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| Trucks are capable, but that durability and capability comes at a steeper cost than ever. |
According to a J.D. Power report,
the average pickup truck buyer is now paying 61% MORE for their truck now than
they did a decade ago. WILD! By comparison, the cost of other vehicles went up
by less than half that over the same time period - 28%, which is still quite a
bit in my book. Last year buyers paid an average of $44,000 for a full-sized
pickup.
 |
This price is still missing some options, although the new Ram 1500
is an excellent truck overall. Quite expensive!
|
For good measure, I priced a
truck I like quite a bit online - a 2019 Ram 1500 Big Horn Quad Cab V6. To get
it exactly how I’d want it, it came out to $48,850. This, before adding the
HEMI V8 for $2,645 or 20-inch rims for another $1,595. I did add a 3.55 Rear
Axle Ratio, the Level 2 Equipment Group with heated seats and steering wheel,
LED lighting, a sunroof, and other packages. So yes, you could very easily
price one of these trucks into the $50,000 range. Did I mention you can’t get
leather seats on the Big Horn? You need to move up to the Laramie trim for
that.
While bad for consumer’s wallets,
this is another example of why automakers are ditching cars for SUVs and trucks
– it means higher profit margins for them. As long as consumers are willing to
pay to play, this game will go on. This bubble will burst again eventually...
Perhaps not because of gas prices rising like people predict, but maybe because
of budgets going bust or over saturation of the marketplace instead.
Update 3/5/2019: Car sales for the year are off to their slowest start since early 2014, with the industry being down 2.9% vs. last year. Although the economy isn't in horrible shape, its not really growing either, and experts are predicting a slow down in the future. Also, my guess is that transaction prices for SUVs and trucks are simply becoming too high AND the market is becoming oversaturated with them. We will see how this develops as the months progress.
Source: https://www.autonews.com/sales/sales-weakest-start-5-years
Update 3/5/2019: Car sales for the year are off to their slowest start since early 2014, with the industry being down 2.9% vs. last year. Although the economy isn't in horrible shape, its not really growing either, and experts are predicting a slow down in the future. Also, my guess is that transaction prices for SUVs and trucks are simply becoming too high AND the market is becoming oversaturated with them. We will see how this develops as the months progress.
Source: https://www.autonews.com/sales/sales-weakest-start-5-years
Another article for reference: http://gmauthority.com/blog/2019/02/capability-will-cost-you-trucks-cost-61-percent-more-compared-to-a-decade-ago/
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