I’d heard that the “1990s generation Chevy truck” — i.e. the GMT400 — was good. Say the name “GMT400” in any automotive gathering, and you’ll conjure up a crowd of true believers who will talk your ears off about stout G80 differentials, torquey TBI 350s, and indestructible NV4500 transmissions. I’d never owned a GMT400 because I’m more of a Jeep person, but a few months ago I scored a rust-free five-speed 4×4 1989 Chevy K1500 for only $4900 — a deal I could not pass up. And now I get it: The GMT400 might be the GOAT.
I’ll admit that I tend to throw around the term “GOAT” a bit too loosely, when really it should be reserved for the likes of Lebron James/MJ, Tom Brady, and the WW2 Jeep. But you get the idea: The GMT400 is seriously, seriously good.
I said as much in my report right after I first got behind the wheel back in January, but now that the newness of my relationship with the truck has faded, instead of the rose colored glasses coming off they’re now firmly bolted to my noggin.
I’m writing this because I’ve been daily-driving this truck for weeks, as I’ve been moving across town. Since I’m way, way too cheap to hire movers, I’ve been filling my K1500 to the brim and driving it probably a hundred miles every couple of days. In this past month, I’ve put at least 1500 miles on the truck, and my overwhelming takeaway is: This truck doesn’t feel as old as it is.
I expected this 36 year-old truck to ride significantly worse than any modern pickup I’ve piloted, but it just doesn’t. I’d have to drive them both back-to-back, but based on my recollection of what a recent Ford Ranger FX4 felt like, the GMT400 doesn’t ride any worse.
Watch Motor Week‘s review of the new-for-1988 GMT400 Chevy truck, and you’ll hear things like “The most sophisticated pickup truck ever” and “The Cheyenne blasted through out test course feeling like a sports truck.” You’ll hear about how aerodynamic the truck is, how the flush mounted windshield and lack of vent windows contribute to a quieter ride. You’ll hear about the good handling thanks to the independent front suspension and you’ll hear about the solid braking. Plus there’s this: “Get inside the Cheyenne and you’ll find one of the roomiest truck cabs around.”
But that review is as old as the truck. A good truck in 1987 doesn’t translate to a good truck all these years later. But in this case, it does.
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What I look for in a pickup truck is a combination of factors: 1. Simplicity/reliability 2. Durability 3. Off-Road Capability 4. Towing/payload capability and 5. Comfort.
Back when I was in my 20s, I’d have thrown “comfort” out the window (and indeed, I did), but nowadays it’s not that I’ve gone soft, it’s that I’ve piloted far too many vehicles that offer both truck-ish capability and comfort. I’m no longer impressed by vehicles that don’t. And yes, most modern trucks are much more comfortable than my Chevy and offer way more towing capability, but no modern truck offers the number one thing I want in a pickup: simplicity/durability/serviceability. And frankly, most modern trucks are a step backwards in terms of off-road capability.
So when it comes to crowning a pickup truck GOAT, I just can’t put a modern pickup truck into contention. And I also can’t put a really old one with a three-speed, overdrive-less gearbox and solid front axle (I think pickups should all have IFS, as the sheer geometry of trucks limits them so much off-road that the advantages of a solid axle are significantly diminished) that make highway driving a chore. The ultimate combination is something that’s new enough to be a smooth highway cruiser but old enough to forego all sorts of electronic gizmos and sensors and other complexities that are hard to repair. And the GMT400 fits right in there.
One thing I noticed right away when I first hopped in is something you might not expect from an older truck: it’s humongous. No, the GMT400 may not look big from the outside compared to a modern Silverado, but inside it is massive. When I sit in my Jeep J10 pickup and close the door, that door comes right up to my left elbow. Honestly, the distance between that door panel and my steering wheel is a bit tight. But on this K1500, the door panel seems like it’s in a different zip code than the driver — it bowes outward with the truck’s exterior door panels and makes the front bench seem like it could easily seat four adults across.
Firing the truck up, I grip a stylish but airbag-less steering wheel, and turn the key in the ubiquitous Saginaw steering column (which is loose, as millions of tilt Saginaw columns are due to internal bolts vibrating loose), only to hear a surprisingly quiet Chevy 350 fire up instantly under the hood.
I slide that five-speed into gear (a surprisingly tight and engaging five-speed that just snicks into gear, even if it’s one of the weaker earlier Getrag five-speeds), pop the park brake via the dash-mounted release, and smoothly trade clutch pedal for accelerator as the truck takes off.
On city streets, the K1500 is maybe a little on the firmer side, and its steering radius is laughably huge, but at any speed over about 30 mph the truck just cruises. The aerodynamic mirrors and general cab profile — while not exactly slippery by modern standards — mean the cabin is quiet even at 75 mph.
Sure, with only 210 ponies, the truck is glacially slow, but 300 lb-ft of torque means it’ll steadily get you up the steepest of grades even with a heavy load.
My biggest complaint about the early GMT400 is the seats; they don’t tilt, there’s no headrest, and they’re a bit flat and upright. They look cool, but I’d much prefer the mid-’90s GMT400 seats.
Whether the GMT400 is the GOAT is, of course, is probably not something we’ll agree on. It doesn’t have a Cummins 12-valve, it looks a bit plain in some folks’ eyes (I think it’s handsome), it’s not the most comfortable truck ever (many give the GOAT title to the GMT400’s successor, the GMT800, and while a 6.0 V8 with a 5-speed is extremely cool — or even the 8.1 with the 6-speed — I like the looks of the GMT400s a bit more) and it offers modest towing and off-road capability relative to the kings of the segment. But it’s competent everywhere. It’s spacious, handsome, reliable, comfortable, easy and cheap to work on, capable off-road, and devoid of any major flaws.
So if the GMT400 isn’t the greatest truck of all time, it certainly comes close.
It seems that nowadays truck generations are more evolutionary, but this one was revolutionary. To 11 year old me it may as well have been from the moon.
Just as I was thinking how well this truck is holding up, BAM! there’s the pic of that headliner. What the living hell is wrong up there??
I was wondering the same thing. That’s some JK Rowling level of black mold festering up there.
Falling headliners are a common problem in lots of vehicles from this time period. I think it’s because the foam the headliners were glued to was prone to dry rotting.
It’s a relatively easy fix though. When I was a kid I had a squarebody with a sagging headliner. My dad and I bought the lightest black felt we could find, and the strongest 3M fabric adhesive we could get our hands on. We recovered the factory headliner shell with the felt, and it worked like a charm. I owned the truck for 5 years after that (should have kept it forever), and it never sagged even a little bit.
To me, these are in the worst era of old trucks. I want a classic truck, like an old fat-fendered 40s truck. Something that looks amazing and has panache. Or, I want a new, comfortable, capable truck with apple carplay and heated seats.
This has the worst of both worlds. Old tech, not comfortable, not particularly cool looking.
The are like “modern” classics. I think they spark some nostalgia in people who liked them when they were new. When I was a kid in the 90’s, a teal Z71 stepside was my dream vehicle, haha. If I saw one for reasonable money I’d probably pick it up. Though at heart I’m a squarebody guy, my first vehicle was a K10 I bought for 900 bucks of lawn mowing money when I was 14 and the truck was 21.
It’s wild, thinking about what 35-year-old trucks were when these 400’s were new.
i have a newer truck with those features. i certainly miss the mechanical simplicity of older trucks – no turbos and simple transmissions. carplay is easy and cheap to add now. what you can’t add is all of the safety features. but mass can cure a multitude of sins as far as that goes.
When I returned from my first overseas assignment in Japan, I about a 1995 Chevy C1500 in Silverado trim. 350 small block, tape deck(no CD yet), big bench seat and extended cab. It is still, one of the best vehicles I’ve ever owned. I had it for 11 years and it never left me stranded. I only sold because I had two small kids and couldn’t fit baby sets in the rear.
The engine ran like a top, it was quiet, comfortable and ate up highway miles like a BMW 7 series. All this and it had room for six passengers, could tow anything I needed, got the same MPG as modern, “more efficient” trucks. Oh and it different have a hood that has higher than my shoulders. I could work on it without standing on the bumper or getting a step ladder. It didn’t need a step system built into the tailgate because I could step up from the bumper easily. It didn’t cost $70,000 dollars, Which is absurd.
Yes I think trucks are TOO big and too expensive today for what they can do.
I got a ’96 Cheyenne V6 5-Speed for $2k last year and I’ve honestly considered promoting it to daily status several times, it’s just that nice to drive.
Throw some Bilstein’s on it and you will be amazed.
I’ve got GMT400 seats in my ’65 (I didn’t put them there, and they’ll be replaced with original ones… eventually) and I’ve got the same complaints. If they were slightly more tilted back, just a hair, they’d be fantastic seats. But as is, they are too upright.
The SBC is a perfect engine for a general-purpose truck. It isn’t as good as the 300/6, but it is close. One reason I find all trucks of around this era (’80s-’90s) so wonderful is that they are simply much better for doing the general purpose truck stuff than any modern truck.
Anyone rarely needs more power than an old truck provides, yet an older truck is much easier to get into and out of, both for yourself and your stuff. You also don’t need to worry about treating an old truck like a valuable asset when hauling a basement’s worth of demo materials, firewood, or crushed stone. A scratch or dent? Oh well.
The fact that older trucks are significantly smaller is great as well. Whether just stopping for gas or finding a parking spot, a smaller size reduces the annoyance level associated with driving a massive truck.
My GMT400 was a ’97 Suburban LT3500 with the diesel. Black over gray leather and polished Alcoa-wheels. Coolest car I ever owned, despite being much too big for German cities… 🙂
I had a ’91 Chevy Tahoe as a company car a long time ago. I believe based on the same platform and it was perfectly cromulent, as Autopian authors like to throw around.
It had a weird habit of the steering wheel get loose for half a second going around onto an on-ramp to a freeway, which was a little unsettling, but it was almost luxurious once ON the freeway. Might have been a one-off situation with that particular vehicle. But the place that serviced our fleet always said they couldn’t recreate the issue. And once I moved on to software, I didn’t research it. I told the guy that inherited that vehicle from me, that it sometimes did that. And that it was just a weird thing that probably wouldn’t send him into a barrier.
It wasn’t particularly efficient around the city or on the freeway, but it was inerrantly reliable. It never failed to start or get me to where we needed to go. And it had more space than I needed to haul my camera gear and lights around.
Most of the rest of the fleet were older Nissan Pathfinders, and they were also very reliable. But the cargo space was pretty tight. You had to pack the gear pretty carefully. TV news gear is, for the most part, far more compact since then. Before I retired (as a software guy, servicing TV stations) I saw a lot of stations using Subaru Foresters and Honda CR-Vs.
Never had one, but worked on many. I don’t remember one that pissed me off, and these were bagged fleet maintence trucks, many that should have been retired a decade previous but kept grinding.
I had two. Loved them. The second one I bought from a Miss Teen pageant winner. I drove it straight to work with a huge ‘Silly boys, Trucks are for Girls’ decal in the rear window. They were the only American vehicles I’ve owned out of the 50 vehicles I’ve owned. They sure don’t come apart like German cars but I bought an interior door handle at Autozone for $15. Try that with a D4 Audi S8. They were great when I had them. Pretty sure you could remove the engine and they would still run.
“and lack of vent windows contribute to a quieter ride”
I’m very firmly convinced this was a cost cutting measure, and the marketing team was looking for ways to sell it as an improvement. Look, I get that from a design standpoint, cars look more ‘modern’ without vent windows, but dammit, vent windows are awesome. There’s so many early mornings where I don’t want to crack the entire top of the window while blasting down the freeway, but I WOULD want to crack a vent window, and dial in that magic of warm air blowing on my legs and hands, and some brisk fresh air mixed in hitting my face.
But yeah DT, it’s a solid truck. I think that ‘mix’ of reliability and simplicity mixed with performance is why 90s cars kick ass. I love my 90 Civic Si, it’s an incredible car. If I won the lottery, I would still want to daily one.
I think the biggest advancement since the 90s is safety, which mutes/dulls some other aspects of the driving experience. Less visibility, more weight, less response, etc.
I do think my Astro tends to drive like garbage, and I haven’t really felt impressed with how any van drives, really.
Vent windows are actually quite loud on the freeway (I thought I wanted them in an XJ, then I got an XJ with vent windows, and actually: It ain’t worth it). If the car is otherwise loud (like my J10) or you’re just cruising and not commuting, then yeah, why not? Vent windows are awesome.
Can confirm from my 92 D250 and my Dad’s 57 and my form K5 Jimmy. Vent windows seals never seem to seal right after being opened once (especially on the triangle shaped ones) and that will make constant hissing/whistling noises when going highway speeds because of the air sneaking past the seals.
Our family motorhome would always have some contraption made of cardboard and elastic bands to stop the whistling
David, come on, man. How much money did you spend on gas driving that truck back and forth 100 times? I’m not saying it’s not a great truck. But I am not convinced the math on the self-hauling vs movers in this scenario actually pans out.
[crunches numbers]
…
oh boy
Not to mention the time spent on the move instead of petting cats.
I hired movers to help with bulky items during a mostly DIY move. Two burly guys turned up. They were able to get everything we had tagged for them into the Uhaul plus a bunch more. Then across town and unloaded it where we wanted. Without scratches that weren’t already there. All in under two hours! I tipped them well for a job well done. Sometimes hiring stuff out is worth it. In this case it absolutely was.
But WHY does the advertisement have a bear?!
“If you’re gonna be a bear, be a grizzly!”
“You the one running this fleabag?”
LOL. Totally missed the point but lol.
You’re 10-ply, bud! 😉
I’m going to guess that the later seats would bolt right in, so your complaint is invalid.
(Does Galpin sell old shit? Go find one out in the lot after hours & swap ’em. Perk of being in cahoots with Beau, right?)
You could say he’s spare parts, bud.
That was Michigan David! This is California David.
California David would drive this truck up to a Bakersfield crack den and buy “near-mint” Chevy seats with only two stains of uncertain provenance (is that blood?) off a guy who used to roadie for KoRn “back in the day” and now runs a chop shop parting out cars seized by cops in drug busts who get a 40% finder’s fee and turn a blind eye to his off-the-books activities.
the Holy GOAT of Grails!
I have had four GMT400s (including a 1999 Chevy Tahoe 2dr 4wd), three GMT800s and three GMT900s as crew vehicles for my Land Surveying business. All of the -400s and -800s exceeded 300k miles, with the Tahoe still going at 315k. The -900s all exceeded 200k miles (sadly, all three were totalled by careless drivers crashing into them; thankfully none of my co-workers were injured). All of those trucks performed admirably under severe conditions. They were comfortable, easy to drive, and all of them had superior off-road capabilities to the other full-size trucks (yes, better than the Tundra; I will die on that hill). Frankly, they were better sized than current trucks, which all feel twitchy and unnecessarily bulky. I had great experiences with these trucks. YMMV.
Is it against the rules for me to post a link to my love video of my first truck? 1994 K1500WT lasted 25yrs and I turned it into a coffee table.
https://youtu.be/cajDDHaCd0A?si=6Xtgfyqcg921lN2_
David, I got a real flood of memories coming back reading this and seeing the photos! That shot of the dash with the carpeted cover brought me right back to riding in an old pal’s ’92 and I could smell the dust, horse manure, empty beer cans, and Copenhagen/Skoal of my mis-spent youth.
I did have the unique experience of getting an in-depth tour of the Fort Wayne assembly plant in the summer of ’88 or ’89, due to family connections. A few highlights:
As I recall (these are teenage memories…), the seats were one of Lear’s first major applications of the ‘foam in place’ manufacturing process. Basically, the upholstery was included in the mold form as the foam was injected. That made the foam pad and the cloth covering a single unit, rather than being a foam piece which was then covered with cloth and wire. At the time, I thought it was a cool concept, but wondered (even at that age) how easy it would be to reupholster, when the time came.
We got to sit in on a QA/QC meeting of all the line supervisors. The two items that still stick out were that although the specifications called for 5mm of clearance for the exhaust system to frame, it had been determined that 3mm was still acceptable, and the presenter read several strongly-worded letters from customers regarding the cheap flimsiness of the plastic latch for the sliding rear window.
What has really remained with me, after all these decades though, is how every person out on the assembly lines, regardless of tenure or duty, was absolutely BEAMING with pride over these new trucks. How improved they were. How much easier it was to do a good job screwing them together. How their input on the process really seemed to translate to running changes on the floor. The candid (and frankly, heartwarming) stories from those good men and women has really shaped how I’ve considered designing for manufacture throughout my engineering career. I think all production engineers really do need to spend a LOT of time with the assembly teams to really learn how to design a product that’s easy and straightforward to put together (and maintain after purchase). You can CAD the most awesome widget ever seen on Earth, but if it can’t be put together correctly in the amount of time each person has on the assembly line, it’s junk once it reaches the customer.
Not an engineer here, but as an ID guy, I really appreciated your comment.
There’s a design term, “heirloom design”, that basically means it may not be the ultimate in any aspect, but it will be beautiful, built with quality, and EASY TO MAINTAIN pretty much indefinitely. The idea is that instead of chasing constant improvements, we chase longevity and serviceability, with the idea you could pass this same thing down to your kids, they could pass it on to their kids, etc. It’s definitely an idea that’s stuck with me and I consider in most aspects of my life.
Had an 06 1500 z71, currently have a 2016 f150 4×4 v8. There was a car in between so maybe there’s a bit of nostalgia, but I remember the GMC had much better handling , had much better visibility, had better low end torque and got the same MPG despite the 4 speed trans. There are some obvious improvements (transmission, interior materials, backup camera mainly), but I maintain truck design peaked around then (do you really want to tow 13k with a half ton?).
The door cards in the ford are massive and severely cut into interior space for no reason other than macho styling. It’s also showing signs of VCT failure at 90k miles and is too tall for some garages because god forbid you can’t fit a 10 gallon hat and sunroof in the same truck…
I am in similar shoes, and I agree with you. I have a 2016 Silverado now, and yeah it has an 8 speed transmission, backup camera, carplay, etc but it only gets a couple mpg better and I have concerns about the longevity of the engine/transmission.
My family has ran 3 GMT800’s to 250k plus miles before selling them (still in great running condition). All 3 got there with nothing but scheduled maintenance. Zero chance my 2016 will pull that off.
I keep my eye out for a clean Crew cab quadrasteer Sierra. That’s my grail, and I would quickly dump my 2016 for one.
Ironically, I specifically wanted a 2016 because that seemed like the perfect blend of modern and simple compared to the newer trucks. But now I view it as overly complex.
Agree. GMT800 was the pinnacle of half tons.
I have fond memories of my great uncle’s 350 equipped GMT400 back in the day.
I was devastated when I learned they sold it without offering me the chance to scoop it.
It was a regular cab, 8ft bed version, and my sister and I used to ride along on the bench seat to go “bear haunting”, wherein we’d go to the dump near their cottage and watch the black bears.
I also remember riding in the bed, back when that was still acceptable.
GMT 400 is a great platform. People love to rag on tbi but you can clean them and they almost always work. A whole lot easier to work on them direct injection. I’ve seen tbi 350s in GMT 400s with most of the sensors cut off and still work just fine. It’s one of those laugh and look away. I don’t care for the early ones interior but the later ones are ok.
Yeah, I always looked down on TBI when I was younger, but now see a lot of truck guys saying they prefer them to the later Vortec multipoint system. The Vortec made better power, but the system itself can be problematic.
I always liked the TPI from the FBodies, I thought that would have been great on the trucks. So much low end TQ.
Yes I find it ironic so many people that rag on tbi will throw a holly sniper on and say how good they are. I guess the electronics are a lot better but is basically a modem TBI. The 360 dodges of the 90s have a decent tbi too.
I love the 400s, but I have trouble taking this opinion seriously when all you’ve owned is old stuff.
“Sensors breaking” or “fancy electronics failing” are things that obviously can happen, but are rare enough not to put up with the compromises of an old truck the other 99% of the time.
Personally I’m someone who is happier with a more capable, better equipped, rust proof, and yes, more reliable, modern truck.
GMT400s might be the best looking trucks of all time and were the best ever made in their day, but that’s just not true anymore.
I have owned some stuff from this millennium: A 2001 Land Cruiser, a 2014 BMW i3, a 2021 BMW i3, a 2000 Chevy Tracker, a 2000 Jeep XJ, a 2009 Nissan Versa, 2011 Chevy HHR, and a 2003 Aztek.
And truck-wise, as you know, I’ve driven all the brand new stuff.
Meant an old truck of course, but fair (although vehicles from 2000-03 are still “old” to me by now).
I know you’ve driven newer trucks, but living with them is different, at least in my eyes.
In any case, glad you like what you have.
I agree that it’s different to live with them daily, but that new vehicles are harder to work on than old ones (particularly if we ignore smog-era stuff) is hardly a hot take.
No, but neither is the fact that old stuff will tend to break more often.
I’ve owned my truck for almost seven years now and had one unscheduled problem that affected drivability.
When I owned a GMT400 and an 800, it was a much more constant struggle to keep them going. Sure, each individual thing wasn’t a real challenge, but it was a baseline level of annoyance. And those vehicles would be even older and iffier now.
As a person who dailies a foolproof ’07 vehicle, I can attest to the fact that things with sensors can still be dead-reliable. While I’ve replaced stuff like serpentine belts, tensioner, front struts, and other wear items….. Every sensor is original.
There’s also something to be said for the massive leaps in safety between the 80s/90s and the later 00s.
I 100% agree, but a modern truck is most likely going to be much more difficult to own and maintain when it’s 30 years old compared to a 400. But, that is also someone else’s problem in 30 years, so…. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
And I say this as someone whose 56 year old, sensor-less, electronic-less, dead simple Chevy truck just became non-op last fall and hasn’t bothered to finish fixing it. Modern trucks are infinitely better vehicles and trucks. More capability, more safety, more efficiency, more comfort, more capability, more performance…… Sounds like a good tradeoff unless you’re the 1:1000000 person that keeps car for 30 years.
I’m not even sure I agree with this.
The mechanical bits of my truck are mostly the same concept as a GMT400, just improved with 30 years of development.
If a blind spot monitor, an airbag sensor, a heated seat, or whatever fails in 30 years, nothing says I *have* to pay big money to fix it. The truck will still operate just fine, and have the same lack of features as a GMT400. I’ll just have enjoyed 30 years of use prior to the failure.
In my state, that airbag issue means you fail inspection. So unless you want a paperweight (or a farm truck) then yes, you’ve got to fix it.
Are 30 year old vehicles inspected?
That seems like the bigger problem here.
In any case, allowing trucks with literally no airbags on the road (like DT’s) would seem to be much worse than allowing something with a light on. I’m perfectly willing to believe a state could be that dumb with their rules, but that isn’t really the fault of the truck.
Yes, 30 year old vehicles are inspected. They are inspected to whatever regulations existed at the time of manufacture. So my ’65 doesn’t need to have functional airbags or seat belts, but the headlights have to work, the horn has to work, the turn signals…
In ’68 (or whenever) seat belts became mandatory, you then have to have seat belts for my state inspection. You get the idea.
But yeah, the unofficial fast/easy thing to assume is if it has an airbag it has to be functional to pass inspection.
Personally speaking, if I had to keep a vehicle on the road for literally as long as possible, it’d be hard to not get something from the ’30s. You can go highway speeds, but there’s not much to go wrong. Something like a ’32 Ford would have so many parts available as well.
I don’t think that would be fun, but I’d take that over trying to keep keep a 2025 Tundra hybrid on the road in 2115.
But more realistically, I think keeping a 1995 Silverado 1500 on the road today, is probably less work than it was to keep a 1965 C10 on the road back in 1995. Rust proofing a long has got to go a long way, right? Who knows; I’ve been wrong before.
In my state an airbag sensor throwing a code will mean you’re not passing inspection. Same with a bad O2 sensor or any other number of things. My C10 still requires an annual inspection, even if it is 56 years old; it’s just to 1969 standards. 2025 standards are pretty tight and pretty much any check engine light or missing emissions equipment is automatic fail, even if they don’t do tailpipe sniffers, they are supposed to still look and make sure emissions haven’t been gutted and codes suppressed. So any number of emission or engine codes will have to be addressed to (legally) stay on the road. So not only do you have more things that are typically more complex that you have to keep functioning; those same things also typically require additional tools and software to functioning.
Interesting as you’re the second person to reply with something like this.
I’ve never lived anywhere with complete vehicle inspections, I live now somewhere with emissions testing, but that has exemptions for anything over 8500 GVWR, anything powered by diesel, and/or anything over 25 years old that is driven limited miles. Literally every sensor in my truck could break and as long as it’s still drivable, I’d have no problems from the state.
Yeah, we are both NYS people held to the same lame standard. I mean, there are fairly easy ways to get around it, it’s just not entirely legal. Lots of shops will look the other way; inspection fees are simply too low to really have the time needed to dig into a car and let alone shops not wanting to police every little thing. I.e. I’ve had a non-op horn, the shop I go to didn’t really care because they saw I only drove something like 1,500 miles since the prior inspection.
But yeah, if you don’t have something like that to comply with and my goal was to drive the same vehicle for 30+ years, I’d certainly be starting out with something probably made much more recently, not something 30 years old. IDK, as much as I dislike them, I’d imagine a second gen Tundra probably is the ideal vehicle for something like that.
Same in MA and RI, states where I have experience with vehicle inspections. They may be more cursory depending on the shop and age of the vehicle, but a check engine light is an automatic fail. Some vehicles may be exempt from emissions past a certain age, but lights horn, wipers etc all need to work. Whether that stuff actually gets checked or not is up to the shop.
I’m eying an 89 454 Suburban on 37’s on marketplace in a neighboring state, and I actually need to look into this further to see what’s inspected and if this thing will even remotely pass in my state.
Sensors can be nice. My 1989 F150 has a couple of them, and to be honest I don’t think I’d mind if it has a few more. Sometimes I just want a vehicle to tell me what is wrong with it instead of playing the guessing game.
I haven’t had the best luck with a GMT400 Yukon. Which is mechanically similar to these. The 4L60E went out, then shortly after that the rear diff. The 5.7 had good torque but it had a very sedated character.
I liked the GMT800s better, the LS engines were more lively.
Unfortunately by now here in the rust belt both 400s and 800s are almost all gone, even the 900s have rusted out.
I’ve owned several 400’s and a few years ago, I would have wholeheartedly agreed with you. But then, in 2015, I made the mistake of buying a 200,000 mile 2nd Gen Toyota Tundra and my eyes were opened to the truth! https://youtu.be/tWMEeX6ulYA?feature=shared&t=152
I can’t speak for the 1st or later generations, but the 2nd Gen Tundra is damn near a perfect truck IMHO. It runs forever with regular maintenance, it’s more comfortable than the GMT 400, it tows more than the GMT 400, it looks better (subjective, I know), and it handles better than the GMT 400 by a long shot. It has more clearance (nearly 12″, and in the TRD configuration (as mine was), it’ll go anywhere you need it to go. My son now owns it and he’s working on getting it to 400,000 miles. I don’t think it’ll reach a million, but as we know, it’s definitely got the right genes to do it.
I’ve made similar mistakes. It’s hard to go back once you have something you don’t have to worry about. The gen 2 drives better and seems more comfortable to me. Plus not as bad of frame issues I knew a guy that has 2 warranty frames in a gen 1 and they just ended up giving him a Yaris for his trouble at the end.
You’re comparing complete different generations of vehicles here. The GMT400 came out 11 years before the words “Toyota Tundra” were even marketed to the public. And the 2nd Gen is seven years after that. So are you really surprised that a ~18 year old newer design is more comfortable, more capable, and handles better?
Fair enough, but David is presenting the GMT400 as the GOAT truck and I just think that the Tundra is better. By your logic, any truck that’s newer than the GMT400 will be better, so claiming that any older truck is the GOAT makes no logical sense. However, in the spirit of this article, and in reality, I do think that the 2nd Gen Tundra is the GOAT. Also, I recently rented a 2023 GMC Sierra 1500 (since I had given the Tundra to my son) and I still think my 2004 Tundra was better as a daily driver.
2004? That’s a first gen Tundra.
Darn it, you’re correct! It was the 1st Gen facelift (2003-2006). I somehow got it in my head that it was 2nd Gen. Sorry.
No problem, those 1st gens were great aside from the frame rust issues. I live in a town that loves both Toyotas and trucks so I see them all the time and think they’re just the perfect size for a half ton.
I am not a fan of the actual 2nd gen from 07-21. They increased the size and the styling is some of the worst out there.