GM Heritage Center 1990 Chevrolet Suburban

GM Heritage Center’s 1990 Chevrolet Suburban
July 3, 2024

Chevrolet’s Suburban turned 85 years old in 2020, easily making it one of history’s most enduring nameplates. The all-new 2021 edition, due out this year, is like a 19-foot-long rolling pleasure boat, and its 8,000-pound tow rating means it can pull most pleasure boats to the lake. The latest Suburban rides, for the first time, on four-wheel independent suspension, with optional adaptive air ride. Power comes from one of two V-8s or the 3-liter Duramax diesel six, all paired only with a 10-speed automatic transmission. Inside, there are amenities that were once unthinkable in a light truck: 10-speaker stereo, touch-screen infotainment, 12-way power seats, and more.

Luxuriously appointed Suburbans aren’t a new concept, as our 1990 feature truck demonstrates. It’s part of the GM North American Heritage Collection and a top-of-the line Silverado model with Deluxe two-tone paint in Onyx Black and Fire Red with Vermillion stripes. It has optional cast-aluminum wheels, a 210-hp throttle-body fuel-injected 5.7-liter V-8 with a four-speed automatic transmission, four-wheel drive, reclining front bucket seats, power windows, air conditioning, a center folding seat, and a rear seat, as well as a tailgate with electric window.

When this striking truck was new, it was already a little dated, arriving on the tail end of the 1973-’91 Suburban series. In 1988, Chevrolet rolled out its all-new GMT400 series C/K pickups, but the new Suburban wouldn’t arrive until the 1992 model year. By then, the 1990s SUV craze was taking shape and buyers were demanding sedan-like comfort in a rugged-looking package. This 1990 4×4 Suburban rode on leaf springs and straight axles, but Chevrolet’s next series of 4x4s were more car-like than ever, with torsion bar independent front suspension (two-wheel-drives still rode on coils up front), Insta-Trac shift-on-the-fly four-wheel drive, and four-wheel antilock brakes.

Despite the Suburban’s gentrification over the decades, its basic blueprint remains the same today as it did in 1935: an outsized station wagon body perched on a light-truck chassis. The original prewar Suburban Carryall had an all-metal cabin, rode on a 112-inch wheelbase, and power came from Chevrolet’s 207-cu.in. “stovebolt” inline-six. Initially, the truck packed 60 hp with 5.45:1 compression, but that was later upped to 79 hp. Upgrades to the 1936 truck included the addition of hydraulic brakes, but since the Suburban Carryall was still a commercial vehicle, items like a radio, clock, heater, and dual windshield wipers were available only as options.

Under the hood is a throttle-body injected 350-cu.in. V-8 rated at 210 horsepower, paired with a four-speed automatic transmission.

For 1941, Chevrolet truck designers rolled out front ends with brightly polished vertical and horizontal grille slats, combined with bullet-shaped headlamp housings that blended into the fenders. This sparked new life into the exteriors of these haulers and created what collectors have long referred to as the “Art Deco” series, or as “Wurlitzer jukeboxes.”

When the now-legendary Advance Design trucks hit the road in late 1947 for the 1948 model year, Suburban benefitted from the first significant redesign of Chevrolet’s truck line since before World War II. The Advance Design series ushered in sloped fixed windshields, cowl-mounted wipers, and headlamps integrated into the front fenders. The cargo hold was accessible by (the buyer’s choice of) either a tailgate or a pair of “barn” doors, and the two rear rows of seats were removable. For 1954, GM’s Hydra-Matic automatic transmission was first available in Advance Design Chevrolet Suburban Carryalls.

The second-series 1955 “Task Force” Chevrolet trucks and carryalls boasted revolutionary new styling, with their wraparound windshields and no exterior running boards. The Task Force trucks also introduced the Chevrolet small-block V-8s that were offered in Suburbans until the LS series of V-8s became standard in 2000.

The Suburban Carryall had been around for 25 years when the next new series arrived in 1960. These Jet Age-styled trucks featured greater passenger amenities and safety features—although a deluxe heater was still a $53 option. The Suburban was offered in a ½-ton chassis, with two-wheel drive or four-wheel drive, but fewer than 1,000 of the approximately 13,000 examples sold in 1966—the final year for this body style—were 4x4s. The 230-cubic-inch six-cylinder was standard, but also available were two versions of the classic small-block V-8: a 283 engine rated at 175 hp and, later, a 327 rated at 220 hp.

For 1967, the Carryall name was dropped from factory literature and the newly designed Suburbans featured a third door on the right side of the truck. The 1967-’72 rigs introduced a longer, 127-inch wheelbase, which increased the Suburban’s cargo capability and enhanced its towing ability. This was also the generation that launched the ¾-ton chassis beneath the ‘Burb. Suburban sales grew dramatically during the 1967-’72 era, from about 6,200 in 1967 to more than 27,000 in 1972. The number of Suburbans ordered with four-wheel drive increased significantly during those years, too. Only 166 ½-ton models and 120 ¾-ton models were built with four-wheel drive in 1967, but those numbers grew to more than 3,000 ½-tons and nearly 1,400 ¾-ton models in 1972. The 1972 model was the last to roll out with coil-spring rear suspension on two-wheel-drive trucks, until rear coils returned across the board (on two-wheel-drive and four-wheel-drive ½-tons) in 2000.

The interior boasts bucket seats, a folding second row seat, a third-row bench, and full carpeting. There’s also air conditioning, power windows, and four-wheel drive with automatic locking/unlocking hubs. Map pockets, woodgrain trim, and deluxe door panels were standard on Silverados.

Big changes came with Chevrolet’s 1973 light-truck overhaul, which was a good thing, considering that this same basic truck would soldier on through most of the 1970s, all of the ’80s, and the early days of the ’90s. In fact, the longest-running series to date in the Suburban’s 85 years was the 1973-’91 edition.

The 1973 Suburban rolled out with four doors and rode on a 129.5-inch wheelbase. By 1980, the 250-cu.in. inline-six was gone and a small-block V-8 was standard. The 454 became the extra-cost big V-8 in 1973 and lasted as an option for years, though, in 1981, it was available only on ¾-ton, two-wheel-drive trucks. The front-end body panels were also redesigned in 1981, and quad headlamps became available. The 6.2-liter diesel was first installed in 1982, and fuel injection debuted on gasoline engines in 1987.

After 85 years, the popularity of Chevrolet’s Suburban shows no signs of waning. As collector vehicles, you won’t find many Suburbans outpacing midyear Corvettes. But a vintage Suburban makes an interesting collector car tow vehicle— at a fraction of the cost of new.