Happy Medium

Look across the General Motors landscape today and you’ll see competing divisions pushing their heads up, like sunflowers, searching for warmth, recognition, and profit. If they fail to thrive, well, they’re as dead as Oldsmobile.

It’s no different at the company’s commercial trucks group, where GMC is sowing seeds for a resurgence in the medium-duty truck market with its first vehicle redesign in that segment since 1989. GM will begin building revamped C-series trucks in December at its plant in Flint, Mich., which has been retooled and will be in full production later this year as the company’s core commercial truck manufacturing centre. The vehicles will be sold as 2003 models at select dealerships across Canada beginning in January and February.

The timing seems right: while sales of class-8 trucks have hit the skids, the class-4 to -6 market continues to chug along, fuelled by a need for smaller commercial trucks for expedited and urban deliveries. Furthermore, Ford has gone nearly unchallenged by GM in two especially fertile markets: easy-to-use short-term rental trucks, and beefy pickups for commercial or recreational use.

The new C-series models fall squarely into two categories. The C6500, C7500, and C8500-badged to coincide with their respective weight classes-are for heavier applications. They use a common frame built to handle GVWs ranging from 19,501 to 61,000 pounds, and are available with regular, crew cab, and commercial cutaway chassis cabs.

Power ranging from 175 to 300 hp comes from the GMC’s Duramax 7200 and 7800 six-cylinder diesels, which will join the established Caterpillar 3126E in the databooks. The engines mate to Allison automatics or optional 5-, 6-, 9-, and 10- speed manual transmissions from Eaton Fuller. GMC’s Vortec 8100 gasoline engine is also available.
The C4500 and C5500 are class-4 and -5 models designed for markets GM has watched Ford dominate in recent years: vocational fleets, rental operations, and demanding recreational vehicle users (fully 20% of the class-4/5 market-and growing). GM will offer six pre-packaged specs along vocational lines: ambulance, fire and rescue, school bus, shuttle bus, snowplow, and wrecker. Four-wheel drive models will be available for the 2004 model year.

GMC projects sales of 60,000 C-Series trucks for the first year, eventually growing to the 80,000 to 100,000 per annum range, according to brand manager Dick Pennell.

GM press releases go on at length about the new design, visibility, tinting, cab design, sound proofing, and lower maintenance costs of these trucks. But you can read the brochure yourself. More telling are comments from Pontiac-GMC general manager Lynn Myers.

Speaking to the trade press in Novi, Mich., this past summer, Myers said the GMC brand has experienced record sales in seven of the last eight years, and that even in this down market GMC continues to make gains. She stressed that the class-4 to -8 market will be an integral part of their brand.

“GMC is committed to the long-term growth of its fleet and commercial business” said Myers. Hopefully, this is a promise that will prevent the virtual disappearance of the brand again.

GMC will face a competitive push next year. Despite the shake-up at Freightliner last month, the company still plans to release an update of the company’s successful Business Class trucks next year. And in a testament to the recreational-vehicle users GM wants to reach, Freightliner’s Sterling Trucks division is building a “sport chassis” version of its Acterra truck, equipped with a tow package rated to 28,000 pounds (Freightliner offers a similar package on Business Class trucks). With a GCW rating of 40,000 pounds and a 195-inch wheelbase, the vehicle can handle trailers up to 53 feet in length and exceeds most pickup capacities by 10,000 pounds.

In August, Ford and Navistar International formed a 50-50 joint venture called Blue Diamond Truck Co. to build class-6 and class-7 trucks starting late next year. Economies of scale and the cost savings that come with it are the main reasons for the partnership, in which Ford is moving its medium-duty truck production in Mexico City to Navistar’s sprawling truck plant in Escobedo, Mexico.

Ford’s Dave Tarrant, the commercial truck strategy manager for Blue Diamond, says both companies want to be strong players in the medium-duty market, and the best way to succeed is to lean on each other’s manufacturing and design resources. “Ford would like to be back at 27% of the market, building 20,000 to 35,000 units per year,” he says. “We have a plan to be in this business and be a winner in it.”

The first model from Blue Diamond, due in 2003, will use a common chassis based on International’s 4000-series “High Performance” vehicle, but other characteristics will be unique to the Ford or International brand. The companies will separately develop cabs, interiors, vocational focus, and nomenclature. International-branded trucks will exclusively use International I-6 or V-8 engines, while Ford-branded trucks will offer International diesel engines as standard and other makes as options.

Tarrant is quick to point out that the joint venture will focus on medium-duty vehicles and, eventually, class-3 through -5 vehicles-heavy trucks are not in the works. Ford agreed not to produce class-8 trucks until February 2008 when it sold its commercial vehicle business to Freightliner four years ago.