GM Builds Their Last 1500 Series Van
GM built their last 1500 series van at the Wentzville, Missouri assembly plant this past week. GM claims that the vans will die to make room for the all new Chevrolet Colorado and GMC Canyon trucks at the Wentzville plant, but that’s not the full story.
The real story is a combination of slow sales and an increasingly disadvantageous position in GM’s average fuel economy . The 1500 vans weren’t light enough to sneak under the CAFE cutoff point, but their thirst meant that they were bad for GM’s overall CAFE average.
In its place, we will get the smaller, Nissan-based, unibody City Express. GM may be cribbing a van from Nissan, but they’re far from alone in killing off their body-on-frame vans. The Ford Econoline also bit the dust earlier this year.
More by Derek Kreindler
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And lo, child abductors and serial killers wept openly.
At least the Ford Transit is a Ford!
The vans did much less harm to GM's CAFE profile than the 1/2 ton Silverado/Sierra. Same vehicles as far as CAFE is concerned. So are we about to lose GM 1500 pickups? Not likely. The again, the Colorado/Canyon pickups could fill that void better than the Nissan midsize vans can replace GM 1500 vans. And GM's move to revitalize marginally profitable midsize pickups would start to make sense if their 1/2 ton pickups were to be killed off.
Vast majority of sales of cargo vans are 2500 and up, commercial users need the greater payload offered. Easy move to make for GM, CAFE relief and doubt that this hurts sales of that ancient lump in the slightest.