Chevrolet & GM Trucks

I take it that these trucks are second hand(used).

There has never been a great market for them in Australia. General Motors tried the Chev Suburban here and while they may be a mfortable vehicle with lots of power they are overrated as 4x4 vehicles. Spare parts back up and servicing is also a problem. The only American vehicles in Australia which have a small following are Jeep(Cherokee) and Ford(F250/F350).

Overall the market is dominated by Toyota, Nissan, Mitsubishi and Isuzu with Mazda, Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Ford and GM catering for the "Soft Roader"(vehicles without Low Range).

Hi Brett, as cool as the GM 4x4's are, they have historically had limited success in Australia. Holden (local GM) sold a right hand drive variant of the Chev Suburban recently and sales were poor.

The problems (real or percieved) you'll need to overcome for volume sales with the Australian 4x4 purchasing public are:

1. Reliability issues
2. Spare parts availability
3. High fuel consumption
4. Too wide to fit on 4x4 tracks (as an ex F100 owner, this is a very real problem)
5. Poor quality and/or expensive right hand drive conversions and compliance costs (fiddly things like indicators, wipers, opposite camber of roads etc).

Don't be put off, as Ford Australia are selling the F250 / 350 locally with solid sales, but remember that marque has the backup of a 5yr warranty and the Ford dealer network for spares and servicing. Its strong points are the International Navistar 7.3l motor and Alison auto knock-off for towing and interior room.

The Ford F100, 150, 250, 350 and Bronco have been locally produced and sold for 30 or 40 years in Australia and are cheap and plentiful. You'll have to land the GM's fairly cheap to compete with the 'brickies', 'horsie-folk' and 'Jack Daniel's tank top brigade's' purchasing dollar.

If you could focus on the new 6.0l Duramax, or older 6.5l turbo diesel powered vehicles, I'd imagine that's where the keenest interest would come from.

In the older, secondhand market there's usually a few C10, C20's Cheyenne's or Suburbans around but they generally do not command high prices.

Just my 2c's worth. If you can land a good 2WD Chev C10 Custom Deluxe with the 4 bolt 350ci / TH350 combo at the right price however, let me know;-)

Good luck Brett.

the biggest prob you will find is that the govt here is still changing the import scheme, now you need to go through the RAWS scheme $$$, and they are closing the 15 y/o loophole as well. So the complied and registered price will be very high for old vehicles.

Also i cant remember from when i was there - do they salt the roads in alberta province ? This will also put off a lot of buyers, most import yank iron comes from the desert regions down south.

On the other hand, if you go further north and source some of those grouse 'tundra buggies' from iceland Ie- the landcruisers and troopers, then get approval to comply them here you could be on a winner.