The rivalry between Chevrolet and Ford isn’t as big in the realm of sports car as it is in the pick-up truck segment.
The ongoing feud between the Camaro and the Mustang stretches 50 years into the past, but it has been eclipsed by Chevy’s desire to take a bigger bite of the market it shares with the best selling vehicle in America.
For years on end, Ford’s F-150 has been on top of the game, and Chevy reckoned a provocative ad campaign against the aluminum-bodied, light and medium-duty pick-up would boost its sales. The commercial in question claimed that the Silverado pick-up’s steel bed is more durable than the F-150’s aluminum variant, with the tests conducted without a bed liner. So, did Chevy’s campaign work?
According to Automotive News, the Chevrolet Silverado did grab its biggest piece of the US full-size pick-up market, increasing its share in the segment by nearly 10 percent since the ad was introduced.
Ford doesn’t usually report F-150 only numbers, referring to all its F-Series line-up when reporting sales initiatives, but this time it did it just to make a point, which is that F-150 sales soared 40 percent in June compared to 2015 and segment share for the full F-series line jumped to the highest level in 17 months. In other words, no, Chevy didn’t really do its rival any harm.
On the other hand, although Silverado sales dropped 3.7 percent in June amid a 9.7 percent gain for the segment, Chevy deems the campaign a success, with spokesman Jim Cain saying that about 10 percent of Silverado buyers in June previously owned an F-150.
Bottom line: Chevy is happy, Ford is happy, everybody’s happy, let’s get down to building more of these since the customers eat them up, yes?