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Last One Built: 1981 Chevy C10 Pickup

Update 1/12/2018 – The current owner of this sweet C10, Jesse C, just sent over more photos of it. It’s always great to see a find we featured years ago still around, especially ones with as interesting history as this C10! Our special thanks to him for contacting us and for sending over more photos, which can be seen below.

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From 3/7/2016 – I’m sure a few of our readers have either worked in or near a GM plant in their day (or currently do). Lots of time these factories were in the Midwest or other environs not near the expensive and congested Northeast region. That’s why the Baltimore GMC plant made headlines when it closed, like the one in Framingham, Mass. and others long since shuttered: we didn’t have many to begin with, and to lose another was a blow. This 1981 Chevy C10 pickup is said to be the last one to roll off the line in Baltimore and is available here on eBay with a $45,000 Buy-It-Now.

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That Baltimore truck plant is now an Amazon distribution center. I’m sure that tells us something about our economy, but whether it’s anything good is up for debate (no offense to those who work for Amazon). Although the price of this truck seems stratospheric, there’s likely a lot of pride wrapped up in it, too, not to mention historical significance to GM. It might even be well-suited for becoming a permanent fixture in the GM museum, a possibility that’s easy to envision thanks to the seller’s historical photos included in the listing.

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The Baltimore plant had many uses over the years, from being a premier truck manufacturing facility to assembling the later Astro / Safari vans, and I believe it was a transmission plant for a few years as well. It shuttered completely in the early 2000s, signifying the end of vehicle manufacturing in Baltimore. I wonder today how many of those jobs are left in other facilities, or if they’ve gone south of the border and elsewhere. There’s lots of smiles in the photos of the crowd gathered around the truck as it rolls off the line, but that would change as the climate for manufacturing continued to improve elsewhere.

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As someone with family in Baltimore, I have to smile when I see the paint scheme on this truck – it looks like it could be a mascot for the Baltimore Orioles baseball team. Although the pictures are fairly awful (especially for someone asking nearly $50K), it looks like it wears “Final Truck” graphics on the doors and perhaps comes with a matching paperweight, complete with the iconic Maryland crab waving goodbye. While this is indeed a rare find, the asking price may only seem reasonable to a local or someone who worked on the assembly line. What do you think?

Comments

  1. Avatar Bill

    At that price, I think the only interest would be somebody who had a hand in building it. But since they are mostly all out of work (truck no longer made there) I doubt they have the financial ability to buy it. Interesting dilemna.

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  2. Avatar Rod

    Hard to believe they are asking that much. Very little info on the actual truck and its present condition. Obviously the seller believes this has tremendous historical value something I personally don’t agree with.
    I am always amazed at what people value things at and then don’t even back it up with proper info.

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  3. Avatar redwagon

    place i worked at had the last dodge truck made before they switched to the newer design (ca. 1997 or so). that was an unremarkable vehicle in every way. cannot imagine wanting to keep it or venerate it simply because it was the last one. personally i would be worried that in several places it was put together with the parts in the bin that had been passed up repeatedly b/c they weren’t perfect.

    glws.

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  4. Avatar john

    …if they wanted me to pay that price, they’d have to include a new Tundra.

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  5. Avatar AMC STEVE

    Big f’ing deal. Who cares and why does the seller think it’s something special. 8 grand tops.

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  6. Avatar Mike Astringer

    Did anyone else notice that the wheels in the factory pictures and the current wheels don’t match?

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    • Avatar Rspcharger

      First thing I noticed.

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    • Avatar Mike

      I did it had the old White Slots on it!!

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  7. Avatar boxdin

    Truly bad pictures, I think its a longbed but can’t even tell for sure.

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  8. Avatar JW

    I used to have one of the last Coke machines that dispensed 10oz coke bottles of Coke, I rebuilt the internals and got it working then they stopped selling 10oz bottles of coke in glass bottles. It was a cool conversation piece but I sold it for $150 to a guy who gutted it to make a kegger for his garage. I suppose some Chevy guy would want this for a work or show truck but not for his price, maybe 10K but that’s it.

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  9. Avatar Bjm123

    Framingham,Ma Plant is now Adesa car auctions.

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  10. Avatar JW454

    I saw this when it was first posted this morning. I waited to see if other readers felt it was worth the asking price just because it was “The Last One built”. I didn’t feel it was and, apparently I’m not alone.

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  11. Avatar mtshootist1

    I once owned the fifth Harley electraglide ever built. But I traded it off in the early seventies. It was the 1965 electric start panhead dresser.(and it was hifi blue, as in the ElectraGlide in Blue movie) I don’t remember any big to-do about it. That kind of mentality of value to a potential buyer extends to the commerative firearms produced by Winchester and Colt. You can’t shoot them without harming the value, and this truck would be a similar situation. Most folks want something that they can use.

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  12. Avatar Jason Houston

    I was invited to a special press showing the day the last Ford rolled off the Los Angeles/Pico Rivera Assembly Division on January 31, 1980. It was a memorable, well-attended, but somber event. Special press releases were given out containing a history of Ford production in Los Angeles. The last car, a Pastel Sand LTD Brougham 4-Door Sedan, was driven out onto the front lawn of the plant and attendees were permitted to take photographs. The car went to the plant’s general manager, who won a drawing for the car in a raffle. He had a two-year lease, and gave me all the literature that accompanied the car. I followed the car diligently, hoping some day to reunite the car with its literature, until 1997, when it disappeared forever.

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  13. Avatar Dan h

    I’m actually a little surprised at the amount of negative comments. Personally, I think it should be in a collection or even a museum. And if I had the $$, I would buy it too! Used to have a Chevy pick-up just like this and it was one of the best truck I ever owned.

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    • Avatar Mike

      I will build you one and you pick the colors for that price.

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  14. HoA Howard A Member

    IDK, I don’t get it either. GM closed Janesville with very little fanfare, and didn’t make any friends doing so ( even though the plant was horribly out of date.) Lot of jobs lost, and the area is just now beginning to recover. Kenosha too, once so proud, now the home of the biggest Amazon warehouse. Closing auto plants should not be something to celebrate, as countless lives are changed by doing so, not to mention all the trickle down businesses. I suppose, if it was the absolute last pickup made, that might have some merit, but I wouldn’t be so quick to honor the last vehicle made at a certain plant, you might get a tomato in the window from a disgruntled worker.

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    • Avatar geomechs Member

      Hi Howard. Tomato in the window? Somehow I think that the object would be somewhat harder. I agree with you on the plants closing being more depressing than something to celebrate; so many plant workers lost their life’s blood when those places were shuddered. I remember how devastating it was when the shop I worked for closed. Things have never been quite the same since…

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  15. Avatar steve

    I worked the Framingham plant, left in 1980 to pursue another career path. With all the plant closings since NAFTA there probably could have been a museum of “last cars” from each factory.

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  16. Avatar Roseland Pete

    I don’t know why those guys in the pic are smiling.

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  17. Avatar jim s

    maybe some are smiling because they are taking retirement back when companies still paid retirees health care and a pension. nice looking truck. interesting find.

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  18. Avatar Randy

    It’s just a truck, and an overpriced one at that.

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  19. Avatar roger

    I don`t care if it was built on the moon,that 45,000 price is crazy

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  20. Avatar Steve

    It had cooler wheels on it in the factory pictures. I think that is a mark against it. I never thought this generation trucks would ever be cool. The more I look at them now the more I like them. This person is asking the world for this truck. I think if it was a 1/4 of that price is what its worth. People are watching too much Barrett Jackson on TV.

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  21. Avatar Mike

    I have a friend that worked at the Chrysler plant in Fenton, MO and when it closed for good in 2009, there was about 60 Ram Trucks in various levels of completion setting on the assembly line that was scraped, and there was no big deal made about it other than Goodbye, we have offered you a job at a different plant if you took it good other wise goodbye, here is your buy out package!!! To this day Tommy will not drive a Dodge!!!!!

    Like 0
  22. Avatar dj

    I bought one for $700 with air in running condition. I think I’ll stick with it. There is no way that truck is worth even close to that.

    Like 0

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