At the cusp of the 21st century, the 1997 GMC Sierra was out to prove it wasn’t just another tough truck—it was a clever, smart pickup, too.
The GMC Sierra still featured nearly identical design and appointments to the Chevrolet C/K, soon to become Silverado, but today’s vintage ad break shows it was filled to the brim with convenient features such as pop-out cupholders, an intelligent 4×4 system and hidden space to keep CDs. This was “Precision” and “Like A Pro” long before the taglines came to be.
GMC also touted the Sierra’s available 5.7-liter Vortec V8 engine with 255 horsepower and 330 pound-feet of torque, as this was certainly a time when power meant more than fuel economy.
And the brand may have been just another truck brand at the time, but General Motors’ decision to hang onto the GMC brand following its bankruptcy and restructuring is paying off in spades. GMC pulls in higher transaction prices than German luxury brands and Cadillac when looking at the Denali sub-brand.
Take a trip down memory lane with us and press play above.
Comment
I had 3 different GMT 400 trucks, my last a 97 GMC 3/4 ton with 7.4 I bought in Oct of 96. Loved how it looked and performed but huge quality issues with that truck culminating in an engine failure at just under 60K due to an the oil passage that feeds the distributor drive gear having a broken off drill bit in it. Thank goodness I had a few miles left on my extended warranty! I was a lifelong GM driver at that point but went over to a Cummins RAM and never looked back, though I still have my 1987 Grand National in addition to my 2017 RAM.