According to an Internet site I landed on, it's under 7% in the last 5 years.

I ordered a 2012 KING Ranch 4wd in the spring of 2012 and the base price was $47,000.
Now the bare bones K R is $56,000. That's 19% more then the 2012 price.

Are aluminum parts jacking up the price that much?

 

Good luck using official figures, they exclude "volatile food and energy" prices to smooth out the numbers and then apply voodoo economics and "hedonistic" adjustments to the rest. Everything is fine, really.

 

I was looking at this on a larger scale last night. The average "middle class" income has increased less than $20,000 since the early 1990s. And the "lower middle class" average income has increased about half of that. Yet, my first truck, a 1992 F-150, cost a little over $10,000 and now that same truck is right at $30,000.

So it seems like the pricing on trucks has increased just slightly above inflation, apples to apples. And when you consider that today's trucks are FAR safer than the 1992 F150 I drove back then, it's worth it.

In your specific example, I think it's just a case of a manufacturer cashing in on luxury models. They're all doing it. They make more money off those model. The chief of Ram trucks said he wants a $80,000 model soon because "I know we'd sell a bunch of them."

 

It's all part of the looming automobile finance market crash.... same as housing a few years back to much subprime loan action going on out there. Simple math loans are being written on ridiculous deals to people who have less than credible history of repayment...dealers loving it. Steep payments with long terms I've seen 108 months I don't know what the fallout will be but I imagine it'll at least cool off the inflated msrp for a bit.

 

It is called Supply and Demand, and truthfully if you build my truck as of last year when I bought mine used there was a $2000 increase plus the difference in the Canadian and US dollars in 2013.

 

There's just so much to this equation that we're not talking about too. Tech is expensive and on the high end models, it's gone nuts.

In comparing my 1988 F-150 4x4 to my 2011 4x4 truck: There was about a $24,000 difference in MSRP. Both trucks are / were base model XLT and the '88 was a RCLB with M5OD transmission, CC, Tilt, AC, manual hubs, dual tanks, 2 tone paint, cab lights and V-8.

The 2011 has the EB, shift on the fly 4x4, tow package, PS,PB,CC,Tilt,AC,am/fm/CD, PW,PL,Scab, adjustable pedals, sinc, fancy dashboard, steering wheel controls, etc.

My 1988 truck required so much maintenance every 30K miles. Plugs, wires, rotor cap, fronts hubs repacked, coolant flushed, axles flushed and re-lubed.

In 30K miles i would have done 10 oil changes with oil filter and air filter. The ac sucked, in fact, the whole truck was a POS. It was the most unreliable POS that I've ever owned and I almost said no more Fords because of it.

My 2011 truck, 5K oil and filter changes, 25K mile air filter change, 7K mile tire rotations and after 77K miles, I'm still on the OE brake system.
First major maintenance items will be coolant and trans flushes at 90-100K miles.

My monthly payment on the 2011 was larger but my cost of repairs and maintenance is a mear fraction not mention all the afternoons under the '88. This truck has been a gem so far.

Getting back to the 2012 in OP, the trade in value is so high that you should easily deflect the additional cost of the 2017 truck.

 

Here's a couple of more contributors for the rising inflation cost for all new vehicle that most people don't think about and factor in. First is warranty and recall claims. They're expensive and some one has to pay for them. Yes the manufacturer fronts the bill, but lets face it, they're in business to make money too. So they add those expenses into the cost of the next model year. Also design changes. No matter how big or how small the change is going to be. It's a huge expense to the manufacturer. From the cost of retooling to the also the cost of getting the change certified by the feds. I was told once back in the late nineties when I worked in a GM dealer as an auto body tech apprentice. That if a manufacturer changes so much as a tail light on a car, they can expect to spend as much as a million dollars just in development and testing to get that design change approved to meet federal safety standards. And that cost will be reflected in that next model years pricing. And I was told that by a GM service tech representative.

 

Corporations watch costs like a hawk, too. For decades accounting used the mill - 1/1000th of a cent. Each penny saved across the whole line adds up. So an engineer says they need part "X" made out of chrome vanadium steel , and then the beancounters say "nope" recycled beer cans is all you get.