Chevy Offers Over $9,000 Discount to Sell a Big Pickup

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.
Chevy Offers Over $9,000 Discount to Sell a Big Pickup

© courtesy of General Motors Co.

The Chevy Silverado, the second best-selling vehicle in America, is on sale. The General Motors division has a model that it has discounted $9,515. The pickup category is ruthlessly competitive. The deal shows how far that competition goes, financially.

Chevy is locked in competition with two other companies in the full-sized pickup segment of the car industry. The Ford F-150 has been the best-selling vehicle in America for four decades. The Ram, from Fiat Chrysler, rounds out the competition. Despite their sturdy construction, none of the big pickups is on the list of 15 cars most likely to last 15 years.

The version of the Silverado with the deepest discount is the 2019 Crew Cab LT All Star Z71. The $9,515 sum includes a total cash discount of $4,000, a $3,015 discount from MSRP (manufacturer’s suggested retail price), a $2,000 competitive owner cash offer, and a $500 discount on options. A quick break down shows how few people can actually get the discount.

[nativounit]

First, the buyer has to get financing through GM Financial, a way for GM to make extra money. Next, it is hard to find out what “competitive owners discount” is by viewing the chevy.com site. Presumably, it is a discount for people who currently own competing pickups. As for the option package, it is also hard to find what is on that list. At least we looked hard.

There are two primary discounts. The total case discount of $4,000 is easy to understand. The $3,015 discount is off an artificial price. The manufacturer’s suggested retail price does not bind dealers anymore if it ever did.

Chevy has another offer if people would rather lease than own this version of the Silverado. A “well qualified” customer can 0% APR, 72-month lease. While long-term leases have started to become more risky for car and finance companies, Chevy and GM are willing to take the six-year risk.  When and if a buyer takes one of Chevy’s two offers, another advantage is that large pickups are among the 25 least expensive cars in America to insure.

The most astonishing thing about the large discount on the Silverado is that it may not be a discount at all, at least according to the fine print:

*MSRP less cash offers. Tax, title, license and dealer fees extra. Residency restrictions apply. Not available with some other offers. See dealer for details.

1 Not available with special financing, lease and some other offers. See participating dealer for details. Must take retail delivery by 04/30/2019
2 Not available with special financing, lease and some other offers. See participating dealer for details. Must take retail delivery by 05/31/2019
3 Not available with lease and some other offers. Residency restrictions apply. Must take retail delivery by 04/30/2019
4 Not available with lease and some other offers. See dealer for details. Must take retail delivery by 05/31/2019
5 Some customers may not qualify. Not available with special financing, lease and some other offers. See dealer for details. Must take retail delivery by 04/30/2019

Those are a lot of hurdles to clear.

[wallst_email_signup]

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

Featured Reads

Our top personal finance-related articles today. Your wallet will thank you later.

Continue Reading

Top Gaining Stocks

CBOE Vol: 1,568,143
PSKY Vol: 12,285,993
STX Vol: 7,378,346
ORCL Vol: 26,317,675
DDOG Vol: 6,247,779

Top Losing Stocks

LKQ
LKQ Vol: 4,367,433
CLX Vol: 13,260,523
SYK Vol: 4,519,455
MHK Vol: 1,859,865
AMGN Vol: 3,818,618