#GMCJimmy

GM sold Isuzu Faster pickups with Chevrolet LUV badging in North America from 1972 through 1982, replacing that Japanese truck with the all-Detroit S-10 starting in that final LUV year. An SUV-ized version of the S-10 ( the S-10 Blazer) followed for the 1983 model year, and a GMC-badged twin known as the S-15 Jimmy went along with it. Here's one of those first-generation mini-Jimmies, found in a self-service yard near Sacramento, California.

Today’s Rare Ride represents a landmark for the Oldsmobile brand and a somewhat unsuccessful luxury badge experiment for General Motors.

Let’s check out the rarely seen first-generation Oldsmobile Bravada.

Unlike Chevrolet, GMC doesn’t just stop off on the way home from the store to introduce a new vehicle. It doesn’t get up in the middle of the night for a glass of water and create a new crossover before turning in.

The new Blazer and upcoming sort-of subcompact Trailblazer have no equals in GMC’s restrained lineup. Nor does the Traverse. Or Trax. GMC puts its pants on one leg at a time, but the rumor mill won’t stop churning out discourse on a potential new entry from America’s truck brand. And one name keeps coming up.

Those of you who are regulars of the Rare Rides series will no doubt remember the thrashing we gave another similar-era Jimmy a while back. And if you’re not regulars of Rare Rides, then you’re doing TTAC incorrectly and your life is a shambles. Fix it!

Anyway, this Jimmy here is a custom vehicle, a one-off General Motors’ idea that didn’t make it to production. So come along now as we explore the rare wonder of the Gypsy Street Coupe.

There was a time when just about every day of the week you’d see one (or several) S10/S15 Jimmy/Blazer examples driving around, doing middle-class America things because the Explorer didn’t exist yet. But on account of salt, rust, neglect, and the general “use it up” that happens to trucks in this country, that time is no more.

But is our pristine Rare Ride of today worth anywhere near the sucker-punch $15,000 its owner is asking?

General Motors has been repeatedly busted testing a vehicle that should be Chevrolet’s next midsize SUV. The automaker has been restructuring its model portfolio to fulfill the desires of today’s crossover-obsessed consumer and needs a model between the Traverse and soon to be downsized Equinox.

Recent spy shots of a moderately camouflaged test vehicle seem to allude to dimensions similar to GMC’s Acadia, refuting theories surrounding earlier photos that it might be the redesigned 2018 Traverse.

The Olds Bravada started out as an Oldsmobized Chevy Blazer and ended (along with Oldsmobile itself) as an Oldsmobated Chevy Trailblazer. They show up in Colorado junkyards in startlingly large numbers. Who bought Bravadas? For that matter, who bought Isuzu Ascenders? Anyway, because the idea of an Oldsmobile-badged midsize SUV made about as much sense as an Oldsmobile-badged cruel-parody-of-a-luxury-car J-body and is thus sort of interesting, I’ve finally decided to do a Bravada Junkyard Find. We’ll return to the usual Pontiac-badged Daewoos soon enough.