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Why did the army pick GM? With picture

welpro222

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I found this picture on Craiglist, not sure if its been posted here before but I thought it was funny


cucv.jpg

I guess the reason would be GM had a cheaper price? OR GM had a diesel in a pickup truck before Ford did?
 

patracy

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The military used Dodge for the first CUCV series. Course, they were buying from Chrysler during that time to keep them alive as well. (K cars and what have you)
 

welpro222

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I don't think they gave up on them, as the CUCV were used for many years. They just wanted something meaner looking for the front line. Plus it kind of makes the army look cheap just using civilian vehicles.
 

welpro222

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Not to mention, if they knew or thought about it. They could have been stuffing the newest turbo 6.5 in these things, and giving the cucv a new leash on life.
 

Al Harvey

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Well GM was really starting to hurt in the early 80s. They started a downhill slide after (some say) focusing on the wrong products to sell. This led to the government lending them a helping hand with the CUCV contract. Same thing they did with Dodge as patracy mentioned. I have always found it funny when people assume that because the military uses it, it must be the best. LOL If you've been in, you know that is not always the case.
 

rustystud

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From all that I have read on this, the military just needed a "temporary" vehicle in that size until there new project ( Hummer ) could come on line. GM met the requirements so they got the bid. The Hummer took longer then expected to come out so they just continued to use GM trucks.
 

Mainsail

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I would imagine that Ford wasn't impressed with the small CUCV contract since they had pretty much cornered the market in police cars.
 

cucvrus

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Not during that time period. The Chevrolet Caprice and Impala were pouring out of the assembly point in Texas as police cars. That was a huge contract back in the day to build the 75,000 plus CUCV's not to mention all the state game commission and wild life vehicles. I worked at a GM dealer ship during the late 70'- 1990. the states highway departments were buying Chevrolet K30 and C30 one ton crew cab trucks and the fish and game were buying the pick ups ,Blazers , and Suburbans as fast as GM could build them. They had a shortage of drive line parts for the 1 ton trucks during the 85- 86 model year. If I remember correctly. These state trucks all had the 6.2 diesel in them also and they were selling retail models of the 6.2 as fast as we could put them on the lot. GM was booming back in them years. I am speaking for PA and the Maryland and New York area. I was in fleet sales and service at the time and we did lots of up fitting with hour meters , block heaters , water filters , halogen headlamps all kinds of up-fitting out at the end users point of delivery and at the dealership. I saw the first CUCV's arrive at the dealership in late 1983. 2 pickups and 3 blazers. They were the strangest looking vehicles when I first saw them. The color of the interior was the oddest thing at the time. I drove them on the road and thought how cool it would be to own one of these things. Now you know the rest of the story. Have a nice day. I have lots of pictures of them over the years. Most are 35 mm. I wish I could share.
 

NDT

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Ford had just introduced the 6.9 diesel in '83 and the Cummins in Dodge was years off. GM had the only proven diesel vehicle when the contract was being bid. And diesel power was a primary requirement.
 

reaper556

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Not during that time period. The Chevrolet Caprice and Impala were pouring out of the assembly point in Texas as police cars. That was a huge contract back in the day to build the 75,000 plus CUCV's not to mention all the state game commission and wild life vehicles. I worked at a GM dealer ship during the late 70'- 1990. the states highway departments were buying Chevrolet K30 and C30 one ton crew cab trucks and the fish and game were buying the pick ups ,Blazers , and Suburbans as fast as GM could build them. They had a shortage of drive line parts for the 1 ton trucks during the 85- 86 model year. If I remember correctly. These state trucks all had the 6.2 diesel in them also and they were selling retail models of the 6.2 as fast as we could put them on the lot. GM was booming back in them years. I am speaking for PA and the Maryland and New York area. I was in fleet sales and service at the time and we did lots of up fitting with hour meters , block heaters , water filters , halogen headlamps all kinds of up-fitting out at the end users point of delivery and at the dealership. I saw the first CUCV's arrive at the dealership in late 1983. 2 pickups and 3 blazers. They were the strangest looking vehicles when I first saw them. The color of the interior was the oddest thing at the time. I drove them on the road and thought how cool it would be to own one of these things. Now you know the rest of the story. Have a nice day. I have lots of pictures of them over the years. Most are 35 mm. I wish I could share.
Gotta agree, if there ever was a time GM in was rolling in the dough it had to be from the late 70's thru the 80's
 

Al Harvey

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GM actually had bigger problems in the early 80s based on some management decisions by focusing more on financial calculations rather then on the consumer. GM was in the process of trying to reverse engineer the Japanese cars that were selling like crazy. They ended up lowering the quality of a lot of their vehicles by reorganizing into a "big car" and "small car" divisions. After they did a joint effort with Toyota in California where they realized "lean" production was best. This led to "re-badged" vehicles which lowered consumer interest in their products because high end cars did not stand out as much from low end cars, besides some chrome or bumper extensions. Just think of the X-cars. By 1989 they were losing about $2,000 on the cars they were building. They spent too much on automation while not enhancing the quality of their vehicles. Think about how many 80s GMs have the dreaded paint peeling. We had a 84 Cutlas that you couldn't keep the paint on it. Now I'm not bashing GM, but this is just some of the bad decisions that started GM on a downhill slide. The other 2 big manufactures were also behind the power curve as the market and environmentalist pushed the smaller efficient cars. Then with the standard MPG requirements going up to 20mpg in 1980, made them all strive to reach the fuel efficient ability of the Japanese cars. Sadly this is an example of a company that got more focused on showing profit, rather then quality products.
 
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