The radio station that we must listen to at work gives trivia questions every day. Yesterday, the question was, “What does the ‘GMC’ in ‘GMC Trucks’ stand for?” Today, they inform us that it stands for “Grimalski Motor Cars.”
Is this true? I always assumed that it stood for “General Motors Corporation,” but I could be wrong.
It is General Motors Corporation.
It is possible that the radio station is right. Here’s what I heard from my Dad: GM bought out many smaller car companies en route to its modern incarnation, and among them was a small company that was purchased for the factories it owned in a location convenient to GM, not for its automobile line. However, the company in question exacted a promise that the truck line that they produced would not be cancelled but instead would continue to be produced by GM, although GM could rename the line if they so chose.
The GMC truck was the result-- GM did not simply take over the assets and continue to produce its own line of trucks (the Chevrolet truck subdivision), it also continued the truck line of the company they’d acquired.
As to whether or not it was ever originally called “Grimalski Motor Cars”, I could not tell you.
Alta Vista doesn’t know of any web sites pertaining to such a company though.
On a seperate note, is there ANY difference at all between GMC
trucks and chevy trucks? they even have the same MODEL names!
[url=http://clubs.hemmings.com/chevytalk/GMhistory/GMCOMPANIES.html]This site lists the companies General Motors bought out, the only “G” is Garland Motor.
I looked up GMC history on GOOGLE and looked at the official GMC page and it says that GM did purchase the company which was called Rapid Motor Vehicle Company from Max Grabowsky. However, at the end of the pages it says the following “Copyright 1997, 1998 General Motors Corporation”. So I say it is General Motors Corporation. That is simply based on the previous though…
I was under the impression that GMC stood for
General Motors Coach.
Same difference as between a Ford and a Mercury. 
Really, the GMCs and the Chevys sometimes have slightly different sheetmetal, ground effects, trim, or standard equipment. Is there a fundamental difference? None at all. It’s all badge engineering.
That means the same vehicle can me targeted to different market segments by changing very little about a vehicle. It’s a LOT cheaper to build a single body-shop that can handle slight sheetmetal variations (flexible automation) than to build two completely different plants.
Differences between GMC and Chevy:
Given the choice, I’d opt for the GMC vehicle because in the NorthEast USA they are marketted through Buick dealers, which tend to be slightly more upscale and professional than Chevy dealers.
GMC always meant General Motors Corporation to me…and I was under the impression the were the ‘truck’ division of GM…but that has been watered down by GM letting most (all?) divisions carry truck lines now.
This site: http://media.gm.com/division/gmc/about/history.html has a good overview of the history of GMC trucks, including the elusive Grabowsky Motor Vehicle Company (aka GMVC) that eventually changed its name upon reorganization to Rapid Motor Vehicle Company before being gobbled up by General Motors and being renamed again for the papa-corporation.
The GMC logo apparently stands for “General Motors Truck Company”. Weird. Where did the “T” go?
I think that they were talking about Grabowsky Motor Vehicle Company. I probably didn’t hear the name quite right. As for Grabowsky being the namesake of GMC: I have caught mistakes in these guys’ trivia questions before, so it’s not at all impossible that they don’t have their information straight.
It’s been quite a while since Chevrolet and GMC trucks have had identical names.
Both Chevrolet and GMC full-size pickups used to simply be referred to as the C/K. C1500, C2500, and C3500s were two-wheel drive; K1500, K2500, and K3500s were four-wheel drive.
----Since their 1999 redesign, the full-size Chevrolet pickup is called Silverado, and the GMC version is Sierra.
For the mini pickups that came out in 1984?, Chevy’s was always the S-10, GMC’s the S15. I think the GMC one is now called Sonoma.
The big two-door SUV was the Chevy C/K Blazer, or the GMC Jimmy. Neither is made anymore, but the GMC one was renamed the Yukon before being phased out.
The mini-SUV was the Chevrolet S-10 Blazer, and the GMC S-15 Jimmy. After the full-size units were discontinued, they started simply calling them Blazer and Jimmy.
I think it was 1995 when they came out with the Chevy Tahoe, and GMC Yukon 4-door, which are slightly shortened Suburbans.
For years, the Suburban was made as both a Chevrolet or GMC. Now, GMC’s version is the Yukon XL.
Incidentally, GMC appears to be marketed as the more luxurious brand of the two. The Yukon Denali, Yukon XL Denali, and Sierra Denali have a lot of equipment you don’t see on the Chevrolets. Also, the GMC Envoy has optional woodgrain dashboard accents, and the Chevrolet Trailblazer does not.