GMC The Rapid Vehicle Motor Company

It was the manufacturer of some of the earliest trucks and was purchased in 1909 by GM. In 1912 the name GMC was first used at the New York Auto Show and in 1996 the suffix Truck was dropped. What most people don’t know is that GMC also makes cars.

In 1902 Max Grabowski founded a company called the “Rapid Motor Vehicle Company”, which developed some of the earliest commercial trucks ever designed. In 1909 the company was bought by General Motors to form the basis of the General Motors Truck Company, from which GMC Truck was made. In 1912 the name “GMC Truck” was first shown at the New York Auto Show.

In 1996 GM dropped the word ‘truck’ from the GMC Truck name, thus creating the GMC name as we know it today. There never was a Grabowski Motor Company or a Grabowski Motor Corp.

They now make personal automobiles, as well as pickup truck and bus engines.

General Motors Corporation NYSE: GM, also known as GM, is a United States-based automobile maker with worldwide operations and brands including Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, Daewoo, GMC, Holden, Hummer, Opel, Pontiac, Saturn, Saab, and Vauxhall Chevrolet and GMC divisions produce trucks, as well as passenger vehicles.

Other brands include ACDelco, Allison Transmission, and General Motors Electro-Motive Division that produces diesel-electric locomotives. GM also has stakes in Isuzu, Subaru, and Suzuki in Japan and a joint venture with AutoVAZ (Lada) in Russia. In December 2003, it acquired Delta in South Africa, in which it had taken a 45 percent stake in 1997, and which is now a fully-owned subsidiary, General Motors South Africa.

GM’s headquarters are in the Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan.

General Motors is the world’s largest vehicle manufacturer and employs over 340,000 people. In 2001, GM sold 8.5 million vehicles through all its branches. In 2002, GM sold 15 percent of all cars and trucks in the world. They also owned Electronic Data Systems from 1984 to 1996 which is a former Ross Perot company and, prior to selling it to News Corporation, DirecTV. GM owned Frigidaire from 1918 to 1979.

The current chairman (since May 1, 2003) and chief executive officer (since June 1, 2000) is Rick Wagoner, succeeding John F. Smith, Jr.

General Motors is selling its 20 percent stake in Fuji Heavy Industries, the parent of Subaru, in a deal that could raise more than $700 million.

Also, General Motors Canada auto workers voted on Sunday to ratify a new contract that will lay off 1,000 workers over the next three years, the Canadian Auto Workers and GM said.

General Motors lost 2.5 billion dollars last year, and would have made a profit if it was not saddled with 6 billion dollars in health costs.

The UAW and GM are now reaching agreement to reduce this health cost by about 1 billion dollars annually.

U.S. used truck prices drop again, adding to leasing pressure

U.S. prices for used large pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles tumbled again in July, adding to pressure on automakers and other lease providers, according to Manheim Consulting.

Wholesale auction prices averaged $10,187 last month for large SUVs, down 26 percent from a year earlier and 1.7 percent from June, the Atlanta-based provider of
used-vehicle data said. Big pickups averaged $8,825, a drop of 20 percent from a year earlier and less than 1 percent from the previous month.

Such declines “suggest increasing risk for auto finance companies,” Wachovia
Capital Markets analyst Richard Kwas said in a note today.

The lower prices paid for the light trucks are cutting earnings at automakers’
finance units and other companies that offer vehicle leases. Demand for large pickups and SUVs has weakened as gasoline has stayed near $4 a gallon. Manheim’s figures are considered a measure of prices automakers may expect for vehicles coming off leases, known as residual value.

Chrysler LLC’s finance arm stopped providing leases Aug. 1. GMAC LLC, the finance company 49 percent owned by General Motors Corp., halted such contracts with incentives in Canada the same day. GM and Ford Motor Co. in the second quarter wrote down the value of their leases by a combined $4.1 billion and are tightening standards for the agreements.

Ports of L.A., Long Beach order Volvo, Mack trucks

The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach recently ordered new Volvo and Mack trucks as part of the ports’ initial purchases for their “Clean Trucks Program.”

Volvo Trucks North America officials announced this past week that they will produce 100 VNL 300 daycabs for the Clean Truck Program, which is scheduled to eventually replace 16,000 drayage trucks.

The VNL 300’s feature Volvo D13 engines rated at 405 horsepower, and meet the California Air Resources Board’s low-NOx idling standards.

Mack Trucks Inc. officials announced they received 100 orders for the Mack Pinnacle Axle Back daycab tractors for the ports. The Pinnacle daycabs come with 395-hp Mack MP7 engines certified to California’s low-NOx idle requirements at less than 30 grams of oxides of nitrogen emitted per idling hour.

Both ports have approved programs that will require trucks to meet 2007 engine emissions standards by December 2012, although that implementation may be delayed because of legal and regulatory action.

Both ports now face a civil lawsuit filed by the American Trucking Association. The suit is aimed at blocking the programs’ implementation of a concessions agreement that would allow only trucks from port-approved companies access to the ports.

Also, the Federal Maritime Commission has authority over approving the plans’ operation as it relates to interstate commerce, and has requested more information from the ports about the Clean Trucks Program.

Trucks with pre-1989 model year engines will be barred from entering the ports beginning Oct. 1 this year.

OOIDA has discussed the use of a day-pass system for temporary port access for long-haul truck drivers that make infrequent port visits at the Port of Los Angeles. Geraldine Knatz, Port of Los Angeles executive director, has said such a system will be put in place.

Truck Runs On Cooking Oil

It’s French fries - no, make that egg rolls. Wherever “Big Brown Betty” goes, the rusty 1985 Ford truck leaves the hot smell of deep-fried food in her wake.

“The other day, I was getting building materials from a man for a project,” said Nathan Turner, the truck’s owner. “His wife came outside, and said, “Are you grilling out?”‘

Big Brown Betty runs on used fryer grease, which Turner, 32, collects free from various restaurants.

He saves money, but the greater satisfaction is that using vegetable oil as fuel reduces his carbon footprint.

So it goes at the Turner household in Berea, where the focus is on sustainability and a laid-back lifestyle.

Nathan and his wife, Jessa, 29, are in the midst of a new project: building a house using feedbags filled with earth. The house will look like a futuristic tan igloo when finished.

Jessa is working on the 500-square-foot “earthbag home,” which she says is the first of its kind to be code-approved in Kentucky. Currently, the house has several layers of earthbag “bricks,” and Jessa is working on the home’s electrical wiring. Once finished, the house, in Egrets Cove - a self-sustaining community near Berea - will comfortably house a local retiree.

The Turners think houses like these not only help save the environment, but will save money.

The earthbag home will take eight weeks to complete and cost just $8,000.

Just down the trail at Egrets Cove, a family is building a 960-square-foot straw-bale home that will cost $30,000.

“We’re essentially building custom-made homes,” she said. “You couldn’t even buy a God-awful trailer with that money.”

The Turners aren’t your typical Kentuckians, they say, pointing out they would probably be more at home on the West Coast with other vegetarian neo-hippies in, say, Oregon.

Jessa, who wears messy pigtail buns and Teva-like sandals, adores Oregon.

At 21, she hitchhiked around the nation, and she became fascinated by the entirely self-sustaining communities she saw in Oregon. The communities grew their own food and used solar and wind energy.

“I thought, man, I really need to take this home,” she said.

She established HomeGrown HideAways, found online at homegrownhideaways.org, a year ago to teach others eco-friendly construction techniques.

The Turners, who have known each other since they were teenagers, originally started small, by figuring out a way to reduce carbon emissions in their own lives.

One of these steps was converting a diesel vehicle so it could run on vegetable oil at the flip of a switch.

“Doing the math, it comes out to less than a dollar per gallon, but it’s a lot of work,” said Nathan, who says this is not a job for the dainty. His clothes are covered in grease.

“I have to pick up grease and then filter and strain it. It’s not for people who want to pull up to a pump and stand there with a credit card.”

Jessa and Nathan’s dream is to find 100 acres near Berea and have a self-sustaining property where they can grow their own food and teach others how to do the same.

It’s not an easy lifestyle to consider for Americans who are nurtured on a culture of air conditioning at the flip of a switch and a cheeseburger in five minutes. There are only a few self-sustaining communities in Kentucky, and two are in the Berea area.

But these fringe communities serve as incubators for mainstream green concepts, said Jim Embry, director of the Sustainable Communities Network in Lexington.

“The value of doing this is tremendous,” he said.

Cars drive over trucks in sales

If there was any doubt before, it should be gone now: America is now officially a car market.

Even as industrywide sales of new vehicles declined 10.7% in May, sales of passenger cars were up 2.4%.

Meanwhile, sales of pickups, SUVs, minivans and crossovers plummeted 23.6%, according to monthly sales results released Tuesday.

Detroit’s automakers, who have long depended on their truck leadership for the bulk of their profits, suffered the worst declines as a result. Truck sales were down 36.9% at General Motors Corp., 25.6% at Ford Motor Co. and 24.3% at Chrysler LLC.

Nearly 60% of all new vehicles purchased in the United States last month were cars, with the smallest, most affordable ones performing best.

Jim Farley, Ford’s group vice president of marketing and communications, called the pace of the shift from trucks to cars “breathtaking.”

That automaker watched its critical F-Series pickup line, which has been the best-selling model in America for 26 years, lose the title for the month to the Honda Civic compact car. The Civic posted a record month, with more than 53,000 sales in May.

At GM, Mark LaNeve, vice president for sales, service and marketing in North America, characterized the market shift as a “real severe correction.”

“In the truck market we felt it, obviously,” he said.

None of Detroit’s automakers was able to offset truck declines with car sales. Car sales were down 13.7% at GM and 28.1% at Chrysler.

Ford, however, was able to ride the shifting consumer wave better than many of its rivals. With a growing stable of respectable cars, Ford posted a 3.8% gain in car sales, allowing the automaker to pick up critical market share in cars.

Ford sold 10.8% of the cars purchased in America last month, a gain of 0.2 percentage points. By contrast, Toyota Motor Corp. lost 0.4 percentage points of car share, ending the month with 21.2%.

At Ford, the Focus compact car, which is built locally in Wayne, was the star of the month.

Sales were up 53.2%. Excluding sales to fleet customers, Farley said that retail demand for the Focus was actually up 105%. Retail sales of the Focus, he noted, even outsold retail sales of the F-Series. The Focus is now the eighth best-selling vehicle in America.

As a result, Farley said that Ford would boost output of the car to 280,000 next year, up from 245,000 this year.

The big car winner of the month, though, was clearly Honda Motor Co.

The company’s Honda and Acura brands posted a combined 31.9% gain in car sales.

While the niche Mini brand posted a 52.8% gain in car sales, the only other major automaker to post a gain approaching Honda’s was Hyundai, which saw a 26.3% improvement.

Nissan Motor Co. car sales, including Infiniti, were up 18.7%, on the strength of the Nissan Altima midsize car, which posted a 43.6% gain over the same month a year ago.

While Toyota car sales, including Lexus and Scion brands, were flat, with a gain of 0.4%, the flagship brand now has six models in the top 20 rankings for America’s best-selling vehicles. That includes the Corolla compact car, Camry midsize car, Tacoma compact pickup, Prius hybrid car, RAV4 compact SUV and Yaris subcompact.

Honda seems to be benefiting from an unrelenting, long-term adherence to making high-quality cars that are affordable and fuel-efficient.

Sales were up 53% for the Fit subcompact car, 31.7% for the Civic compact car, 38.9% for the Accord midsize car. The Japanese automaker also saw its CR-V compact SUV among the Top 20 vehicles sold in America.

Honda, which also has a reputation for modesty, gave credit for its performance to the rapid shifts in the market.

“The dramatic increase in car sales appears to be one of the most profound shifts in automotive buying patterns in more than a decade,” Dick Colliver, executive vice president of American Honda, said in a statement. “Record sales of the Honda Civic clearly demonstrate an accelerated trend toward fuel efficiency.”

Truckers fight to survive amid diesel fuel rise

The rise in the price of diesel fuel has cost Walt Bosma a few steak dinners, and left him scrambling to find ways to save and cut costs as he drives his tractor trailer across the country.

Bosma, 62, of Michigan, stopped for a break in his 300 mile trucking route Monday at a Kangaroo convenience store in Dothan. Bosma planned to stay overnight in the sleeper unit of his truck, which is powered by a diesel generator. He parked at the Kangaroo convenience store, located at the corner of Headland Avenue and Ross Clark Circle, which sold diesel fuel for $4.53 per gallon.

“They’re a few pennies cheaper here than at home,” Bosma said. “It’s running around $4.69 a gallon at home.”

Bosma said his fuel costs have more than doubled per week over the past year, jumping from about $1,500 a week to $2,500 to $3,000 per week in 2008. By the July 4 holiday Bosma said he expects average costs to reach between $5 and $5.50 per gallon.

Rising fuel costs have left truck drivers scrambling to find ways to conserve energy and costs, which included a more regular check on the air pressure of the truck’s tires for Bosma.

“I drive 5 mph under the speed limit if I can,” Bosma said. “It gives you better fuel mileage.”

Bosma, who has worked as a truck driver for 38 years, said he gets between 6.7 to 9 miles per gallon.

James Fahey, of Bryant, Ark., who stopped at the Flying J truck stop off Ross Clark Circle, said most truck drivers are looking for the best deal when it comes to buying their fuel.

“We’re all slowing down, because it increases our fuel mileage,” Bryant said. “The lowest fuel costs in the nation are in this area.”

Trickle down

The cost of diesel fuel has also led to an increase in cost in other areas, Bosma said. The fuel crunch has forced him to eat out fewer times. Bosma works for Eagle Express out of Ludington, Mich., which has a fleet of about 150 trucks.

“You don’t get the steak dinners like you used to,” Bosma said. “It ain’t just fuel prices. It’s price of tires and oil. All your commodities are going up, you know your bread and milk. It’s mostly because of the shipping.”

Jim Franklin, the Chief Financial Officer for AMX trucking out of Ashford, agreed with Bosma.

“If it was just a little more stable where you didn’t see those increases on a daily basis that would certainly help,” Franklin said. “There’s not too many costs that are not driven by fuel. Our tire costs have gone up, and anything that’s petroleum based. Something as simple as servicing a truck, we’ve really seen it increase.”

The rise in the cost of diesel could cause some smaller carriers to go out of business, Franklin said.

Franklin said the fuel crunch has led the company, which includes a fleet of about 250 trucks, to reach special deals with some of the larger truck stops on fuel prices. The company has also tried to keep their drivers from straying from trucking routes. They also use special computer software to generate the best travel routes.

“It’s not good that fuel is going up, but the fact that it’s so volatile it kind of compounds the problem,” Franklin said.

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