When I was 9 my family moved back to Canada after four years of living in England. Within a week of moving back, my Dad had bought a new 1992 Chevrolet S10 Club Cab with the 2.8 V6 and manual transmission. It was 2wd, and we were living in Montreal, and my Dad's favorite pastime was going up to the ZEC's to go fishing. Lots of swearing ensued, as that truck got stuck during the winter, and stuck on trails on our way to fishing lakes. My brother and I would sit in the little jump seats in the back (facing each other, with plenty of fighting, because we were fighting each other).
Like this, but blue, and I think it had more basic wheels, and the tires were Uniroyal Tiger Paw (I remember that, because Tiger Paws are a cool name for a tire to a ten year old). ![](https://consumerguide.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/92124161990307.jpg)
Beauty truck, the wheel pictured were the 4x4 wheels, so if you dad had a 2WD he probably had the 14" GM rally wheels (usually with beauty rings and caps).
My 2WD Sonoma (the ZQ8 - 'sport' suspension) was also pretty notorious for getting stuck, often it was a pain, but once in awhile it worked out in my favor. My first date with the now Mrs.Firm, I accidentally drove past her street and went to turn around in a gravel lot that had a few inches of snow on it. Apparently the snow hid the mild incline as well, I got the truck turned around, but couldn't get it back out of the lot. Walked to her house and came up with some cheesy line about having exciting date plans, so she should grab her snow boots....then proceed to walk her over to the truck where she helped me get it unstuck. Fortunately she found the whole thing pretty funny.
I always loved the ZR2 / Highrider trucks, whether in SUV or pickup form. Even today I'd love to have a one and do keep a casual eye on the market for one....unfortunately most of them around here are very rotten now.
I will admit that the second generation trucks, like mine, were not the most reliable things around.....The drivelines were nearly bulletproof (especially the 4.3L) but the build quality otherwise wasn't so hot. When mine was a daily driver I was always repairing little annoying things; balljoints, stab links, alternator, intake gaskets, etc. Plus I had a few water leaks into the cab, which were very frustrating to track down and fix, and the bodies did not hold up well to our climate.
If you didn't care about stuff like that though, it would run forever. I had a 99 S10 Xtreme with a rebuilt title (and was resprayed BMW M3 blue) that I bought for parts (mostly for a set of 20" BOSS rims with new tires). I swapped some stuff to my Sonoma and was going to list it, when a close friend had his car die....he wasn't in a good spot, so I gave him the S10. It had 210K on it at the time and he ran it for 10 years, doing duty as a farm hand for at least half that time, and with a pair of 12" subs in the cab that would rattle the glass. He did almost no maintenance, and it had just about every issue possible, but it still ran and drove. He scrapped it with 420K on it a few years ago when the body was so rotten it was unsafe, and he bought another 2nd gen S10.