In the 1990s, Chevrolet practically handed out S10s for free. I remember radio ads offering leases for under $100 a month, and I guffawed that “there are hidden fees!” until several people I knew actually leased them for that amount. If you wanted to buy one outright, the base price was around $11,000, and for that money you got a truck and nothing more. In the summer of 1996, I had a job delivering automotive paint to body shops, and my ride was a ’95 S10 with the company name on the side. It had no options – none. It had a rubber mat, five-speed manual transmission, and no radio. That was a boring summer behind the wheel, but I know why everyone wishes that Chevy would bring back the S10; it was one of the most versatile and inexpensive commuter cars America has known. This one is a bit of a time capsule; offered for sale on craigslist near Dallas and sent to us by reader T.J., it’s perhaps your last chance to own a lightly used S10.
Being a Texas car with 84,000 miles on the odometer, you’re as free from the grip of rust as you can be. The only disappointment about this particular S10 is right there in the center of this photo – it’s an automatic. The five-speed truck I drove around all those years ago was sprightly around town, at least in the first two gears, but the automatic sapped a lot of the fun out of the little 2.2-liter four.
Here’s that 2.2, producing a surprisingly decent 118 horsepower for 1995. To be fair to the S10, my friends and family members with 2.2/automatics never really complained about the performance, but I’ve spent enough miles behind the wheel of that combo to know that it’s a bit dreary by today’s standards. At least this one has air conditioning and an AM/FM radio, two things I would have truly enjoyed during my short stint at the paint store.
This ’95 also has the base cloth bench and rubber floor covering, just as “mine” did. The interior brings back a lot of memories, and it has “no rips, tears, burn holes, stains, or wear marks on the seats.” I was one day too late in calling a local dealer’s used car lot about a 2.2/manual S10 back in the early 2000s, so I liked them well enough to almost make one my daily driver. As a consolation prize, I ended up with an S10 Blazer with the 4.3 V6, which was a great car as long as you didn’t mind some squeaks and rattles.
More than once, I’ve heard people say that if Chevy brought out the S10 today, they’d buy it. Ford’s Maverick proves that there’s a market for such a thing, but even that’s a little too big for some people. If you’re one of the many who’d like a small truck with decent power and fuel economy, your only option might be to buy used, and the selling dealer is asking $8,788 for this one.
I’ve always been a fan of S10s since they first came out. When Aaron mentioned them giving them away I remember My FIL bought a brand new 2000 ( same body style as this) 2WD LS trim 2.2 automatic. It was a sharp looking little truck although I had always wished it had a 5 speed. He got it for a very low reasonable price brand new. It lasted them for many years, but unfortunately rust really got into the frame. He gave it to a friend of mine who actually used it on a farm till the frame finally rotted in half. Even with the automatic it had enough oomph to keep up just fine with traffic. I always thought these made great commuters, decent gas mileage nice looks you can take it to Home Depot on the weekends to get what you need for your house. This one is very solid underneath and I’d be happy to have it, even if it has an automatic.
I forgot to write, look how clean that bed is too! This is one of my favorite colors too from GM. If I were buying a brand new S10 in 1995, I would’ve gotten one identical to this except with a 5 speed.
Have a truck, you can make a buck 😉
🛻 💰
Here’s another, if the site prints my comment, getting powerfully old. Friend that went nuts in N.Wis. had a very similar truck, a 4.3 and 5 speed, I had a ’95 Sonoma extra cab, 4 cylinder, automatic. The only difference was the grill badge, that I saw. The 4 cylinder was without question a poor motor. I got it with a bad head gasket ( empty jugs of coolant was the clue), but I got it cheap, added some “Mend-Tite” sealer, which I swear by, and drove that truck for several years. Even took it out east for a summer. Mend-Tite is a good product, I heartily endorse its use.
I really liked the truck, in the get what you pay for dept., when out east, the fuel pump gave out. Being a beater, I opted for the “cheapie” with 1 year warranty. Rather than drop the rusty tank, I cut a hole in the box floor. At 13 months,the replacement pump gave out. How do they do that? Anyway, the frame was also rusted by then, and I junked it. I never thought I’d experience a more gutless 4 cylinder than the 2.2, but the Jeep (2.5) proved that wrong.
Great trucks with the V6, and I don’t intend to pee on the sellers parade, but stay away from the 2.2.
Good write up Aaron and yes I remember even in Canada from the early 90’s to the generation change in ‘95 how affordable the base models were. I was very tempted even though I was a teenager and then a student. I wanted a ‘93 simple truck with a manual. I did want the cloth seats and a radio.
I also worked at a GM dealer for a while and after driving the gutless 2.8 V6, would never own an automatic unless it was a 4.3L.
Other than the price, this would make for the perfect race car conversion. It’s, rear wheel drive, light, simple, the engine compartment will easily accept a small block, it has decent sized rear wheel wells, best of all you wouldn’t have to spend any money on paint and body. This generation of S10 has become a popular platform for bracket racing, there are usually 1/2 dozen or more at every weekend race. These are a near perfect staring point for a budget minded racer, if this was closer to the $5,000 to $6,000 range. This is what people build rather than derelict, rusty and beat up 60’s and 70’s “muscle cars”.
Steve R
There are a lot of segments GM is ignoring that other automakers are gobbling up with Barra’s myopic hubristic focus on EV CUVs. I had an S10 1999. Nifty vehicle.
Someone needs to start making these small pickups again. They’d sell like hotcakes among us guys not trying to compensate for shortcomings who just want a utilitarian vehicle.
We have our absurd CAFE regulatory scheme, particularly it’s “footprint” formula and car vs. truck distinctions, to blame for the disappearance of truly compact pickups (and affordable wagons) from the US market along with the burgeoning of SUVs/CUVs/crossovers technically classified as “light trucks”:
https://me.engin.umich.edu/news-events/news/cafe-standards-could-mean-bigger-cars-not-smaller-ones/
https://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2012/10/how-cafe-killed-compact-trucks-and-station-wagons/
I absolutely LOVE my ’93 4.3/Auto!! :-)
Nice little rig Moparman. Love the whitewall choice, sweet wheels, are they stock ?
These look like the later generation stock 2wd wheels. Nice look.
Wheels are as stated by Johnnymopar; I’ve always liked pairing pinstripe white walls w/ various wheels/mags. Don’t care for wheel covers at all!! :-)
Very nice!!! Thise are the same rims my FIL had on his 2000. I always thought they made these trucks look classy. And they look great on the previous generation too! Very nice truck, thats a keeper.
Had the exact same year in the same color with the Vortec V6 and a 5-speed manual. Cost me a tic over 14 and only reason I still don’t have it is my 22 year old son. Became too small for all the gear attached to a baby. He was worth it though. Reliable, and a blast to drive with that manual. When I saw this I was hoping for the manual cuz I think I would have tried to grab it. Dam I miss that truck!
My first new car was an ’85 S10 with the 2.5L and a 4spd stick. No ac. No radio. No power steering. 2wd. My dad called it a “vanilla” truck, meaning it was barebones stock entry-level. But I loved that thing! Bought just across the Michigan state line for $5k and an old, rusted-GMC 1/2 ton in trade. Loved it up north, where the heater would bake brownies in the winter. Hated it the summer, because they didn’t have ductwork in the dash. Couple of 12v fans, and an aftermarket sliding rear window and it was almost tolerable. If I was looking for one, this one would make it pretty high on the list. GLWTS…
11K is about 23K today, like the price of a new base Corolla or Civic. Sounds fair to me for such nice looking trucks, esp with a standard stick shift. Big problem with them was always the rusting frames, had one do that. Broke my heart.
One of a few vehicles I purchased new was a ‘93 S-10 with an SS package that included a tuned port 4.3, SS badging, rear bumper delete with a roll pan. I put a locking bed cover on it after the tailgate got stolen after I’d had the truck for only two weeks, insurance company said that was a common problem, first year body style etc. I lowered the front 2” with drop spindles and the rear 3” with different leaf springs, added a set of mid-80’s Iroc Z wheels and drove it until it had 138k miles on it, then sold it. Loved that truck!
Bought a new 95 GMC Sonoma, bare bones, mine did come with a am-fm radio & that was it, the list price was 10K, also at the time they proceeded to raise the speed limit to 65 on the highway & the little 2.2 w/5sp was not the engine to have, it was good for city, but the highway not so much, I never had a rig that struggled to get to 65 & hold it more than this one did.
I’ve had a bunch of S-10s. Lots of police auction buys. Prices up to around $500 now for anything. Frames are popular for retro builds and outright rods. Harder to find now. Neighbor recently set the county on me so a chunk are going to go offshore for refrigerators and such.
17.4 rural acres aren’t enough when some high dollar snot can’t mind their own affairs.
Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) requirements drove the Big 3 to dump thousands of 4cylinder small pickups on dealers. They were selling lots of big trucks and SUV’s and had to have an offset. In 1998, our local Chrysler dealer got about a 100 Dakota 4 cylinder, five speed manual single cab pickups dropped on them with some corporate ad money for a $169 down and $169 a month lease deal. Snapped up one for my son and it served us well with a factory warranty and a cheap buy out at the end.
Bought a 1996 wrecked (right front, bumper, right fender and windshield) one of these with the automatic. Fixed it up and used as my shop truck. Most memorable was the trip I made from Denver to Amarillo,TX pulling a trailer with my Mazda RX7 race car and the bed overloaded with a spare transmission, 2 sets of race wheels and tires, a spare rear end and some misc. spare parts. It was definitely a load for that little truck. The amazing thing is that it made it over Raton Pass. Got her up to 50mph at the base and after down shifting several times crawled over the summit at a whopping 8mph. Thought I was never gonna make it!
Definitely a tough little truck.
My first new vehicle ever was an ‘82 S10, maybe extended cab and 5-speed stick,(it was a long time ago) definitely a 2.8 V6. That thing was plenty peppy and outhandled many cars. I drove it for 6 years and 116,000 miles, until some numbnuts rear-ended me in an ice storm and totaled it. After that I had 3 full size Chevys, but when I retired I didn’t need trucks that big and ended up with a 2017 Frontier. It immediately reminded me of that S10- small, good handling, auto of course. I don’t know if the latest model Frontiers have grown- most pickups have tended toward gargantuan over the years, but gen 2 Frontiers are one of the last truly small pickups out there. I’m very happy with mine.
$7500 out the door.
Just more proof the dingbats in sales and design are idiots , just think how much money and JOBS , gm could produce if they made a truck like this again, Ford Maverick just touched the edge of the possibility
This is advertised as having cruise control. I’m not seeing it (should be on the turn signal stem I believe). You guys?
On the walk-around he also says it has a CD instead of a tape player. Probably just an honest mistake.
Looks like the one I inherited from my father last year. Only his is the extended cab with the 4.3. Again ..a basic truck. Crank windows, 2 wheel drive. But … It only has 60k on it.