Junkyard Gem: 1988 Chevrolet S-10

When Normal Motors wished a small pickup truck to promote in North America — smaller than even the Chevrolet El Camino/GMC Dash cartruck — the Isuzu Sooner was introduced over from Japan and given Chevrolet LUV badges, beginning within the 1972 mannequin 12 months. On the identical time, Ford turned to Mazda to supply the brand new Courier mini-pickup, Chrysler obtained into the little-truck recreation by promoting rebadged Mitsubishi Tritons with Dodge and Plymouth badging, and naturally Datsun and Toyota have been proper there with their pickups. Finally, GM developed its personal all-American compact truck: the Chevrolet S-10 and GMC S-15. This is a type of first-generation S-10s, present in a Denver-area self-service wrecking yard lately.

The primary S-10s confirmed up for the 1982 mannequin 12 months, beating the Ford Ranger to showrooms by a full 12 months. The LUV remained accessible for 1982, which meant that Chevrolet truck customers might select between the Rooster Taxed-but-still-cheap $6,256 import and the brand-new $6,465 all-American S-10 (these costs come to about $19,650 for the LUV and $20,305 for the S-10, when transformed to 2022 {dollars}). After that, People might nonetheless purchase the Isuzu-badged model of the LUV (often known as the P’Up after which simply the Isuzu Truck) by means of 1995.

By 1988, the very least expensive new S-10 began at $6,595 (about $16,880 now).

If you obtained the entry-level S-10 in 1988, you took the bottom engine: the two.5-liter Iron Duke. A rough-running-but-sturdy four-banger that was basically one cylinder financial institution of the Pontiac 301 V8, this engine was referred to as the Tech IV when geared up with throttle-body gasoline injection (as this one is) and made 92 horsepower within the ’88 S-10. Consider it or not, GM put Iron Dukes in Camaros.

The one elective S-10 engine in early 1988 was a 2.8-liter V6 rated at 125 horsepower. Late within the mannequin 12 months, the 4.3-liter V6 was added to the S-10 choices record.

The severe penny-pinching S-10 customers accepted the bottom four-speed handbook transmission in 1988, however this truck obtained the $175 five-speed overdrive gearbox (that is $448 in 2022 bones, or clams, or no matter you name them). A four-speed computerized transmission was accessible for $670 ($1,715 now), however that will have made for pure driving distress with a Duke underneath the hood.

Do you want easy instrument panels? If that’s the case, you may’t beat this one. No data overload right here!

This truck labored lengthy and exhausting, and has the odometer studying to show it.

You may discover one in each automobile. You may see.

The S-10/S-15 weighed about 2,600 kilos at the moment, although it obtained a bit heavier with every passing mannequin 12 months. When the second-generation S-10 got here out for the 1994 mannequin 12 months (its GMC counterpart had been renamed the Sonoma by then), curb weight hit the three,000-pound mark. The S-10 caught round by means of 2004 (scaling in at two tons by that time), after which it was changed by the Colorado.

This truck began out with white paint, however obtained a thick coat of black primer late in life.

Normal Motors do Brasil revived the S-10 identify on the Brazilian-market Colorado in the course of the late 2010s. Maybe it would make one other comeback, right here or elsewhere.

Personal the road with the 4.3-powered S-10.

The 4.3 was so highly effective that time slowed down simply by mentioning it!

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