Remade Silverado Sums Up Pickup Power

The all-new Chevy Silverado, the second best-selling pickup truck behind the Ford F-Series, was launched by the automaker to entice more truckers. GM's vice chairman of global product development, Bob Lutz said, "We can't keep making vehicles to be as good as the competition. We have to aim three notches higher so by the time we hit the market, we're in the lead - we can't just be good enough anymore."

Chevy is the biggest brand of General Motors and the Silverado is Chevy’s cream of the crop model with a remarkable 636,000 units sold in the previous year. Despite tough truck competition from the Ford F-Series, Toyota Tundra and the Dodge Ram, the automaker expects to sell more units this year. According to industry critics, with the remade Silverado, GM can put up an even tougher fight.

With the new $850-million Tundra facility in San Antonio, Texas to produce 200,000 trucks a year, Toyota is said to be a serious threat to both Ford and GM. The Toyota Tundra, with a length of 228.7 inches and a wheelbase of 145.7, is virtually spot-on with the Chevrolet Silverado. With regards power source, the Toyota Tundra is powered by a 5.7-liter V-8 and a six-speed automatic, which is capable of producing about 400 horses and more than 400 pound feet of torque. When towing capacity is to be made an issue, Toyota said the Toyota Tundra is engineered to tow more than 10,000 pounds. These facts alone should make GM more cautious.

However, the greatest threat to Chevrolet is the prolonged dominance of the F-Series trucks from Ford. Said series has been sold for more than 5 decades now. Its most popular variant is the Ford F-150. So far, it has established a record for 23 years as the best selling truck in America. It is also the best selling truck around the globe for 39 years now. The sales of the Ford F-Series are so strong that it makes up half of the automaker’s profit in the previous years.

The serious threats surrounding GM is pretty tough. To circumvent this, the automaker is continuously launching striking and groundbreaking vehicles to boost its edge in the auto market. Furthermore, it has rebuilt the Chevrolet Silverado not just to improve the overall appeal and performance of the vehicle but to enhance GM’s performance as well.

He is the owner of a successful auto body shop in Ferndale, California. This 38 year old is also a prolific writer, contributing automotive related articles to various publications.

Article Source: http://www.thearticleinsiders.com