Should you pay even occasional consideration to the pickup truck market, you have most likely been uncovered to a standard criticism concerning the trendy half-ton: It is costly. The most cost effective 2021 Ford F-150 rings the until at simply over $30,000, and for that, you are getting a 6.5-foot mattress, single-cab work truck with metal wheels and a 3.3-liter, naturally aspirated V6. To any individual who merely wants a utility automobile, that may test all the needed containers, however $30,000 is so much to spend on a secular truck that you simply intend to beat the crap out of. Or is it?
Within the context of the common new-car transaction value, $30,000 is not so dangerous, and there is even the $26,000 (ish) Ford Ranger if you wish to spend even much less on a brand-new truck, however value-for-money is not the secret within the pickup market anymore. Positive, truck builders wish to maintain according to their opponents (and the competitors is excellent proper now), however the higher finish of America’s bread-and-butter half-ton truck section is being outlined much less and fewer by functionality, and increasingly more by status and exclusivity.
This all got here to a head a pair weeks again once I was driving a 2021 Ford F-150 4×4 SuperCrew Platinum, which retails for greater than $60,000 earlier than choices (together with all the cool options I beforehand highlighted) and vacation spot, and whereas every of these choices was just a few hundred bucks apiece, that every one provides up rapidly. All-in, our tester would have graced a showroom with a $68,420 price ticket.
To these of us who do not buy vans, that will appear incomprehensible, however from a excessive sufficient altitude, it begins to make sense. Think about for a second that Ford is engaged on an answer for patrons who wish to apply magnetic decals to their aluminum-bodied vans, from which we are able to infer that Ford has a crucial mass of shoppers who want that type of flexibility. There may very well be any variety of the reason why any individual would wish that performance, however the obvious one is that prospects are searching for a one-size-fits-all automobile: one thing with the sensible utility of a truck that also cleans up properly sufficient for a night out.
And why not? Vehicles aren’t the one issues which can be getting costlier, and a premium-spec pickup truck will nonetheless most likely set you again lower than an inexpensive one and a pleasant sedan or SUV to enhance it. Plus, one automobile is commonly cheaper to personal than two. Plus, it is not like Ford is the one wrongdoer right here. Check out how a lot Jeep is charging for a loaded-up (and merely midsize) Gladiator.
So if the query is, “Are pickups too costly?” then I am going to reply yours with one other: “In comparison with what?” Having pushed a number of the new truck-based SUVs in the marketplace, I would have a tough time developing with a convincing argument that the half-tons on which they’re primarily based aren’t deserving of their value tags — value tags which precise, cash-in-hand (Although I am going to admit, with at this time’s financing plans, that is pushing it) pickup prospects appear prepared, even keen, to embrace.
Associated Video:
