I enjoyed a 2002 Silverado. It was the perfect truck except for (1)rocker panel rust (2)piston slap and (3)transmission pump whine. If I start searching for a replacement Silverado, do you all know for sure when the rocker panel foam insulation rust problem was fixed? The piston slap? I am thinking of finding a nice used 2004-xxxx example.

I had a gorgeous '04 2500hd that spent its entire life in MA. It had one speck of rust which I took care of on the rear corner of the bed rail, from the cap rubbing through. No rust anywhere else, so perhaps it was addressed by then. It also stayed outside year-round, so it was not a garage that kept it nice.

There was a little slap built into the motors, it seems- all the 5.3s until '07 or so seem to have it.

I had no trans pump whine, but the fuel pump was a little loud all the time amd then real loud a couple days before it quit.

I bought a '13 to replace it...

My '98 that I had before the '04 was very rust prone. I took everything below the rubber trim on the doors and sides down to bare metal and rolled bedliner on instead. That stopped the rust!

I have an '01 Silverado with a 6.0 with 205k. I also have an '03 Suburban with a 5.3 and 315K. The '01 has piston slap, and is developing some rocker panel rust despite my best efforts to control it. The '03 has no rust issues, and no piston slap.

The '03 was the first year for the electronic throttle body instead of a cable. So far I've had no problems with mine, but you can't manually manipulate it for cleaning the TB, and seems unnecessarily complex to me.

'05 was the first year for E-fans, which is a desirable thing. Less parasitic draw on the motor, and way easier to work around than a mechanical clutch and fan.

Nice mileage on that 2003! My '04 had 118k and would pass everything but a gas station, even while pulling my old camper. I never would have gotten rid of it but I needed a tiny bit more room for kid seats in the back (and bought a crew cab so it has a lot more room inside).

The slap seems to be the norm, and for the most part it doesn't really seems to affect much aside from being a bit annoying. YMMV