Growing up in the 50s and 60s, I remember when pickups were the “less glamorous” choice of only a few who couldn’t afford a regular car. Generally frowned upon by the driving public, they remained the staple of the local plumber or auto repair shop. Brand new they sold for considerably less than a regular automobile. These were for the most part simple 2-door vehicles equipped with a single bench seat and “3-on-the-tree”. Recently spotting a new F150 on an area lot having a
sticker of
$73,000+ got me wondering - what’s happened?
Excerpted from linked article: The prices people are paying for pickups have steadily risen over the past decade pushing the trucks further and further out of reach for average consumers. In fact, some full-size pickups can cost more than $100,000. Edmunds' data shows, through September, the average transaction price for a full-size pickup is $48,377, a 48-percent boost from 10 years ago and a 19-percent hike from 2013 for the same period. For that price, a person could buy a Mercedes-Benz or BMW luxury sedan.”https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/2018/10/04/pickup-truck-prices-vehicles/1455588002/
Comments
In the 50's and 60's and even into the 80's, pick-ups were almost always basic. No frills, just work horses for a business or a farm or a 2nd vehicle filling a basic pick-up need. When you try to make them as comfortable and luxuries as a nice car, which seems to be what the buyer wants today, that price has to go up. Heated steering wheels and heated seats. Bluetooth, leather seats, a $1000 Tonneau pickup box cover, ect, ect... I don't remember all that on my old Ford Rangers. In fact on my old Rangers, even into the 2000's, I still had to manually "roll down" the windows.
These newer F150's are not your fathers old 150's anymore. Lots of bells and whistles dad wouldn't have even thought about - or would have seen a need for most likely.
Yes - one’s needs and concepts of “pickup” vary greatly. 30 years ago most were pretty basic. None of the 3 new ones I’ve owned have had power windows or locks. Only the last one came with air and an automatic tranny. To me ... when the leather, 4-doors and 10-speaker stereos came in, the “pickup” (as I knew it) lost a lot of its charm.
Let me hasten to add: To each his own.
Regards,
Ted
The 11 Most Expensive Pickup Trucks:
Ram 1500 Limited 4WD Crew Cab Tungsten Edition: $58,990-$62,995.
GMC Sierra 1500 Denali 4WD Crew Cab: $57,550-$71,580. ...
Nissan Titan Platinum Reserve 4WD Crew Cab: $57,145-$58,690 (2017 prices) ...
Chevrolet Silverado 1500 High Country 4WD Crew Cab: $56,870-$66,430. ...
Toyota Tundra 4WD Platinum CrewMax: $51,425-$57,349. ...
Derf
Regards,
Ted
They have to jack the price up to pay for those hideous auditory ads they endlessly run during football season narrated by Dennis. EVERY. WORD. IS. KINETIC. Leary.
Forget about the term “half ton.” At one time (1950s and 60s) that was probably close to max capacity of a standard pickup. Today, most have beefier frames and suspensions. So most full sized pickups today are rated for more. Each truck produced will have the rating somewhere on it or in the documentation.
Weight capacity (towing & hauling) varies greatly among the same truck line according to things like: tire & wheel size, transmission, engine, rear axle ratio, optional transmission / oil coolers, etc. So buying a truck is a little more complex than it looks.
Even most of the compact trucks, like the Toyota Tacoma (properly equipped), can carry a half-ton or more. But ride suffers with smaller trucks IMHO. The best riding truck I ever owned was an ‘82 F100. The F100 was Ford’s full-sized truck back than. Lovely ride. As good as any car of that day. But it wasn’t built to carry a lot of weight. By contrast, my (standard size) ‘05 Silverado 1500 does not ride well at all - but it’s very hard to overload. Came with optional trailer-tow package (which included a stiffer suspension).
What Does Half-Ton, Three-Quarter-Ton, One-Ton Mean When Talking About Trucks?https://www.cars.com/articles/what-does-half-ton-three-quarter-ton-one-ton-mean-when-talking-about-trucks-1420690417808/
Everything You Need To Know About Truck Sizes & Classification
https://jalopnik.com/truck-sizes-classification-explained-from-tacomas-to-1613958192
Derf
Derf
A note about "assembled on the wrong day of the week."
In the way back days, when I was a punk kid, I did a short time employ with GM.
This time of the year, the pop/soda vending machines in the entire facility found changes............being; the flavors (root beer, grape, etc.) that did not mix well with hard liquors were removed and replaced with more Coke, Pepsi, Sprite, 7up and related. The first full week of the New Year, the flavors went back to "normal".
I smiled at this as a young one and the blatant nature of this move in plain sight of management. Although two supervisors I came to know well, were both fairly heavy drinkers, as I discovered on more than one occasion.
There was some automation at the time, but I suspect inspectors found more errors in this time period; and of course, the safety hazards from employees.
I did not work at a final assembly plant, which is an area that would provide the final quality answer. However, the joke locally was to not buy a vehicle assembled during the holiday period.
I suspect @Mark knew this when he posted.