New 2011 HD trucks head for dealers; Duramax engines are options

The first, Flint, Mich.-built Chevrolet Silverado HD trucks are on the way out to dealers, General Motors has said.

The first truck is headed to Rodas Chevrolet in Strawberry Point, Iowa, a town of 1,400, GM said in a statement Tuesday, May 25.

The Moraine-built 6.6-liter Duramax diesel engine is an option on the truck.

The Dryden Road GM-Isuzu joint operation employs more than 500 workers making the latest-generation diesel truck engines.

“We’re in a rural community out here. Ninety percent of buyers are pulling a trailer of some kind,” Dan Paris, co-owner and general manager of Rodas Chevrolet, said in GM’s announcement. “We have guys that are definitely watching this one coming. I don’t think it’s going to take very long” to sell the first truck.

A second truck, a red crew cab, is headed to Sunset Chevrolet in Sumner, Wash., which has a population of 8,500, GM said.

GM called the HD “a vastly improved vehicle, boasting segment-leading 21,700 pounds of towing and 6,635 pounds of payload.”