Truckin'

April 18, 2025Newsletter Archives

General Motors knows trucks.

In the 2025 first quarter, in fact, we were the #1 U.S. seller of full-size pickups, with 40% of the market. And that’s just more of the same: we’ve been number one in that market for five years in a row, and the top seller of full-size SUVs for a remarkable 50 years straight. 

As you’d expect for a company that makes so many great trucks – like the Chevy Silverado, Silverado EV and Colorado, and the GMC Sierra, Sierra EV, Canyon, and Hummer EV Pickup – there are a lot of people around here who are truck experts. But not many people at GM or anywhere else know more about the truck market than Jaclyn McQuaid, who last fall took the reins as VP of GMC and Buick. 

A Detroit-area native with a pair of engineering degrees from the University of Michigan, McQuaid has spent her entire 26-year career at GM. She’s had 14 different jobs here, including some deep in the engineering trenches - vehicle dynamics, and noise and vibration, and brakes, and tire-wheel systems. And now she gets to bring her deep knowledge of the truck market to one of the auto industry’s best gigs for a truck lover: running GMC, along with our storied Buick nameplate. 

In an interview published this week on GM News, McQuaid details the course of her career, and her enthusiasm for trucks and GMC – and also for Buick.  

McQuaid’s connection with GMC goes back a long way - the first car she ever drove was a 1984 GMC Suburban, now called the Yukon. (Chevy now sells the Suburban.) Her current drive is the recently revealed 2026 Sierra EV AT4, which will be available for orders in a few weeks.  

“I love the AT4 trim, it has always been a favorite of mine, with a rich off-road persona and capability. I always gravitate to that,” she says. “In terms of my favorite, that’s a tough one. I’ve had the honor of working with all four of our brands and love all of them. But I’m a truck driver at heart. So, I would say there is a special place I my heart for our full-size truck portfolio, including our full-size SUVs, like Yukon XL.”

Keep on truckin’, Jaclyn.

-- Eric Savitz, editor-in-chief, GM News