The Stovebolt Site Forums The Parking Lot Big Bolts End of the line for GM Big Bolts

I just read in todays paper. "Gm, failing to find buyer, will give up on medium-duty trucks." It went on to say that production will be ended by July 31 2009.
Its a big gulp to swallow this one.....

I hated to see their Big Truck line be sold out in the late 80's. In this case tho, they might be able to do something before the deadline is up.

...Time will tell.

Bill

If this occurs it would be my expectation that Isuzu would be the likely buyer since they already have a long history together and a cross marketing agreement. But it doesn't surprise me that they have no buyer as yet. Why buy it now when it will sell for pennies on the dollar in bankruptcy court?

GM has not been a serious contender in the medium truck market for some time. Very few of their dealers sold or serviced their medium entries. The heavy truck makers such as International, Pete, Kw and Freightliner have taken most of the market because they have the sales and service support. Someone who is equipped for class 8 trucks has no trouble servicing medium duty trucks. And then there are the imports beside Isuzu like Hino. Furthermore, it has been many years since GM has had an appealing engine offering for medium class trucks. In my opinion, getting out of the medium market is the smartest move I have seen by GM so far.

Well, if that's true, there sure are a whole lot of them running around here. It seems like the state DOT also likes to buy them as well as utility companies.

Bill

GM sold the manufacturing of the medium duty trucks to International-Navistar some time ago. The were supposed to take over the manufacturing, GM would still hold the sales rights and body design.

The article that I read said that the deal with International-Navistar fell thru.

Coming into work today I had to do a double take, I saw a 1 ton 2009 DODGE pick up badged as a STERLING ??????????????????.

John Gott

Hmm. I hadn't heard about that.

did it look something like this?
Sterling is (was) a subsidiary of Daimler, whcih would explain the dodge connection. appearantly, Daimler has shut that division down. Looks like you could pick up one real cheap right now, as they are clearancing them out.

I saw one with a sleeper and a fifth wheel on it in BC on my way to work. It had a sign "Recreational Vehicle, Not for Hire". I think it might have had a ranch name on the door.

GM has been building them in Flint. Last I heard Isuzu was the front runner since the Isuzu truck were built there as well. Hopefilly they will beef up their one tons a but and lure some of the 1.5 ton buyers.

If they sold it to Isuzu, wouldn't that be basically selling ti to themselves? GM is majority shareholder (60% last I heard) of Isuzu.

I think they sold a big chunk of Isuzu a few years back

I did some checking, GM used to own 49%. That was reduced to 12% in '02 through a stock buyback.