Only 1 vehicle you can buy in the U.S. hasn’t changed since 1996
Pop quiz: What’s the oldest unchanged vehicle you can still buy in the U.S. today. If you guessed a fleet-ready work van you’re right. The Chevrolet Express/GMC Savana is a time capsule. According to General Motors, you can currently buy the same generation of the Chevy Express that rolled onto dealership lots for the 1996 model year.
The long saga of the Chevy Express
General Motors decided to replace its G-Series vans (1964-96) by the mid 1990s. So it engineered the Chevrolet Express/GMC Savana for the 1996 model year. While it carried over the old “Chevrolet Van” engines, GM moved the front wheels forward to maximize interior space.
GM built its first Chevy Express in January 1996 at the Wentzville, Missouri plant. Today, you can walk into a Chevrolet dealership and order virtually the same Chevy Express/GMC Savana. And it will be made in the same Missouri plant.
I suppose there might be a bit of controversy around this van being considered one generation. Chevrolet did give it a “face lift” grille for the 2003 model year. It went from square, headlights to slightly slanted lights for a “modern” look. And to be blunt, the cargo and base Express/Savana trims with true sealed beams which you could buy until 2018 look more like 1970s vehicles than anything you see on the road today. But even with composite headlights, the 2025 Chevy Express ain’t no futuristic concept car.
GM has tweaked the van over the years. Now they all come with backup cameras. And with the advent of bluetooth, it deleted the CD player option. GM briefly began an electric redesign, then shelved it in 2024. That means we’ll probably get a 2026 Chevy Express/GMC Savana and it will be one of the world’s only 30-year-old car designs.
The only U.S. vehicles that come close to the Chevy Express’s longevity are the Dodge Ram Van (1971-2003, 32 years), the Jeep Wagoneer (1963-1991, 28 years), and the Mercedes-Benz G-Class (2002-2018, 16 years). Though overseas some vehicles have much longer runs. For example, Mercedes engineered the first-gen G-Wagon in 1979 in some markets. So it’s run is technically 1979-2018 (39 years). But the all-time winner is the original Volkswagen Beetle. You could buy one in Mexico until 2003, so its run was 1938-2003. When VW finally canceled the first-gen Beetle it had earned its retirement: it was 65 years old.
