The 1980s Chevy S10 always strikes a familiar chord with me. My brother had one as his first vehicle in high school, and it was a sharp blue truck with the single cab and 2WD. Paired with a 5-speed stick, it was a fun ride for a high schooler; I wished I had gotten the chance to drive it as a young’un. This example here on Raleigh Classic Car Auctions has only 18,000 miles from new and the original owner’s paperwork is still with the truck, showing he paid for it in full in 1982.
One of my favorite details on survivors like these is the old-school dealer badge still affixed to the bed gate. It gives you another morsel of a clue that will help the next owner piece together its history. Truthfully, there may not be much to tell: original owner buys truck; original owner hardly drives truck; truck shows up for sale on state auction website. This particular single-cab S10 comes with a 3-speed automatic transmission and 2.8L V6 engine. The two-tone paint job is a factory design, correct for the era.
Similarly, the generous coating of red extends to the interior, where red cloth and vinyl effectively covers everything, even the dashboard. I wonder what lead manufacturers to believe consumers wanted to see the same color everywhere they looked, especially in a work truck. No matter; all that matters here is that the interior is absolutely perfect, which is pretty much darn near impossible to find in a economy-model S10 of this era.
This S10 stayed in the original owner’s estate through 2015, racking up less than 20,000 miles in 33 years. The engine bay looks spectacular, even a little better than the sub-1,000 mile DeLorean we just featured. The auctioneer’s site anticipates an opening bid of $10,000(!) and going all the way up to $14K. I personally think that’s a bit optimistic, no matter how unrepeatable this S10 may be. Although they are hard to find in good shape, they have not crossed the realm into the “collectible” column. What do you think it should sell for?
Fantasy land on price. My gripe is that the cab of these is tight, there is simply no covered storage except in the passenger seat. It is no wonder extra cabs became so popular as soon as they were offered. Plus no power windows or door locks, things were simpler in the day, but not necessarily better. 10 or 14K will buy a very nice used modern truck.
I think most people with that kind of a budget for an S series will be looking for a ’91 Syclone, or at least a V8 swapped truck.
This particular truck is too nice/expensive too cut up or hot rod, yet too boring too justify the a$king price.
I don’t have too many vehicle regrets but the ’82 S-10 pickup I owned was simply terrible.
Being the first year produced, I felt like the test pilot.
3 transmissions (under warranty) and poor fit and finish…
Lotsa luck with the sky high (optimistic) price
Will be surprised if it goes over $10k. Caution on the 2.8L sixes – rear main seal failure was common.
Thats exactly what happened to my 82 2.8 S-10. It had a 2 piece seal that leaked. I replaced it with the single seal but didnt read you needed to add RTV and it still leaked after that. I gave up and sold it.
All it would take would be two people who have to have the worlds nicest ’82 Chevy S10. There must be somebody who fits that description. I personally don’t want a car with ultra-low mileage, as I want to drive it, and that just ruins the uniqueness of a low mileage vehicle like this.
Judging by the worn paint edge on the top of the tailgate, this had a camper shell on it for a VERY long time (most likely since new). The rubber seal from the camper shell lift gate usually causes this worn paint line on the outer top edge of the tailgate. That 2.8 V6 isn’t a very good engine. I’d stick with the 4 banger and manual trans or a 4.3 V6 with either trans. This looks like a $4 to $5k truck to me.
I agree. Four to five grand, tops.
These are gutless. Ours split its crankshaft at 60K. It ended up going to over 170K when we sold it.
It has the 2.8 which is a fail
4-5K if that. I can’t see anybody having the desire to add this in their collection. It doesn’t check any boxes for value… horsepower – nope, racing heritage – nope, any inclining of performance – nope, songs about owning a s-10’s – nope. 10-15K – nope.
This is something I would think would be a good deal at 2500, and an okay deal to somebody that rode around with grandpa on the weekend
Lol, nope x5!
I agree with John M, these are gutless! My brother had a blazer about this year, and it was a slug, no pep at all. I also own a ’92 Sonoma that currently has both door handles broken, apparently a common thing on these. It is a little better in power though, due to the 5 speed manual.
This was right in the middle of that EPA-mandated average fuel economy garbage. We sold a few S-15’s (GMC version) but we were in a full-sized truck market and anything like this was usually flogged for cost plus. Very few problems other than the aforementioned lack of power. They wouldn’t pull a limp (noodle) out of a pail of lard. Comparing one of these to that compact POS I had some years before, I’d take one of these without question….
Now, now, don’t be too harsh, remember, this was GM’s import truck killer ( not including LUV, which WAS an import) This is just an outstanding example. The 2.8 is questionable. I had good ones and bad ones. Again, changing oil religiously on these was the key, most times. Sometimes, they were just plain junk. The 4.3 is 10 times the motor.( has SBC roots) I had a truck just like this, with a 2.8, 5 speed, and it ran great, many, MANY miles on it. Conversely, I had an ’84 S-10 Blazer, 2.8, automatic, was pretty poor. My ex-wife cooked 2 of those motors in that truck.( mostly because she had her foot to the floor all the time,) Today, I drive a (rusty) ’96 Sonoma extra cab, 2.2 auto. Nice truck, but my advice, do NOT get the 2.2.( but DO get the extra cab) You think the 2.8 was gutless, the 2.2 is awful and it doesn’t get much better mileage than a 4.3. Not overly collectible, but like this, rare indeed.
I got a like new 84 that from my uncle Tommy (at 92 he still keeps his vehicles garaged and spotless) in 2001 that still had the plastic on the floor and seats, he’s that kinda guy. The light silver and charcoal color combo made a sharp looking truck but the metallic paints wouldn’t keep a shine. It had the 2.8 and slushbox and was a dog. I kept it a couple of years and sold it my brother-in-law who kept it until a few moths ago when the mechanic who cared for it needed a truck so John sold it to him. It had a little over 100,000 miles and no major repairs and the A/C still blew cold. John had a small amount of rust on the bed floor fixed and the whole truck repainted and cleared so it really looked good. Like most GM of that era he had the sagging headliner replaced too. Had that truck been a 4.3 I would have kept it :)
I had an 85 x cab It was a great truck. The 2.8 blew both head gaskets at about 265000 miles . I wouldn’t want a standard cab though. It’s a little tight in there. Nice truck though.
If it had 118 miles on it that equal $2-3000 dollar, used, piece of $hit. These trucks in any configuration were terrible. Even with an ext cab, 4X4 with the 4.3 it was crap. I had an 87 S-10 Blazer with the above set up, brand new, junk. It was at the dealership so often I traded it with 12k on it for an 88 Nissan D-21 4X4 ext cab 4cyl. I had that truck until 2007. In 2007 my son turned 16. He drove her until he bought his 2013 Tacoma 4X4 TRD. She made it from Knoxville TN to Pensacola (his first duty station), then to San Diego and back to Knoxville. In early 2015 my 22 year I gave her to my daughter and she promptly blew the engine…..
There are several ‘morals to the story’ here…
The first year for the 4.3 in the S series was 1988. Are you sure your truck was a 1987 model?
Gosh I defer to you sir. I do know it was January 88 because I bought it in Oklahoma City (I was stationed @ Fort Sill, Lawton OK) just after new year then drove it home to Knoxville the first week of February. Snowed like hell across Oklahoma and Arkansas! I only had it a couple months. Back than an East Tennessee Chevy dealer owned the Nissan dealership.
In the late 80’s I had a 2.8 V6 ranger. Long box, regular cab, 5 speed with 4:11 gears. Bought it from a steel salesman with 400+ k on it. My friend had an S10 with a 2.8/ manual trans. His truck had 3.7:1 gears. We raced/compared everything. When the head gaskets and rear main went on his truck we pulled the engine and set to work. I put in H.O. 660 pistons and valves, ported the heads and installed an offy intake and a 390cfm carb. A crane cam that was slightly hotter than the X11 cam and headers finished it off. We had to get creative to get a distributor to work properly but when we were done the engine had about 160ish HP. I cleaned all the coolant passages and gasket matched them and installed a 180° thermostat. We bought the best bolts we could for the heads and installed a 360° rear main. That truck had plenty of power and got better milage than his later 4.3. It got passed around over the years, modded a little more but was never stripped down again. The body rusted away long before it stopped being driven. It had over 300 k on it when it was finally scrapped. We pulled the engine, I think it is still kicking around somewhere. As a stock truck, the ranger was better in every way. That S10 always had someone wanting to buy it, sounded great, ran great. My ranger was scrapped with over 750k on it. The only thing I did to it was timing gears and a water pump and lots of valve adjustment’s. I did convert it to a regular motorcraft 2100 carb and duraspark though. I never regretted the ranger but part of me always wanted that S10.
I say 8000 to a collector on a really good day
The 2.8 had a factory stall converter. That was the only way the automatics would move. They were throw away trucks. We worked on hundreds of them at the dealership where I was a tech.
Sold for $9,200