By Luke Vandezande, Autoguide.com - A special set of circumstances has the planets aligned just right to cause North American's biggest pickup truck suppliers to bludgeon each other's prices through the floor this fall.Customers can get as much as $3,500 cash on the hood for a new GMC or Chevrolet pickup truck or up to $4,500 on a trade in, all during a sales event that's been extended from its usual one month run to two. Naturally, the push prompted Ford, Dodge and Toyota all to respond in kind by offering competing incentives.
Why the fire sale? It's really very simple. General Motors ramped up its pickup truck production in anticipation of having to retool three of its truck plants to produce upcoming models. Much like tuning an old truck's carburator, sales won't run smoothly if the supply ends up being too lean or rich. That tightrope gets a lot trickier to walk when the supply is predetermined.
GM has strong motivation to move units while faced with the possibility of having too many 2012 and 2013 units congesting its inventory, hence the purchase incentives. What's more, the automaker is also offering $1,500 per truck to dealerships that surpass their sales targets.
Meanwhile, Ford is in the midst of its annual F-series promotion running from September through October and there's cash on the hood for customers buying a 2012 RAM pickup as the re-engineered 2013 model draws near. Despite not having made changes to its truck since 2007, Toyota is offering competitive incentives on the Tundra as well.
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