General Motors has raised the prices of its 2014 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra full-sized pickups, now that stocks of the outgoing 2013 trucks are nearly depleted.
GM raised the sticker price of the base 2014 light-duty pickups by $1,500 on all body styles, GM spokesman Jim Cain said. On a base regular cab, for example, the price rose 6 percent, to $26,670 for the Silverado and $27,170 for the Sierra, including shipping.
To temporarily offset the price hike, GM said it will offer as much as $1,500 cash back through the end of the month on trucks built after Oct. 7.
Cain said the price increases are part of the automaker's new launch plan.
"We've successfully sold down all of our 2013 light-duty trucks and we now have good availability so we're able to evolve our pricing into more of a mainstream approach that gives the dealers new tools to close sales," he said.
The move comes amid intensifying price competition in the pickup segment, as segment leader Ford Motor Co. tries to fend off newer offerings from GM and Ram.
Cain said GM had about 20,000 2013 pickups in inventory at the end of the September.
The price increase, which was announced to dealers Oct. 7, comes after an 8 percent drop in combined Silverado and Sierra sales in September. The pickups' 45,944 combined sales during the month were nearly 15,000 units fewer than September sales of the Ford F series.
Also last week, GM said that is it recalling nearly 22,000 2014 Silverados and Sierras to fix seats that may move in a rear-end crash.
Mike Colias contributed to this report.
