Truck prices have been creeping up for some time. My 09' had a sticker of $58,665!

 

F450's here go for $80 000.

 

I ordered my truck last year its a fairly basic XL with no power nothing, and it still had a MSRP sticker price of $36,120. Trucks arent cheap any more thats for sure. Heck with the 6.4 it would have been into the 40's for my XL. I just hope ford doesnt eventually price itself out of the market. Even the F150's I think are waaaaay overpriced when I built my truck the closest F150 I could build was about the same price! I remember when Ford used to be the cheaper truck out there, and just as good as the others. The ol 300 I6 with the handshaker, reg cab long bed, just about everyone I knew had one.

 

Just relax Sir. You are suffering from Sticker Shock Syndrome, or SSS. It is a serious condition, but not usually fatal.

Sit down, have a beer or 3 and relax. It will pass in time.

 

Seriously?? I walked away from that 450 king ranch because I thought $45k was still too much.

That is exactly what I think they are going to do. Don't quote me on the years, but Motortrend had an article last month about what the top selling vehicles from 2005 were and what the top selling ones for last year were. The f series sold something like 950k in 2005 and only 400k last year. They could make the same profit by selling the truck at half price because they would sell twice as many.

Back in 2003 I had picked out a brand new, crew cab, xlt, fully loaded except for manual tranny, v10 and the price was $28k. I ended up buying a 2000 5.4 reg cab with 10k miles from an estate auction because I got it for next to nothing, but I regretted not buying the crew cab after about a week. That's why I went back to order one again last year, and walked because I thought $45k was ridiculous. Now we are talking $63k. I don't know about anyone else, but my salary hasn't gone up at the same rate as these trucks, so Ford just assured they won't ever sell me a new truck.

 

You ARE NOT talking $63K!!!!!

I'll say it again, I priced a 2011 6.2L CC SB XLT 4x4 truck around $42K on the build and price website.

Build and Price

Spend some time with that site. Look at what the trucks go for without the thousands in options. It's really not that bad!

 

Somewhere along the way, two things happened:

A) commodity prices, steel, plastics, oil, copper, tin, all the things that go into your truck, went up by leaps and bounds in the 2000.


Steel products (8) index price chart

In terms of steel, it at least doubled from 2000, and actually hit a peak price of about 340% in March 2009.

A 2011 would largely be designed around 2006 with the materials and component prices locked in around 2008 -- right at the peak.


In a truck, there are very few ways to reduce the cost of materials unlike passenger cars, whose sheet metal can be made thinner, etc.

Nevertheless, believe me, Ford and every car maker tried to cost reduce.



B) It's a different truck

The 2011 truck have a far broader "range", rather than a narrowly defined set of options.

There are far more luxurious things at the top end that is not available in the more basic versions.

So it is important to compare identical models in terms of equipment --- or at least try.



C) Emissions - that took a huge toll in redesign / new equipment costs.

Especially pricey is the Diesel particulate filter and the Catalyst.

A huge increase in costs also in the redesign and retooling for 2010 emissions.

You are talking about R&D and amortizing the cost of a raft of new components.....

Ford has to budget for the possibility of another 6.0 introduction fiasco.




All in all .. I understand your income have not risen.

I am just trying to be fair to Ford --- and every other car maker.

 

Ford is trying to turn their truck into a Cadillac, IMO. I don't buy a truck to have all this extra fancy leather and special gadgets all over inside of it. I buy it to two and haul and leave all that fancy stuff to the nice riding car. I see nothing wrong with what ford is doing to the trucks. They are offering a base truck and a "Cadillac" style truck. Well the more options you have the more it cost.

 

The prices have been on the rise since the SDs came out in 98'. I agree they are getting carried away with the prices but they keep putting extra stuff on the trucks that people don't need but like to have.

 

In March of 2009, my XLT crew cab, short bed, V8, manual transmission was this:

Base Price of $36,955

Options were as follows
18" Alu. Rims cost $955
4.10 LTD Slip cost $350
Nice Floor Mats cost $25
4x4 Off Road cost $225
Cab Lights cost $55
Upfitter cost $85
Body Molding cost $60

After delivery, sticker was $39,685
In other words, a nice XLT stickered for $40,000 one year ago.
A 2011 F250 with the same options cost $41,350

One thing to remember is that the Torqshift automatic transmission was optional in 2009. It was an additional $1500. Considering that the manual transmission is standard equipment now, I'd say the pice really went up all that much.

 

2008 F250 4X4 6.4 Lariat Ext cab 8' box nav system etc, etc $62,949.00 list CDN $

 

All I know of these prices, is that I could buy a '11 F150 Platnium for 50K, or I could buy 2011 F350 Lariat Diesel Dually 4x4 for 59K.

Which do you think is the better value? I saw these at the Central IL Auto show in Peoria last weekend.

Man, is that F350 SWEET!!\

EDIT: The King Ranch next to the lariat was 64K.......

 

You can buy a very capable truck for much less. Why buy all the most expensive options and then complain about the price? Perhaps it is not Ford that has lost touch with reality.

 

Yikes! Did anyone notice that the powertrain warranty is now 5 year/60,000 miles on the diesel engine? EDIT: Maybe that is the base powertrain warranty and the sticker is not reflective of the 5 year/100,000 miles for the diesel engine.

 

Yes.

And did you notice this:

5 year, 100,000 mile GM powertrain warranty.


General Motors | Warranty and Quality | GM



Ford is being cautious with a new engine, but let me guess:

- a lot of courtesy repairs will be done after the basic 3 year 36,000mile warranty expires

- a lot more courtesy repairs are going to be done between 5 year / 60,000 and 100,000 miles.


Then someone in HQ will notice... we are losing to GM....

And then...

Out comes the 5 year / 100,000 mile.


I give them 2 years before they are forced by GM to do this.


GM is already giving them a run in the ambulance business.