Here's some data to support the rhetoric we all keep repeating: "Holy crap, pickup trucks are insanely expensive." TrueCar has calculated which were the most popular $50K+ vehicles and versions of the Ford F-Series, Ram, Chevy Silverado, and GMC Sierra are all in the top ten.
TrueCar is predicting sales over $50,000 to represent about 8.1 percent of all new vehicle deals in the US, up from 6.6 percent as they observed last year. According to their data, the average transaction price for all new vehicles in 2014 through November is $31,831.
What I'm even more blown away by is that Ford is slated to suck up $10,800,000,000.00 selling F-Series vehicles, which for 2014 includes F-150, F-250, and F-350, over $50,000. If this data is correct, GM's Chevy and GMC truck lines combined are making less than half as much selling big-ticket pickups.
The income difference between Ford and GM looks a little less dramatic when we move back to the "total revenue" column: Silverado and Sierra are predicted to make $29.1 billion compared to Ford's 32.2 billon. But don't forget how many zeros we're taking about here... a $3.1 billion gap is absolutely mega even for corporations as gigantic as Ford and GM.
Sure, Ford's predicted to sell about 28,000 more F-Series trucks than GM will move Silverados and Sierras, but that still seems like an insanely aggressive edge on high-dollar pickups from the Blue Oval.
Do you think Ford's premium trucks are that much better than the ones from Chevy, GMC, or Ram? Or is the company just better and selling them?
Image via Ford, data via True Car