Lehmer's Concord Buick GMC

In 1936 Jesse Owens won four gold medals at the Olympics, you could buy a new Oldsmobile for $665 and Erv Lehmer's used car dealership in Concord, California got their franchise from General Motors to sell Oldsmobiles. Much has changed in the world since 1936, but the Lehmer family continues to sell GM vehicles in Concord.

Lehmer's Concord Buick GMC

Erv's daughter Carolyn has been around the dealership since she was born. She worked there during the summers when she was still in high school and after college she started full-time. Carolyn says, "I worked in the office, because girls worked in the office in those days. But I became a dealer in 1987." Today she runs the show at Lehmer's Concord Buick-GMC along with her husband Russ Anderson and their son Darren.

Lehmer's Concord Buick GMC

Russ took a winding path into the car business. When he was 18 years old he joined the navy and became an engine man on submarines. He remembers, "I liked GM just because our submarine diesels were 1,600-horsepower GM diesels that were first built for World War II." After leaving the sea he came back to California and joined the fire department.

Lehmer's Concord Buick GMC

He also met his future wife Carolyn at Mel’s Diner (made famous in the movie "American Graffiti".) He would drive used cars from his father-in-law's dealership to his firefighter job and he would often sell the car he was driving to an interested customer. Finally the chief told him to choose between firefighting and the car business, and Russ ended up as a salesman at Lehmer's.

Lehmer's Concord Buick GMC

After seven years at Lehmer's Russ became general manager of another GM dealership in nearby Walnut Creek, spending 21 years there before eventually returning to Lehmer's as general manager.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Check out these 10 things you may or may not know about GMC!

Posted by Lehmer's Concord Buick GMC on 10:49 AM


GMC has manufactured trucks since 1902, and is one of the industry's healthiest brands. Innovation and engineering excellence is built into all GMC vehicles and the brand is evolving to offer more fuel-efficient trucks and crossovers, including the Terrain smaller SUV and Acadia crossover.  GMC is the only manufacturer to offer three full-size hybrid vehicles with the Yukon, Yukon Denali SUVs and the Sierra pickup. The new Sierra Heavy Duty pickups are the most capable and powerful trucks in the market.  

GMC is one of the longest-running brands in the General Motors portfolio, the second-largest of the four GM brands in U.S. sales, and a standard bearer for engineering in pickup trucks, SUVs, and crossover vehicles. Here are 10 little-known facts about GMC:
  1. The GMC name turns 100 years old in 2012. In 1912, Rapid Motor Vehicle Company was merged with two others – Reliance and Randolph – to become GMC.
  2. On August 1, 1909, a Rapid F-406-B – a GMC predecessor – was the first truck to reach the 14,110-foot summit of Pikes Peak.
  3. If GMC was a standalone manufacturer, it would be the tenth-largest automaker in the United States in terms of total vehicle sales from January to November of 2011.
  4. GMC built some of the world’s earliest electric vehicles from 1912-1917. These trucks had single-digit model names, each denoting load capacity, from one-half-ton to 12 tons.
  5. GMC’s luxury-focused Denali trim level currently outsells the entire product lines of some premium automakers, including Land Rover, Jaguar, and Porsche.
  6. GMC was tasked with engineering and production of the 1936 Parade of Progress vans and the 1941 Futurliners, which toured the country carrying mobile road shows.
  7. Today, GMC and the Denali trim level are among the fastest-growing nameplates in the U.S. with respective sales increases of 22 percent and 91 percent year over year.
  8. During World War II, GMC manufactured approximately 584,000 military vehicles, including the CCKW-353 “Deuce-and-a-Half” and the amphibious “Duck.”
  9. The GMC Sierra – the brand’s top selling model – outsold the Toyota Tundra and Nissan Titan combined, with 40,000 sales to spare, through the first 11 months of 2011.
  10. From 1973-1978, GMC produced motorhomes in 23- and 26-foot lengths. They appeared in Bill Murray’s 1981 movie, Stripes and the 1996 blockbuster, Twister.


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