GM Aims To Bite Ford’s Market Share Before 2015 F-150 Launch With Incentives

After holding to a tight pricing strategy throughout the 2014, GM is going on the full-size truck offensive in September with financing deals, incentives and lucrative dealer payouts for sales targets. This is just before three critical trucks launch in the marketplace: the 2015 Chevrolet Colorado, the 2015 GMC Canyon, and the 2015 Ford F-150.

For months now, GM has held to a widely talked-about pricing strategy that saw GMC and Chevy trucks offered with little incentives. This strategy was double-edged with more profits per truck (good) but offset with market share erosion (bad).

Officially, GM is offering special leases and rebates plus dealer bonus cash during the month of September on 2014 and 2015 Chevrolet Silverado pickups. Automotive News reports the dealer incentives are quite lucrative with a bonus of $1,300 for every 2014 and 2015 pickup sold if dealers hit their targets. There is also an incentive for a “fast start” on selling Silverados, as well. The incentive pays dealers extra for selling more trucks during the first 15 days of the month.

Dealers are saying the targets are attainable and there are good deals to be had. For example, a buyer could use a package of discounts to get $9,500 off a $37,235 sticker price on a 2015 Silverado double cab LT All Star edition with a 4.3L V6 engine. There are also good lease deals as well. A crew cab Silverado All Star edition with the V6 is being offered for $299 a month with about $3,000 down.

While it seems GM is finally taking to the offensive, GM spokesman Jim Cain says that isn’t exactly the case, according to the report. And GM’s spending on incentives is more in line with Ford and less than Ram. Sales data shows that the average Silverado incentive was $4,224 vs. $4,049 for an F Series truck while Ram offered $5,163. GMC and Chevrolet trucks also outsold the competition last month.

However, Ford maintains the lead in market share with 33.7 (down from 39.4 percent last year) and the Chevrolet Silverado sits at 24.9 percent, Ram has 21.3 percent while the Sierra has 9.8 percent.  Though adding both the Silverado and Sierra together, GM sits at 34.7 percent. It will be interesting to see how the marketing departments use these numbers.