A look back at what didn't come to be

[kscarbel2]

GM sells medium-duty truck business to Navistar

Ryan Beene, Automotive News  /  December 20, 2007

General Motors today confirmed a tentative deal to sell its GMT560 medium-duty truck business to Navistar International Corp. Terms were not disclosed.

GM wants to exit that business and focus on designing, manufacturing and selling cars and light trucks globally, GM spokeswoman Melisa Tezanos told Automotive News.

GMT560 trucks include the Chevrolet Kodiak and GMC TopKick, which can be used as dump trucks, tow trucks and beverage delivery trucks.

GM sells 30,000 to 40,000 GMT560 trucks annually, Tezanos said. Industrywide, medium-duty sales in 2007 are expected to be 180,000 units, she said.

Under the tentative deal, Navistar will assemble the trucks, including their chassis and frames. Existing outside suppliers contracted by GM will continue to provide powertrain and other components, Navistar spokesman Roy Wiley said.

The tentative agreement follows the UAW's Dec. 16 ratification of a three-year labor contract with Navistar's International Truck and Engine Corp. unit. The UAW had been on strike against International Truck since Oct. 23.

"Obviously GM operates union plants; we operate union plants," Wiley said. "I think this new (labor) contract makes the deal easier to do."

Assembly of conventional GMT560 trucks will go to the International Truck plant in Springfield, Ohio, a UAW source said. The trucks now are assembled at a GM plant in Flint, Mich.

Neither GM nor Navistar would comment on assembly locations.

About 270 of the nearly 1,100 UAW-represented employees at Springfield assembly had been laid off before the strike. When production at the plant resumes in January, production will be cut from the 104 trucks a day in September to about 65 a day. This means more workers will be laid off, but the number of layoffs is unclear, the UAW source said.

The Navistar-assembled trucks will continue to bear GM nameplates, Tezanos said.

Wiley said the companies hope the deal will close by mid-2008.

Picture - GM North America President Troy Clarke (now Navistar president), left, and Navistar International CEO Daniel Ustian pose in front of two GM medium-duty trucks.

[kscarbel2]

And yet ten years later, we have a similar outcome, with Troy Clarke having switched seats, from GM to Navistar.

https://www.bigmacktrucks.com/topic/51205-chevrolet-class-456-silverado/

 

[RoadwayR]

That proposed deal caught me by surprise, at the time there was hinting around that GM was going to do something with Isuzu.  The GM deal came while NAV was building the F-650 and 750 for Ford through their Blue Diamond subsidiary, and perhaps more significantly while NAV and Ford were having quite a falling out over the VT365/6.0L Powerstroke fiasco and Ford's abrupt cancellation of the 4.5L V-6 Powerstroke for the F-150.  I was told NAV was at least a little motivated to screw Ford to an extent by building GM's medium trucks and closing Blue Diamond as quickly as possible.  The (first) GM/NAV deal reportedly fell through because GM and NAV couldn't agree on a price for the operation, but I think NAV's financial position was rapidly deteriorating and with the worsening economy NAV got nervous.  After the NAV deal fell through, I once again started hearing rumors about GM and Isuzu.  Remember that GM was assembling many Isuzu trucks (gasoline powered N's and the F series) at the time.  Isuzu had purchased land (Alabama?) for a U.S. plant to take over N/F series production after GM was to sell their medium/heavy truck operation to NAV, and there was supposedly some talk that the new Isuzu plant could build the GM trucks after the GM/NAV deal fell through.  However, once again the worsening economy caused Isuzu to reconsider opening a U.S. plant.  In late 2009 GM dropped the GMT560 trucks and (temporarily) exited the medium duty truck market.  Very soon after that, an insider told me that a GM/NAV deal was not at all dead, but was put on indefinite hold until the economy improved and would be revisited. 

If you talk to anyone  at GM or NAV these days, the official word is the new JV medium trucks are a great success.  It seems to have been a slow launch, but reports on the trucks  are favorable (my employer had taken delivery of a few, I will let you know....).  I am hearing rumors that more GM/NAV JV trucks may be under development.