GM is having trouble with a supplier for a part in the new 5.3-liter V8 engine (the same one that gets better gas mileage than the Ford F-150 Ecoboost V6 you might have seen ads for if you own a television and watch any channel besides Cartoon Network) and is unable to fill all dealership orders for the 2014 Chevy Silverado 1500 and GMC Sierra 1500. As a result, dealer orders for V8-powered Silverado and Sierra 1500 models will be limited.
This is the first year of the newly redesigned GM 1500 trucks, so buyers shouldn’t have expected much haggling room, but now that the supply is even lower than expected, deals will be hard to come by.
The Truth About Cars claims that the supplier issues will result in as much as 20% of dealership orders going unfilled. Silverados powered by the 4.3-liter V6 engine won’t be affected by the production slowdown, but historically the 5.3-liter V8 has made up 80% of all Silverado and Sierra 1500 sales. The 4.3-liter V6 isn’t just a cheap anemic option for work trucks, it has 285-horsepower and 305 lb-ft of torque and gets 18-mpg city, 24-mpg highway. That’s more than enough to power the truck for most uses, and matches the power of the last generation Silverado’s V8 engine.
