Chevrolet Suburban marks 75 years of being big

Bradshaw Chevrolet in Greer congratulates the Suburban on 75 great years.  For the past 30 years Bradshaw Chevy has been your Suburban Headquarters in the Upstate.  Stop by today for our great selection of new and used cars and trucks.  You can shop 24/7 at http://www.bradshawgreer.com/. 

For some reason, today we're celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Chevrolet Suburban. We know -- you'd go out tonight to whoop it up, but you're afraid all the restaurants are booked.

To us, the fact that the Suburban has been around all that time doesn't matter much. What does matter is the outsize importance it played in the SUV surge a decade ago. The Suburban truly was the National Car of Texas.

GM sees significance in the Suburban being the first vehicle to be continuously produced for 75 years. Well, okay.

The original Suburban could seat eight, while removable seats provided a large cargo area. The 2010 Suburban seats up to nine, showing how little progress we've made over the past 75 years.

GM says the idea for the Suburban was born of a need for a heavier-duty, truck-based wagon. Through the early 1930s, most manufacturers offered car-based wagons for professional use. Open models with windows and rear seating were known as depot hacks, and were used to ferry passengers and their cargo around train stations and boat docks. They were made with wood sides and canvas tops. Suburban, by contrast, had an all-steel wagon body.

GM put together this dandy will timeline of all-things Suburban, starting with its introduction in 1935 and ending with that anniversary edition seen in the photo above, unveiled at the Chicago Auto Show earlier this year. Here it is:

1935: Suburban Carryall introduced with a signature two-door body style that would last through 1967. Power came from Chevrolet's stalwart "Stovebolt" inline-six that produced 60 horsepower for the half-ton chassis.

1937: New, streamlined exterior styling carried Art Deco cues, and horsepower from the Stovebolt six increased to 79.

1942: Production of almost all civilian cars and trucks halted during America's involvement in World War II, although many Chevy trucks – including the Suburban's body style – were pressed into military duty.

1947: The first significant redesign of the Chevrolet's truck line – including Suburban – since before the war.

1950: Suburban models are offered with either a tailgate/top-opening rear window configuration or conventional "barn doors" at the rear.

1955: Revolutionary new styling is introduced midway through the model year. Known as the "second series" design, it features a wraparound windshield and the elimination of running boards – the body is flush with the fenders for the first time. The second series model also introduces the ubiquitous small-block V-8.

1957: Factory-installed four-wheel drive is offered for the first time.

1960: Chevrolet institutes the C/K designations to denote models with two-wheel drive (C) and four-wheel drive (K). Front-end styling is also new.

1967: All-new styling of Chevy's half-ton trucks is introduced, including Suburban. It carries a unique three-door arrangement with a single door on the driver's side and front and rear doors on the passenger side. This configuration makes the Suburban popular with ambulance companies.

1973: A new generation of Chevy trucks is launched, with Suburban offered in a conventional four-door body style introduced for the first time.

1975: Increased focus on interior comfort and amenities in the 1973 models bring more customers to Suburban for use as a personal vehicle. Chevrolet responds with more comfortable seats and greater amenities, including simulated buffalo hide vinyl upholstery, wood grain dash inserts, fully trimmed door panels and more.

1981: Updated styling brings stacked rectangular headlamps for the 1980s. The four-wheel drive system adds automatic locking hubs and the 454 cubic-inch big-block is still offered, giving customers great towing capability.

1987: Electronically controlled fuel injection and a four-speed overdrive transmission bring greater efficiency.

1992: An all-new Suburban features sleek styling with flush glass and composite headlamps. The 5.7-liter small-block V-8 powers 1500 models, while the 454 engine is still available in the 2500 series. Other updates include four-wheel anti-lock brakes, Insta-Trac on four-wheel-drive models and a suspension system designed to provide a more carlike ride.

1998: OnStar and the full-time AutoTrac all-wheel-drive system are added. In Australia, right-hand-drive versions of the Suburban are offered through GM's Holden brand.

2000: Launched in 1999 as a 2000 model, the next-generation Suburban brings new styling, new interiors and new powertrains.

2007: The latest generation of the Suburban is introduced, featuring a wind tunnel-shaped exterior and the elimination of traditional chrome front and rear bumpers. More efficient, comfortable and capable than ever, the Suburban continues to offer customers of all walks of life uncompromising capability and versatility.

2010: The 75th anniversary is marked with a limited-edition model, the 75th Anniversary Diamond Edition Suburban.

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Review: Cadillac CTS sport wagon is just so darn likable

Image via Wikipedia

By James R. Healey, USA TODAY

DETROIT — Henry Ford II is quoted on why he fired Ford Motor President Lee Iacocca in 1978 as: "Sometimes you just don't like somebody."
Well, it works the other way, too, and not just on people. Sometimes you just like a car.

PHOTOS/AUDIO: Cadillac CTS sport wagon with Healey's comments
CHAT TRANSCRIPT: James R. Healey answers your questions

In that case, its limitations — all cars have them — fade because the car looks good, feels right, goes with élan. So it is with the Cadillac CTS sport wagon. It's new to the CTS line for 2010. It is nearly identical to the CTS sedan mechanically. The body panels from the rear door forward are the same. The big visual difference is the sport wagon's raised roof and its rear end.
Short take: It sliced through 520 stormy highway miles from here to Virginia after the auto show without discomfort, hassle or even the driver's normal geez-aren't-we-there-yet squirming.

Once home, it made every suburban, cold-weather, short-hop, kid-schlepping, job-going task seem like a special occasion.

Among the goodies:
•Drivetrain. The 3.6-liter V-6 used in a number of General Motors vehicles was a lusty runner, and sounded throaty and primal when spurred. The six-speed automatic transmission shifted correctly, save for a skosh too much delay on hard-throttle downshifts. GM six-speed automatics in other vehicles tested lately have ranged from mediocre to disastrous. GM changed shift programming to get a much better feel, says Tom Stephens, the automaker's vice chairman in charge of products worldwide. The previous tuning resisted downshifts to save a bit of fuel but caused the discerning driver anguish.

•Styling. Fat rear roof pillars. Low, unbroken roofline. Tall taillights that emulate tailfins of yore. Crisp fender, hood creases. Sport wagon makes the CTS sedan seem a bit dowdy.

•Distinctiveness. Caddy's selling just a few hundred sport wagons a month. You won't see yourself coming and going.

•Interior. Clever cargo area allows multiple configurations and hold-down points. Elegant dashboard and associated trim. Intuitive switches and knobs. The middle rear safety belt's mounted to the seat, not hung from the ceiling where it can make folding the back seat awkward.
Unfortunately, Caddy continues GM's omission of a safety head restraint for the middle rear rider. Instruments are excellent — real analog gauges. In addition to the big speedometer and tachometer, you get a trio of useful gauges that show Cadillac still thinks you care: oil pressure, coolant temperature and, of course, fuel level. What's more, you can dig into the digital info readout to get actual pressure in each tire, not a generic "something might be amiss somewhere" tire warning light. Heck, you'd almost think Caddy people like cars and their drivers.

•Comfort. Before we get gushy, these caveats: It's small, despite its visual heft. Narrow inside. If you like to cruise splay-legged, you'll abrade your outboard leg on the door handle and accidentally activate optional seat-temperature controls with your inboard knee. The back seat will suffice, mostly, but won't have riders raving about the room. But front seats had an almost magical quality. Lumpy and hard (not merely firm) at first. But 520 miles and nine almost-uninterrupted hours later, the rump and back, legs and neck felt just fine. In daily dash-about duty, the seats continued to feel wrong for a minute, right for hours.

•Feel. The unusually sweet blend of power, stopping, steering and cornering (though with a bit more body lean than expected) was a delight. Those aforementioned limitations?

•Marginal ground clearance. Even if you choose the all-wheel drive (AWD) option, you'll still worry that the low-slung wagon (5.9 inches of ground clearance, vs. about 8 inches in a crossover SUV) could get stuck by becoming high-centered on built-up snow or in deeper-than-expected mud. Caddy says it's not supposed to be an SUV substitute and has the same clearance as a CTS sedan.

2010 CADILLAC CTS SPORTWAGON
•What? New station wagon version of the CTS sedan; compact, four-door, five-passenger wagon available with rear-wheel drive (RWD) or all-wheel drive (AWD).

•When? On sale since October in the U.S., this quarter in Europe.

•Where? Made at Lansing, Mich., with U.S.-built engine, French-made transmission.

•Why? Little additional cost because it's 85% common with CTS sedan. Can be sold in U.S. and with few changes, in wagon-loving Europe.

•How much? RWD base model starts at $39,150 including $825 shipping after recent price cut.
Loaded AWD "Premium Collection" test wagon was originally $54,445, but a $3,055 price cut early this month dropped that to $51,390.

•How many? Maybe 500 a month in the U.S., Caddy says — a tiny number overall, but strong for small luxo-wagons, such as the BMW 5 Series and Audi A4 and A6 wagons that Cadillac considers main rivals.

•How powerful? 3-liter V-6 rated 270 horsepower at 7,000 rpm, 223 pounds-feet of torque at 5,700 rpm. 3.6-liter V-6 rated 304 hp at 6,400, 273 lbs.-ft. at 5,200. Only transmission is six-speed automatic with manual-shift mode. AWD normally operates as RWD, can send up to 100% of power to the front wheels when rears slip or stability control requires.

•How big? Within a few tenths of an inch of a BMW 5 Series wagon. CTS sport wagon is 191.3 inches long, 72.6 in. wide, 59.1 in. tall on a 113.4-in. wheelbase.
Weight, 4,212 lbs. Passenger space, 98 cubic feet. Cargo space, 25 cu. ft. behind rear seat, 53.4 cu. ft. when rear seat's folded. Tows 1,000 lbs. Turning circle diameter, 36 ft.

•How thirsty? 3-liter, RWD rated 18 miles per gallon in town, 27 mpg on the highway, 22 in combined driving. All others: 18/26/21. Trip computer in 3.6 AWD tester registered 23.2 mpg (4.31 gallons per 100 miles) in highway driving, 13.8 mpg (7.25 gal./100 mi.) in suburban driving consisting mainly of short trips in cold weather, with a little keep-warm idling. Burns regular, holds 18 gallons.

•Overall: Unusually appealing.

To find your CTS wagon check out http://www.bradshawgreer.com/ today, or stop by Bradshaw Cadillac Chevrolet Buick GMC at 14000 E Wade Hampton Blvd Greer, SC 29651