Bumper Metal/plastic

[macguy]

Why on the silverado HD 2007-10, is the bumper sides plastic. Only center is real metal. Yet on the GMC Siera HD, entire bumper is metal.

[Matt_]

The same reason the chicken crossed the road.....

[revrnd]

Maybe they "benchmarked" the bumper design against the Nissan Titan?

 

The 2011 2500HD bumper looks good in comparison as it's similiar to the GMT800. It's a 2 piece design (top piece in the pics I've seen are chromed) plastic. Main portion is steel, w/ the plastic chin spoiler @ the bottom.

 

Too bad they couldn't come up w/ a 1 piece bumper like the GMT400s. Also design the bumper so that the lower edsge is above the front axle's centreline. This was a big complaint in the truck magazines when the 900 was intro'd.

[SparkySparks]

The bumper extends behind the plastic end caps on the Chevy trucks.

[Kodiak450]

Well for one, the chrome plastic acts like a vanity mirror so you can see your face if you get any grease on your face while changing a tire. Not only is it an ugly design, but totally cheap! I've seen these trucks with front end damage, and all of them were trashed badly in the front end. I would never own that gen truck, that will be know as the year GM needed to make cut backs and sacrifice quality. I'm not really angry, nor pointing fingers at GM, I have faith that they will do the right thing and improve the quailty of their trucks again. ford is stronger then ever now, and really has done a great job in improvements over the last 3 yrs. I would like to see GM put the better parts back on their trucks and improve quality issues. And most importantly redesign their trucks.

[ColoradoSkiCountry]

Bumpers now a days are made to "crush" not "deflect" it's part of the safety standard the auto makers have to live up to. Everything is designed to crush around the cab to keep the driver safe. Not sure how this works, but this is how it is explained.

[revrnd]

Bumpers now a days are made to "crush" not "deflect" it's part of the safety standard the auto makers have to live up to. Everything is designed to crush around the cab to keep the driver safe. Not sure how this works, but this is how it is explained.

 

Pretty much sums it up.