In reply to codrus (Forum Supporter) :
Seems like this thread has gotten a bit derailed into ranting about how people are stupid and pay too much for vehicles.
Going back to the original question of why the average new pickup price has risen faster than the average new car price, one needs to look at the vehicles being sold. 30 years ago a pickup was a much more bare-bones vehicle compared to a car, they didn't have the nice seats, the fancy stereo, the insulation and other NVH-reducing features, etc. Pickups were primarily work vehicles, not something that people used for commuting to an office job, and so compared to a car you were spending a greater percentage of your money on running gear -- drivetrain, chassis, brakes, etc and less on interior niceties and luxury features.
Fast forward to today and pickups are much more commonly used as replacements for cars. My 2021 F-250 is a thousand times more comfortable to drive than my '07 or '02 Chevies were, and even those were far more luxurious than a '93 3/4 ton vehicle. So today's pickups still have the expensive pickup drivetrain and chassis, but now they ALSO have the same luxuries as a car. So it makes sense that the overall price has increased more than it has for the car.
This is exactly it. In the '80's, a truck was a truck. It was a very compromised vehicle that was good at hauling stuff, but pretty bad at everything else. The price range for an '80's F150 was in the same range, if not a bit lower, than a Taurus. One didn't often cross shop the two. The '94 Dodge Ram started to broaden the appeal of trucks, and the '98 with the rear doors made it a less compromised vehicle compared to cars. I bought my first house in '03, and started contemplating getting a beater truck. I saw the '04 Nissan Titan crew cab, and it completely changed the game for me. It was a truck, but it was modern, drove nice, could seat 6, and had lots of storage space in the cab. Plus my wife wanted to drive it for her daily, so I could have my cake and eat it too. Truck for truck stuff, but I could still daily my fun cars. The size of the truck, large quad cab with a short bed, was perfect. I gladly traded a few inches of bed for the bigger cab. The bed being 5" short of 6' has affected it's ability to transport what I needed it to exactly zero times in the 19 years that I have owned it. As a die hard car guy who didn't really consider trucks, my first ever new car purchase was a truck. Sure it spent some days hauling air, but it had also spent a lot of time hauling things and pulling trailers. Lots of people own sports cars, you don't expect them to explore the limits of their vehicles daily on their way to work. The performance is there when they need it, just like a truck's capability is there when you need it.
