mmarshall

Interesting. GM has filed for a U.S. patent on the Montana name for a compact pickup currently sold in other markets. It's unclear, though, why GM has to file for an additional patent when it already sold the Pontiac Montana minivan back in the 1990s. GM, IMO, was guilty of false advertising when they did TV ads showing the Montana as a "Cowboy"-type off-road vehicle used in ranching.

Anyhow, back to the Chevy, this compact truck would undercut the upcoming Ford Ranger in size, which will be a mid-sized truck, competing with the Chevy/GMC Colorado/Canyon and Toyota's Tacoma.

http://gmauthority.com/blog/2017/08/...n-for-montana/

• BY ALEX LUFT
• — AUG 25, 2017

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General Motors has filed a trademark application to register the terms Montana with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), GM Authority has discovered.

Filed on August 21st, 2017 and assigned serial number 87576917, the filing states that the standard character marks will be used to name “motor vehicles, namely trucks”.

The GM Authority Take

General Motors sells a compact pickup truck called the Chevrolet Montana in various countries outside the United States, including some markets in South America. Based on the GM Gamma platform, the unibody vehicle is sold as the Chevrolet Montana in Brazil, Chevrolet Utility in South Africa (until Chevy’s withdrawal from the market), and Chevrolet Tornado in Mexico, where it retails for 320,000 Mexican pesos, which is roughly $18,170 USD, using current conversion rates.





As such, the filing hints that The General’s bread-and-butter Chevrolet brand is planning to introduce a fourth model to its pickup truck family called the Montana, slotting under the midsize Colorado, full-size Silverado, and the upcoming medium-duty GM truck, which will likely become the future Chevrolet Kodiak by name.

Stay tuned to GM Authority as we follow this one, as well as all other General Motors news.

Hoovey689

iTrader: (16)

Reminds me of a raised two door Subaru Baja with a Chevy Aveo front

mmarshall

Yes, I'd agree......given that it comes from a unibody, Opel-derived platform, I'd say that there are some similarities to the unibody Baja. And, though the article doesn't say, one could probably assume that there will at least be an AWD option like the Baja......though AWD was standard on the Baja.

Sulu

A patent filing would be for the product that GM wants to produce, in this case, a compact, unibody pickup truck (on the subcompact Gamma platform). A trademark filing for the "Montana" name may or may not follow, depending if GM still owns the rights to that name. Patents and trademarks do expire so do have to be renewed if the owner wants to continue the product or the name.

On the topic of compact, unibody pickup trucks, perhaps Honda, Hyundai and now GM see a demand for these types of pickup trucks, which would explain why Honda has re-invented the Ridgeline, and why Hyundai and GM now look like they want to sell compact, unibody pickup trucks in the USA.

mmarshall

The Ridgeline is considered a mid-size truck, not a compact. Having done a full-review on one a few months ago, I'd agree.

Fizzboy7

All these silly car-like, out-of-country attempts have failed in the past, and this one no-doubt will too. Its as bad and no different than the failed Subaru Brat. It needs to be a traditional truck, as that's what American buyers and gardeners on a budget have proven to want. (The Ridgeline sells in very limited numbers). I'm reminded of all those failed Bob Lutz toys that no one bought and helped ruin the company.
The best solution would have been to create a Colorado that was smaller. It is too large and too close in size and price to the base Silverado (Another GM mistake). Overweight America wants full size trucks. Economical America wants 1998-sized mini trucks.

mmarshall

...Such as?


The Colorado and Canyon are doing quite well. Here is a quote from pickup trucks.com for July 2017:

http://news.pickuptrucks.com/2017/08...july-2017.html


Also, not all of the car-based pickups in the past were flops. The Chevy El Camino and Ford Ranchero, for example, went on for decades. I'm sure you remember them. Yes, technically, they were BOF rather then unibody, but they were still based on the sedans of the period, not true pickups.

FrankReynoldsCPA

The Ridgeline performs terribly in sales.

This offense to humanity will sell even worse

LexBob2

I don't know what Honda's goals are for the Ridgeline, but thru July they've sold 21k vs. 6k last year. Not too bad.

mmarshall

No question the 2Gen version, which was introduced last year, is far more attractive to a lot of buyers than the 1Gen was, with its rather awkward look. The 2Gen looks much more like a real truck, though treating its riders to a nice, quiet, refined, Dodge-Ram-smooth ride. It's little wonder that sales are way up this year. In fact, my pastor bought a new one a few months ago...a top-line, special-trim, Black Edition.

Fizzboy7

The Ridgeline will be a slow seller once the first and second year hype is gone. The bottom line is, America does not like car-based trucks (with beds). Using the El Camino's success from 40 years ago is a very poor business model- and one GM still uses today. What people liked and wanted 40 years ago has very little to do with today's buying trends. Magnify that even more on a niche vehicle.

mmarshall

I'm not necessarily using it as a business model for today, but the El Camino of 40 years ago still carries on today in the form of the Holden Maloo, which comes from GM's Australian Holden Division. Pontiac was working on a re-badged version of it, to import here as the G8 Sport-Truck, when Pontiac itself folded. There was some talk at GM of transferring the project to Chevy, as (you guessed it) a new El Camino, but it was cancelled.

FrankReynoldsCPA

It's still not looking like a real truck. It looks like a minivan that had half of it's roof chopped off.

You have to upgrade to a higher trim now to get AWD.

It is probably a fine car. But it's certainly not a truck.

FrankReynoldsCPA

The Australian market is very different from the US market.

They love small "Utes".

mmarshall

Well, we do, too, but not necessarily of that type....one of GM's best-sellers is the small-Ute Buick Encore. Unfortunately, GM probably won't be importing any more Holden products into the U.S. after the current Chevy SS expires, so that will nullify any chance of a rebadged Maloo ever coming here as a sport truck.

The Opel-derived Montana pick-up, though (thread-topic), looks interesting...though its noticeably higher-stance than the Maloo would probably make it considerably less "sport" in design.