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Both the Chevy Silverado and GMC Sierra powertrains deliver enhanced fuel economy. "We have improved our fuel efficiency for 2010 pretty much across the board," states Tony Truelove, marketing manager for the Chevrolet Silverado.

One contributor is the development of a fuel saver mode, which allows the trucks to make better use of GM's Active Fuel Management system. "The fuel saver mode is built into the calibration of all of our 5.3-liter engines," says Truelove. It enables more aggressive active fuel management by running the engine on four cylinders in light throttle conditions vs. eight.

"The fuel saver mode is a calibration that keeps the engine in four-cylinder operation longer to improve fuel economy," adds Carl Hillenbrand, Silverado product manager. "From a hardware perspective for 2010, there is not anything significantly changed [with the engines]."

A prime enabler of this technology has been the switch to six-speed transmissions across the product line. This allowed a more aggressive calibration for the active fuel management than was possible with the previous four-speed transmission.

"We are trying to make it seamless to the customer, so that he can't feel it switching back and forth between cylinders, while giving the best fuel efficiency," states Truelove.