I watched the Ford vs Chevy (Steel vs Aluminum) Chevrolet advertisement today. The latest in a series of slander commercials against Ford. The thought occurred to me while watching this advert, that it's been around 20 years or more since I've really heard Ford say...Well...Anything about Chevrolet. Other than occasionally throwing out the sales figures Fords commercials usually just make generalized statements like (Best in class towing, or Most standard Payload or whatever). Yet Chevrolet goes far and beyond to create what is essentially a Howie Long hosted infomercial for the Silverado.

Why does Ford so quietly take this? Is it a quiet confidence that they are building a better product?

Personally I find Chevy's adverts hilarious as they really don't accomplish much else other than highlighting how little Chevy's innovated in the past 10 years or so. For example, the man step...Widely ridiculed by GM when it first appeared on the F-Series trucks...Yet, only a few years down the road the man step finds it's way onto Chevy's own trucks. They've even done this with Ram and the heated steering wheel...Made fun of it at first...Then added to the equipment list.

I understand their concept. They are initially trying to say that the Silverado doesn't need fancy gadgets to be competitive, It's just a good ole All American Pickup. But they make themselves look sooooo stupid when they eat crow every single time and follow what everyone else has already been doing. GM is bashing Ford for their use of Aluminum right now, but just you watch...When the next generation Silverado debuts and it's mostly made out of Aluminum GM will try to sweep all of this under the rug by talking about how they have some superior bonding technique or some crap like that. So to recap, we have the Man Step? Check. Heated Steering Wheel? Check. Potential use of Aluminum for weight savings? Check.

Thoughts?

 

The commercials from any of the car builders don't mean squat to me as they are vague at best and never tell the whole truth up front.

For instance: On the Ford commercial they state "best in class payload" but they fail to tell you that you have to buy an F-150 XL RCLB 4x2 in order to achieve that payload rating. Not many of these trucks on the road pulling travel trailers and vacationing in the mountains.

So, if as a result of aluminum, price, quality or the perception of any of these Ford were to lose sales leadership, then they need to go back to the drawing board and do it better.

Quite frankly IMHO, I don't think it would be a bad thing for Ford to get humbled once in a while. GM has been humbled for a while and they are building a better truck because of it.

 

When you're #1in the way sales figures are published, you don't need to call out a competitor in ads, UNLESS, you have been misrepresented. The latest Chevy / GM is NOT a misrepresentation of the facts. If it wasn't true, I'm sure Ford would come out with a rebuttal ad similar to what Verizon has done when the FACTS aren't true.
When you're #2 you need to bring to light features that are better than the #1 competitor. I think that is taught in Business Management 101.
I have no problem with GM ads.

 

Nothing wrong with what Chevy is doing right now. It's really all they have.

There will also be nothing wrong with Ford replaying Chevy's "Steel is stronger than Aluminum" commercials right about the time that Chevy finally comes out with an aluminum-bodied truck, asking GM what took them so long. Ford can then also show the aluminum F-150 as the best-performing crash-test vehicle in its class for several years running, vs. Chevy's "stronger" steel trucks.

Or they might just take the high road and focus on their continued innovations...

 

All's far in Truck commercials. You find a weak spot in the competitors truck and use it to your advantage Chevy may go with an Aluminum body soon but I bet they use a steel bed.
Ford should have done the same.

 

All Ford needs to do is increase the gauge of aluminum inside the bed. That would be better than dissimilar metals in a corrosion prone area.

 

I don't care what planet you're from, the holes and tears in the bed of the Ford are shocking.

 

The losers attack the winner. All the winner has to do is say why they are winning, no reason to mention why the losers are losing.

I always loved the early 80s Ford commercials with the Chevy on the bed hauling ***** over a rock pile.


Josh

 

Having bought a number of brand new steel vehicles over the years and seeing rust holes in them after a few years (used to take 3 years for 1970's vehicles, now maybe 6 or 7 years) has always been shocking to me. This in spite of washing my vehicles in a car wash that does undercarriage flushes.

If you plan to abuse your truck exactly like Chevy does in their commercial, I can see where the holes would be a problem for you. Their ad people found a weak spot and will exploit it. I'd personally look forward to the lack of body rust.

I kind of soured on GM after my brand new and babied '96 Savana van needed 7 valve bodies, 3 transmissions, a starter, an alternator, 2 fuel pumps, 3 oxy sensors, and numerous other repairs in 60,000 miles. And then the Dexcool dissolved the intake manifold gaskets which could have hydrolocked the engine. It was annyoing to me to be stranded on the road with that van a bunch of times--worse when it was my wife with my toddler son in a snowstorm in the Detroit inner city who was stranded.

I'll take the Ford any time,
George

 

There is nothing really worse on TV than chevy commercials these days. They remind of a political ad. There have been so so many over the last year or so against the F150 I can't remember all the stupid ones. Even their car commericals drive me crazy about how awesome this loaded malibu is and no one could believe how many features it had, with the commercial ending by saying "can you believe they start in the low $20's"......which would be nothing like the car in the add. Then there's the selected questions that puts chevy behind all 3 doors, worse the wifi chevy vs the F150 w/an old trailer and antenna, worse yet the "pick a saw for the job" as if the F150 uses foot power like the flinstones.

Chevy's will always be cars w/a bed, will always be leading the pile up of cars on a 2 lane hwy, will lead the industry in safety recalls, and have a burnt out headlight in your first year.

 

I really like the Chevy ad. They found a weakness and provided a demonstration that the majority of us can relate to. Doesn't mean that any of us are going to be abusing our trucks in such a manner, but that commercial makes me believe that the Chevy's bed is more puncture resistant.

Which is great, but I buy a pickup truck for more than just puncture resistance. I think it's good information, but it needs to be kept in perspective. I wish more manufacturers did competitive advertising like this.

 

Slander? How so? They pour concrete blocks in the bed and it makes holes. If it happens it happens.

 

I'm sure the bean counters on both sides are waiting to see if this commercial really sways sales figures.

 

I would like to see the results of a half dozen drops of that same load in each truck (emptied between each of course). I wonder which frame, suspension and axle would perform best.

 

I think they'd all perform the same. Those trucks were squatting less than mine was with 1,000 lbs in the bed. If dropping those blocks would cause any damage, there's no way any of these trucks would survive a speed bump anywhere near GVWR.