Introduced for the 1991 model year, this compact GMC pickup was the renamed successor to the earlier S-15 and became the brand’s mainstream small truck through the 1990s and early 2000s. It shared its basic underpinnings with the Chevrolet S-10, but wore GMC’s more truck-focused styling and positioning, giving buyers a slightly more upscale alternative in the compact pickup segment.
Over its run, the nameplate evolved from a straightforward work truck into a broader family of body styles and trims. Early versions were offered in the familiar regular-cab format, while later years expanded the lineup with extended-cab and crew-cab variants, reflecting the market’s shift toward more versatile small pickups. The truck also gained enthusiast attention through limited and performance-oriented variants, including the legendary high-performance turbocharged Syclone derived from the same platform and the sporty Sonoma GT.
By the early 2000s, the compact pickup market had changed significantly, and this nameplate was phased out after the 2004 model year. GMC replaced it with the Canyon, marking the end of the brand’s long-running small-truck era under this particular name.