GMC History
GMC Celebrates 100th Anniversary
It has been 100 years since the keystone was set in the foundation of one of America's great truck makers - GMC. This took place in 1902 when Max Grabowsky sold his first truck to the American Garment Cleaning Company of Detroit. Later that year, the Grabowsky Motor Vehicle Company was reorganized as Rapid Motor Vehicle Company. By 1904, Rapid would turn out 75 trucks from a factory in Pontiac, Mich.
During 1908, General Motors founder William C. Durant began buying up Rapid's stock and the company soon found itself being represented by GM's sales force. GM was growing quickly and brought Rapid fully under the corporate umbrella in 1909 - the year that a Rapid truck made headlines by climbing to the top of Pike's Peak. The GMC logo - which stands for General Motors Truck Company - was first seen on trucks in 1912.
In 1916, William Warwick drove a GMC truck carrying a ton of Carnation canned milk from Seattle, Washington, to New York and back. The 1-1/2-ton model was on the road a total of 21 weeks and went more than 9,500 miles. Fifty years later, professionals driving 1966 GMC trucks retraced Warwick's route. The same trip took them six days!
GMC's 3/4-ton Model 16 became the U.S. Army's standard AA truck during 1917. It served proudly, mostly as a World War I battlefield ambulance. GMC also contributed searchlight trucks, cargo trucks and troop carriers to the war effort.
In 1925, General Motors' top management noticed that bus manufacturing was a fast-growing business. The executives engineered a merger with Yellow Cab Mfg. Co, of Chicago. This led to the formation of Yellow Truck & Coach Manufacturing Company, with the General Motors Truck Company as a subsidiary.
Other milestones achieved by GMC trucks built up their reputation and sales. During 1927, "Cannonball" Baker broke all records for an Atlantic-to-Pacific run by driving a six-cylinder-powered GMC 2-ton tanker from New York to San Francisco in 5 days and 17-1/2 hours. Four years later, a refrigerated GMC truck and trailer operated by Southern California Freight Lines carried the first transcontinental shipment of refrigerated produce in 117 hours.
During the 1930s, GMC made everything from 1/2-ton pickups to 10-ton trucks to trailer chassis. One important new model was the Suburban Carryall, which combined car-like convenience with the utility of a truck. Two-toned trucks with Art Deco "stream-style and dual-tone color design" were a big hit in 1937, especially new cab-over-engine models.
With the outbreak of World War II, Yellow Truck & Coach started making six-wheel-drive military trucks. Between 1941 and 1945, about 529,100 of these 2-1/2-ton "Jimmys" were built in different lengths, configurations and body styles including cargo trucks, dump trucks, tankers, bomb transporters and fire engines. An amphibious version called the DUKW - and nicknamed the "Duck" - was developed in 43 days. It proved to be so good that over 21,000 copies were built and earned fame in combat. In September 1943, GM bought out the assets of Yellow Truck & Coach and renamed it GMC Truck & Coach Division.
Postwar American prosperity was reflected in stylish new GMC "dream trucks" like the 1957 Suburban pickup, 1958 Wideside pickup and Handi Van of the early 1960s. Increased leisure time spurred sales of Suburbans, vans, pickup-campers, motor homes and all types of off-road models. The famous Jimmy name was resurrected to identify GMC's first real Sport Utility Vehicle, which bowed in 1970. The big news for 1972 was the Sprint, which combined the features of a sedan with those of a pickup truck.
GMC celebrated 75 years of design, engineering and production innovation during its Diamond Anniversary in 1977. An advertisement noted that GMC employees were known as the "truck people within General Motors." It said that the 1977 line offered, "models from 1/2-ton to 3-1/2-tons and trucks for people, trucks for freight, trucks for fun."
A new compact pickup called the S-15 was GM's response to the imported-mini-pickup sales threat in 1982. The S-15 Jimmy followed in 1983. GMC's Safari van - introduced in 1985 - was another compact model described as a "personal-size, mid-size people mover that's garageable." New ruggedness and dependability was promised in an all-new C/K full-size pickup that GMC launched in 1988.
GMC continued to refine its products in the 1990s with aerodynamic styling enhancements, more efficient engineering and high-performance trucks like the 1991 Syclone. New model names were a trend, with the C/K pickup becoming the Sierra, the S-15 becoming the Sonoma, the Jimmy becoming the Yukon and the Rally/Vandura van becoming the Savana. New Envoy and Yukon Denali models appeared. In a historic 1996 move, the GMC and Pontiac divisions were merged. Two years later, division headquarters were relocated to General Motors' headquarters at the Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit. In 1999, Lynn C. Myers became general manager.
GMC entered the New Millennium as official sponsor of the U.S. Olympic team. The name Classic Sierra was applied to its large 2000 pickups. The GMC Suburban got GMT800 styling and became the Yukon XL while the regular Yukon was redesigned. Two new concept trucks - the 2000 Teradyne "professional grade pickup" and the 2001 Terracross "SUV of Tomorrow" - made the scene to reinforce GMC's image as a truck builder with a 100-year history of excellence and innovation.