GMC (formerly the General Motors Truck Company (1911–1943), or the GMC Truck & Coach Division (1943–1998)) is a division of the American automobile manufacturer
General Motors (GM) that primarily focuses on trucks and utility vehicles. GMC currently makes
SUV
A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive.
There is no commonly agreed-upon definiti ...
s,
pickup trucks, vans, and light-duty trucks. In the past, GMC also produced
fire trucks
A fire engine (also known in some places as a fire truck or fire lorry) is a road vehicle (usually a truck) that functions as a firefighting apparatus. The primary purposes of a fire engine include transporting firefighters and water to an ...
,
ambulance
An ambulance is a medically equipped vehicle which transports patients to treatment facilities, such as hospitals. Typically, out-of-hospital medical care is provided to the patient during the transport.
Ambulances are used to respond to medi ...
s, heavy-duty trucks,
military vehicles,
motorhome
A motorhome (or motor coach) is a type of self-propelled recreational vehicle (RV) which offers mobile living accommodation.
Features
Motorhomes usually have sleeping spaces for two to eight people. Each sleeping space is either fixed or conv ...
s, transit
bus
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...
es, and
medium duty truck
Truck classifications are typically based upon the maximum loaded weight of the truck, typically using the gross vehicle weight rating (GVWR) and sometimes also the gross trailer weight rating (GTWR), and can vary among jurisdictions.
United ...
s.
While many of their vehicles are mechanically similar, GMC is positioned as a premium offering to the mainstream
Chevrolet brand, and includes luxury trims
Denali
Denali (; also known as Mount McKinley, its former official name) is the highest mountain peak in North America, with a summit elevation of above sea level. With a topographic prominence of and a topographic isolation of , Denali is the th ...
and
Hummer EV
The GMC Hummer EV (also known as Hummer EV and badged as HEV) is a line of battery electric full-size vehicles produced by General Motors under the GMC marque, and its own sub-brand. The Hummer EV line was introduced in October 2020 with ...
. In
North America, GMC vehicles are almost always sold alongside
Buick (another premium brand) vehicles at multi-brand
dealerships
A car dealership, or car dealer, is a business that sells new or used cars, at the retail level, based on a dealership contract with an automaker or its sales subsidiary. Car dealerships also often sell spare parts and automotive mainten ...
.
History
Roots to the GMC brand can be traced to 1900, when the "Grabowsky Motor Company" was established by brothers Max (1874-1946) and Morris Grabowsky, in Detroit, and renamed
Rapid Motor Vehicle Company in 1902 when the brothers moved operations to
Pontiac, Michigan. In 1909
William C. Durant
William Crapo Durant (December 8, 1861 – March 18, 1947) was a leading pioneer of the United States automobile industry and co-founder of General Motors and Chevrolet. He created a system in which a company held multiple marques – each s ...
gained control of Rapid Motor Vehicle Company and made it a subsidiary of his
General Motors Company
The General Motors Company (GM) is an American multinational automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and was the largest in the world for 77 years bef ...
.
In 1911 General Motors formed the "General Motors Truck Company" and folded Rapid and
Reliance Motor Car Company (another early commercial vehicle manufacturer that Durant had acquired in 1908) into it. In 1912 the Rapid and Reliance names were dropped in favor of "GMC". All General Motors truck production was consolidated at the former Rapid Motor
Plant 1 in Pontiac, Michigan.
GMC maintained three manufacturing locations in Pontiac, Michigan,
Oakland, California
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...
, and
St. Louis, Missouri
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
.
![Gmc trucks 1920 ad](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/Gmc_trucks_1920_ad.jpg)
In 1916, a GMC truck crossed the country from
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
to
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
in thirty days, and in 1926, a 2-ton GMC truck was driven from New York to
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
in five days and 30 minutes. During the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, the company provided the Model 16 3/4-ton truck, and modified its production to provide 1-ton troop carriers and aviation support vehicles, and by 1918, more than 90 percent of GMC truck production was for military use. GMTC provided a total of 8512 trucks to the U.S. government during the war years and earned a
Distinguished Service Award. During the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposi ...
, GMC Truck produced 600,000 trucks for use by the
United States Armed Forces
The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is ...
.
In 1923, GMC trucks were exported to Japan to help recovery and reconstruction as a result of the
Great Kantō earthquake, and the company continued to provide vehicles as the transportation infrastructure was rebuilt. Before the earthquake struck, most of Japan's transportation of commerce and people was by wooden carts and government owned railroads, which were severely damaged when the train tracks were twisted beyond use. Autonomous trucks were much more effective at traveling to heavily damaged areas.
[Yanase opened Japan to Western cars](_blank)
''Automotive News'', March 31, 2008
![Standard Oil Crown Gasoline GMC Model K52 truck 1925](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cc/Standard_Oil_Crown_Gasoline_GMC_Model_K52_truck_1925.jpg)
In 1925, GM purchased a controlling interest in
Yellow Coach
The Yellow Coach Manufacturing Company (informally Yellow Coach) was an early manufacturer of passenger buses in the United States. Between 1923 and 1943, Yellow Coach built transit buses, electric-powered trolley buses, and parlor coaches.
Fou ...
, a bus and taxicab manufacturer based in Chicago, Illinois which was founded by
John D. Hertz
John Daniel Hertz, Sr. (April 10, 1879October 8, 1961) was an American businessman, thoroughbred racehorse owner and breeder, and philanthropist.
Biography
Born Sándor Herz to a Jewish family in Szklabinya, Austria-Hungary (today Sklabiňa, a ...
. The company was renamed Yellow Truck & Coach Manufacturing Company (YT&CMC), an affiliated subsidiary of
General Motors. All manufacturing operations of General Motors Truck Company were placed under YT&CMC. In 1928 Plant 2 opened and all headquarters staff moved to the administration building at 660 South Boulevard E in Pontiac, MI. In 1943, GM purchased the remaining interest in YT&CMC and renamed it GMC Truck and Coach Division.
In 1981, GMC Truck & Coach Division became part of GM Worldwide Truck & Bus Group.
Bus
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...
production ended in May 1987 and the division name was changed from GMC Truck & Coach to GMC Truck Division. The Canadian plant (in
London, Ontario
London (pronounced ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River, approximate ...
) produced buses from 1962 until July 1987. GM withdrew from the bus and coach market because of increased competition in the late 1970s and 1980s. Rights to the
RTS
RTS may refer to:
Medicine
* Rape trauma syndrome, the psychological trauma experienced by a rape victim
* Revised Trauma Score, a system to evaluate injuries secondary to violent trauma
* Rubinstein–Taybi syndrome, a condition characterized by ...
model were sold to
Transportation Manufacturing Corporation
Transportation Manufacturing Corporation (TMC) was a bus manufacturer based in Roswell, New Mexico.
The company was formed in 1974 by Greyhound Bus Lines to manufacture Motor Coach Industries vehicles. In 1987, General Motors decided to close ...
, while
Motor Coach Industries
Motor Coach Industries (MCI) is a North American multinational bus manufacturer, specializing in production of motorcoaches. Best known for coaches produced for intercity transit and commuter buses, MCI produces coaches for a variety of appli ...
of Canada purchased the
Classic
A classic is an outstanding example of a particular style; something of lasting worth or with a timeless quality; of the first or highest quality, class, or rank – something that exemplifies its class. The word can be an adjective (a ''c ...
design. In 1998, GMC's official branding on vehicles was shortened from "GMC Truck" to simply "GMC".
In 1996, GM merged GMC Truck Division with the
Pontiac Motor Division in order to "give the combined division a brand image projecting physical power and outdoor activity". This coincided with many GMC dealerships merging with Pontiac dealerships, allowing a single dealer to offer both trucks and entry-to-mid-level cars, using a similar approach already in use by
Chevrolet.
In 2002, GMC celebrated its 100th anniversary and released a book entitled ''GMC: The First 100 Years'', a complete history of the company.
In 2007, GMC introduced the
Acadia
Acadia (french: link=no, Acadie) was a colony of New France in northeastern North America which included parts of what are now the The Maritimes, Maritime provinces, the Gaspé Peninsula and Maine to the Kennebec River. During much of the 17t ...
, a
crossover SUV
A crossover, crossover SUV, or crossover utility vehicle (CUV) is a type of automobile with an increased ride height that is built on unibody chassis construction shared with passenger cars, as opposed to traditional sport utility vehicles ( ...
, which was the division's second
unibody
A vehicle frame, also historically known as its '' chassis'', is the main supporting structure of a motor vehicle to which all other components are attached, comparable to the skeleton of an organism.
Until the 1930s, virtually every car ha ...
vehicle (after the Vandura) whose predecessor, the GMT-360 based
Envoy
Envoy or Envoys may refer to:
Diplomacy
* Diplomacy, in general
* Envoy (title)
* Special envoy, a type of diplomatic rank
Brands
*Airspeed Envoy, a 1930s British light transport aircraft
*Envoy (automobile), an automobile brand used to sell Br ...
, was discontinued with the closure of GM's
Moraine, Ohio plant on December 23, 2008.
In 2009, GMC ended production of medium-duty commercial trucks after over 100 years. They became exclusive to Chevrolet with the launch of the 4500HD/5500HD Silverado in 2018. Also in 2009, GMC introduced the
Terrain
Terrain or relief (also topographical relief) involves the vertical and horizontal dimensions of land surface. The term bathymetry is used to describe underwater relief, while hypsometry studies terrain relative to sea level. The Latin wo ...
, a mid-size crossover SUV based on the
GM Theta platform
GM or Gm may refer to:
Companies
* General Motors, US automobile manufacturing company which was founded in 1908
** Motors Liquidation Company, the US automobile manufacturing company known as General Motors Corporation from 1916 to 2009
* ...
shared with the
Chevrolet Equinox
The Chevrolet Equinox is a series of crossover SUVs from Chevrolet introduced in 2004 for the 2005 model year. It replaces the North American Chevrolet Tracker and Chevrolet S-10 Blazer. The third-generation Equinox also replaced the first-g ...
. It replaced the
Pontiac Torrent
The Pontiac Torrent is a mid-size crossover SUV produced by General Motors for the 2006 to 2009 model years. A replacement for the Aztek, it was a mildly restyled version of the first-generation Chevrolet Equinox. The Torrent shared its basic b ...
after the brand's demise.
In 2020, General Motors announced the return of the Hummer nameplate, this time as a sub-brand of GMC instead of a stand-alone division. The Hummer lineup includes two models, an electric pickup truck and SUV, to be sold as the "
GMC Hummer EV
The GMC Hummer EV (also known as Hummer EV and badged as HEV) is a line of battery electric full-size vehicles produced by General Motors under the GMC marque, and its own sub-brand. The Hummer EV line was introduced in October 2020 with t ...
". According to GM, the Edition 1 production electric pickup truck will feature 1,000 horsepower, hit 60 mph in 3 seconds and is scheduled to launch in late 2021. The new Hummer EV was revealed on October 20, 2020.
In 2022, the GMC brand was introduced in
South Korea
South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korean Peninsula and sharing a land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eas ...
as a subsidiary of
GM Korea
GM Korea Company ( ko, 한국지엠주식회사) is the South Korean subsidiary of multinational corporation General Motors. GMK is also the third largest automobile manufacturer in South Korea. GM Korea's roots go back to the former Daewoo Motors ...
.
Platform sharing with Chevrolet
Beginning in 1920, GMC and Chevrolet trucks became largely similar, built as variants of the same
platform
Platform may refer to:
Technology
* Computing platform, a framework on which applications may be run
* Platform game, a genre of video games
* Car platform, a set of components shared by several vehicle models
* Weapons platform, a system or ...
, sharing much the same body sheetwork, except for nameplates and grilles – though their differences, especially engines, have varied over the years. GMC advertising marketed its trucks to commercial buyers and businesses, whereas Chevrolet's advertising was directed towards private owners. Beginning in 1928, GMCs used
Pontiac's 186 cu in six-cylinder engines in their lighter trucks.
Medium-duty trucks relied on
Oldsmobile straight-6 engines, while the heaviest trucks used GMC's own "Standard Big Brute" engine.
[ From 1939 to 1974 GMC had its own line of six-cylinder engines, first the inline sixes known as "Jimmy's" from 1939 to 1959, and then their own V6 from 1960 until 1974, of which a V8 and a V12 version also existed. Additionally, from 1955 through 1959, the less than 2-ton, domestic GMC gasoline trucks were equipped with Pontiac V8s, and ]Oldsmobile V8
The Oldsmobile V8, also referred to as the Rocket, is series of engines that was produced by Oldsmobile from 1949 until 1990. The Rocket, along with the 1949 Cadillac V8, were the first post-war OHV crossflow cylinder head V8 engines produced by ...
s—whereas the Canadian models used Chevrolet engines. GMC dealerships were partnered with Pontiac, Oldsmobile and Buick dealerships.
Between 1962 and 1972, most GMC vehicles were equipped with quad-headlights, while their Chevrolet clones were equipped with dual-headlights. The platform has been the most profitable for General Motors, as it was shared with the Chevrolet Blazer/ GMC Jimmy, the Chevrolet Suburban and the Chevrolet Tahoe/GMC Denali
The GMC Denali nameplate is used by GMC on its top-of-the-line trucks and SUVs in the line-up. Vehicles with the Denali trim option carry list prices up to 47% higher than those of the regular models. Prices range from $40,240 for GMC Terrain ...
. In 1998 the platform was introduced as the Cadillac Escalade
The Cadillac Escalade is a full-size luxury SUV engineered and manufactured by General Motors. It was Cadillac's first major entry into the SUV market. The Escalade was introduced for the 1999 model year in response to competition from the Mer ...
.
In 1971, GMC marketed their version of the Chevrolet El Camino
The Chevrolet El Camino is a coupé utility vehicle that was produced by Chevrolet between 1959–60 and 1964–1987. Unlike a standard pickup truck, the El Camino was adapted from the standard two-door Chevrolet station wagon platform and integ ...
, which was based on the Chevrolet Chevelle. Called Sprint, it was virtually identical to the El Camino, and a sport version, the SP, was equivalent to the El Camino SS. It was renamed Caballero in 1978, and remained produced alongside the El Camino until its demise in 1987.
In 1973, with GM's introduction of the new "rounded line" series trucks, GMC and Chevrolet trucks became even more similar, ending production of GMC's quad-headlight models, and setting the standard for the Chevrolet/GMC line of trucks for over thirty years.
, GMC's vehicles are marketed as more premium, luxury vehicles
A luxury car is a car that provides increased levels of comfort, equipment, amenities, quality, performance, and associated status compared to moderately priced cars.
The term is subjective and reflects both the qualities of the car and th ...
positioned above similar vehicles from the more mainstream Chevrolet division. Chevrolet vehicles are priced lower than a comparable GMC, but GMC vehicles have features not found in a comparable Chevrolet.
In North America, Chevrolet offers a full lineup of cars, crossover vehicles, sport utility vehicle
A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive.
There is no commonly agreed-upon defini ...
s, and pickup trucks. GMC, however, does not offer any car models, so typically they are sold along Buick (or sometimes Cadillac) vehicles at multi-brand dealerships
A car dealership, or car dealer, is a business that sells new or used cars, at the retail level, based on a dealership contract with an automaker or its sales subsidiary. Car dealerships also often sell spare parts and automotive mainten ...
, allowing the same dealer to sell a full lineup of upscale vehicles, including both cars and trucks. However, standalone GMC dealerships do exist, primarily for dealers who have a focus on selling to the commercial
Commercial may refer to:
* a dose of advertising conveyed through media (such as - for example - radio or television)
** Radio advertisement
** Television advertisement
* (adjective for:) commerce, a system of voluntary exchange of products and s ...
and fleet vehicle markets.
Other platform sharing
GMC models
Light-duty trucks
Medium-duty trucks
Heavy-duty trucks
Bus
A bus (contracted from omnibus, with variants multibus, motorbus, autobus, etc.) is a road vehicle that carries significantly more passengers than an average car or van. It is most commonly used in public transport, but is also in use for cha ...
es
Vans
SUV
A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive.
There is no commonly agreed-upon definiti ...
s
Motorhome
A motorhome (or motor coach) is a type of self-propelled recreational vehicle (RV) which offers mobile living accommodation.
Features
Motorhomes usually have sleeping spaces for two to eight people. Each sleeping space is either fixed or conv ...
s
Military vehicles
Sedans
See also
* General Motors
* History of General Motors
The history of General Motors (GM), one of the world's largest car and truck manufacturers, dates back more than a century and involves a vast scope of industrial activity around the world, mostly focused on motorized transportation and the engin ...
References
External links
*
GMC History (GM's website)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gmc (Automobile)
General Motors marques
Bus manufacturers of the United States
Truck manufacturers of the United States
Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1911
1911 establishments in Michigan