As General Motors carefully manages the rollout of its most important vehicles in recent years, the 2019 Chevrolet Silverado and 2019 GMC Sierra, it appears the strategy is working. GM has continued building its previous-generation pickups as production slowly ramps up for the new models. The strategy led to a 0.6 percent increase for pickup truck sales in quarter three of 2018, Automotive News (subscription required) reported Sunday.
Specifically, Silverado sales carried the slight uptick in sales. The increase comes as most GM vehicles posted declines and the automaker reported an 11.1 percent decreases in Q3 sales numbers. Low inventory of pickup trucks has led GM to decrease incentive spending on the Silverado and Sierra by 19 percent and 35 percent.
“Our brands are very well-positioned for the fourth quarter when our next wave of new products start shipping in high volume,” said Kurt McNeil, GM U.S. vice president of sales operations.
While GM has sold down its older trucks in a rather smooth fashion, the next step will be moving new models in high volume without any hiccups to avoid sales dips. Inventory and lower incentives helped Ram outsell the Chevrolet Silverado for the past two months. Overall, Ram pickup sales are on par with 2017 numbers.
GM’s strategy sees unfinished pickups shipped from the Fort Wayne, Indiana, plant to Oshawa, Ontario, for final assembly. The pickup truck assembly helped secure the Canadian plant’s future for now, but it’s unclear how long GM will build the old pickups. Aside from the pickups, GM hasn’t allocated a new vehicle to the assembly plant, but things may change as Canada, the U.S. and Mexico agreed to a NAFTA replacement. The new agreement gives automakers a regulatory environment to work around and make longterm decisions.
The first units of 2019 Silverado and Sierra are reaching dealers now, but more volume-selling models will enter production later this year.
Comments
Hopefully they fixed the vibration issues the k-2 truck had. 50k for a truck that went down the road like a cement mixer didn’t impress me one bit. I let it sit in my driveway the remainder of the lease and bought an F150. The ride 10x better. The lease was 15k miles under when I turned it in. Just hated driving it and no help or solution to fix it. Been a Chevy family our entire life.
Yep been there with NO customer service or lying customer service. My 2017 sits in my garage 10,000 miles. GM needs to address there customer satisfaction.
My 2018 Silverado runs like crap, always has . I took it to 3 dealerships and have delt with 3 different customer representatives trying to get my truck fixed. They all say there is nothing wrong with it that they all run this way. Hesitation and surging at speeds up to about 50mph. I worked as a mechanic at a GM dealer back in 80’s, I know when a truck is not running right. I have always bought GM products but this has made me sick. No help from GM.
So we are supposed to take your word for it instead of a trained certified mechanic? You sound like a pilot that complains about the way a airplane is operating only to be told per the factory specs theres nothing wrong with the plane.
Just because or that other guy doesn’t like the way it runs doesn’t mean anything is wrong with it. Your personal preferences can not and should not be fixed by the dealer. The vehicle should be inspected by mechanics per factory specs not your personal specs!
This is my trouble Brian, If you go test drive a vehicle, right. So when you test drive it you like the way it drives, right. Well you are spending a little cash so you go test the competition just to see what there like, right. OK you really like that GM truck, right. So you go test drive it one more time and you really like it so you buy it, right, great. Now in 6 months, one year, your great truck starts shuddering, chugging, vibrating, hesitates, it has changed. It is different than the truck you bought. But your warranty does nothing because there is nothing saying your truck is going to run the same as when you bought it. If the vehicle is constantly changing, learning patterns, monitoring torque, it is changing. Now I am not saying the truck isn’t supposed to run and drive that way ( I would think you could just drive 5 trucks the same as yours if they all drive that way that is the way they all are ). What I am saying is the truck changed from what you loved about it when you bought it. And there is nothing you can do but buy another brand of truck. GM HAS NO WARRANTY FOR YOU. I thought you sold appliances, no.
My point is if the dealer looks at your truck and it passes all of the Test per manufacturer specs but it doesn’t pass your personal preferences test. That is not the dealerships fault and your painting the mechanic as a unprofessional and that is wrong.
It sure is a good thing you got that bumper to bumper warranty to handle ALL those faulty parts. Recalls only cover safety issues. GM warranties what they want when they want period, nothing anybody can do about it unless government recall and that’s only for a safety concern.
I have owned 7 GMs and loved the first 3. the next 1 was good but nothing special. The last 3 all had problems the worst being my 2006 Silverado purchased new. This truck left me stranded 3 times and I was able to jump start it 4 other times in the first 18 months! Dealer replaced the battery the first 2 times it was towed in but would not check to see what killed it. the last time it got towed in (1 year after I bought it new) they claimed they fixed it and would not give me a service reciept like they did the first 2 times. I drove it back 2 more times after having to jump start it and all they did was turn the key and say its fine.
For other issues, Window that screeched like crazy when rolling up while under warranty and they would not fix it. Carrier bearing bad at 42k miles, Blower module and wiring burned up and 50k. Tie rod end at 65k and rack and pinion started leaking at 70k.
But the WORST was the anti-lock brakes. This truck was the worst of any vehicle I ever owned for stopping and at 80k it started kicking in the anti-lock brakes under 5mph making it roll an extra 5-8 ft with the pedal vibrating.
This truck was very well maintained but I got better service out of a Dodge Van I bought with 144k on the clock and drove another 100k before trading it in.
I traded it for my first F150 and haven’t had a single problem with it. No more GM cars for me.