The late Sir Terence Conran, foremost of the wave of industrial designers who introduced design literacy to a grey post-war Great Britian, believed everyone’s lives could be improved with a better-designed salad bowl. I’m not sure about that, seeing as salads are to be endured rather than enjoyed, but the point is that good design should be democratic and accessible — available to everyone in the products they use everyday. The humble Bic ballpoint. IKEA’s Billy bookcase. A Bialetti Moka stove top coffee pot. The Swatch. Nike Air Max 90 sneakers. These are everyday goods whose great design is overlooked because of their sheer ubiquity. To this list of design underdogs I will add one, an everyday vehicle that never gets the attention its outstanding design deserves: the GMT400 trucks and SUVs. (Yes, I’m aware the SUVs had different platform codes but they’re essentially identical, and I’m including them for the purposes of this discussion.)
Just how good were they? Think about this: Not only were they in production for nearly twelve years, look at what came before and after. The GMT400 was a huge step forward functionally, technically and aesthetically over the previous GM ‘square body’ that preceded it. The design language was so successful the first time around it couldn’t easily be improved upon, and the replacement GMT 800s that appeared in 2000 were a retrograde step, visually speaking.
It’s an automotive irony that the minivan, that most visible manifestation of virility, is a sex-free device. More efficient in terms of packaging and fuel economy, by the mid-eighties it was well on its way to replacing traditional sedans and wagons on driveways across America. But if you wanted accessible eight-cylinder power, plenty of space for passengers and cargo, and body-on-frame simplicity in a style that didn’t look like you had given up on life, your options were becoming limited. Recognizing customers were starting to buy pickup trucks for personal use, GM went all out to make the GMT400s as refined as possible.
But before I, an automobile designer, get into the legendary styling, let’s talk about what this truck was.
A Massive Step Forward
The GMT400 marked the first time trucks moved away from being strictly utilitarian commercial vehicles. The truck market was evolving – by the early 1980s they were no longer being purchased solely as work vehicles. Non-traditional customers wanted a more car-like driving experience with better ride quality, improved fuel economy and increased interior comfort. Previously trucks had been hardworking, mechanically robust but somewhat unrefined vehicles with few concessions to anything other than standing up to an honest day’s hard work – heavy duty live axles and leaf springs were great for hauling and towing, but not good for providing a car-like driving experience.
Introduced in 1988, the Chevrolet C/K 1500s (and their GMC Sierra twins) were a revelation. According to the CarHP website, they were the first trucks designed using CAD (Computer Aided Design). I couldn’t corroborate this but the slickness and consistency of the GMT400s’ appearance, coupled with the fact they were fractionally lower and narrower than their predecessors while providing larger door openings and increased interior volume, certainly points to the surfacing and body engineering being carried out with the aid of digital tools. [Ed Note: This sounds plausible; the first Jeep designed using CAD is known to be the Jeep Grand Cherokee, developed in the late 1980s, so the timeline makes sense. -DT].
Underneath, the front suspension did away with the live axle and all its attendant compromises, and replaced it with an independent control arm set-up – sprung with coils for the 2WD models and torsion bars for the 4WD trucks, which introduced the Insta-Trac shift-on-the-fly transfer case, further increasing usability. There was power steering as standard, and ABS on the rear axle to prevent empty-bed lock ups. The front frame rails were hydroformed to reduce weight and increase strength and rigidity.
Why Use One Button When You Can Use Two
The interior banished the cold vinyl and harsh trim of the previous trucks. In came plush velour liberally applied across the seats and door panels. Because GM was incapable of getting everything quite right, the original GMT400 dashboards had confusing half moon dials in an odd layout that, according to Hemmings, were hard to read. GM was also in the habit of using two buttons where one would do, leading to confusing secondary control arrangements, although both these issues were addressed in an update for 1995.
Upon introduction, aside from the regular cab, there was an extended cab available and a sporty step-side bed made from fiberglass. The larger cab and narrower bed were not GM firsts – Ford had previously offered a step-side on the F-150 but dropped it in 1987, and Mopar had an extended cab Ram until 1982. But GM offering them on its new truck range was an acknowledgment of the changing nature of the types of customers buying trucks, and both Ford and Mopar were forced to follow the GMT400’s lead when their revised trucks emerged in 1992 and 1994, respectively. In terms of expanding the appeal of trucks to non-truck buyers, GM was leading the way.
In 1990, Chevrolet debuted the SS454 with a honking 7.4 liter V8. A short bed, regular cab muscle truck good for sub-eight second runs to sixty, it was the progenitor of all today’s high performance full-sized pickups. Then two years later came a further body style on the GMT400 theme whose magnificence was matched match only by its capability – a car so perfect it in its appearance it simply makes me weep – the 1992 Suburban. Now the GMT400 range truly offered something for everyone.
Simple, Not Simplistic
None of this would have mattered one bit if the truck didn’t look good. Fortunately, it looked every inch the modern, capable all-American vehicle it was. Remember, this truck debuted in 1988, so serious design work would have probably commenced in 1983 or 1984. It’s staggering how advanced for the time it is – flush door handles, flush glazing (with an increased glass area), flush trim. Every detail sits perfectly on the surface without interrupting the overall cohesiveness of the appearance.
The profile is simple, almost like something a child would come up with if you asked them to draw a truck. Little more than three boxes placed end on end. But it’s not simplistic and rigid. The filet that runs along the top of the bed and continues into the cant rail and down onto the hood is subtle; not too soft, and not too tight. The feature line management is exceptionally clean; one single line that runs off the top of the taillight, down the bed, creates the bottom edge for the side window and gently arcs down the top of the fender.
There’s a neat inset feature running between the wheels and around the rear that provides a border for the trim pieces worn by the higher trim levels, so they look properly integrated and not just tacked on. The inset also works perfectly as the break separating the paint colors of two-tone trucks. The gentle curvature of the body side gives a feeling of solidity and strength – important because you don’t want a working vehicle to look weak. Anchoring the whole thing are wheel arch flares that are small but extremely sharply defined, meaning you get a nice straight consistent highlight along the length of the truck without any interruptions.
There’s a crease running down the center line of the car I like to think is a call back to past GM Vice President of Design Bill Mitchell’s ‘sheer look’. Whether it is or not I don’t know, but he certainly would have approved of the GMT400’s front Down the Road Graphic – cleverly hiding its verticality with split lighting units and strong horizontal shapes to emphasize width over height. The grill strikes a balance between quiet authority and boldness without looking overbearing – something lost on the furious visages of today’s trucks.
GM created what they called a more formal look for the GMC version by isolating the grill with vertical body color elements. I don’t think the GMC treatment is quite as successful as the Chevrolet grill, but the real horror show was reserved for the hastily introduced first generation Cadillac Escalade, rushed into production in 1998 to compete with the newly released Lincoln Navigator. The more rounded, pillowy forms and enlarged grille and bumper simply don’t work are out of place with the rest of the bodywork.
Remember in the Aztek discussion how I talked about how the bumper supporting the tailgate in the lowered position was badly done? At the back of the GMT400 as the inset feature line wraps around to the rear it becomes the gap to allow the tailgate to drop, supported by a simple bumper with an upwards facing surface. It’s how these little details are so considered and integrated that make the overall design so good. It’s all of a piece – nothing jars or stands out to upset the harmony of the whole thing.
So Good I Used Suburbans As Mood Images
I could wax lyrical for hours about how good I think the Suburbans are. It’s a big car at nearly 5.6 meters long but it hides it so well. This is due to two things – the wraparound glazing runs up to the roof, so there isn’t an overabundance of painted metal work adding visual weight. And something shared with the trucks: the stance; the rocker panels are in line with the center of the axles, exactly where it should be – so the body side is not too deep and heavy. Both the trucks and the SUVs have an overriding feeling of precision – constituent parts being slotted tightly together to make a seamless body.
What’s remarkable about this design, in some ways, is how unheralded it is. For all the designers you could easily name as an enthusiast (Mitchell, Shinoda, Bangle, Horbury), there so little written appreciation for this vehicle that I couldn’t find out much about the designers. I was told designer Clark Lincoln was involved, but it turns out he worked on the GMT800. Matt went so far as to ask GM President Mark Reuss about it, and he confirmed Donald Wood as the chief designer, but that’s about all we could collectively discover.
The tenth-generation F-150 is sometimes considered as being at the vanguard of truck gentrification. I think it’s a soft blob with none of the GMT400’s confidence or assertiveness. The ’88 Silverado and Sierra bought a more approachable truck a full eight years before the F-150 came to market specifically targeting car drivers. When the GMT400 SUV versions arrived in 1992 it’s no wonder they became a valid choice for hauling families and all their gear – there was basically nothing that could match their combination of ruggedness, comfort and space at the time. Squint a bit and you can see their restrained yet commanding influence in some of Land Rover’s better efforts. Not for nothing was I using Suburbans and Tahoes as mood images when posting my own sketches up for review in the studio.
Andy Warhol once said “what’s great about this country is that America started the tradition where the richest consumers buy essentially the same things as the poorest.” The GMT400 is a classic design that is the epitome of everyday America: at home on the work site, the camp site and in the motorcade. A democratic design good enough for proles and Presidents. You can’t help but feel Sir Terence would have a wry smile at that.
This article would not have been possible without the assistance of the GM Heritage Archive, whose researchers patiently dug into their archives for these exclusive images. Many thanks for your help.
- I Took On A Bad GM Design In A Hail Mary Attempt To Fix My Friend’s Suburban, But It Was Too Little Too Late
- This 1,000-Horsepower Chevrolet Suburban Restomod Looks Like A Million Dollars, Costs $1.1 Million
- The Escort Cosworth Is A Legendary Rally Machine That’s Hiding A Big Secret
- The Pontiac Aztek Was Not A Design Tragedy, It Was A Corporate Tragedy.
After 30+ years it’s hard for me to see these with fresh eyes and not just be bored, so I appreciate and enjoy your breakdown of the specific design elements.
But I gotta disagree about the Suburban. It looks bloated. It looks like they took the wheels and frame from a Blazer, inflated the body 50%, and called it a day. It looks like they tried to draw a school bus from memory but had never actually seen one in-person. It looks like a Super Guppy.
That 2-door Yukon man. That’s a truck for me.
I once loaned my 1993 GMT400 to a weird kid who wrote for some German lighting site (I think?) when he needed to cross the Rockies to pick up a beat to hell 5-speed Grand Cherokee.
The pre-facelift HVAC controls were so weird that he drove for miles thinking the defroster didn’t work. I saw a post about how he was struggling to keep the windshield clear and texted him with the secret code to get hot air to blow where he needed it. (Hey DT!)
The controls worked perfectly, they were just that counterintuitive from new.
Laughs in Porsche 911
https://i.imgur.com/XV7HUCB.jpeg
Holy Sliders, Batman!!
I didn’t think DT had any use for climate controls of any kind.
Vent wings or Windows by Armstrong, sure, but that was Michigan David.
i3-driving, girlfriend-having California David? Different story 😉
I was working construction in the late 90s and my boss showed up with a brand new dark blue Z71 extended cab, that truck was awesome. He let me drive it once and I felt like a king. Sad to admit, but I aspired to make enough money to own one. Even today I still take a pause and admire them when I see one on the road.
Fun fact about the Tahoe and Suburban: The rear taillights do not match the curvature of the greenhouse. If you’ve ever looked at one from the rear you’ll notice the taillights curve in sharply at the top, there’s a break at the shoulder, and then an entirely new and much shallower arc heads up towards the roof.
This is because of a bit of visual cheating GM did. The front and rear of the truck narrow in, and the arc of the curve on the side of the body turns shallower between the arches of the wheels so that the cab can extend upwards without an oddly narrow top from the front view. The front bumper and wheel arches serve to cover this up by tricking your eyes in a very clever little detail by being the same width as the part of the body side that’s at the furthest edge of the curve.
Yes, it’s not uncommon to have to cheat things. A current trick in fashion at the moment is to hide the end of feature lines in taillights, so you don’t have to find somewhere logical for them to go.
Torch, go back to bed instead of posting from your alt account.
Excellent article! My father bought his first Suburban in the late ’80s; he traded it in 1990 for a two-tone red and white Suburban. I remember the ‘fuel injection’ badge on the back door (it had two doors instead of a tailgate) being quite a conversation starter. I always liked the velour, and really liked the look of the fancy captain’s chairs in the front. The dashboard design was interesting; it had the ‘modern’ plastic upper part but a lower part made of metal, just right for a kid with a magnet collection. I do wonder why it had a giant fuel gauge where most manufacturers would have put a tachometer, but if I’m remembering correctly the tachometer may have been some kind of special option.
I also remember when such large vehicles weren’t common. We were at a fancy restaurant for some big occasion, and Dad decided to use valet parking. After dinner, while we were outside waiting for the valet, some ladies who had been enjoying themselves a bit too much stumbled outside. They were astounded when the valet drove up with the Suburban; one of them assumed that such a truck must belong to the restaurant, and blurted out “Where do they take people in that thing?” The valet told her he had no idea, and that she should ask the truck’s owner.
This is my very favorite truck design, and I think the SUVs (Tahoe especially) from this era look awesome. They’re super clean, and don’t look as cheap and sad as the other designs from this era of GM.
I don’t like big SUVs and trucks, but I’d gladly rock one of these. Especially a 2-door Tahoe.
Why did they wait 4 years for the Suburban and Tahoe/Blazer to go on the platform? Just WHY?
Otherwise yeah, the GMT400 is cool.
The SUVs just weren’t that big of a deal back then. It wasn’t seen as that important. When they switched to the 800 platform in ’99, the SUVs still waited a year until 2000. At least that was only a year. It wasn’t until the 900 platform that SUVs had jumped in importance enough that they went first in 2006, and the pickups followed in 2007.
The Squarebody pickups and SUV’s switched at the same time in 73…
A year is one thing, but FOUR?
Also, I don’t like the Suqarebody as much as the generations before and after it.
Squarebodies are my favorite looking, but I’ve loved all of them until the current ones. Yuk!
What, you don’t like layer cakes?
LOL! Don’t insult cakes like that!
I guess I’ll buck the trend.. I don’t get the appeal of these. I UNDERSTAND it but they just don’t do anything for me. Different strokes for different folks!
So much two-tone :drools:
Ford offers two tone on their current F150s and it’s just sad. It only looks good on something like these slab sided beauties
When we were thinking about different colorways for the 130 Defender my boss asked me to put together a deck of two tone SUVs.
Which took about thirty seconds using my folder of early nineties American SUV mood images.
(Also he asked me because I was old enough to remember them from first time around)
It was simple, it was clean, it was humble and flashy at the same time. It was rock solid reliable, easy to maintain, parts were ubiquitous. It was comfortable in every single trim level. It was sized right, just a bit easier to drive and park than it’s competition, no matter if it were a 2 door yukon or a crew cab dually.
Before I had my kids, and before I met my wife, there was my first love, the GMT400.
They were the best trucks ever made.
I pretty much agree with Adrian on the styling of this gen. of GM vehicles. What he failed to note was how truly terrible the paint was on them, particularly in lighter colours. Not a game changer but is best resolved by a wrap or respray.
They got a lot better by the ‘95 revision. My ‘96 and ‘99 both are free of all the paint issues my ‘88 had.
Through the 80s and 90s, my dad was a painter at a GM dealership, can confirm.
The thing about designers is that they’re always feeding us a line.
Better than feeding you a salad.
Depends on the bowl it’s in.
“GM was also in the habit of using two buttons where one would do”
So that’s where all the buttons went. They got used up!
well now we have cars with TWO screens!
Those square-nosed GMs were definitely peak early-90s, when everything was firmly squared-off to set up the transition to the Blob Era.
But I hope someone noticed the Vogue article on the artsy headlight drawings by Madeline Hollander!
An issue I recall when these trucks debuted was that the width between the bed rail tops was different (narrower) from the old Squarebodies, which were also the same as the previous generation’s dimensions. So for owners of bed caps, ladder racks, and other accessories that depended on mounting to, and spanning, the bed rails, suddenly faced their accessories going obsolete.
It started quite a kerfuffle in some of the press and the ownership ranks for the first several years of the new design. For owners who’d invested in bed-mounted accessories. the change after so many years of consistency felt like a slap in the face to some Chevy/GMC loyalists. The situation worked itself out over time, of course. But it was a shake-up magnified by the fact that Ford and Dodge weren’t making any changes to the dimensions of their trucks at the time.
They are indeed more narrow. I was glad mine came with a canopy, it can be a little tricky finding bed accessories for them now.
Thank you for putting into words why I love this design so much. I also love the GMT-800’s, but for their mechanical advances while still looking very good IMO. From a pure design standpoint, the 400’s are such masterpieces.
Just a point of clarification to this part “Underneath, the front suspension did away with the live axle and all its attendant compromises, and replaced it with an independent control arm set-up – sprung with coils for the 2WD models and torsion bars for the 4WD trucks,” Independent front suspension on coils was nothing new for the 2wd trucks. They’d been doing that for decades. It was putting the 4wd trucks on an independent suspension that was such a game changer for guys like my dad. He hated how badly his ’79 K10 rode, and was one of the first to the dealership to buy a K1500 in April of ’88.
Even before them Ford was offering independent front suspension on 4WD trucks (F-150/250) with their Twin Traction Beam system since 1980. Not as good as GM’s setup, but GM wasn’t the first with IFS 4×4. IFS 2wd dates back to at least 1965 with Ford’s Twin I Beam.
Yeah. And to be fair to Adrian’s point, the 400 certainly rides and handles better than a Squarebody C10, even though they both have independent front suspension. It was still a step forward in refinement.
I never liked the twin I beam suspension. It’s so floaty and disconnected. The fact that they still produce outrageously outdated design today on the e-series cutway is staggering. Look at the front tire on any E-series, I bet the outer portion of the tire is completely bald but not the inside. It was introduced in 1965, it’s almost a 60 year old design.
Old doesn’t always mean bad, just look at the leaf spring, but yeah better solutions than the Twin I Beam were developed a long time ago, I thought it was old tech when Ford dropped it after the ’96 F-150, I had no idea the E-Series still used them. One advantage of it is it allows for tons of travel which is why it remains somewhat popular in the desert scene. I imagine that crowd is much less concerned with camber change and tire wear though.
Oh yeah, I forgot that desert truck still uses them. I guess it works great in that application.
This time period is peak American pickup design, right until RAM (nee Dodge) fired the first shot in the grille wars that are still going on today.
I really liked the Ram grille when it came out. I think that’s b/c it was uncommon, a nice little taste of different…vaguely retro but still contemporary. But kinda like with the Ford Taurus ushering in the jellybean era, I didn’t think it would turn into all we get.
I actually liked it too. GM and Ford had pretty clean designs at the time and the Dodge really stood out, but all three were distinctive.
That (to my eyes) is what’s missing today – variety. The big trucks seem to have all coalesced around “antisocial” as their grille ethos.
The first gen of big Ram grille still looks great today. IMO the 2002 design is where it all went wrong.
The Dodge Ram certainly had a that distinctive “mini big-rig” look, which has aged well over time, but they weren’t any bigger than their contemporaries, just distinctive looking. It was the 2004 F-150 that started the height wars in half ton trucks. They were stupid tall, and everybody else followed suit.
That red RAM in Twister……that movie sold so many of those trucks…..
In my opinion, what worked so well for this design is that it managed to be all new (and different), yet somehow remained instantly recognisable as a GM truck compared to the outgoing C/K platform.
That, and I wouldn’t need a ladder to check the dipstick, unlike my ’23.
I feel like such a shrimp every time I bring out the step-stool to check something under the hood. When I had my 97 Sierra, I could reach more than halfway across the engine.
That’s why I’m clinging to my ’06 Sierra 2wd for dear life. It’s the right height, and I can see everything without cameras.
I went from a ’96 Z-71 Sierra to a ’22 Colorado after a Z-71 Colorado parked next to my Sierra at a Vietnamese restaurant in Ft. Wayne. They were almost the same size.
You know what’s bad design? Our health insurance deductible and coinsurance system. Emergency surgery costs a fortune out of pocket. If you haven’t heard, our beloved Jason Torchinsky suffered such an even on Monday and will experiencing the financial pain right before the holidays. Please help ease his burden by donating to the Torch Medical Expense Fund today.
‘Murica!
Thanks for the reminder, I just donated!
I’m assuming you’re the organizer, since you keep posting this in every article (good on you, and donated BTW). Anyways, if so, that means you live in my home town!
Chicago? I’m up in Deerfield. I hear The Bishop is a hop skip away from me, and Mercedes is just another jump northwest. Someday we’ll have a Chicago area meetup.
Yeah, I’m from Deerfield. My dad still lives there. I live in Villa Park now.
They did a Chicago area meetup the Friday before the NASCAR race in Chicago this summer. I’m sure they’ll do another one before too long. I met Hardibird and The Bishop there. Mercedes was also there, but I’ve known her for a long time and am lucky enough to consider her a friend 🙂
Hopefully we can meet sometime soon or at least soonish.
Ask your dad if he recalls our son Chase being hit in Feb 2020. If so, he may have seen me on the news.
Yeah, I couldn’t make that NASCAR thing because Matt only gave us hours notice. Bad Matt. 😉
Maybe someday I’ll meet Mercedes, but I’ve tried before and since given up hope. Congrats on your success. I’m guessing I’ll stumble across The Bishop eventually.
Perhaps we can try to facilitate a Chicago thing for next summer. Interested?
Definitely interested! I’ll ask him. Hit how?
https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/father-of-deerfield-boy-injured-in-crash-pleads-for-hit-and-run-driver-to-come-forward/2216613/
https://www.newsweek.com/family-offers-reward-driver-hit-run-critically-injured-boy-1486498
https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/deerfield/ct-dfr-hit-and-run-investigation-tl-0220-20200212-5k34cloysnajdmhisgn6adhoei-story.html
https://www.facebook.com/Fox32Chicago/videos/father-of-injured-boy-speaks-after-arrest-was-made-in-hit-and-run-crash/2783327211756550/
Holy cow! What a terrible experience! How is Chase doing?
Very well. Thank you for asking.
Oh good!
I always forget how awful the first Escalade was (not that I’m a fan of any Escalade). It looks like one of those late 90s/early 00s Chinese ‘nearly the car you wanted’ knockoffs of an American truck. But holy fuck, that Yukon GT is HOT.
When the Escalade first came out (late ’90s?), I remember thinking “this will never sell…this so Cimaron part II. Why on earth would someone want a truck badged as a Cadillac?!” Shows what I know.
They were loved by rappers and athletes, which made them cool. According to this 2001 USA Today article:
The GMT400 cadillac was a dud for sure, but the GMT800 version was a slam dunk.
hard disagree. different strokes I guess.
It bad because Lincoln caught Caddy by surprise with their Navigator which sold like crazy and Caddy HAD to have SUV since then
It is literally Tahoe with Caddy badges and aftermarket wood kit trim
I’m not a truck guy, but I’m struck by how the era’s Chevy ad (the one with the bear!) conveys ruggedness and capability by focusing a viewer’s mind on a mere hint of an activity and then subtly connecting to the truck itself.
There’s nothing menacing looking (aside from said bear), there’s not an attempt to intimidate via styling, there’s just a functional truck, shown using that function. It feels very real.
The understated and graceful styling of the GMT400 seems in the context to actually heighten the sense that this is a capable vehicle for accomplishing things. Way more so than today’s mean styling and ad campaigns that hit you in the face/suggest this is what you need to survive a zombie apocalypse.
Those GMT400s are great looking trucks. As an owner of a 9th gen single cab (92 F-250, RWD, 8 ft bed) I think they look pretty good too. It’s a third vehicle for when I need to haul something but I’ll dread the day I have to replace it. I’ll be stuck buying some chunky crew-cab with a dinky bed that sits too high, sigh…
You can still get single cab trucks with 8′ beds, but it will sit too high. They’re all stupid like that.
I’ve been waiting on your take of a pickup of any sort and it did not disappoint! I’ve also been curious as to your take on the 10th gen F-150, and while I personally love them and think that despite the “soft blobby styling” everything is very cohesive and works well together, the facelifted models (99-04) in particular, your opinion is somewhat predictable (no disrespect here, after all you are the expert, your opinion is just common and one I disagree with) and pretty much what I expected. There is no denying the GMT400’s appeal though, they’re phenomenally well designed trucks and probably my favorite GM design.
I do want to argue with this statement though. “The GMT400 marked the first time trucks moved away from being strictly utilitarian commercial vehicles.” The GMT400 is long from the first time a more “every day friendly, car like experience” truck was tried. As you mentioned in the article, Dodge first offered the club cab in 1974, Ford the Super Cab in 1978, both intended as additional dry cargo space and for occasional passenger use. GM didn’t even bother with the Squarebody and was a whole 14 years late to that market. Before then Ford developed the Twin I-beam independent front suspension with the entire intention of it offering a softer more car like ride, which was heavily prominent in marketing material. Arguably, and generally accepted is that the Chevrolet Apache was the first true attempt at building a pickup for car buyers. Introduced in 1958 as a refresh of the 1955 Task Force trucks the Apache introduced styling influenced by the GM cars of the same year (particularly the Bel Air), was the first truck to receive an actual model name, the first truck to offer a smooth bed side (fleetside) vs the traditional step side, and the first GM truck with factory air conditioning. Of course even before then trucks were offered with deluxe trims, chrome packages, accessories etc. Truck makers have been try to market trucks to car buyers for as long as trucks have been a thing. I think the better statement is that the GMT400 is the first time the market truly latched onto trucks as more than utilitarian commercial vehicles (for many reasons).
Before the 58 Apache, the ’55 Cameo was targeted as more of a refined truck, with the fleetside bed and lots of trim.
I’d argue that for the squares, the Blazer/Jimmy and Suburban’s were definitely pretty luxurious for the day, you could get them with full options and cushy interiors.
Ah yes, the Cameo! That’s what I was thinking of. Shame on me for getting the Cameo and Apache mixed up.
I don’t know a lot about the Apache, just that the quad headlights look badass, haha. I was always a big fan of the 55-57 trucks, I even built a model of the ’55 Cameo as a kid. I don’t think I’ve ever actually seen one in person though.
Edit: come to think of it, was the 58 Apache the first GM truck offered with 4WD? I think they were Napco conversions. That’s what I always think of when I hear “Apache”.
First year for factory 4×4 from GM was 1960, which was the 1st generation C/K series. The Apache was still available in the new body style, but it wasn’t the first.
I will nitpick that the original Escalade was rebadged off the Yukon Denali a year prior, but it in no way changes your point.
I’d also agree and extend your point on the standard GMC grille vs. the Chevy grille to the 2nd gen S-10 Blazer/Jimmy.
Or astro vs safari. Simple wide horizontal lines with a bar of chrome and dual grill/headlight strips just looks awesome.
Also true. I like some of the other GMC design details like their unique wheels and I prefer GMC’s overall designs nowadays over their Chevy counterparts, but for rebadges the Chevy noses have that “simple is better” look.