The GMC/Chevy Medium Duty Line Is Dead

[x635 4,066]

The GMC/Chevrolet Medium Duty truck line, which has been becoming increasingly popular as a fire service and EMS chasis, has stopped production permanetly effective July 31st, 2009.

The line, formely known as the Topkick or Kodiak and more recently as Chevrolet/GMC 4500, etc was supposed to be purchased by International, but that deal feel through.

Maybe this is one of the reasons why GM is failing.....this truck showed promise, and they dropped it. Same way they lost market share to Ford by dropping the Chevrolet Caprice line.....

[FiftyOnePride 100]

We were just about to purchase a chasis in that range for our quick attack, but recieved a letter about this, so we opted to go elsewhere.

[JCESU 20]

same here...we were looking at the 4500 but have now focused on Freightliner and International.... The wait time for an F550 I am told is 8 months to a year right now. And based on previous deliveries thats very accurate.

[SRS131EMTFF 471]

Why would they cancel this line. I have been seeing more and more Kodiaks out there everyday...this is very surprising

[FiftyOnePride 100]

same here...we were looking at the 4500 but have now focused on Freightliner and International.... The wait time for an F550 I am told is 8 months to a year right now. And based on previous deliveries thats very accurate.

We upped ourselves a bit and went with the 7400 series International chassis.

[FFLieu 70]

GM is failing financially because of two reasons. One, they deviated from building cars to writing mortgages. GMAC, which used to be strictly for financing a GM vehicle, got into the mortgage industry, and when the bottom fell out, so did they. Two, the American people know that GM makes nothing but garbage, anyway. GM was a victim of it's own hubris.

[FDNY 10-75 640]

The 5500 will still be available?

[x635 4,066]

The 5500 will still be available?

It's my understanding that GM will be out of the medium duty truck market altogether. They also made ridiculous demands that led the sale of the product line to International-Navistar and other potential buyers to fall through.

Once again, another stupid move by a stupid company.....one of their product lines that was doing tremendously well as of late...look at all the commercial vehicles, fire apparatus, and ambulances that had been increasingly been being delivered on the 4500/5500.

[knronald 2]

Maybe this is one of the reasons why GM is failing.....this truck showed promise, and they dropped it. Same way they lost market share to Ford by dropping the Chevrolet Caprice line.....

Why do you assume that this line was a profitable for GM. I would guess that maybe they sold 20, 000 or 30,000 if that many with cost of a production line, parts, traning etc that is not enough to make a profit, you needs to sell a miunimum of 100,000 or 200,000. Its a big country and the cost of doing business from coast to coast is enormus.

[x635 4,066]

Why do you assume that this line was a profitable for GM. I would guess that maybe they sold 20, 000 or 30,000 if that many with cost of a production line, parts, traning etc that is not enough to make a profit, you needs to sell a miunimum of 100,000 or 200,000. Its a big country and the cost of doing business from coast to coast is enormus.

A friend of mine was a dealer for the medium duty line, and sales were hot. He returned from a dealers meeting which also confirmed a lot of sales of the chasis. If you look at a lot of FD,EMS, Utility, etc deliveries currently, they are on a GMC medium duty chasis. Dealers who sold this line also sold a lot of other Chevy/GMC vehicles to fleets that wanted to keep it in the "family". The network was already established.

Even if they didn't keep this line, they dropped the ball several times on selling this line.

[Patch6713 18]

A Pierce sales rep and manager from the Florida plant said to me two weeks ago that Isuzu bought the 4500 and 5500 line and was going to start producing them.

They already owned the motor that went in them, the Duramax.

[x635 4,066]

A Pierce sales rep and manager from the Florida plant said to me two weeks ago that Isuzu bought the 4500 and 5500 line and was going to start producing them.

The Izuzu deal fell through. GM stopped producing these trucks on July 31st, 2009.

[Patch6713 18]

The Izuzu deal fell through. GM stopped producing these trucks on July 31st, 2009.

When did it fall through? They made it sound like it was already signed.

[x635 4,066]

When did it fall through? They made it sound like it was already signed.

Towards the end of June.

[SpartanML 0]

It was killed probably as a result of Government Motors attempt to become a lean, mean, green scamming machine. The EVIL diesel motor and the EVIL truck must be done away with! Never mind attempting to market it or god forbid improve the truck... IT WASN'T GREEN!

Great job GM.

Edited September 13, 2009 by SpartanML

[FireMedic049 597]

Two, the American people know that GM makes nothing but garbage, anyway.

Maybe we've just been lucky, but my wife and I have owned 2 Chevy Silverados in succession (4 years each) and a Chevy Impala for 6-1/2 years now with virtually no problems with any of them and nothing more than scheduled maintenance repairs.

So, from my experiences at least, I'd have to disagree with the "nothing but garbage" assessment.