Anyone know current sales figures for Lightning and Silverado SS?

 

Just because they have been sitting at your local dealership dosn't mean crap...heck the same 4 corvettes have been sitting at my local dealer a few months...I guess that means they aren't selling?

First thing you have to learn is what happens in your area is not a great indicator of everywhere else.

Just cause you see 4 Camaro's on your block doesn;t mean they are selling well everywhere.

Check out www.SilveradoSS.com...they have a pretty high userbase and seem happy.

As for the SSR, for what it is, it has been a sucess. It has given GM plenty of good press and will probley sell everyone they make.

 

Yeah, I'd be interested in those too.

Anectotely...I've only seen one Silverado SS on the street, but lots on dealer lots.

 

True GM is out to make money, but I wonder why they simply cannot make both models. Build the extended cab AWD version and the Lightning fighter regular cab. The development costs on a regular cab would be near nothing. The publicity of a regular cab SS would be more than worth it. Chevy needs to assault the public as much as they can with the SS theme that it's attempting to bring out now.

Maybe Chevy is waiting for the LS2 engine to come out first so they have an adequate to compete with the SRT-10 and the Lightning?

 

Well give it a year and I think there will be a true performance model with the new engine line. No one has noted that the 345HP engine is GM's most powerful truck engine at this point. The 390HP version in the standard cab would have to be emissions certifed. Plus the truck is a stripper with a bench seat...I can't see many people likeing that.


As for Lightning production numbers...I found this...

http://waw.wardsauto.com/ar/auto_ford_strikes_sport/

 

Would 390 be enough though? I suspected that the main reason why there is no true Silverado SS was because there was no offthe shelf engine that could fight the Lightning. A regular 6.0 or LS1 was all that we had (minus the LS6 that Corvette is nearly unwilling to give up). Since the Silverado weighs so much, I would guess that they would need over 400hp to make a performance model. That would seem to be something the LS7 (the rumored 6.4-6.6L future Z06 engine) would have to take up.

But about the bench seat, would it be that hard for Chevy to put regular seats in a regular cab SS? It's not like we're talking a new engine here. A few seat brackets and some bolt are all that really would be needed to change it, right?

 

Remember...wheels can cost millions of dollars to make...seats are probly the same.

The amount of engineering it would take to match a 500HP Lightning is expensive..engine, suspension, etc.

Here is my thinking......

Ford only makes 5,000 a year..and I don't hear anyone crying there isn't enough Lightning out there. This tells me that for a 400-500 HP pickup truck is very small. Now add to that competition from the PVO Ram and suddenly a small market is saturated. If you were GM would you want to dump as much money as it would take to match the next Lightning in a product lucky to sell 5,000 units?

Everyone like the Lightning...but very few people own them...I think the same would happen with a 500HP SS.

I expect a faster SS when the new engines debut in the next year or two, but I am unsure GM will go as far as 500HP.

345HP is alot for me...especially in a truck that keeps is utility like the Silverado SS.

 

Nah, I wasn't talking about 500+hp. I was thinking more around 420 or so. 500 is just insane. The new Lightning and SRT-10 have crossed the line of absurdity.

 

The current 345HP would be ok as long as the price of the truck was low enough

I'd take a $27K 345HP SS over a $34K 380HP Lightning and spend the extra $7,000 on a nice jet ski for the SS to tow..

 

[shaking shoulders]WAKE UP MAN-WAKE UP![/shaking shoulders]

 

SVT does not report sales figures til the production run ends.

I'd have to take my shoes off to count how many SS's Ive seen sitting for weeks on end at dealer lots.I seen a TAN colored SS on one dealer's lot.The next day it was black!

 

Unless Lightning production has been bumped down, it should be 7,500 units a year. It used to be 5,000 back in 99/00.

It's a limited production performance truck, so the sales #'s are justified. Ford still sells 800,000+ regular F-trucks a year. The .6% makes it really feasible too. Your core buyers buy the 99.4% of F-series while the more performance minded .6% go for the lightning. Everyone is happy…case closed.

It may or may not outsell it. You and i don't know that for a fact. You want large volumes; you make the vehicles more affordable (Which the SS isn’t).. I've seen more marauders, more ThunderBird’s, more Aviators, and more Lincoln Blackwoods (All considered sales flops) than SS's to date. This is in a Metro location with a population of over a Million people. The SS is already sounding like a sales flop to me. I think GM would be lucky to sell 10k of those a year.

The current SS is nothing more than a c3 Sierra with larger wheels, cosmetic upgrades, and an additional 15-20hp. If people wanted such truck, they'd have bought the c3 and thrown on the 20's themselves. How about offering something really different and adding some real variation to the lineup?

Everything the “real world” wants can be found in the regular Sierra/Silverado lineup. That’s no excuse.

The answer to whether people are willing to pay that much will be shown in the sales #’s. Yes it looks nice, offers AWD, and offers plenty of room, but those alone don’t equal success.

I’d like a link to that C&D 14.1 ¼ mile. The fastest I’ve seen to date is low 6’s and high 14’s.

Like the regular full-sized trucks don't bring in enough. Come on...Gm sells close to a million of those a year. What's so hard about offering the loyal enthusiast a little something in return?

If they care so much about profits, why not cut back on the incentives and rebates? There's $4-6k extra that they could have made in sales per truck.

If it’s all about profits, how come cash strapped Ford and Chrysler feel the need to offer trucks like the L’s and SRT-10 Rams? GM is in a much better financial position than either.

 

In Michigan NOONE wants a SS.Last weekend I drove all over the state and I seen SS trucks on every lot i seen.My local dealer has had the same 2 SS trucks it started with.

Would you say that the SS apeals to more buyers then,Lets say a 2003 Harley f150?Afterall that is the competition for the SS not the L...............Chevy guys need something to fight the L.Its like a Mustang with no Camaro.They NEED eachother.

 

14.8 @ 90 mph

 

Don't forget that people order vehicles too that never see any time in a lot. This is how I would do it, and I suspect many others do to. You just have to wait to see final production numbers that are compared to sales expectations.