GM Winds Down Medium-Duty Truck Business
Published: June 8th, 2009
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“After four years of working with multiple potential buyers, General Motors has decided to wind down its medium-duty truck operations,” is the message from bankruptcy court. Topkicked to the curb, so to speak. Because if someone hasn’t bought after four years of wrangling, it’s time to move on. July 31 will mark the end of production for Topkick and Kodiak, which sold a combined 20,000 units last year. Reuters reports that the medium duty truck workers will be reassigned or leave the company through GM’s attrition program.
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Sometimes the clone represents a better value. In Yesterdays paper the Carson City GM dealer was offering AWD Pontiac Vibes for $15 vs 19k for the Doppelganger AWD Matrix at the Toyota Store. The Saabaru 9-2 and Mazda B-series can sometimes offer a better value then their better know clones.
If the Suzuki has the better warranty and a lower price, buy the Suzuki. I can't imagine a Frontier/Equator is that difficult to work on, after all, we are talking about a fairly crude mid-size pickup here, not a GT-R or ZR1. Similarly, I never understood why people shunned the Isuzu clones of GM vehicles when the Isuzus offered thousands off the price, and a warranty nearly double the length.
If both GM and Ford give up this market, there are a couple of other players that can fill the gap. The main two I can see are Scania and Iveco, who is concidentially owned by Fiat. If the Fiat/Chrysler "marriage" works out, maybe some of the redundant Chrysler dealers may start selling Iveco products. Sidebar: Volvo is already in this market in North America, by way of Mack trucks. This is in addition to the heavy duty trucks sold under the Volvo brand.
Gotta love how these are considered "Medium Duty" as GM slathers "Heavy Duty" stickers across so much of their passenger truck line...