Vehicle Type: Pick-up Truck

Price Range: $15,000 to $30,000 (estimated)

Engine: 4.3-liter, 200-horsepower V6 or 4.8 liter, 255 hp V8 or 5.3 liter, 270 hp V8 or 6.0 liter, 300 hp V8 or 6.5 liter, 215 hp Turbo -Diesel V8 Front Engine/Rear Drive

Transmission: All transmission and drive configurations

Fuel Economy: 16 mpg city/19 mpg highway

Safety Features: Driver and passenger side airbags are standard. ABS anti-lock brakes are standard.

Los Trampas, New Mexico -- No, this is not a Latina backup group for Bette Midler, but a delightful little town just north of Santa Fe, probably created by subsistence farmers, but now populated by an amazing variety of crafts people. This is pickup country, with about a quarter of the vehicles that passed us on the road being of the truck variety. Our new Sierras made us popular whenever we stopped.

Over one vehicle in ten sold in the U.S. is a Ford F-Series, a GM C/K or a Dodge RAM. Each company offers about 40 full-size models, with full range of engines, weight capacities and seating configurations.

Apropos of this, GM has followed the lead of Dodge and Ford in overhauling their lineup, including the traditional upgrades in power and hauling capability, but these also contain a full suite of comfort and convenience features. The industry has learned that the public likes for their trucks to have Jeckyll and Hyde personalities, and great engineering has resulted in trucks that ride well and still haul the loads.

The C/K Pickup is a ten-year-old truck, but is the only full-size pickup on the market that posted a sales increase for the first 11 months of the 1997 calendar year. GM is proud of the fact that Chevrolet C/K and GMC Sierra sales combined have outsold Ford for the past two months. GMC has aggressive plans to build on that success with their all-new Sierra.

Finally, there is distinctively different body work in next year's GMC and Chevy trucks.