Posted on 10/12/2017 1:04:32 AM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Heated and cooled seats. Backup cameras. Panoramic glass roofs.
Not exactly what springs to mind when you think of a pickup. But that's what American truck buyers increasingly want, spending an average of $46,844 on a pickup, according to Kelley Blue Book. That's more than the starting price of luxury SUVs like the Mercedes GLC or the Lexus RX. In 2016, pickup trucks made up a little more than a third of all vehicles that sold for over $50,000.
At the State Fair of Texas this month, Ford Motor Co. is displaying its most expensive pickup yet: The F-Series Super Duty Limited, a luxury heavy-duty truck with a starting price of $80,835. It has custom two-tone leather seats, a heated steering wheel wrapped in hand-stitched leather and high-tech features like a 360-degree camera system that guides drivers when they're hitching up a trailer.
A fully-loaded F-450 — the biggest version of the Super Duty — will top out at $94,455. It's capable of towing an Air Force F-35 fighter plane, but it also has massaging seats.....
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
I would not pay to put somebody else’s brand on my truck. No thanks King Ranch - I don’t ride for your brand.
““demanding more luxury” ha. make a quality pickup with stick shift, no gps or black box, rollup windows or fakebook at a realistic price and it would break sales records.
They do. They’re called “fleet trucks” and most dealers sell them. “
Yup, they do indeed still make them. Not sure if a manual tranny is still available though. Personally, I wouldn’t want to put a typical hired hand in a truck with a manual tranny. Not many people even know how to drive a manual anymore. And of course AC is now a prerequest
” make a quality pickup with stick shift, no gps or black box, rollup windows or fakebook at a realistic price and it would break sales records.”
That would be my current truck but it is 15 years old.
The man I buy my cars and trucks from is the fleet sales person for his dealership.
He probably sells 15-20 of these White, stripped models every month. With zero effort.
The stripped models are out there, in huge numbers. I was looking at new trucks the other day and it stuns me how someone will pay %65,000 for an F150 that has been modified as if to carry Navy Seals in Afghanistan.
I guess if someone wants to pay that, they can. I think its silly.
“Remember, most Europeans drive stick. “
So does everyone in India. I’ve driven one for decades but those days are over. The auto-shift transmissions are the best and I have gout.
“I’d rather have a stripped down model that I could afford as an extra vehicle.”
Buy a used one. That’s what I did. 220k miles and still going. Luckily, my son works on cars.
“I think you are wrong. People want the bells and whistles.
Even in pickup trucks. “
I think the F-450 is a two-ton truck but not sure. So, it would not be a grocery getter but a serious tow or haul truck, used for work or business. Thereby, most of the purchasers would depreciate as a business expense.
It’s pretty depressing. Every once in a while I go out to the Ford Build It website and configure the F150 of my dreams and still not everything that’s available. It’s always well over $60k.
Wont catch me laying out high dollar for a truck. I will keep my 2003 Ford Ranger 5spd manual with 62/k miles in top shape and be debt free. Insane amounts for new trucks these days. I bought mine new Dec 2002 for $14/k. It’s a Ranger so nothing fancy or luxury just basic truck paid in full.
I bought a truck when my job entailed loading big boxes of lighting equipment and other “work related” tools.
The truck I bought was tricked out nicely, but it still lacked some of the top end luxuries.
I CAN see value in seat warmers and good air conditioning. A backup camera would be nice, but I lived without one for decades.
Aside from that, the cosmetic stuff just doesn’t seem worth it.
I see a lot of people buying trucks who justify their purchase on the three trips to the town leaf dump every fall. That seems a little nuts to me...but to each his own.
I think the retail on mine was about $38k in 2012. The company bought it, and it was paid off in three years.
The same truck today lists for about $45k.
My wife’s 2012 Highlander must be a lemon too. The electric door lock in each of the four doors stopped functioning at different times requiring me to take the module apart and clean the contacts of the little motor inside. Fortunately there was a write up about it online and was able to save $800 per door had it been repaired by the dealer.
You cannot find a ‘basic’ truck any more.
No power windows, manual transmission, no electronic gadgets everywhere and no ‘leather’.....................
They did. Nobody bought it.
There are no longer any fleet models with roll-up windows or a manual transmission.
So, you want to go back to the days of the 100hp V8 that got 3mpg. Good to know... Not that the truck makers could do that thanks to smog regulations.
You can still get a fleet model without electronic gadgets and with a vinyl or fabric interior, but electric windows not only weigh less, they are cheaper to produce and nobody was buying manual windows anyway. Same goes for the manual transmission - automatics get better fuel economy now (remember, CAFE regulations!) and nobody wanted manuals enough to buy significant numbers of full size trucks with them.
I just read an article that clutch manuals are on the way out. I can believe it, although I don’t like it. My current vehicle is an automatic 6 speed which can be shifted manually.
Even Semi tractors are being built with automatics now.
Not enough people bought manuals to justify keeping them and CAFE put the final nail in that coffin.
Fleet trucks are the least profitable models. And fleets are increasingly up-optioning them anyway.
I have true 6 speed manual that feels like it belongs to a semi.
No drag racing with it.
Manual transmissions are a form of modern day anti theft since fewer people know how to run one.
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