This commercial shows people in the prairie putting up a fence and as the camera scrolls by, different models of full size Chevrolet Trucks go by. However, I found myself asking this question after seeing the commercial…

Where is the 1988 Chevrolet Truck?

1988 Chevrolet Truck

In the history of Chevrolet trucks, this was a revolutionary Chevrolet truck. Well, I will rephrase the last statement. In the history of trucks, this is a revolutionary truck. Before then, trucks were known as boxy vehicles with the purpose of hauling. GM redefined the truck that year from not only being just a hauler but a truck that hauled like a truck but had the ride and the creature comforts of a car. This was the truck that set the benchmarks that other manufacturers had to follow. Ford went from a boxy F-150 to a bloated ‘truck-de-taurus’ for 1997. Dodge went from their box to their Peterbuilt look-a-like in 1994. The 1988 Chevrolet truck was a truck that distinguished itself worlds apart from the 1973–1987 series truck that it replaced.

1973 Chevrolet Truck

The commercial in the chronology goes via the different eras and then goes from the 1972 Chevrolet truck to the 1999 Chevrolet truck. In many ways, I can understand the skipping of the 1973–1987 series because of the known rusting problems (even though the 1981 version began the extensive use of galvanized metal instead of standard steel and the bodies lasted a lot longer). However, I just can not understand why the marketeers skipped this crucial truck and GM allowed it.

What were they thinking?

It looks like the new 2007 may be in many ways very similar to the 1988. Revolutionary, distinctive, and even more beautiful than the previous series it replaced.

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Where Is The 1988 Chevy Truck?

The truck has recieved mixed reactions from ‘experts’ ranging from cheap looking, archaic looking, ‘a Colorado on steroids’ to very sharp. The truck is to make it’s world premiere at the Texas State Fair on September 29, 2006.

Personally, I like the look of the truck with it’s modern look while kinda going retro with the grill of their 88-95 series truck. It’s conservative and tough looking at the same time. I agree that it takes some styling cues from the Colorado but my 1994 S-10 took styling cues (and corrections of learned mistakes) from the 88-95 full size truck. It’s the anti monster truck compared to what Dodge (Peterbuilt Pickup), Nissan (bulging Titan that looks like a turtle shell over a small chassis), Toyota (small truck Tacoma stretched out to a enlarged scaled Tundra with the 2007 looking like a Striped Bass with an open mouth), and Ford (truck-de-taurus, bloated looking, and the next redesign rumored to emulate the Fusion “gym-locker vent louver” front end) has on the market.

I think the truck companies have gone nuts with these ’steroid looking’ trucks that look bloated. The new Silverado in appearance looks both streamlined and functional without the ‘hulk’ look.

I think this styling, and the rumored ‘displacement on demand’ system would be a big hit with GM if the dealers will sell the trucks with no hassle and quit playing the ‘games of arrogance’ and ’sticker-price deal of a century’ that they are well known for when new models come out .

We’ll wait and see.

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admin’s note 7-2-06 – 10:30 AM. Looking at the photos once again, there appears to be some styling cues from the 1994 S-10 in the new Silverado from the grille to the rubberized-plastic curve covers on the bottom fronts from the grille to the sides encompassing the fog lights. The 1994 S-10 had a similar plastic piece that went from the bottom of the grille to the front valence spoiler. Even the way the front chrome bumper comes out and rolls down is somewhat similar to the 1994 S-10.

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The 2007 Silverado

What really made me think about this was that the two divisions were known as both the ‘experimental technology’ and the ‘middle line between a basic Chevrolet and a luxurious Buick’ divisions. Here were some of Oldsmobile’s innovations that appeared in Oldsmobiles before being adapted to other GM platforms:

First Hydra-Matic (automatic) transmission in 1940,
First airbag in 1974,
First use of acrylic body panels in 1981.
First American built car to offer FM Radio in a factory stereo.
First American built car to use front-wheel drive (Toronado)
First American car to use GM’s patentened Distributorless Ignition system
First American car to use modern electronic fuel injection (excluding the late 1950’s early 1960’s Corvette electro-mechanical system)

Where Oldsmobile was the ‘testing and technological refinement’ brand of GM, Saturn appears to continue the same ‘testing and technological refinement’ but adding ’sales and marketing testing’ to it’s innovativion such as:

First American car brand that did not (until recently) work under the same UAW contracts as other GM operations.
First American car brand (until recently) to have all ‘horizontal combination’ operations built under one roof in Spring Hill, Tn.
First American car brand to offer ‘no hassle’, fixed, non-negotiable pricing on it’s products.
First American car brand in over 30 years to have an entire product line on it’s own specific platforms (until the L-300).
First American car brand that once you bought the car, took a picture of you with the car and introduced you to all employees from the mechanic to the janitor.
First American car brand to invite it’s owners to the annual employee picnic with the factory workers in Spring Hill, Tn.
First American car brand to have a car (Ion) with the universal center dashboard to where the car could be built in either left-hand or right-hand steer in less than ten different parts like the Toyota Echo.
First American car brand that had it’s own seperate dealerships (until recently) that did not sell other manufacturer’s new cars and were not owned by GM dealers of other GM brands.
First American car brand that focused the selling of the car not on the car itself but on the after-care service of the car using family-room-style waiting areas, computer terminals connected to the Internet, and children’s play areas.
First American car brand that you could “build” your car over the Internet to your specifications and then referred to the nearest Saturn dealer where they contacted you to complete the final details such as financing and delivery.
First American car brand that used plastic panels on all of it’s cars (except hood and trunk lids).
First American car brand to have it’s own seperate engineering team for a particular brand (until recently). This team actually invented Traction Control and tested it to work out the bugs. However, GM brass decided that Cadillac would offer this feature first on their vehicles before allowing Saturn to incorporate it into their vehicles.
First American car brand (non-luxury) to offer traction control on it’s vehicles.
First American car brand (non-luxury) to offer navigation systems and On-Star emergency help systems.
First American car brand to offer on-site child care for it’s Employees at it’s factory.

Therefore, if you look at the ‘firsts’ and the attempts of both companies to appeal to a ‘middle line’ of customer that wanted more features than a basic Chevrolet while not being able to afford the luxury of a Buick, they were the same. I found it interesting that in many parts of the country, where independent Saturn dealers were going under, GM allowed faithful Oldsmobile dealers to purchase them and become the Saturn dealers. Also, I find it interesting that for years, the Oldsmobile symbol was a space rocket while the Saturn car brand was named after the Saturn space mission rockets (per the Saturn pdf downloadable from Saturn.com) of NASA and not the planet Saturn contrary to what people think. According to the .pdf file, Saturn’s name of being influential in the space race of the 1960’s against the USSR paralleled GM’s small-car race of the 1990’s and beyond against the Japanese economy cars built by Toyota and Honda.

I am wondering now if this was a purposeful well-planned evolution all along for I am now convinced that Saturn is really “Oldsmobile Jr.” Is Saturn really the “Different Kind of Company,” or the offspring who inherited Oldsmobile’s testing and technological refinement traits while adding marketing and corporate traits?

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Is Saturn really ‘Oldsmobile Jr’?