Rare is a curious and sometimes contentious word. Saying that a vehicle is rare more often than not brings out the “just because it’s rare doesn’t mean that it’s valuable” comments. And, that can be true that just because something is rare doesn’t mean that it’s monetarily valuable, which is how the vast majority of us define the term valuable. Well, this 1984 GMC Jimmy Street Coupe is one of those vehicles that may be worth a second look. The seller’s asking price of $4,000 seems almost insignificant for a vehicle that they made so few of. This one is on Craigslist in beautiful Boise, Idaho.
This truck is rare enough that I could find just one mention of it, and that was on the 67-72ChevyTrucks.com website, and the person answering an inquiry about it says that they were 2-wheel drive. You can clearly see the “4X4” badge on the front fenders on this one. So much for everything on the internet being true! (crickets) They made both two and four-wheel drive models and supposedly the four-wheel drive models didn’t have the front spoiler, but this one has a partial spoiler, with parts of it being missing, and a very pitted bumper that needs to be rechromed and painted. The paint on the hood could probably use some work, too – polishing compound maybe – it’s a bit dull and looks to be pitted.
This is the only image or information that I could find about the Street Coupe, maybe one of you have heard about these or know more detailed information about the Street Coupe? The ad says that the front air dam isn’t available on the 4WD models, but this one clearly has at least the middle portion of the spoiler that’s shown in the ad above. I have a second message in to the seller, they’ve already gotten back to me once about it, and apparently there is “no rust” but there’s an oil leak from a transmission hose. I looked that up and it’s all over the place as to what that could be. It’s impossible to tell without inspecting it in person, or having someone check it out for me. I mean.. for the next buyer.. Do any of you have a guess as to what that transmission line/hose leak could be? If this thing was local I’d be all over it.
As I mentioned, the bumpers look like they’ve been stripped for some reason, both front and rear. But, other than that, this truck looks fantastic inside and out, in my opinion. It has a few subtle details that I really like. It seems to be sitting higher than the GMC Typhoon, the fast and famous specialty truck from GMC in this Jimmy body style. This Street Coupe has 103,000 miles on it and everything works, according to the seller. You can see the cool wraparound spoiler in the rear, I’ve never seen that before.
The badge on the dash says “Gypsy” and look at those seats! It’s been a while since I’ve seen such a great pattern – truck truck truck truck… The rear seats look absolutely like new but you can just barely see that the gray/white portion of the driver’s seat is work away. Hopefully some matching fabric could be found. I’m really liking this one, a lot. There is a tag on the door frame saying that this was done by “Cars & Concepts, Inc.“. Apparently they were a limited edition model, sort of a concept, to get people into GMC showrooms – “A Dynamic Traffic Builder” – as that lone, tiny print ad says. There are no engine photos and no mention of the engine size in the ad, but I’m assuming that this truck would have had the 2.8L, 173 cubic-inch V6 with around 110 hp? Have any of you seen this model before?
badge engineered blazer. no thanks.
My first ever brand new car purchase (and last, everything else was either bought used or leased) was a 1994 GMC Jimmy S15. It was black with 5 speed, 2 WD. Of course I wished for a 4WD, but the salesman at Thorson Buick told me that’s I should consider myself lucky to get one of these S15 with a manual and in the color I wanted! According to him, my car was headed for Alaskan market but they diverted to their inventory. I loved that truck, but several years into financing I yearned for something more cool. One of my business associates bought the truck and had it shipped to Moscow for personal use, he quickly realized his wrong doing in trying to use a 2WD in snowy conditions. As for me, I ended up getting a white Nissan 300ZX 5speed with T-tops. Miss ’em both….
Wheels are from a mid 90s 4WD Blazer.
Doesn’t fit the look.
I hate all the people putting the Ls into everything with four wheels…….but this one is screaming small block.
Cars and Concepts, Herb Adams of Cheverra and Fire Am fame. Good enough for me!
Few people know that gmc offered a Street Coupe option 2 and 4 wheel drive around 1976-to 80 ?. It was a 454 based drive train loaded w/options and very expensive.Chev. also offered the same,but called it a sport coupe.
Up until last year I had a 73 gmc stepside 2-wd that I believe was a test built to see if customers would buy what later became that option.I have a feature article from a 1976 hotrod testing a new Street Coupe, the article was titled CoupeDrat.
My 73 was a original 454/T-400 Dana(BIG rear axel!!) with option#2 4:11 Posi. Also factory tach./tilt,special bench/bucket seat and overhead console and more.I was told it was of a handful put together and given to dealers as a showroom example of what you could order if you wanted the big Daddy Truck. The base truck with a 6cyl/ 3spd was something like less than $3000. I had the sales info from mine when it was sold-$11,800. That tells me that my truck was something!! It didn’t say street coupe,but a real ,later model would have came just like mine. All that said,and my knowledge I never until now knew that there was a street coupe package offered in the 90,s. I,m glad to know that it was offered. That picture of the factory ad proves it. How many other readers know about street/sport coupes from the 70,s ?Love to hear from you!!!
I have an uncle that had the pickup street/sport coupe. Can’t remember if it was chev or gmc. Silver &black with the orange to red stripes. Sharp truck. He kept it til it was just a rusty hulk at least. May still have it for all I know. But it would truly be junk now if he does. He has lots of “treasures” on their way to becoming rusty hulls.
i own one a 1980 gmc street coupe . bought it new aug 1980. still own it 60,000 km which is around 36,000 miles on it. original . i have not driven it since 86 . it’s sitting in garage .
Hello, are you looking to sell ?
OOPS!! My bad-I mean 1980s not 90s. Also I wont,but I wish I could go after this since I,m sure its very rare and because I know what the street coupe option ment.I,m not much of a s-series truck fan,but I really like that option,and there never where may sold because of the price. I still love this gmc on that level.
There’s no reason to think this isn’t the real deal. The ad states there was a “Gypsy” decor package, and this would be too hard to fake. I had the S-10 Blazer, same truck as this, and it was a good truck, had a ton of miles on it. Ex-wifey cooked the 2.8 twice, it was horribly underpowered. Not the easiest to repair, trust me, but they were the right size. I liked it a lot. Never heard of this promotion, and I suppose that makes it somewhat rare, if anybody cares, that is.
Just because they didn’t make very many of them, doesn’t make it worth a lot. It’s just a S15 Jimmy. Now if it was a Typhoon, we’d be talking.
Most uncomfortable vehicle I ever drove. Cheap plastic small and cramped and underpowered.
Cheap plastic interior with poorly finished edges was the the trademark of GM back in those days
Including Corvettes. A friend of mine had a doctor Dad that owned an 84 Corvette. I drove it when it was around a year old and couldn’t believe how much came out of the GM corporate plastic interior bin. Rattled, cracked, stitching coming apart on the leather seats, etc. They were really cranking out some junk.
Sweet looking GMC Jimmy. I’ve always liked this generation Chevy S-10/GMC S-15 trucks. I was too young to drive by the time these were introduced. But I remember admiring these trucks and mini SUVs.
It’s as rare as the person looking for one!
You say they were built cheap. Define cheap! I had one and rolled it over 3 times and came out of it without a scratch or even a bruise. However all windows smashed. Sold car for the drive train. Took out spark plugs turned over engine to blow out oil, put plugs back in and it started right up. Oh I got more for the drive train than I bought the truck for.
I’m feeling the vibe of the Chevy LUV Mikado here…the GM dealer I worked at back in the day had one or two of ’em. Just a bit different as cosmetics would be the selling point…
I’m in Boise and thinking of looking at this. I need a cheap daily driver. Would this be a hard repair with the leak he’s talking about? I don’t want something I’m dumping money into.
Coupé – Omg. Give me a break
One of the worst platforms to work on…pure dread. On the positive flip-side the retrofit 350 small block Chevy or LS swap could actually build something worthy of the name “Street Coupe”.
LOL marketing dum-dums referring to a vehicular promotion as a “traffic-builder”…let’s clog the roads with sticker-package Blazers!
Nice truck could use a touch up other then that i think it awesome
Stephine, lol, I laughed for a second at your comment!!! I,m in Spokane, lets go see it together. You should let me take it,I will help you find something better suited. LOL .
Here is my 1990 Gypsy, I think all it had was blacked out grille and trim with a different interior, I changed the mirrors to chrome.
If it only lea parked for a day or two, it’s the dipstick tube grommet. It will seep out enough parked till out looks like it’s lost 2 quarts. Easy fix.
I had an ’83 S-10 Blazer 4WD, 2.8L V6……what a DOG…….NO POWER, lousy gas mileage……but it never got stuck in the snow!! lol
I almost purchased one with less than 10K miles on it at a dealership years ago, but they would not negotiate on price. I ended up w/an even more rare Dale Earnhardt edition GMC Jimmy ST, 1991. Love that truck. It is in the process of being redone as we all know those models love to rust out like crazy. Regarding this Gypsy model, there is a place called Choo Choo Customs that would take the regular models and do them up like this. I do agree w/the plastic rough edges, etc. but the looked of everything blacked out with the one red stripe along the bottom..I just could not let this truck go.
Wow, I had one of those. I picked it up in 92. It had a seized engine. I put a 383 in it. Kept it through college.
Never realized it was a factory option. I thought some previous owner cheesed it out! The fit and finish was that bad!
I had one just like this. Great car but the rear seals were constantly going out. Sold it because of that. There was an alert out but not a total recall. It was up to the owner to keep fixing it. Good gas mileage at the time. The ride was good and was pleasing to the eye!