Once upon a time, Centurion filled a niche in the truck market, building the vehicles that the manufacturers didn’t. Want a Ford “Suburban”? Centurion would gladly sell you one, for a price (CC here). How about a GMT400 double-cab pickup, but couldn’t stomach going to a Ford dealer? Centurion had just the thing, like this one spotted by musicalmcs8706.
In recent years, the truck makers have broadened their offerings, but if Centurion were looking for a niche in the truck market today, what would be the most obvious unfulfilled one?
We had a few C/K 1500 crew cabs on the Chevy lot in 1998. They must have also been Centurion conversions. This one is at least a 1997.
The only sort of unfilled niche left would be a Suburban-style vehicle built from a Dodge truck.
The same Sheik who had the enormous Power Wagon looking motorhome built also had a couple Dodge Ram “Suburbans” built when the new look trucks came out.
http://www.motortrend.com/roadtests/112_9508_dodge_ram_v10/viewall.html
Wow, that thing is a real Dodgerolet Frankenstein.
I’d say the 1/2 Ton Diesel but Dodge already has it in the pipeline. If it succeeds I suspect GM and/or Ford will follow to prevent conquest sales.
Offering a Tahoe & Suburban like vehicle on the Dodge 1/2 ton and or heavy platform is a untappednicle. I suspect such a vehicle with a diesel would have a strong following.
Only other niche would be for Ford or GM to make revive the Bronco or Blazer as a Wrangler competetor. To be viable they would have to have a front axle, low range and at least an optional soft top.
A OEM CNG pickup sold to the public. Right now the Ram exists but its fleet only. In the late 90s Ford offered a bi fuel F150 and Crown Vic.
Full size 2 door “Blazer-Bronco-Ramcharger”.
Ive seen these here in Chevrolet we can get those new, but I have no clue on the model names but twincab Chevs, Fords, and Fiatslers are on New Zealand roads not huge herds of them mind but they aint rare.
A 1997 Chevy K1500 1/2 ton 6 lug with 350 engine and full size four doors are very rare. They only come in centurion. I have one.
one empty niche that bothers me is the lack of an American, fullsize pickup with a manual trans, rubber floor and straight six engine. i know it could never be economically made by a third party upfitter, but i sure would like to see it done.
Why a straight six? The current generation V6, manual trans, rubber floor mats seem to be fine. Yes the straight six was a bit simpler and easier to work on but given the room in the engine compartment of most trucks servicing is usually not a big issue. The current generation F150 like that gets about 23 or so on the highway. Most 4.9 I6 F150s EFI from late 80s early 90s get about 14-15 or so around town and no more than 17 or 18 on the highway.
I’m 99% sure that a manual transmission cannot be had in any “Big 3” 1/2 ton truck. Rubber floors and V6, yes.
I’d put it to you that the 90’s truck would be cheaper to own for 20 years – cost of rebuilding the newer hardware would outstrip fuel savings. Then again the newer trucks will have other virtues compared to the old models, eg better comfort etc
I don’t know about ease of service…I have an 06 F-150 with the 5.4. I’m no mechanic…just a shadetree guy doing some basic stuff…but I find that engine bay much more difficult to work in than the old ones with the straight sixes. Not to mention expensive.
For economy and power though, the new V6s do work well. Even the new v8s are better in power and economy than the old sixes. And if you’re buying new, long-term service usually isn’t much of a concern.
But I’d really like to start to see vehicles designed with better ease of service in mind. It’s gotten to the point where I took my van in to get a new belt put on, not because I couldn’t, but because I didn’t feel like dealing with the hassle. I won’t attempt a spark plug change on my F-150 either due to access and breakage issues they are known for. A lot of poor designs out there today from a service perspective.
Sorry, that’s a bit off track I guess.
The truck looks a lot like a basic 4 door crew cab with a Leer cap on the bed.
Except that you couldn’t buy a double cab truck like this from GM back then. That’s the whole point.
Well not in a half ton anyways. I believe you could always get 1 ton crew chevys since the mid 80’s Back in the day you couldn’t buy a short bed 3/4 ton ford either a friend of mines uncle owned a small body shop and built one for a local land scapper cut the frame down and installed a bed off a half ton. I think I agree with others that a ram suv wo.uld be awesome with their new powertrains not even that bad for CAFE.
97 Chevy 1/2 ton 6 lug k1500 full four door. Centurion with 350 engine
Neither Ford nor GM offer manual transmissions on their full size trucks. Only Dodge does, and then I believe only on the 3/4 ton and up diesels.
The trick with this truck is that I don’t think GM offered the crew cab on these more basic pickups – I think they were only on the heavy duty ones, or not at all, and back then “crew” cabs were meant for work crews and had a very basic state of trim. Centurion up fitted them like conversion vans.
Crew cabs were available from GM on 3/4- and 1-ton C/Ks of this vintage, and they could be equipped with full Silverado uplevel trim including leather seats. The luxurification of pickups had already taken firm hold in the late 90s.
As per my initial post, I recall seeing several of these on the New Truck lot at Casa Chevrolet around mid-1998. I could have sworn those were factory jobs, but I can’t find any mention on the Web about GM offering a 1/2-ton crew cab in the C/Ks.
Ah hah – so it was only the 1/2 ton that didn’t have the crew cab? I didn’t think I was dreaming when I remembered Riggs in Lethal Weapon pulling down a house with a crew cab GM pickup of this model.
Would the price of the Centurion conversion pay for a 2500 instead?
Today, the unfulfilled niche is NON-full-boat, rhinestone-cowboy pickups.
Maybe Centurion could start back up cutting pickups down to two doors, regular-length beds, manual transmissions and vinyl flooring?
Suburban with a pickup bed? (The article is pretty vague wtf this conglomeration is). Waste of money either way.
And in response to a previous article, this website is so slow! I try to multitask and read this at work, what a disaster!
It’s a half-ton crew cab. GM didn’t offer one at the time.
When the new trucks came out in 1988, you could still get a Crew Cab on the old 1973-87 body style until AFIK 1992, when the new look Suburban and Blazer appeared. Amazingly enough, AFIK and I DID check, there were no Crew Cab Chevys built by GM until 1999. Please correct if wrong.
You’re correct about GM keeping the old body style around for Crew Cabs (and Blazers and Suburbans) until 1992, five years after the GMT400s were introduced.
However, in 1992 GM introduced GMT400 versions of all three models, including C/K 2500 and 3500 Crew Cabs. A quick Google search will back that up, but here’s one example:
http://www.smartcarguide.com/listimg/img1_0113/20/img_7563861_00.jpg
Here is a 97 k1500 1/2 ton 6 lug Chevy full four door truck with a 350 engine. Centurion
I just bought a 97 Chevy 1500 centurion Silverado 4 full size doors short bed with manual but 4×4 on the floor. It’s fire engine red with tan interior andeather seats…. I’m trying to find out more info…
Would you consider selling your Centurion? If you are, how much would you like to get for it?
I believe I have a barn find a 96 centurion K 1500. glove box had all centurion certification. At the moment, I have a shop going through the whole truck for me. I’d like to restart back to original. From what I read about it’s quite rare.
A niche unexplored? How about something like an old VW Rabbit pickup? 1200kg curb weight, with about 500-600kg payload, two wheel drive, a frugal 1.6-2 liter petrol/diesel engine? Hybrid would be great for deliveries within city limits…
And this brings me to a crazy idea – Prius pickup!:)
I’ll second that, the Jetta TDI and Prius V should both be El Caminoized.
VW makes the Caddy van, same idea as a Transit Connect that is based on the Focus. Fiat does a small ute/pickup, but generally I think that vans are much more popular now given the problem of keeping/securing equipment in an open bed in cities.
I know about Caddy van, a guy down street has one Maxi version!:)
Almost all car manufacturers in Europe have some kind of small delivery vehicle, but only Fiat has that Brazilian-built pick-up. For big cities, I do agree closed van is only sensible option, but in smaller places, these small pick-ups could perhaps replace usual pick-ups.
In some countries, like Holland, they even have two-seat, raised-roof delivery vehicles based on usual station wagons. (this is also a convenient solution for those who would like to drive larger-displacement cars, but avoid higher taxes and penalties for higher emission:) )
As for Transit Connect, it supposedly shares a platform with first-gen Focus, but realistically, from A-pillar to the end, cars are completely different 🙂 Brilliant drive, nevertheless, possibly the best handling small utility vehicle on sale in Europe, even with live rear axle.
So, how about Ford El Caminnect? 🙂