For most of us, the day is going to come where we either decide to relinquish our Driver’s License, or some kind-hearted official will take it because they believe that we are no longer capable of driving in a safe manner. The latter fate befell the original elderly owner of this 1990 C1500 454 SS around 10-years-ago, so he chose to park it in a garage for nearly a decade. The current owner then purchased the vehicle and returned it to a roadworthy state, but has now decided to part with it. This is no trailer queen, but it still presents very well, and it wouldn’t take a lot of work to have it back at its best once again. The Pickup is located in Modesto, California, and has been listed for sale here on eBay. Bidding has been pretty spirited and now sits at $14,300. The reserve has been met, meaning that the new home is mere days away.

It’s a tried-and-true formula that almost every manufacturer has followed at some point in their history: Take a garden-variety offering from your range, add some cosmetic embellishments, raid the parts bin for some “go faster” bits, and you’re likely to have a winner on your hands. It’s the very formula that Chevrolet chose to follow with the 454 SS, and 13,748 people handed over the cash to park one of these in their driveway in 1990. In this case, the cosmetic changes included finishing the vehicle in Onyx Black, blacking-out all of the exterior trim, adding a front spoiler, bolting on some big wheels, and laying on some not-so-subtle graphics proclaiming to the world at large just what this is. The result is a Pickup with a real sense of menace to it, and even though this model is now 30-years-old, it still looks remarkably fresh and crisp. This particular Chevy is in fairly good condition for its age, with the panels being pretty straight, the Black paint holding a nice shine, while the wheels are free from obvious damage or oxidization. It isn’t perfect, because there are a few marks and chips in the paint. However, none of these marks are bad, and I think that some minor touch-up work could put them right. The worst affected area (unsurprisingly) is the inside of the bed, and this really would benefit from a repaint. Alternatively, it could be left as it is, and a bed-liner could be fitted to hide the scuffs and scrapes.

The owner provides no engine photos with the listing, but when the Pickup was taken out of service, the original owner did continue to properly maintain it. This is one classic that wasn’t left to go to seed, which meant that reviving it was a pretty easy task. Essentially, the front end was treated to a rebuild, new tires were fitted, and new catalytic converters were bolted on. The engine was given a compression test, and it’s absolutely spot-on. The result is a classic pickup that runs and drives nicely. Of course, with a 454ci V8 under the hood backed by a 3-speed automatic transmission, there is plenty of potential there. Admittedly, this is no fire-breathing muscle car, but with 230hp and 385 ft/lbs of torque at the driver’s disposal, it could still rip through the ¼ mile in 15.9 seconds. Once again, this isn’t muscle car territory, but for a vehicle that was designed to carry a fair load of bits and pieces, or that you could throw all of your gear in for a camping trip, that’s pretty impressive. One thing that I did note from this photo is that there does appear to be some oil clinging to the pan, which might indicate a leak of some description. It doesn’t look bad, but it probably would be worth investigating to see if this could be rectified.

If you weren’t a fan of Garnet Red upholstery, then you were plumb out of luck with the 454 SS. That is because this was the only trim color available in that year, but it does provide a great contrast to the evil black exterior. Having said that, the interior could not be considered to be an unpleasant place to while away the miles. After all, the sports bucket seats look extremely comfortable, while occupants can also reap the benefit of the floor console, air conditioning, power windows, cruise, a tilt wheel, and an AM/FM radio/cassette player with that most 1980s/1990s of features, the graphic equalizer. The interior condition of this Chevy looks very good, with no obvious problems or issues to report. The headliners in these pickups could be prone to sagging over time, but this one looks like it might be okay in that department.

If ever there was a classic vehicle that could be something of a surprise packet, then the 1990 Chevrolet C1500 454 SS could be just the vehicle on several fronts. Not only is it capable of providing surprising levels of performance on the road, but it backs this up with similar levels of performance in the marketplace. It was only a few years ago that you could pretty much take your pick of available offerings for around the $10,000 mark, and what you would have scored would have been a pretty clean and tidy pickup. Now, those same vehicles can easily command prices of $17,000, although pristine vehicles can top-out at $30,000 or more. This one isn’t pristine, but if someone does manage to secure it for less than $17,000, then there is every chance that they might have scored themselves a pretty reasonable sort of buy.