Start with what the GMC Caballero is: a Coupé utility with 229 cuin Chevrolet V6, built from 1977 to 1987, as the oil crises and the first emissions rules rewired the industry. What it meant takes a little longer.
The background
The GMC Caballero (replacing the GMC Sprint) is a coupé utility / pickup truck produced by GMC from the 1978 model year to 1987. The rear-wheel-drive car-based pickups were sold by GMC Truck dealers primarily in the United States and Canada as the GMC version of the Chevrolet El Camino.
Trim designations, emblems, and wheel trim differentiate the GMC from the Chevrolet. The vehicles were built on the General Motors A platform through 1981; for 1982, it was re-designated the G platform as the A platform switched to front-wheel drive.
The engineering
The engine is 229 cuin Chevrolet V6; other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. Drive goes through a 3-speed Saginaw manual / 4-speed manual / 3-speed THM200 automatic / 3-speed THM350 automatic / 4-speed THM200-4R automatic. The layout matters: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The wheelbase is 117 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
Where it sits
In the Gmc line-up the GMC Caballero has a clear place: it replaced the GMC Sprint; the factory was Arlington, Texas, United States. The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the BMW 7 Series, the Toyota Supra, the Mazda RX-7. Its Gmc stablemates include the GMC Canyon and the GMC Sierra EV.
Owning one today
There is no federal ownership record for the GMC Caballero — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.