I'm beginning to think that my 2004 Silverado C/1500 truck was the last of the "good" ones. In 2004, GM was heavily into 0$ down/0% 60-month financing, but they hadn't yet started reducing their suggested retail prices.
During the 2005 and 2006 model years, I have wondered how GM could offer extensive rebates and other customer incentives in addition to lower list prices for trucks which, seemingly, were nearly identical to the truck that I bought in 2004. The same 2006 Silverado C/1500 now sells for $2000 less than I paid for my 2004.
Apparently, GM was able to save a few bucks on each C/1500 by switching back to rear drum brakes, after 6 years of using rear disk brakes. GM stated that this change was made to make its customers happier with pedal-feel. Apparently, only the C/1500 customers had pedal-feel issues, because the C/1500 HD, C/2500, C/3500, Avalanche, Tahoe and Suburban models kept their mushy rear disc brakes, at least through the 2005 model year. And for some unexplained reason, GM decided to keep the old fashioned, less efficient disc brakes in the front of all models, even the C/1500. The gem below obviously originated in GM's advertising department:
I think that this incident with the brakes is only the tip of the iceberg as far as GM's cost-cutting is concerned.
More worms will be crawling out of this apple.