Chevrolet Suburban, a 2016 Ford F-350 Super Duty, a 2023 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro, and a 2024 Ford F-250 Super Duty Power Stroke to haul this trailer. Last year, I had a Chevy Silverado EV, but used that to tow the family’s heavier 2022 Heartland Mallard M33 camper trailer.

The truck didn’t break a sweat with the trailer on its back. I know how much people hate getting stuck behind campers. I mean, it was a whole running joke on Top Gear for a while! So I try to accelerate with the rest of the traffic. The Duramax had so much power in reserve that, when I accidentally punched the skinny pedal from the right lane at a red light, all of the cars that bunched up in the left lane expecting to pass me couldn’t keep up. Oops! I will admit, I did giggle a lot, but I paid the price later in the day when I discovered that I broke a stack of dinner plates inside the trailer.

Now, I suppose I shouldn’t have been too surprised. The hybridized Tundra TRD Pro and the F-250 both pulled the trailer with enough gusto not to clog up traffic. Today’s trucks are insanely capable like that. This truck makes about as much power as a first-generation Duramax V8 from longer than two decades ago, but with an engine of less than half the displacement.

The great performance of the engine continued on the Interstate, too, where, even with the trailer on the back, the truck had a mountain of passing power in reserve. Of course, I strictly adhere to speed limits when towing, so I only got to test that out when I got stuck behind folks doing only 55 mph on an Interstate with traffic moving at above 70 mph.

What The Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Duramax Is Really Good At

I think the biggest advantage of the diesel was its fuel economy. On the drive into Oshkosh, I scored 12 mpg with the trailer on the back. On the way home, it averaged about 10.7 mpg, but that includes a heavy crosswind component. That was phenomenal. For comparison, the aforementioned Expedition got 5.5 mpg while towing this trailer. The Suburban got 7.7 mpg with this trailer, the Tundra TRD Pro got 7.2 mpg with this trailer, and the much more expensive F-250 Super Duty Power Stroke got 10.2 mpg.

When the truck wasn’t carrying or hauling a load, I found it easy to average 30 mpg so long as I didn’t have to stop too often. As a road trip vehicle, the Silverado 1500 diesel is great. The seats are more than comfortable for the long haul, and the lower cabin noise with the diesel makes it less fatiguing. The fuel tank is ready for a long drive, too. The truck drinks from a 24-gallon tank. Let’s assume you get the EPA highway rating of 28 mpg. That’s 672 miles if you run it dry. I bet your bladder wouldn’t last that long!

Long-distance fuel economy is where a half-ton diesel shines. This isn’t a truck for the city, or for a work commute that’s only 20 minutes long. Diesels like to be worked, and like to be used. This is a truck that only makes sense when you are using it like a truck over long distances. Where a gas truck might get single-digit fuel economy towing a big camper across America, this should still get double-digit fuel economy. Add it up over time, and depending on your situation, the diesel might make more sense, even after factoring in the cost of diesel fuel, DEF, and maintenance. Of course, your mileage and experience will vary.

But, fuel economy and power aside, the diesel had other reasons to adore it. I couldn’t get enough of its noise. I loved to crack the window, give the pedal some size 10 shoe action, and listen to that straight-six sing. The engine actually sounded its best when pulling the trailer, and, dare I say, it sort of reminded me of my old International DT466E straight-six. Obviously not nearly as loud or as clattery, and certainly not even close in size, but I heard hints of it with my ears.

I also loved how, like a muscle car of old, if I stabbed the throttle just right, I could get the truck to rock just a little on its suspension. Look, I’m basically a child at heart. I attempt the same silly rock with every press vehicle just for the funsies.

I’m Smitten

I came out of my time with the 2026 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 RST Duramax in love. I once said that, if money were no factor, I would buy a Ford F-150 FP700 in a heartbeat. Since 2023, that has been my definitive modern dream truck. Today, the Silverado 1500 Duramax threatens that throne.

I fully acknowledge that a half-ton diesel is really only for a niche of buyers. Look, in the vast majority of cases, get whatever is the best-reviewed gas engine for your Ford, Chevy, GMC, Toyota, or Ram, and you’ll be fine. Gas engines aren’t laden with expensive emissions equipment that will probably fail one day. Gas engines don’t have diesel fuel filters or DEF. Gas engines also make seriously impressive diesel-like power nowadays. The price of gasoline has also generally been much lower than diesel lately, too. Just to check the diesel option box alone will set you back another $2,390.

Buying the diesel doesn’t net you a greater tow rating, either. Depending on the configuration you buy, a Silverado 1500 diesel tows as little as 9,300 pounds or as high as 13,300 pounds. A truck with a 6.2-liter V8 gasser tows as much as 13,400 pounds.

Another knock against the diesel is its wet oil pump belt. A reader asked me to call my local Chevrolet dealer to get a quote on what replacing the Duramax oil belt would be like. I was quoted about $2,500 in labor. The part itself is about $25. The bulk of the price, the dealer said, comes down to the fact that the job takes more than 12 hours and, per the dealer, requires removal of the transmission. Thankfully, the replacement interval is every 200,000 miles on Duramax LZ0 engines, but it is a consideration if you’re someone who puts down a ton of miles quickly.

Yet, even with all of that, I’m still in love. This truck has everything I am obsessed with when it comes to diesel trucks, but in a half-ton package. It makes the right sounds, has addictive power, has long legs, is properly quick for a diesel, and doesn’t cost a million dollars. So many of the diesel trucks I’ve reviewed have price tags exceeding $90,000. I feel like this is a truck I could actually swing if I wanted to. I could park it at home without pissing off my neighbors, too.

It’s sad that the cheapest diesel in America costs 53 stacks, or 63 grand to get it the way my tester looks. The age of the truly affordable diesel is dead in America. But I do feel that the price is not nearly as absurd as some other vehicles on the market today.

General Motors seemingly has the market cornered. I cannot imagine that there are a ton of buyers lining up to get a diesel half-ton. But if you want one, your only choice is the same truck, but with a bowtie or a GMC in its grille. GM must sell enough of the diesels to even bother offering the engine in the new generation.

If you don’t care about diesels, just get a gas engine. You’ll get the same tow rating, still great performance, and lower maintenance. But if, like me, you love the sound of a Duramax in the morning and think spark plugs are cheating, I think you would like a Silverado 1500 Duramax. Obviously, like all modern diesel engines, it’s going to have some caveats. But if you can live with them, I think you’ll smile just like I did.

Top graphic image: Mercedes Streeter