Gmc

[tommys72]

What does it stand for? What's is mean?
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[bruceman1968]

General Motors Truck Company, from 1909 till 1943
GM Truck and Coach Division, after 1943

[SS Tim]

There was actually a GMC package truck called "Great Mountain Climber" about 1977 does that count?

[tommys72]

I did some looking and researching and found it all the way back to General Motors Canada
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[JOJABOY]

Get More Cash

[leddzepp]

Gotta Mechanic Coming

[Vintage Windmills]

Great Manly Chariot
Get Many Chicks

[Vintage Windmills]

Gentleman's Motor Coach

[Vintage Windmills]

Gibbon Monkey Chaser


ok,... i'll stop

[JOJABOY]

GMC = Generic Made Chevrolet

[special-K]

Grown Man's Chevrolet

[JOJABOY]

Originally Posted by special-K

Grown Man's Chevrolet

NICE!

[LockDoc]

-
How about "General Motors Corporation". Not as much fun I know, but it is what it is...

LockDoc

[MidLifer]

God's Mechanical Curse

[skorpioskorpio]

GMC stood for General Motors Company until GM incorporated then stood for General Motors Corporation. It was always supposed to be simply the mark that GM sold trucks under. General Motors was formed to sell commercial and industrial products under its flagship name and sell consumer products under names that appealed to individual demographics.

Now throw in the Durant wildcard, Durant started to acquire independent companies, starting with Buick to form General Motors and is really the father of GM. He had lots of financial backers who eventually pushed him out of the GM board. So Durant hooked up with a famous race car driver of the day to start over, Louis Chevrolet. He essentially followed the same path he had with GM. The whole time he was buying up GM debt on the side through McLaughlin of Canada. He proposed a merger with his old company GM as a division mark (which included a rival Chevrolet Truck mark) with the intent of pulling the shares he had acquired in GM out of his pocket after he made the deal to reestablish himself as CEO. Which he did. He was eventually pushed out again.

GMC, Buick, Chevrolet are the fundamental marks of GMs early history with Cadillac an early and the most luxurious brand. This is really why these are the surviving marks, I think. Pontiac was the 2nd best performing brand of cars within GM when it was eliminated, so it wasn't eliminated for being an under performer, but what it did do was provide the largest reduction in dealer franchises and parts distribution and had the largest territory overlap.

Interestingly, all these early men involved went on to do things after GM that had nothing to do with GM. David Dunbar Buick and Louis Chevrolet both were broke when they died. Chevrolet started a company that produced racing parts for Fords after Durant essentially kicked him out of the company named after him after he got what he wanted from him, which was a route back into GM. Henry Leland, the founder of Cadillac, went on to found Lincoln. Durant himself lived his later years solely on the pension he negotiated after his 2nd ousting from GMs board, but not until after he tried again and failed to create a 3rd GM like venture. Anyway there is equally screwed up storied about Ed Murphy who founded Oakland (later to become Pontiac), Ransom Olds (Oldsmobile) who BTW is the one who first used an assembly line to manufacture cars, not Ford, Ford was the first to use a moving assembly line.

Anyway bottom line GMC is literally GM Company or Corporation and even though it is a division was always intended to be how GM sold its commercial products, so much so that the parent corporation was known and logoed as GM and not GMC since nobody but stock holders would deal with that name.

[rwgregory]

In 1902 brothers Max and Morris Grabowsky formed the Grabowsky Motor Vehicle Co. A few years later they combined 3 different companies, (Rapid, Reliance & Randolph) and merged them to form the General Motors Truck Co. In 1911 the first trucks with the GMC emblem were made and the rest is history...

[skorpioskorpio]

Originally Posted by rwgregory

In 1902 brothers Max and Morris Grabowsky formed the Grabowsky Motor Vehicle Co. A few years later they combined 3 different companies, (Rapid, Reliance & Randolph) and merged them to form the General Motors Truck Co. In 1911 the first trucks with the GMC emblem were made and the rest is history...

I think the Grabowskys are always sited because it eludes to GMC really standing for Grabowsky Motor Company which it never did. I've never seen any evidence that there was ever a vehicle sold that bore the Grabowsky surname prior to the GM purchase of their company, or for that matter even a formal operational company named after the Grabowskys at that point, the name of their company by the time it was making a finished product was Rapid Motor Vehicle Co. Max Grabowsky would start a company named the Grabowsky Power Wagon Co after he sold Rapid to GM. The first GMCs were not Rapid designs anyway they were Reliance Motor Truck Co designs and produced in a factory that was still called Reliance until the product was relabeled as GMC, but by this time Rapid and Reliance, the GM truck acquisitions had little to do with their former owners and the Grabowsky brothers were long gone and on to competing ventures. The GMC name wasn't used on a product or registered as a trademark until years after the Grabowskys had already formed a company bearing their surname. Up until they actually labeled a product as GMC, GM referred to their collection of truck companies as General Motors Truck Company or GMTC.

However if you are a big Mike Ditka era Chicago bears fan and have painted up your GMC as a tribute to them and want to refer to it as a Grabowski *or* likewise think the greatest movie ever made is the Big Grabowski and use your truck to tote pin setters, hey I'm fine with that.

[Boog]

G ot M ore C lass as someone put it.

[special-K]

Durant formed GM as a holding company for Buick in 1908. The Grabowskis produced trucks under the name Rapid Motor Vehicle Company,which GM bought in 1909. GM also bought Reliance Motor Car Company that year. At this time General Motors Truck Company was formed,but they held onto their original names. There was never a truck built under the name "General Motors Company". Rapid and Reliance were merged in 1911 and in 1912 the first rebadged GMCs appeared. In 1913 they were all the GMC brand. The first trucks designed by GM engineers came out in 1914. GMC is a name,not an acronym. In other words,GMC is General Motors Truck Company and comes from General Motors Company. GM is General Motors Corporation but uses just GM.

[ChevLoRay]

My first GMC was a '38. I believe the chrome spears on the side panels said "General Motors Corporation"....although it's been a while since I last saw it ('71).

GMC's used to carry a premium at the dealership and used different engines than Chevrolet. My '38 used a Pontiac flathead 6, of 228 cubic inches. For the heavier-duty GMC's, Buick engines have been used. The AD series ('48-55), GMC had 261 and 302 OHV sixes.

In '55 2nd series, the Task Force GMC's used Pontiac V-8's in the lighter duty as well as their own inline 6's, as the AD's used.

When the body changed in '60, they brought out the 305 V-6, as well as a 351 V-6 AND the 702 V-12's used in fire engines and other industrial applications.

[RenoKeene]

Great stuff! Like I have said before...lots of smart folks in here.
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[tommys72]

Yea this is some good info
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['68OrangeSunshine]

Government Model Chevrolet

[jabborabbo]

Got My Cheese

(In reference to "Who Moved My Cheese?")

[Kurt L]

general mess of crap my dad told me years ago.