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General Motors Corp. is giving up on its medium-duty truck business, saying that it will wind down manufacturing by the end of July.

That means GM will stop making the GMC Topkick and Chevrolet Kodiak commercial trucks at its Flint, Mich., Assembly Plant by July 31. The plant employs 2,100 people but also makes Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra pickups.

Company spokesman Jim Hopson said 398 people work on the medium-duty assembly line, and GM is working with the United Auto Workers union to determine what happens to them.

“We’ll continue to try our best to keep the employment levels as high as possible,” he said.

The factory last year made more than 22,000 medium-duty trucks for GM and Isuzu Motors Ltd., and almost 73,000 pickups.

Hopson said GM will work with dealers to sell down the remaining Kodiak and Topkick inventory over the next 18 months or so.


http://www.theoaklandpress.com/articles ... 625480.txt

Good, I can't wait till they are all gone

Does anyone even buy trucks anymore (unless you are a general contractor/redneck)?

LOL I still do. I currently have a F150 Crew Cab, but in the last 25 years, I've owned a 71 El Camino, 92 Chevy, and now the F150. They come in handy when hauling large loads. I like the Crew Cab since it can also carry 6 people plus hauling stuff in the back.

Honestly, there are only 2 people in my entire neighborhood (about 90 homes) with trucks & one is a bonafide redneck (he'll admit to it). Not that there's anything against trucks, it's mostly that it costs so much to drive them.

normalicy wrote:Does anyone even buy trucks anymore (unless you are a general contractor/redneck)?

I do, I am pretty sure I am a redneck. I have a GMC 3/4 ton diesel 4WD. It is absolutely a "must have" to pull my horse trailer, tractor, farm supplies, etc.

Well see, you have a valid reason to have one. It just kills me though to see a guy that NEVER has a load or pulls one in a truck. I'm by no means a green freak, but paying $100 a week to drive around town is stupid, not that a Escalade or Yukon any different.

My first 2, the 71 El Camino use to haul my racing go-kart. My 92 Chevy truck use to haul my dirt bike. My F150 has hauled rocks, bricks, etc. its mostly used now as a family vehicle since we can fit everyone in it. I no longer drive it to work, only to meet my car pool buddy who lives 2 miles away. When its my turn to drive, we drive in style in my 96 Corvette, which my the way, gets 32 mpg at 70mph.

You know what kind of truck they should build? A S10 or ranger with the 1.9l VW TDI engine. People have done retro fits an the pickups get around 30-45 mpg.

Good, I can't wait till they are all gone

These are "Medium Duty" trucks. This means they are often chassis cabs that are then finished into box trucks, small dump trucks, specialty trucks etc.
These are not play trucks or wannabe trucks - they have a real purpose. Presumably, the higher fuel consumption that goes with them is because they are doing real work.

A bunch of Americans just lost their jobs. Not a cause for celebration by any measure unless you own a foundry in Shanghai.

im glad to see someone here knows the type of truck they were talking about other then me .

Lmandrake wrote:
A bunch of Americans just lost their jobs. Not a cause for celebration by any measure unless you own a foundry in Shanghai.

That is the only bad thing.


US is about capitalizim, and the gov. bailing out these car companies is BS and turning US into Socializim. Bad business caused the big 3 to be where they are now, it is the US way to let them fail, and the US gov stopped that. cratch

Well, if the demand isn't there, there's not much use making them anyhow. They would lose their jobs one way or the other & believe me I'm in a union city. We just lost our entire Ford plant here & if it weren't for the war, Boing was not far behind them.

I'm not joking, I see people riding around in medium duty trucks 4 ft. above everyone else for the heck of it (without even a trailor hitch). But yeah, I didn't realize that the medium duty trucks were exclusively the domain chassis cabs (I thought 1 tons would qualify). That's different.

there is demand for a QUALITY truck...that just wasnt offered.

NAFTA anyone?