Earlier this morning, the final medium duty truck built by General Motors--a white 2009 GMC TopKick C7500--rolled off the assembly line in Flint, Michigan.
Although GM had sold the majority of its heavy-duty truck business to Volvo AB in 1987 (forming the WhiteGMC brand), it had retained its medium-duty operations, which allowed it to build Class 5-Class 8 trucks. GM looked to exit the business as early as 2005, citing a need to cut costs and return to “core businesses.”
GM’s last range of medium duty trucks--dubbed GMT 560--were introduced in 2002, and broke new ground with its cab design, which was cribbed from the company’s full-size G-van range. The GMT 560 was also the first generation of medium-duty trucks to offer four-wheel-drive and crew cabs as factory options. Approximately 206,000 were built over the past seven years.
GM had tried to find a buyer for the medium duty operations, but talks with both Navistar and Isuzu ultimately proved unsuccessful.