1983 Gmc Sierra, 95,000 Orig. Miles, Garage Kept, Excellent Condition on 2040-cars

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Junkyard Gem: 1973 GMC Sierra Grande Camper Special

Starting in the 1973 model year, General Motors introduced the "Rounded Line" family of C/K-series Chevrolet and GMC trucks, and sales of the pickup versions continued all the way through 1987. Nice examples of these trucks can sell for large money, but the junkyard teaches us that not all collectible vehicles are worth rescuing and fixing up. Here's a reinforcement of that lesson, courtesy of a first-year GMC C2500 Camper Special with the high-zoot Sierra Grande trim level, found in a self-service yard just outside of Denver, Colorado. I'm no GM truck expert, but I know enough to stay clear of the battles over what to call this pickup. Let's just say it's a three-quarter-ton, rear-wheel-drive third-gen C-Series with really cool badges. Yes, I bought this badge for my garage wall, and it was totally worth the $4.23. GM came up with the Camper Special package during the late 1960s, when removable pickup campers became popular, and for 1973 it included heavy-duty springs and a wiring harness made to plug into the connectors on slide-in truck campers. It also included woodsy-looking badges, but someone pried the ones off this truck before I could buy them. This may well have been a one-owner truck, because it still had original warranty paperwork inside. Here we see that it was purchased new on August 2, 1973 (which happens to be the day that George Brett got his very first hit in the big leagues) by a resident of Compton, California. Yes, that Compton. The build tag tells us that this Camper Special was born at the Fremont Assembly plant in California, which became the GM-Toyota NUMMI venture in 1984 and is now the Tesla Factory. I think most 1973 C/K pickups sold new in Colorado would have come from Pontiac Assembly in Michigan. There was a time, not many years ago, when a genuine 454-cubic-inch (that's 7.4 liters to those of you sweating under the oppressive weight of the French Empire's Measurement System) big-block Chevrolet engine would have been yanked out and purchased within hours of hitting the rows of a yard like this. These days, engine-swappers can get more power with less weight from any number of donor vehicles. If this engine is the original 454, it was rated at 240 horsepower and 355 pound-feet (down from 270 hp in 1972 due to emissions-related changes). This truck had a three-speed automatic transmission, like most optioned-up Detroit pickups of its era.

GM pickup truck plant in Flint to add 1,000 assembly workers

FLINT, Mich. — General Motors said Tuesday it will add 1,000 workers to build new heavy-duty pickup trucks at its plant in Flint, Michigan, and will give priority to GM workers who were laid off elsewhere. The announcement comes the day after GM said it was starting to hand pink slips to about 4,000 salaried workers in the latest round of a restructuring announced in late November that will ultimately shrink its white-collar workforce in North America by 15 percent out of 54,000. GM has come under fire from U.S. President Donald Trump and Midwestern lawmakers for its plans to stop production at five North American factories and cut up to 15,000 jobs in all. The automaker has said it is trying to find new jobs for 1,500 U.S. hourly workers at the affected plants. Flint's truck plant could be a haven for many of these employees. Sales of heavy-duty pickups in the United States have grown to more than 600,000 vehicles a year, up more than 20 percent since 2013, according to industry data. Prices for luxury models can easily top $70,000. GM on Tuesday will celebrate the launch of a new generation of heavy-duty GMC and Chevrolet pickups at the assembly plant in Flint, Michigan, that is now building all such trucks for the company. Elsewhere in the company on Monday, two people briefed on the cuts in the white-collar salaried workforce said GM is cutting hundreds of jobs at its information technology centers in Texas, Georgia, Arizona and Michigan and more than 1,000 jobs at its Warren, Michigan Tech Center. GM is filing new required mass layoff notices with state agencies and disclosed the cuts to lawmakers. The largest U.S. automaker announced in November it would cut a total of about 15,000 jobs and end production at five North American plants. The cuts include eliminating about 8,000 salaried workers, or about 15 percent. GM cut about 1,500 contract workers in December and said 2,300 salaried workers accepted buyouts, officials said. "These actions are necessary to secure the future of the company, including preserving thousands of jobs in the U.S. and globally. We are taking action now while the overall economy and job market are strong, increasing the ability of impacted employees to continue to advance in their careers, should they choose to do so," GM spokesman Pat Morrissey said, adding the bulk of the cuts should be completed in the next two weeks. Morrissey said GM would provide salaried workers with severance packages and job placement services.

GMC Hummer EVs 'sold out for two years or more'

At the end of March this year, GMC said it had 65,000 reservations for the Hummer EV pickup and SUV. At the time, brand chief Duncan Aldred said, "Production’s actually slightly ahead of plan and weÂ’re putting things in place now to actually expedite that as well, so we can deliver these reservations quicker than we originally thought. WeÂ’re seeing momentum building," adding that "it still means a reservation now probably means delivering in '24." By the time of the 2024 GMC Sierra EV Denali Edition 1 reveal just a bit ago, that reservation number had climbed to 90,000. GMC shut down the Hummer reservations line a month ago. GM Authority reports that when GMC chief Duncan Aldred spoke at a media briefing ahead of the Sierra EV reveal, he said the Hummer is "sold out for two years or more."   Notice, the word "probably" has been replaced by the phrase "or more" in the production vocabulary. That development likely takes into account what's happened since March at GM's Factory Zero, where the automaker currently builds the Hummer. That site, along with the new Orion Township Assembly Plant, will soon build the Chevrolet Silverado EV, GMC Sierra EV and Cruise Origin autonomous vehicle. In a memo from the beginning of the year, GM said a $6.6 billion investment in EV production capability will ultimately allow 600,000 electric pickups to come off lines every year. That's at least a couple of years away, though. At the beginning of October, GM said it wanted to bump production of the EVs on sale now, which includes the Chevrolet Bolt, to 70,000 vehicles in 2023. Back to the Hummer, GMC increased September Hummer production to 700 units for the month. That was a huge bump over the monthly average in the nine months up to September, the production totaling 2,750 units for the first three quarters, yet well behind what the brand would like. And Factory Zero will shut down for a few weeks in November for upgrades to produce the additional vehicles. All of this assumes the supplies of chips and raw minerals for batteries, industrial supplies and industrial transport don't suffer another hiccup. If there's any good news buried in all this, it's that 95% of Hummer reservation holders were converting to paid orders, an absurdly positive number. Based on what we've seen so far, GM's got some good looking EVs on the way. Let's cross our fingers that the company can build them quicker. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party.