There was some controversy regarding the less than conventional styling Chevrolet chose for its redesigned 2020 Silverado HD pickup trucks. The Silverado 2500 HD and 3500 HD are bold, to say the least, and some more traditional and longtime customers were less than enthusiastic by what they saw. Others, however, embraced them. Those big pickups have turned heads thanks to their bold and somewhat in-your-face front fascia styling. It was a design gamble that appears to be paying off.

GM Authority recently spoke to Silverado marketing manager Hugh Milne regarding a 40 percent increase in Silverado HD sales this past October. Milne, didn't seem entirely surprised. "Our customers love these new models," he said. "We can't build the new ones fast enough. The response has been positive. They show up and they disappear (from dealership lots)."

What's interesting is that the 40 percent increase comes in light of a few factors that, in an alternate world, could have actually had the opposite effect. The 2020 Silverado HDs are competing against the previous generation 2019 models which are being offered with plenty of attractive incentives right now.

In the past, truck customers have typically been attracted to older, incentivized models over their more expensive redesigned counterparts. The previous-gen Silverado HDs are still selling well, but the 2020s are more than holding their own.

What's more, October's impressive sales increase came during the nearly six-week-long UAW strike against GM. The UAW-GM strike was not resolved until late last month. Milne did not seem to indicate there was an outright dealer shortage of new 2020 models, but if the strike continued this easily could have become an issue. The 2020 Chevy Silverado HD is built at the Flint Assembly plant in Flint, Michigan. Prices for the 2020 model begin at $35,695 for a base 2500 model while the 3500 starts at $36,895.