Road Test: 2000 Chevrolet S-10 Xtreme

Quick, what pops into your mind when you hear the words Southern California? Los Angeles - yeah, maybe. Sunny weather - taken for granted. Malibu - that sunny 27 mile long strip of Pacific coast beach, perhaps. Hollywood - definitely!

Where else on Earth but Southern California can you find a culture where the boundaries between celebrity and entertainment and 'normal' life are almost indiscernible. Seemingly everybody works in, or knows a close friend or relative connected to, the entertainment industry. Hollywood is all around you - inescapable and larger than life. So what do these folks do between making movies, surfing and waiting tables? They have to do something to keep up the levels of hyperstimulation. Well, as you probably also know Southern California is also a great place for cars. And the cars in Southern California are just as much about getting from point A to point B as they are about entertainment and broadcasting to the world who you are. Every price point is represented from 'look at me I am a famous <insert entertainment profession title here>' Ferraris to trendy Volkswagen Beetles for those struggling actors. (Note to residents of Southern California reading this road test: with us folks from Northern California writing this article you probably think we are taking a few good-natured shots at you - and of course you would be correct. Someone has to balance out this state.)

So on a recent trip to Southern California over President's Day Weekend some of us decided to add some entertainment to our Northern California lives. We asked General Motors to let us review the limited edition Chevrolet S-10 Xtreme - where Detroit has combined Hollywood and pickup trucks to create one heck of an entertaining cruiser.

And talk about entertaining origins, the S-10 Xtreme began with the S-10 Hugger concept truck. The Hugger allowed consumers to visualize ways to customize their own S-10s and proved so popular with consumers, who saw it and gave two thumbs up, that Chevrolet put the truck into production.

Part 2