If you’ve thought about buying a truck but suffered from sticker shock when you perused the market, you’re not alone. Here are a few reasons why trucks are so expensive.
The new family sedan, a job site workhorse, a weekend warrior’s best friend, or your daily driver: a pickup truck plays various roles in many people’s lives. Consumers expect more from their trucks, whether traversing backcountry roads or arriving at your business meeting in style.
Consider how many trim levels a given pickup truck has. The RAM 1500 comes in over 50 configurations, from engine size and creature comforts to technological components and manufacturer packages. That’s to say nothing about RAM 1500 reliability ratings, making it one of America's best-selling trucks.
There’s no denying that pickups are larger and require more materials to build than your average four-door sedan. In addition, most trucks are built with higher-quality materials than passenger cars due to their workhorse nature. As inflation continues, material costs rise accordingly.
Suspension and handling are even more critical on a large vehicle. Manufacturers know that consumers require comfort in their passenger cars for long commutes. That same demand translates to pickups. When off-road capabilities rank high on a truck's list of selling points, a bouncy, uncomfortable ride won’t help any brand reach its sales quotas.
One of the biggest reasons pickup trucks are so expensive goes back to the old economic adage of supply and demand. If anything, the need for pickups has increased across the board. The lack of supply drives prices through the roof and costs consumers more if they want their share of a valuable commodity.
The reality of the truck world is that the country’s infrastructure depends on them more than many admit. Pickups help millions of drivers traverse hazardous road conditions, haul the goods even the smallest communities can’t do without, and support countless service and technical businesses connecting with existing and future customers.
The pandemic put a screeching halt to production, limiting the entire automotive market for quite some time. Those delays continue with a need for more electrical components for outfitting pickups with competitive technological equipment.
Beyond impacting sales figures for years yet to come, a lack of influx of new pickup models means the ones already on the market are worth more. Even used pickups can fetch higher prices now because getting a new model anytime soon could be asking too much.
With increased versatility comes a high resale value, so most pickup trucks still sell for more, even if they have higher mileage. In addition, many consumers have chosen to repair existing trucks rather than wait on the chance they might be able to obtain a new one.
Even if a pickup needs a new engine, that cost can be much less than waiting for an available new model and delaying any money-making processes already in place. Many business owners have had to make do with older models to keep their businesses alive.
Most consumers don’t equate truck powerplants with the horsepower of your typical sports car. However, some customers want their 4x4 to have the giddy-up necessary to give any muscle car a run for its money. Then some prefer their truck to sip gas rather than guzzle it.
With the recent addition of several electric pickup trucks, the range of engine types has increased. You can purchase an eco-diesel, a traditional diesel, a gas-powered pickup, and an electric one. You can also buy several hybrid trucks if you’re on the fence about electric vehicles.
Many brands offer several engine options on their pickup lineup. Take the Blue Oval (Ford): the F-150 Lightning represents one of the best-selling trucks in America in the electric arena, while the Raptor holds its own off-roading. The Maverick and F-150 also come in hybrid variants, and V8 has always powered the F-150 and continues that tradition.
The bottom line? Trucks are fuel-efficient and versatile, making them an even more potent choice for many consumers.
It doesn’t take watching a crash-test video to know that larger vehicles like trucks pack a punch in most car accidents. However, manufacturers have seen to it that the truck segment receives just as many safety systems as passenger cars and SUVs. A higher driving position doesn't necessarily mean increased chances of living through any motor vehicle collision.
As with technological advancements, safety systems have progressed. New models must continue to meet safety standards set by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). With more sophisticated onboard instruments and diagnostic programs, trucks cost more to make.
Technology and luxury often go hand-in-hand. Beyond the latest infotainment centers, Bluetooth and app connectivity, and advanced safety features, technologically advanced trucks take towing to the next level. For example, multiple cameras provide the view you need to better operate your truck and trailer and make the best trucks for towing even more of a smart buy.
Features like heated and cooled seats, premium sound systems, and panoramic roofs might make a pickup stand out like a sore thumb on a construction site. But you can find these same features on many pickups from brands that offer everything from your bare-bones work truck to the prize pony of the paddock.
With these fancy features comes a high price tag. Upgrades across the board consistently add to the bottom line, meaning you could drive away with a $100,000 pickup with the same underpinnings of a work truck selling for only $50,000.
Not only are new vehicles becoming more expensive than ever – when last we looked, the average transaction price was in excess of $36,000 – the cost of parts and repairs following an accident is becoming so prohibitive that what might look repairable to the layperson might be considered a total loss to an insurance adjuster. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, prices for motor vehicle repairs were 61.07% higher in 2017 than they were in 2000.
In particular, sophisticated safety features like forward collision mitigation and blind-spot warning systems that employ multiple sensors and/or cameras embedded in bumpers and fenders are driving up repair costs and, in turn, the number of cars being totaled after crashes.
Airbags and related parts can likewise be prohibitively costly to replace following a collision and could cause a lower-valued car to become totaled even with otherwise minimal body damage. Generally, a car is declared to be “totaled” when the cost of repairs plus its scrap value equals or exceeds its pre-accident value (in some states this status is based on the cost of repairs exceeding a set percentage of the vehicle’s value).
But it’s not just complex high-tech elements that are becoming prohibitively costly to replace. As the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) reports, the skyrocketing prices of even reasonably essential components is helping fuel an increase in auto thefts. Vehicle thefts rose last year by more than 4%, fueled largely by so-called chop shop rings that dismantle stolen cars and sell their parts to unscrupulous vendors.
As an example, the NICB computed the cost of 15 common replacement components for a few of the models on its most-stolen “Hot Wheels” list – we’re talking low-tech stuff like a headlamp assembly, fender, trunk lid, and alloy wheels, but not major components like the engine or transmission. Part prices were pulled from a database of over 24 million vehicle damage appraisals generated for insurance claims from 2016 and 2017. (Check out the NICB's handy infographic on car-part prices here.)
Altogether, the 15 essential items cost nearly $11,000 to purchase for a 2016 Toyota Camry midsize sedan, which was the most-stolen new car reported by the NICB for that particular model year. The most expensive part here is a quarter body panel at just over $1,700. And that’s not including the cost of labor, which when added would handily bust the threshold for a total loss on most 2016 Camry trim levels. It would seem to be even easier to total a 2016 Nissan Altima, with a lower residual value and higher replacement costs at over $14,000; here, the NICB says a headlamp assembly costs just over $2,000 … each.
Prefer a pickup truck? Those same 15 parts would cost over $21,000 in a full-size GMC Sierra 1500, with a headlamp assembly again being the costliest culprit, at nearly $2,300. Adding labor charges to the sum of these parts would certainly be enough to declare all but the costliest 2016 Sierra models total losses.
"For the professional theft ring, stealing and stripping vehicles for parts has always been a lucrative business," NICB senior vice president and COO Jim Schweitzer says. "On today's cars and trucks, the parts are often worth more than the intact vehicle and may be easier to move and sell. That's why we see so many thefts of key items like wheels and tires and tailgates. ... There's always a market for them."
Follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest.
Also on Forbes ...