The Great Recession of 2008 was hard on just about everyone—especially General Motors. Jokes and jabs about the auto giant taking bailout money from the federal government still get kicked around, but at this point, they’ve gone stale. Those punchlines probably aren’t phasing GM right now anyway because it just posted its best year-to-date sales report for full-size trucks since that economic catastrophe sent things spiraling a decade and a half ago.
GM dropped its Q3 2024 sales stats Tuesday morning announcing that it’s still number one in the full-size SUV space, in addition to the news that it’s nabbed 44% market share in the full-size pickup categories. This includes Chevrolet and GMC, the latter of which just had its best-ever sales quarter with the Sierra in terms of total units moved and retail volume. Not a bad stretch for the General.
You might remember the trucks GM was building back in 2007 before you know what hit the fan. That was the last hoorah for the “Cateye” GMT800-platform Chevy Silverado, one that remains a favorite for folks still today. (GM actually sold those alongside the following-gen GMT900 trucks that launched at the end of ’06.) You could pick between a 4.3-liter V6 and several gas V8s in the half-ton category, while the LBZ and later LMM Duramax diesels were available for heavy-duty pickups depending on which generation you bought.
Now, things look a bit different. You can still pick between two V8s on the Silverado and Sierra 1500—a 5.3-liter or 6.2-liter—but the V6 is gone. There’s also a light-duty 3.0-liter Duramax diesel I6 option and a 2.7-liter turbo-four. Bump up to the HD variants and you’re met with a 6.6-liter gas option or the L5P Gen2 Duramax diesel V8 that shares virtually nothing with the one from ’07 except the displacement.
In all, GM investors ought to be pretty happy with Tuesday’s news. Pretax profits shot up 15.5% to $4.1 billion compared to $3.6 billion a year ago, and company-wide revenue is up 10% to $49 billion. A lot of it has to do with high average transaction prices and mindful cost management, the sales report says. No matter which way you slice it, you can bet GM is pleased with the direction sales are trending in for these high-profit rigs.
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