What is our First Modification to our Long-Term Tester?
Gearheads, you already know we have a 2027 Chevrolet Silverado Custom Trail Boss on order for a long-term test here at GT: Garage Talk. What you may not know is that I have already bought its first upgrade, and it gives away the truck’s name.
Chevrolet has accepted our order, and we have a build date. As it sits right now, we expect the truck in December (though I am hoping it gets pushed up). You can read why we ordered it and how we specced it, and follow along on our dedicated Silverado playlist on YouTube as the updates roll in.
Meet Cheyenne, Our 2027 Silverado
I have long believed you should name your vehicles, and we have asked plenty of podcast guests about it. Every vehicle I have bought for myself has a name. There was Nellie, my Chevy Cruze (shout-out to the Boomstick himself, Nelson Cruz of the Texas Rangers). There was Camaron, my Camaro, Scarlett, my Equinox, and Sarah Jo, my Silverado. The list goes on.
Having already owned a Silverado, I started thinking about what I would name my next Chevy truck. That is how I landed on the Cheyenne name. Yes, it is a city, but it is also a name with real history at Chevrolet, and that history is exactly why it only works on a Chevy truck. So, name reveal: our 2027 Chevy Silverado Custom Trail Boss is officially named Cheyenne.
The Chevy Cheyenne Started as a 1970s Truck Trim
Before Silverado was its own truck, Chevrolet sold its full-size pickups as the C/K series, and it used names like Custom, Scottsdale, Cheyenne, and Silverado to separate the trim levels. Chevy introduced the Cheyenne trim on second-generation C/K pickups in 1971, according to J.D. Power.
The Chevy Cheyenne sat near the upper end of the lineup. The Cheyenne added upgrades like wood trim, nicer upholstery, and a better stereo. The name also showed up on the K5 Blazer, which is where my favorite piece of this story comes from.
How Silverado Outgrew Its Siblings
Silverado arrived in 1975 as the top trim of the C/K series. By 1985, it sat above the Custom Deluxe, Scottsdale, and Cheyenne in the lineup, according to Chevrolet’s own look back at Silverado history. Then, in 1999, Silverado became its own model.
As a result, the Chevy Cheyenne faded away in the U.S. It was discontinued after 1998, right before the standalone Silverado launched. Chevy did bring the name back for a concept truck at the 2003 North American International Auto Show, but it never returned to American showrooms.
The Chevy Cheyenne Still Lives On in Mexico
The name did not disappear entirely, though. Cheyenne returned in Mexico in the mid-2000s, and today it is still sold there as the premium version of the full-size Chevy pickup. In fact, the Mexican Cheyenne is nearly identical to our Silverado, with the most visible difference being the tailgate badge. The base trims keep the Silverado name, while trims from LT on up wear Cheyenne.
In other words, putting Cheyenne badges on our truck is not that far off from what Chevrolet already does south of the border, though our lower-trim Custom Trail Boss would most likely still be a Silverado in Mexico.
A Real 1970s K5 Blazer Cheyenne Emblem
This emblem is real metal from the 1970s, and it has a story. Our good friend of the channel, Bill Taylor of Vehicle Nanny, gave it to me. His dad was the lead engineer on the K5 Blazer, so it means a lot. Bill has also been a guest on the GT: Garage Talk podcast.
If you have followed us for a while, you may have already seen it on the channel. During our man-on-the-street interviews at the State Fair of Texas, I used it as my microphone while asking fairgoers about the new Silverado’s interior. (I clipped my real microphone to the back.) For the record, there is no leather in the 2027 Silverado 1500. It is all EvoTex.
Moving the Badges Down Low
These Chevy Cheyenne badges have been on my Amazon wish list for a very long time, and you can get a set of Cheyenne badges on Amazon too. There are three in the box: one for each front door to replace the Silverado badging, plus one for the tailgate. They are black to match our Custom Trail Boss, already spaced out, and about the same width as the Silverado badges, in the same font. (This is an affiliate link, so GT: Garage Talk may earn a small commission if you buy through it, at no extra cost to you.)
Why replace them at all? I have been critical of one design element on the Silverado: the placement of the Silverado name way up on the door, right under the side mirrors. It just looks out of place to me. GMC seems to have figured that out, because on GMC pickups with door badging, like the Sierra AT4X we covered, the badge sits down low. That is where these are headed. Nothing is set in stone, and I may decide Chevy had it right after all, but I think they will look a whole lot better down low. We will have a full video on removing the factory badges and installing these.
Happy Truck Month and What Comes Next
I also want to give a shout out to a good friend of the channel, Happy Truck Month. You may have seen me wearing my Happy Truck Month hat in several reviews. They sent us a welcome kit a long time ago, and I have been sitting on it with a good feeling that a truck was coming. Sure enough, it is. The kit includes a license plate frame, stickers, and a patch, and you better believe that frame is going around our rear license plate.
We have other upgrades planned, but nothing that will compromise the truck’s stock usefulness. I intentionally skipped factory side steps because we have aftermarket steps coming. Bed covers, bed storage, and window tint (it is hot here in Texas, y’all) are on the list too. We will not touch the engine or exhaust until the end of our first year of ownership. We will also protect all of those screens with our partners at Screen Protech.
Every upgrade to Cheyenne will be documented on our YouTube channel and right here at GTGarageTalk.com. Be sure to subscribe on YouTube, and sign up for our weekly newsletter using the form at the bottom of this page.