Chevrolet Suburban: Chevrolets Large Sport Untility Vehicle

The Chevrolet suburban is a large sport utility vehicle from Chevrolet. Many automotive companies in the United States used the “Suburban” name to indicate a windowed, station wagon type body on a commercial frame including Dodge, Plymouth, Studebaker, Nash, Chevrolet, and GMC. Chevrolet began production of its all-steel “carryall-suburban” in 1935. GMC brought out its version in 1937. These vehicles were also known as the “Suburban Carryall” until GM cut the name to simply “Suburban.” It is the longest-lived continuous automobile nameplate still in production, dating from 1935. For most of its recent history, the Suburban has been a station wagon-bodied version of the Chevrolet pickup truck, including the Chevrolet C/K and Silverado series of truck-based vehicles. With the end of production of the Dodge Town Wagon in 1966 and the Plymouth Suburban station wagon in 1978, only General Motors continued to manufacture a vehicle branded as a “Suburban”, and they were awarded an exclusive trademark on the name in 1988. The Chevrolet suburban has traditionally been one of General Motors’ most profitable vehicles.

The Chevrolet suburban is one of the largest SUVs on the market today. Suburban Chevrolet has outlasted many competitive vehicles such as the International Harvester Travelall, Jeep Waggoner, and the Ford Excursion. The Suburban of today is a full-size SUV with three rows of seating, a full pickup truck frame, and V8 engine. It is one of the few station wagons available with all bench rows. The Suburban is the same height and width as the Chevrolet Tahoe, although the Suburban is 20 inches (510 mm) longer. The extra length provides a full-sized cargo area behind the up to 9 passengers to carry their luggage for an extended trip, and tow a sizeable trailer. This class of truck remains much more popular than full-sized vans which can carry even more passengers and tow trailers. In recent years, the Suburban has been popular as a police car, fire chief’s vehicle, or EMS fly-car. Suburbans are also popular when converted for duty as a limousine. The United States Secret Service mainly uses black Chevrolet suburban, and operates fully armored versions for the President of the United States when he attends less formal engagements.

In the late 1990s, GM also introduced a RHD version of the Chevrolet suburban, badged as a Holden, for the Australian consumer. It proved to be a failure, however, and GM withdrew the Suburban in 2000 from Holden’s lineup. It continues to be exported to Australia with the Chevrolet badge. As the car safety facts goes, for the 2009 model year, the Chevrolet suburban received the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s best rating of 5 stars in the frontal driver/passenger and side driver/passenger categories.