For the last six months, General Motors has been slowly revealing details about its upcoming Class 4 and 5 medium duty conventional trucks. Being developed in conjunction with Navistar, GM will brand its vehicles as Chevrolet Silverado and Silverado 5500 for the Class 4 and Class 5 offerings, respectively. But the question to us is whether GM’s GMC brand will also sell a variant of the mediums to effectively succeed its TopKick truck that was discontinued in 2009.
Company Line
“We don’t have any news to share at this time”, GMC spokesperson Jennie Ecclestone told GM Authority when asked whether GMC will be receiving a variant of the upcoming Chevrolet Medium Duty trucks. That leaves us guessing the proverbial tea leaves…. and even so, the tea don’t exactly tell us much.
Speculation
What we can go by is precedent: General Motors has elected not to give its two newest commercial vehicles. The compact Chevrolet City Express commercial van (sourced from Nissan) and Chevy Low Cab Forward trucks (sourced from Isuzu) have yet to get GMC variants, and are not likely to get them in the future.
Based on these developments, it appears that GM is electing to position Chevrolet as its exclusive channel for commercial vehicles, while continuing to move GMC in the direction of a high-margin consumer-level brand… Sierra Chassis Cab and Savana van being the sole exceptions.
So, does GMC need a variant of the upcoming Chevy Silverado Medium Duty trucks? Talk to us in the comments.
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NO ,The GMC Sierra should continue as a premium brand of trucks as the Denali .
so much for the truck people from general motors
There is no need. Waste of money. This way “Silverado” sales will see a larger jump, like how Ford calls thete whole range of trucks the F series.
I really don’t see the point of GMC myself but to each their own. I do like the Denali trim but I’d just assume buy it in a Chevrolet. I have preferred the GMC truck front ends over the Chevrolet since the early/mid 2000’s though. Again, I’d just assume they have the good looking front end on the Chevy. They’d sell alot more of them if they did… Concerning the heavy duty truck line like this, just stick with 1 truck line. The whole 2 trucks thing is just redundant. I get why it existed in the past (sort of), but now GM really is just Chevrolet, Cadillac and Buick. Why not just sell Buick’s at the Chevrolet dealers and be done with it. Turn the Buick/GM’C’ truck dealerships into stand alone Cadillac dealers in bigger cities. In smaller cities sell all 3 under one roof. With Chevrolet being the truck.
Silverado needs full fire power here, especially in the commercial arena. No need to dilute it and tie one hand behind its back just so another nameplate can exist.
Because GMC can turn a huge profit, which gives GM an advantage over its competitors. Its sort of become GM’s 3rd luxury brand. And GMC doesnt care the conation that the others do, people have gotten a positive image of GMC. As long as it remains distinct from the others and carry the marketing image it does GMC will never go away. And if that’s the way its moving to become GM’s “Land Rover” than so be it. That’s where the brand wants to be.
Just hope GM will have a 4500 with a bed and high country.
I work for a GMC dealership and the writings on the wall. We did not get the city express, we did not get the rebadged isuzu and we will not be receiving the medium duty truck. I wouldn’t be surprised if GM stopped all base/ lower trim deliveries to GMC when the new silverado and Sierra come out. I think it would be a big mistake because a GMC dump truck or utility body truck has a much more professional image over the chevy which some commercial customers want. GM will probably cut GMC off from the new Express High top van when it finally comes out as well.
I understand your concern. I used to sell GM trucks. I found years ago, Chevy sales people didn’t know their donkey from a hole in the ground when it came to spec’ing a work truck. I even got a few calls and emails from friends working at cheby dealers. On the other hand GMC factory people were on top of the game. I still don’t like cheby trucks. Seems like we don’t have any one with any brains any more in upper management at GM
True statement unfortunately GM decided to leave the medium and heavy duty business and disbanded the in house expertise. Selling someone else’s truck with your badge is just a cost of doing business to sell pick ups and not a real profit center. Keep the GMC badge off these trucks to safeguard the Hertige of GMC. So much for professional grade.
I had several commercial accounts, when I was selling big (4500-8500) trucks and little trucks(1500-3500) that specifically wanted GMC work trucks. One account purchased 15 1ton cab chassis with an Knapeheid special service body. They Had to be GMC. The owner drove a GMC Yukon XL. A few years later they ordered 10 more trucks. All GMC. Not every one in this country likes chevy trucks! Take some time and research GMC truck history. They developed several engines just for their use. Damn good engines! GMC for the longest time was THE truck division of GM.
Gm made a kickass v12, too bad they didnt keep up with their own distinct parts
Should be a Chevy period!
GM needs to decide if they want to continue being number 2 in truck sales if they do the give GMC a truck. But if the answer is no then they need to make a truck division and since Chevy outsells GMC almost 3 to 1 Chevy should be the truck division.
Name all the trucks Chevy Silverado 1/2,3/4,1 ton 2 ton 3 ton and so on so Ford can’t keep saying they sale more trucks!
Forcing GMC to design and develop their own trucks is a waste of time and money unless General Motors had decided that GMC will be the first to go electric and would need their own trucks.
The ability to make a GMC version would be very inexpensive and the return on investment would be very high.
GMC is the second largest GM division and one of the most profitable lines they have. Even a blind accountant could make this call to make it.
The key is to focus that there is a Denali version. Many peop,e and companies use this size for tow rigs and often spend the extr money on the vehicle since so much time on the road is spent.
Also I would offer a bed version to counter the F550 and F450. This segment is not large but makes a ton of money.
GMC should have the new trucks with out a doubt..
Chebby bowtie is a GMC rejection stamp…
If GMC is truly serious about further distancing itself from Cheverolet, then it wouldn’t bother me at all if they choose to not go in the direction that Chevy is heading in with the Medium Duty Class Trucks, at best, you would get nothing more than “Badge Engineering” between the two choices and I personally would no longer like to see GM work in that type of fashion anymore when it comes to that category of trucks.