Home Away From Home the RVer's Dream
By Fei Lim

The oldest division of General Motors is the Olds Motor Vehicle Company, founded in 1897. At this time, the first Oldsmobile was produced. In 1900, Max and Morris Grabowsky built their first truck. Two years later, they created the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company to produce one-ton trucks for sale. This company, like many others, was later purchased by General Motors. It formed the basis of the famous GMC Truck division. The General Motors Company was organized in 1908, incorporating the Buick, Olds and Fisher Companies. Cadillac was the first car nameplate to offer a closed-body car as a standard feature, in 1910. This revolutionized automobile convenience, providing cleanliness and comfort in all kinds of weather. In 1916, a GMC truck crossed the United States in only thirty days, a high speed at that time.

In the 1920s and 1930s, General motors sought to diversify its offerings. The company bought control of the Yellow Coach bus company and helped to create Greyhound bus line. General Motors was directly involved in the replacement of intercity train transport with buses, and established subsidiary companies specifically for the purpose of buying out streetcar companies. The purpose of this venture was the replace the old rail-based service with new buses. In 1930, General Motors began a foray into aircraft design and manufacturing by purchasing several airplane manufacturers and merging them into the General Aviation Manufacturing Corporation. General Motors foray into aircraft lasted only until 1948. Also in the 1930s, General Motors purchased two locomotive companies. Over the next twenty years, GM diesel-powered locomotives replaced most other trains on the American railroads. These trains also played an important part in escorting submarines and destroyers during World War II.

General Motors was one of the major producers of armaments, vehicles and aircraft in World War II. GM's president at this time served as the head of U. S. wartime production under Franklin Roosevelt. After the war, in 1953, the then-GM president Charles Erwin Wilson was named Secretary of Defense by President Eisenhower. At the time, General Motors was the largest employer in the world outside of the government controlled Soviet industries. In 1955, General Motors became the first ever American corporation to make over one billion dollars a year. Since 2000, GM has remained the world's largest auto manufacturer. General Motors is no longer the largest company in the United States because of oil company mergers.

Though Chevrolet was a brand under the General Motors Umbrella, Chevrolet and GMC trucks remained visually different until the mid-1970s. The biggest difference between the two is that GMC pickup trucks generally sported a double set of headlights, versus the single set found on Chevrolet trucks. This pattern ended in 1973. For the most part today, GMC trucks are the same as sold under the Chevrolet name. In 2007, the truck division of General Motors intends to introduce the Acadia. The Acadia is a crossover sport utility vehicle, and the first unibody vehicle the company has produced. Crossover vehicles are sport utility vehicles built with a more economical and fuel-efficient body. They have largely replaced the station wagon as the large-capacity car of choice. GMC trucks produce vans, SUVs, heavy and medium duty trucks, buses and motor homes, in addition to the classic pickup truck.

General Motors has been working on alternative technology vehicles for some time. Recently, they have led the automobile industry with vehicles capable of running on either gasoline, or E-85, which is a mostly ethanol fuel. They demonstrated kerosene powered vehicles in the 1950s, but these were never feasible. General Mothers was the first to use turbochargers in the 1960s, and favored the V6 engine for fuel efficiency. In the 1970s and 1980s, General Motor's attempts to use Diesel engines in Oldsmobiles resulted in poor performance and driveability. The GM produced the EV1 in 1996. This vehicle was the first mas produced electric car in the modern era. It was available by lease only. Despite positive public reaction, the company canceled the program after a very small production run. General Motor's lack of support for its own electric car program is somewhat mystifying. GM has however recently released the world's first full-sized electric hybrid pickup trucks. The company has hinted that new hybrid technologies are soon to be employed that are optimized for higher speeds. Current hybrid vehicles get the best gas mileage at low speeds.