As a result, Chevrolet and GMC dealers only are getting about 80% of the V-8 Silverados and Sierras they order. The automaker says that won't last long, but won't get more specific.
The shortage is bad for GM. It comes at a time of fast-growing truck sales, often to tradesmen and others who have nursed their old trucks though the recession and can't afford to wait the way personal-use buyers can.
Every sale GM loses for lack of the right engine is one it might never get again. Work users keep their vehicles a long time and once they're out of the market, driving a Ford or Ram or Toyota, it could take very big GM discounts to draw them back to their home brand.
Pickups are among the most profitable vehicles, and truck rival Ford Motor has a new version of the F-150 coming next year. F-150 is the best-selling vehicle of any kind in the U.S., thus it's formidable competition. GM needs to draw as many buyers as possible before the competition gets hotter.
GM thought the V-6s would appeal to more buyers than has been the case because the 4.3-liter base engine now has V-8-level power ratings of 285 horsepower, 305 pounds-feet of torque.
Chevy Silverado product manager Carl Hillenbrand notes that is the same as the now-discontinued 4.8-liter V-8 in the previous generation of Silverado and GMC Sierra. Plus, he says, "Our friends down in Dearborn are doing well with V-6s." That's a reference to Ford, which sells a bout 55% of F-150 pickups with either the base 3.7 V-6 or the optional 3.5-liter EcoBoost V-6.
No doubt aggravating the problem: The V-8 models are the ones heavily advertised.
GM is rolling out the new trucks in stages and the fist ones produced were crew-cabs with the 5.3-liter V-8. And that's what GM's advertised heavily, including a poke at Ford by saying the GM 5.3-liter V-8 gets better mil! eage than Ford's EcoBoost V-6.
Nealry all crew-cabs are bought with V-8s.
Lower-price work trucks only recently have been available and those attract V-6 buyers.
Perversely, improved mpg of the 5.3 V-8 could be pulling away some V-6 buyers. A typically configured GM pickup with a V-6 is rated only 1 mpg more than the same truck with the V-8. To a business customer operating a fleet of trucks for hundreds of thousands of miles, that's imporant. To other buyers, it's less so.
GM says it can't simply crank up production of 5.3 engines because suppliers, following GM's earlier forecast for the mix of engines in the trucks, aren't geared up to produce enough of a needed part. GM won't identify the component. It's unique to the 5.3, though, GM says, and short supplies won't restrict the number of other engines.
All cab and bed configurations are in production now, GM says, as are all engines --the V-6, 5.3 and 6.2-liter V-8s. When the 6.2-liter V-8 hits showrooms soon it should ease some demand for the 5.3 engine, GM says.
Silverado Chief Engineer Jully Burau says new V-6's additional power, refinement and fuel economy should help boost sales once dealers and shoppers become familiar with the engine. "We're getting more dealers into the V-6" to sell them on it, Hillenbrand says.
"We have a great V-6, we just need people to love it, too," GM spokesman James Cain says.
GM sales were well off last month, especially those of the Silverado.
Cain says GM has run low on the discontinued pickup models because they sold better than expected, and the automaker hasn't yet filled the pipeline with the new trucks.
The V-8 shortage "is nothing that is affecting sales right now," says Don Johnson, Chevrolet sales head. "We're in the heart of our launch" he said during a call Tuesday to discuss September sales.
"Overall, the sales plunged because fleet sales were down 27%," according to Cain. That's the result of:
•Phase-out of the Impala as a fl! eet produ! ct. The redesigned 2014 Impala is meant for individual buyers, where profits are higher. The old model will continue an unspecified time for fleet buyers.
•No replacement until next year for the Colorado and Canyon mid-size pickups that were popular with fleets.
•A decline of 8,300 units, or 80%, in Cruze fleet sales because of seasonal patterns in rental fleet buying.
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