GMC
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About GMC
GMC was founded in Pontiac, Michigan, as the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company in 1902 by Max and Morris Grabowsky. The company was spurred into existence by the development of a twin-cylinder 15-horsepower delivery vehicle. Far more successful than their previous single-cylinder unit, the new twin sold in sufficient numbers for the brothers to file for corporation status in 1904. Initially, the brothers focused almost all of the company’s manufacturing resources on one-ton trucks.
Impressed, General Motors impresario William C. Durant started buying shares in the company, and in 1909 bought the concern outright. In 1911, General Motors merged all its truck building subsidiaries and decided to keep the GMC name, making it official in 1913. Full-scale mass-production of GMC trucks ramped up that same year. General Motors was reincorporated in 1916 with GMC as a key player in its corporate strategy.
GMC vehicles contributed to the effort in WWI and WWII, some ninety-percent of its output going to the military in 1918 and hitting a production peak of 4700 military vehicles a week during WWI. GMC’s battle-earned reputation would translate into post-war success and expand to include new buses and semi-trucks as well as a growing line of consumer pickups.
Today, GMC continues to produce heavy-duty commercial vehicles. But its bread and butter lie with smaller passenger trucks and SUVs. It differentiates itself within the GM family as a luxury alternative to Chevrolet.
