90 Years of the Chevy Suburban: History, Hollywood, and Specs

Seriously, what's it going to take to kill this thing? The Suburban hit 90 this year. That's insane. Your great-grandparents could've bought one new. And here we are in 2026 and Chevy's still cranking them out like nothing ever happened.

Also it has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which is maybe the weirdest flex ever. Like yeah, Tom Cruise is cool, but have you seen this massive SUV in 1,700 different movies?

It Used to Pick People Up From Trains

So back in the '30s, you'd get off a train and someone would be waiting with a big wagon-thing to drive you home. They called them "station wagons" or sometimes "suburbans," and Chevy was like "yeah that second one sounds good."

First one had eight seats crammed onto a truck frame with an engine that made 60 horsepower. Which is basically nothing. Cost almost $700 back when that was real money.

Oh and here's the best part—every Suburban made before 1967 had exactly two doors. For eight people. Good luck getting to the back seat. Then they did this weird thing where one side had one door and the other side had two, which feels like they just gave up halfway through designing it. Didn't go full four-door until '73.

No AC until 1965. No automatic transmission until 1955. Just you, your giant truck, and whatever the weather felt like doing that day.

Then They Went Crazy With the Engines

That baby 60-horse motor didn't stick around. Eventually they started shoving in these monster V8s—the 454 could tow 10,000 pounds like it was nothing. People loved it. Still do, probably.

Stuff got added over the years whenever Chevy remembered. Better brakes at some point. Less terrible suspension. ABS eventually showed up. It slowly turned into an actual car instead of a metal box with wheels.

Now It's Kinda Nice Actually

The new ones don't suck. You get a choice of engines—diesel if you're worried about gas, regular V8 if you're normal, big V8 if you like going fast for no reason.

That big engine apparently does 0-60 in 6 seconds, which seems unnecessary but also kind of awesome for something this massive.

Inside there's room for literally everything you own. Fold the seats and you could move half your house in one trip. Costs about $66,500 to start.

It Just Won't Go Away

Rolls-Royce keeps saying their Phantom is older because it started in 1925, but they stopped making it. Twice. The Suburban never stopped. Not even once. Just kept going through depressions, wars, gas crises, whatever.

Ninety straight years. At this point I'm pretty sure it's going to outlast humanity itself.