TUCSON, Arizona — The Santa Catalina Mountains north of Tucson look like something out of a Coyote vs. Road Runner episode: orange colors, giant boulders parched on rock spires, twisted roads. Beep, beep!

I stomped on the throttle of my ride with my size 15s and the V-8 roared. Hard into a downhill S-turn, the adaptive dampers stiffened to reduce body roll. I flicked my steed left, then right, then went hard on the brakes before exiting the turn on full throttle. Exiting the state park into Tucson’s suburbs, I engaged hands-free driving and let my leather-lathered chariot drive me through thickening weekday traffic.

“Hey, Gemini, change driver temperature to 70 degrees,” I barked to the 16-inch digital display.

Was I driving a Mercedes? Cadillac? Tesla Model S?

Nope. I was behind the wheel of the 2027 Chevy Silverado 1500 truck, the new standard for American luxury.

With up to 60 inches of digital displays in front, tasteful interior materials, and more rear-seat room than a limousine, pickup trucks like Silverado have been slowly encroaching on the traditional luxury market for years.

Her: Honey, it’s time to go to the club for dinner.

Him: OK, I’ll pull around the pickup.

For its fifth generation, Silverado stands firmly in the luxury space with both boots while also offering an accessible, $41,395 Work Truck and absurd levels of off-road and towing capability. Swiss Army Knife? Silverado is Swiss Army Cutlery.

Note that Chevy’s new dash User Interface — UI in industry speak — is being introduced in its light-duty pickup truck. Not the $70K Chevy Suburban SUV or Corvette sports car, but the pickup.

The beautifully integrated instrument and infotainment tablet stretches across the horizontal dash like, well, a BMW. Crisp smartphone menus are accessed with a quick Android operating system that responds to touch or voice commands.

Hey, Google, change passenger temperature to 68 degrees.

It was typically toasty in the Arizona desert. For the construction teams that have to work in the heat all day, the cabin is a welcome sanctuary with digital screens and acres of room standard. All-wheel-drive and five-passenger Crew Cab are not standard, however, meaning a big price jump to a premium $55,945 for that desired Z71 configuration.

Also optional on all trims — beginning with Work Truck up to Silverado, Silverado/ZR1 all-wheel-drive, Custom Trail Boss, Trail Boss, ZR2 and High Country — is the exclusive-to-segment, 3.0-liter, turbo inline-6 cylinder diesel, which means truck fleets can operate on diesel fuel for both their light-duty and heavy-duty pickups.

Electric trucks like the slow-selling Silverado EV? They are out of place in this world with their limited charging infrastructure and towing capacities.

The Silverado’s laundry list of standard features on its volume Silverado/Trail Boss models include blind-spot assist, adaptive-cruise control, heated seats, heated steering wheel, automatic backup braking and shower (kidding about the last one). But my favorite standard features on all trims are class-leading ergonomics that make every Silverado a no-compromise daily driver.

Class-exclusive corner steps (why aren’t these on every pickup?) allow easy access to the bed without having to option fancy-pants tailgates like Chevy’s Multiflex Tailgate (more on that later).

Open any door, and you can haul yourself in with a doorframe-mounted grab handle. For 2027, Chevy has lowered the window sill an inch for better visibility — a nod to the success Ford has had with its step-down, front corner window. Push-button start? Standard. No more fumbling for keys in your pocket with work gloves.

Rolling through Tucson, my hands never needed to leave the wheel. Steering wheel-mounted rocker switches control adaptive cruise control and instrument screen pages while radio station and volume selection can be controlled by buttons on the back of the wheel. Clever.

Just don’t confuse the radio control buttons with shift paddles on upper trims. Shift paddles on a pickup truck? Like tennis shoes for a fish, I’m not sure why they’re there.

Walk up the trim ladder and the ergonomic (and performance goodies) multiply. Check out my favorite tester, the Trillium Green, $68,515 Silverado Trail Boss with trailering package and Super Cruise hands-free driving. That’s, ahem, the same price as a luxury, midsize Merc GLE 350 SUV and less than half the price of a compact, comparable-horse, V6-powered Merc G-Wagen.

RAAAAWR!

Every boss needs a V-8 and the Trail Boss’s\ optional 5.7-liter eight-holer (upgraded for the fifth gen from 5.3-liters) put out 403 horses and a satisfying growl as I rowed it through the Santa Catalinas. A skid plate and 34-inch Goodyear Wrangler all-terrain tires mean it can also play off-road when needed.

The exterior armor is complemented inside by an optional Multi-Flex Center Console, a must for anyone who does desktop work (me) on the road. Helping to free up space is a crisp, steering-wheel-mounted electronic stalk shifter right out of a Cadillac Lyriq. Cue the luxury car comparisons.

Combined with the all-terrain capability and high-tech features, the console tabletop completes a premium trifecta that underscores the truck’s luxury vibe. Few luxe brands offer this kind of dexterity.

Step up (literally with its 2-inch lift) to the top-trim, $80K off-roader ZR2, and the dexterity gets more extreme.

European luxury brands have benefited from motorsports for decades, and now it lifts trucks as well. Chevy has won five of the last seven American Off-Road Racing Championship series across grueling events like Baja and King of the Hammers against stiff competition from Ford’s legendary Raptor super truck.

I flew the ZR2 off jumps at 40 mph, slung dirt on a rutted test course, and crawled over rocks with the confidence of a billy goat. The motorsports-proven ladder frame, 35-inch all-terrain tires, and multiple skid plates took a lickin’ and kept on tickin’.

While ZR2 comes standard with the diesel, the dirt-kicker and its fellow, loaded High Country trim get access to GM’s remade 6.6-liter, small-block V-8, which sounds like King Kong rampaging through New York when you put your boot in it. The V-8’s 501-pound feet of torque even eclipses the stump-pulling diesel’s 495.

Also standard on the ZR2 and High Country is the Multiflex tailgate, which offers six configurations, including a staircase so I could walk up into the bed of the truck like I was walking into my house. Can your luxury SUV do that?

Made with rolled steel, the bed will absorb abuse without scarring. That’ll be reassuring to weekend warriors who bring heavy toolboxes to racetracks — or portable barbecues to the weekend football tailgate.

Meanwhile, fellow scribe Marcos and I hung out in the interior like we were enjoying an evening in the Ritz Carlton bar. I synced my phone to the optional 11.5-inch passenger screen on the dash, signed into my YouTube account and watched Looney Tunes episodes of the Coyote vs. Roadrunner.

Heck, if Wile E. Coyote had a Silverado ZR2, he would have caught that pesky Roadrunner years ago.

2027 Chevrolet Silverado

Vehicle type: Front-engine, rear and four-wheel-drive, five-passenger pickup

Price: $41,395, including $2,795 destination charge ($68,515 Trail Boss, $75,490 High Country and $79,995 ZR2 as tested)

Powerplant: 2.7-liter, turbocharged inline-4 cylinder, 5.7-liter V-8, 6.6-liter V-8, 3.0-liter Duramax diesel inline-6 cylinder

Power: 350 horsepower, 455 pound-feet of torque (2.7-liter turbo-4), 402 horsepower, 428 pound-feet of torque (5.7-liter V-8), 481 horsepower, 501 pound-feet of torque (6.6-liter V-8), 305 horsepower, 495 pound-feet of torque (diesel)

Transmission: 10-speed automatic

Performance: Towing, 9,400-12,000 pounds; payload, 1,510-2,340 pounds

Weight: 5,550 pounds (Trail Boss as tested)

Fuel economy: EPA: NA

Report card

Highs: Standard features, options galore on low trims; luxury performance on top trims

Lows: $41,395 entry model is regular cab with steel wheels; AWD Crew Cab starts at $55,945

Overall: 4 stars

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