GMC- The Muscle vehicle
The second largest automaker in the world “General Motors” is based in Detroit, Michigan, United states of America. They are four core divisions under the brand name of which GM products are made in all continents of the world. Those four divisions are Buick, Cadillac, GMC and Chevrolet. Very recently, Obama administration announced the restructuring of GM, in which the major focus would be on producing cars that are fuel efficient, environment friendly so that energy independence may be obtained. So the new GM will be shifting towards greener and leaner tomorrow.
In 1901 a company called “Rapid motor vehicle Company” experimented with some of the earliest commercial trucks. These trucks were based on one cylinder engine. By 1909 General Motors bought it and changed its name to general motor truck company and began manufacturing GMC trucks. In 1912 almost twenty two thousand trucks were in the entire country and GMC contributed 372 units.
In 1916 a GMC truck took almost a month to reach from one end Seattle to other end New York. And after 10 years this distance was covered in 5 days by 2 ton GMC truck. During 2nd world war GMC produced 600,000 trucks for US military. General Motors In 1925 purchased another company and named it as GM truck and Coach Company. This company was involved in making yellow GMC coaches for interurban use in US. The plant in Canada produced buses from 1962 to 1987. The main reason of withdrawing the manufacturing of these vehicles was severe competition in 1980s.
Currently GMC is into manufacturing of Light/heavy duty trucks, Sports utility vehicles, and pick-up vans/trucks. GMC also specializes in Ambulances and fire trucks. There is no match of military-utility vehicles that GMC produces. In 2004 GMC introduced Canyon a mid-sized pick-up truck to replace it old brother GMC Sonoma. The Canyon offered both manual and automatic transmissions along with crew cab with 4 doors. In 2007 some face lifting was done on GMC canyon and new engines were introduced to make it more strong and durable. As for full size pickups general motors introduced it first full size-pick up in 1930s by the name of Silverado. Later on it was replaced by GMC’s Sierra which was later known as Sierra Denali. This was equipped with Quadra steer system that reduces the turning radius. Earlier GMC sierra came with this system as standard equipment but it was discontinued after 2004 because of its high price and poor sales.
The GMC envoy was first generation SUV that was introduced in the model year 1998. This actually a replacement for a model called jimmy. Envoy was more Luxurious in terms. By 2002 to 2009 it did very well in all the markets until it was replaced by another model called “Terrain”. GMC also tried their hand in Motor homes manufacturing between 1973 and 1978. But the way it was conceived, it did not work out for the contemporary people, because it was a multipurpose vehicle which was made for camping and comfortable travel. In Feb-2011 GM reported first full year profit since 2004.