The 2008 Chevy Silverado may not have the aggressive styling of the Dodge Ram or Nissan Titan or even the Toyota Tundra or Ford F-150, but its upright design may be considered both bold and appealing to its faithful customers, and they buy hundreds of thousands of Silverados each year.

A raked windshield (raked at 57 degrees) and careful aerodynamic and body-building engineering make the truck both quieter on the inside and more fuel efficient. GM boasts that the Silverado and GMC Sierra are the first full-size trucks to offer both 300 horsepower and EPA highway ratings of 20 miles per gallon (2WD 4.3 and 5.3 on gasoline).

The large, gold Chevy bowtie badge is set against a wide, three-bar chrome grille. The grille is flanked by stacked headlamps sporting the latest reflector-optics. The front bumper incorporates rectangular fog lamps.

The hood has a wide power dome. Bulging front fenders wrap over the front wheels and incorporate the headlamps within their forward sweep. Likewise, the rear quarter panels are punctuated by large faired wheel wells.

The rear view of the truck features stacked tail lamps on either side of a tall tailgate that has a sculpted center section that mimics and inverts the shape of the fender flares.

Built on what General Motors calls its GMT900 platform, the Silverado shares much of its underpinnings with the Tahoe SUV, though the pickup truck gets a unique rear suspension and a frame section that is 245 percent stiffer. Compared to the former generation Silverado, the frame is 234 percent stiffer torsionally, 62 percent more resistant to bending and 136 percent stiffer laterally. All of this allows such things as reducing the gap between the truck bed and passenger compartment and between fenders and bumpers. It also enhances aerodynamics and fuel efficiency and allows suspension components to provide improved ride and handling characteristics.

The front suspension uses coil-over shock absorbers (rather than torsion bars) and the rack-and-pinion steering gear is mounted to the engine cross member frame to provide enhanced control and feedback. The Silverado benefits from a rear axle design featuring shocks absorbers mounted outboard and more upright for better dynamic control than that of the previous-generation models.