Listed at no reserve, this 1985 Chevrolet Suburban is an impressive specimen with seemingly all the major boxes checked as it relates to desirable equipment. In addition, the cosmetics are in fine shape, along with the interior. Mileage is just under 75,000, and this is yet another vehicle from the great state of Washington, which seems to be hoarding all of the nicely preserved emerging classics from the 1980s. The seller states that the Suburban runs and drives excellent, and that the 6.2L diesel V8 and four-speed automatic transmission work as intended, along with the 4WD system. Find it here on eBay with bidding at $6,300 at the moment.
The Suburban presents well from all corners, with evenly matched red paint and nicely preserved chrome on the bumpers, running boards, and roof rack. The windows sport a fair amount of tint, which has likely helped keep the interior looking as nice as it does. The barn doors out back are incredibly useful for chucking in a weekends’ worth of gear (whatever it is) and while the running boards may hamper deep off-roads access, that was never really the point of one of these. Just like the modern-day Suburban, it was meant to provide 4WD for snowy roads and not much else, while hauling a whole lot of people and their stuff.
The interior is 80s GM at its finest, with different shades of red and maroon everywhere you look. The bench seating shows no signs of tears or other damage to the upholstery, and the same goes for the door panels. The gauge cluster is extremely busy by modern standards, but was pretty much standard operating procedure in the middle-to-late 80s. The seller notes there is one small crack in speaker grill on the dash but that the interior is otherwise undamaged; this was owned by a non-smoker, so hopefully funny or offensive smells are kept to a minimum. The Suburban is equipped with A/C but it needs a recharge; the next owner will find out if this is all it needs.
The drivetrain is nothing short of stout with that gigantic diesel mill under the hood, and the Suburban is also equipped with the desirable towing package. Put the two together and there’s likely very little this rig can’t pull with ease, and I’m impressed by the cleanliness of the engine bay and the sharp chrome on the front grill and bumper. Although it’s just a glimpse, the red paint on the fender looks quite deep and lustrous as well. Overall, with the low miles and impressive cosmetic condition, this seems like the type of starter classic you can buy and enjoy, while not losing much money in the process – provided that A/C system indeed needs just a charge.
Very nice! It would look much better at my place. We sold a swack of Suburbans from the mid-70s until ’84 when the dealership closed. The majority of Burbs were 2wd but we sold a fair number with 4×4 and from ’82 till the end half of them were diesels. We were a go-to GM dealer for diesel service so we saw lots of 6.2’s (and nearly everything else that GM built) in our service department. When the shop closed and I was out on my own, the numbers increased significantly. This one would be a great buy because nearly every bug that was in that powertrain had long since been worked out. The first 6.2s had some heads crack and that 700R4 took one helluva beating from the diesel, with lots of improvements throughout ’82-’84. Some problems with #4 main web in the block cracking but that was less than 2%. I had a lot of customers hit the 500K mile mark and keep right on going. The fuel injection system worked quite well although there were some governor weight retaining ring failures from ’82 to ’86 and there were some premature failures of the advance pistons but once those were addressed the 6.2 was a formidable force. I wouldn’t hesitate to pick one up if I was in the market.
You’re not kidding about the 700R4 taking a beating from the diesel, geomechs, heck that transmission took a beating from just about any engine it sat behind for the first few years! The other salesmen at my Chevy store in Phx would hide on the back lot when one of their previous sales got towed in. But I also agree that so many of those bugs had been worked out of the engine and tranny, this could be a great ride. Nice (relative)bargain family car!
VanMan, What Chevy dealership did you work at in PHX? My dad was a salesman at Sands (Ugly Buzzard) between 73-78.
@Geomechs, you answered my engine question before I could ask it!
A few years ago this was my fantasy vehicle for going fly fishing in remote places. Just drive her in, fish, sleep in back. Even make a 3 sided canopy to put on the back for some quick, additional space. Then fold’r up within a couple of minutes and drive to the next stream. Now with being down here, not many places to do that.
Glad I might have been some help, John. This will take you a lot of places and bring you back. However, there are limitations, one of which I’ll relate to you.
I had a customer who loved going out into the mountains with a bunch of his off-road friends. He came home from one trip with the engine running horribly. I checked the timing and found it was late so I reset it which improved slightly but when he attempted to start it the next morning, it sounded like it was about to push all (8) pistons through the hood. He brought it back and we did a compression check. Five cylinders were 400+ while three were under 300 with one of those barely over 200. I sat the customer down and asked quite forcibly what really went on. He kind of stammered out that he was following some buddies and they crossed a stream. He decided to cross in a different place which turned out to be a fair piece deeper. Well, we pulled the LH head and found 1, 3, and 5 pistons didn’t even come up to the top of the block (they usually protrude around 3/32″). We pulled the engine and tore it down and weren’t all that surprised to find FOUR bent rods (that daggoned water just won’t compress). The truck only had 8K miles on it and the customer, despite finally telling me ‘the rest of the story,’ still expected warranty. You know, if he would’ve been upfront with me, I might’ve been tempted to find a way around it but he tried to bulldoze his way around so he got hit with a large repair bill. I later showed the bent rods to the DSM and he told me that he wouldn’t have been at all sympathetic…
Just sold my 90 4×4 burb a week ago..miss it already
Had one of these new 1983 model I believe. Absolutely the worst vehicle I ever owned. Out of the box the tranny failed. At 20k the motor blew up. Nearly every electrical component fried. Paint peeled off after two years. Motor blew again at 45k. GM stood behind it, way behind. Wouldn’t fix a thing. Had to sue and we won big time. Was the forefront for us getting a viable lemon law in this state.
It’s really unfortunate that there were a few people out there who didn’t fare out all that well with GM in regard to the diesel units. We had very few problems with the General. If we needed to discuss anything we just called the zone service rep and they almost bent over backward to help us out. I might add that there were times that the DSM actually contacted us with a complex problem. I will say that diesel-powered GM vehicles did lose out with a lot of service departments. It seemed that whenever a diesel came in for repairs, everyone, including the service manager, became the deer in the headlights, trying to pretend that a diesel didn’t show up. It didn’t matter what might be broken, it seemed that they always pulled the injection pump and injectors and either had them worked over or replaced and considered the problem fixed. We got a lot of them after as many as four dealerships had their turn. The first units did have some problems: some head gasket failures and cracked heads and 700R4 transmissions were the top achievers with glow plugs and circuits sometimes causing problems too. For us, ALL the transmission failures ocurred behind diesels. We’d get them in with Reverse only and the General would tell us to fix them. Then, $1500.00 worth of parts later and when they still didn’t work, GM would provide a complete unit. But after they got those hurdles mastered the trucks were good.
Call me an oddball, but I love anything with a diesel in it. This truck is in nice shape for the year. This will be a good litmus test to see where the pricing of these are going now, since the economy meltdown.
I had an 88 and a 90 Suburban, never, ever gave me any trouble at all. This is a really nice truck, but that is a LOT of red!
the best thing about this burban… bench seat!!!
Around when this was made, my friend and neighbor’s parents traded their clamshell Oldsmobile Custom Cruiser for a new 6.2 liter Suburban. They moved away before I could learn much about Suburban longevity, but what I do remember is that they bought a heavily option one that had a window sticker that ran on two pages. It had a heater that sat completely exposed in the luggage bay, and was certainly the first car with limo tinted windows ever owned by someone I knew.
This one looks sweet to me, but I would certainly take a magnet to make sure that its all metal under the paint. I’d also look into a build decoder, because Blazers and Suburbans of the era could be anything from station wagons to baja pre-runners depending on which of the myriad options you chose.
I had a nice k20 with 30k miles 6.2 turbo 400 and it was sweet. Better mileage than the 350, was a great truck, my freind told me i would love it till i drove a 12 valve, 11 years on a 12 valve now. I also had a 6.2 with a 4 speed automatic and it was a turd.
A turd? You got one of the good ones. Seriously, most turned out to be okay but I’ll admit that some of the light-duty ones could be turds. First of all, the aforementioned growing pains of the 700R4 transmission and some head failures soured some customers. We also had complaints of heavy black smoke which we immediately found to be the EGR stuck open (I still chafe at the thought of an EGR on a diesel). That was a relatively quick fix by either having a steel ball finding its way into the vacuum line (the EPA nazis might still take exception to some of our non-certified repair procedures) or yanking the valve off and plugging off the hole (then putting the air cleaner back on quickly). Anyway, the smoke stopped and the customer wasn’t quite as upset.
New primetime tv show about Diesels : Better Call geomechs!
Sounds like something that would either get my Irish temper going or be quite informative, if not a combination of both. What’s the channel?
No rear air or heat? Sunroof and roof rack never offered as factory option but necessary IMO. Aluminum running boards screwed to a steel body will result in a bad battery when wet with the sacrificial anode being the steel body. So look carefully where these are attached. If a 40gal tank option is included it is possible to go over 1000 miles on the freeway before a refill is needed and it will take 42+ gal. Very slow but very useful. Need to include a picture of service parts ID label on glove box door. Check carefully around rear doors for water leaks into spare tire well. These were not galvanized body stampings so a careful rust inspection is required. At freeway speed this qualifies as a heavy blunt object.
This is the first diesel suburban I’ve seen in awhile. Love it! Already sold!