The Chevrolet Suburban is the oldest car name still on sale, dating back to 1934
Chevrolet first put the Suburban name on an all-steel carryall in 1934, making it the longest-running automobile nameplate anywhere. It began as a station wagon body on a truck chassis and grew into the template for every full-size SUV. It even has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Suburban was not originally a Chevrolet word. Several American makers, including Dodge, Plymouth, Studebaker and Nash, used it for windowed wagon bodies on commercial frames, and the Westchester Suburban name belonged to an Indiana firm that built wooden wagon bodies for many of them. Chevrolet's steel version arrived in 1934 as the carryall-suburban, and GMC followed in 1937. When Plymouth stopped making its Fury Suburban wagon in 1978, GM was left as the only user, and in 1988 it won exclusive rights to the name.
The formula has stayed remarkably steady: a wagon-style body, three rows of seats, a full pickup frame and a V8. It was stretched from 1967 to leave room for the shorter K5 Blazer, and today it rides on the same underpinnings as the Silverado pickup and runs about 15 to 20 inches longer than the Tahoe, enough for a proper cargo area behind nine seats. Along the way it outlived rivals such as the Jeep Wagoneer and Ford Excursion.
It has long been one of General Motors' most profitable vehicles, also sold as the GMC Yukon XL since 2000 and as the Cadillac Escalade ESV since 2003. An Australian right-hand-drive version wearing Holden badges sold poorly and was withdrawn in 2000.
Its working life is broad. Suburbans serve as police trucks, fire chiefs' cars, ambulances, taxis and limousines, and black ones are a favourite of federal agencies; the Secret Service runs armoured versions for the president's less formal outings. A 2018 study found it was the car driven the most miles each year. When the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce gave it a star in December 2019, it counted 1,750 film and television appearances since 1952.
Source: Chevrolet Suburban
