GMC FQC54V and PFC42V Cordless Drivers: Discontinued — What to Buy Instead
Fast-charge cordless drivers from a brand that went into receivership in 2008. The batteries went with it.
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The FQC54V and PFC42V were GMC’s fast-charging cordless drivers, sold on the promise of a very short charge time. GMC’s Australian business was placed in receivership in 2008 and the brand left the market.
Why these are not recoverable
With cordless tools from a dead brand, the tool is rarely the problem — the battery is, and there is nobody making replacements.
These used proprietary packs on a platform that existed for a few years and then stopped. Third-party cells are scarce, and rebuilding a pack costs more than a current entry-level driver.
That is the whole story for any orphaned cordless platform, and it is the argument for buying into a battery system that is currently sold rather than a tool that looks like good value.
Fast charging, in context
The fast-charge claim was ahead of its time and is now normal. Current lithium chargers bring a mid-size pack to usable charge in well under an hour, and to full in not much more.
More importantly, lithium packs hold their charge on the shelf. The reason fast charging mattered on nickel-cadmium tools was that packs self-discharged between jobs, so you arrived with a flat battery. That problem has largely gone away.
What to buy
The Ryobi ONE+ HP brushless impact driver, linked below, sits in the same DIY market position on a platform with an unusually long compatibility record — the ONE+ battery mount has not changed since 1996.
Buy the platform, not the tool. Whatever brand you choose, you are committing to a battery mount you will keep adding tools to, and the value of that commitment depends entirely on the brand still being here in ten years.