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Chevrolet Dealers Prep for Medium-Duty Return
Come December, medium-duty 2019 Chevrolet Silverado 4500s, 5500s and 6500s will start flowing into GM dealerships — a day for which many GM dealers have waited patiently. When GM discontinued production of the Chevrolet Kodiak and GMC TopKick medium-duty trucks in 2009 (a delay from the original 2007 discontinuation), many GM commercial dealers were not happy about losing their business to Ford and Ram commercial dealers. Both those brands ramped up their medium-duty offerings quickly.
But with the advent of Chevy medium-duty trucks, that's about to change.
According to Automotive News (subscription required), Chevy dealers are gearing up for the new Class 4, 5 and 6 medium-duty trucks by expanding their service and sales operations in significant ways, such as adding larger service areas, training for employees and more staff.
The new cutaway and cowl chassis variants were introduced at the 2018 NTEA Work Truck Show and are part of a GM-Navistar partnership. The trucks are being built at a Navistar production plant in Springfield, Ohio. It will take some time for Chevy to make inroads into the medium-duty truck market, but with more than 400 established commercial dealerships across the country, it has a good start. Many of those dealers will continue to sell cab-forward variants (produced in partnership with Isuzu) along with the standard Silverado 3500 chassis-cab models.
Once the new trucks are available, we expect to see some creative truck builders get take 4500 chassis crew cabs and fit a full-size 8-foot bed on the back to make a big impression — maybe on a 4x4 trail (the medium-duty trucks will be offered in 4x2 and 4x4 drivetrains). Some businesses might even think of creating a one-off medium-duty pickup as a promotional vehicle and use it as a tax write-off. We can't think of a better way for a business to make a big first impression.
