Two things are clear: trucks these days are ludicrously expensive, and car enthusiast and TikTok creator Thomas (@carsrme) has lots of opinions on the matter.
We’ve spent some time already going over how Thomas thinks the value proposition for new trucks vs. high-mileage older vehicles is heavily out of balance.
And in a new TikTok clip that’s been viewed more than 50,000 times he dives into the sticker shock madness of a pair of Chevrolet Colorado midsize trucks.
The state of the midsize pickup truck market
We open the clip looking at a red Chevrolet 2024 Colorado Z71, with a sticker of $49,575.
“Why are you gonna pay $50,000 for a Chevy Colorado?” he asks in disbelief, noting that he paid less than that for a Silverado in 2023. Thomas makes note of the truck’s “tiny little” bed that’s about the size of a small child’s sandbox, but does credit the vehicle with having a large passenger cab and backseat. But that’s a lot of cost for some extra leg room.
Things don’t get any better when Thomas examines a white steel wheel base-model Colorado, which is marked at $37,855.
“At this point though, why wouldn’t you just buy a full-size pickup truck?”
Truck prices keep climbing
As a class of vehicles, trucks are the most reliable in terms of demand and sustainable value, which is a big reason why dealers can throw such elevated asking prices on them. Statista Market Insights forecast pickup truck sales to reach 2.6 million units by the end of this year, with that number expected to grow slightly through 2026.
Unexpectedly, over the past 40 years price inflation on new trucks tracks at 1.58 percent per year, more than a full point below the overall inflation rate of 2.83 percent over the same period.
Slicing the data another way, the folks at Wolf Street have been tracking the cost of a Ford F-150 XLT since 1990 as a way to gauge the price changes of a mass market truck that’s been widely available for more than 30 years.
The 2024 model came in at $47,620, or $4,680 more than in 2023. And zooming out four years, the cost was up $13,460 or 39.4% over the 2020 version. So Thomas is probably right to be alarmed at the price trends on trucks, and where they could be headed in the years to come.
Viewers weigh in on the state of the market
Commenters on the post appeared angered over how small trucks now cost about as much as top-end models did a decade ago.
“Back in 2014, I’ve seen brand-new big trucks with the highest trim sells for $50K, now we have $50K small trucks, what has this world came to,” one of them wrote.
Another user noted that so-called bargain pricing on some models never seems to last. They wrote, “It only lasted for about 30 seconds, but that Ford Maverick was $20K MSRP. That’s the cost of a small pickup truck. Now you can’t find one for less than $30K.”
And another took shots at how the beds in most midsize trucks are so small as to be unusable for transporting much of anything.
“Midsize trucks make absolutely no sense unless you get the six-foot bed. I had two midsize trucks with the five-foot beds and they were almost useless. Even my Ram with the 5.7-foot bed is much more useful.”
@carsrme Why would you buy a midsize pickup #Trucks #chevytrucks #gmt800 #silverado #colorado #moneysavingtips ♬ original sound – Thomas
The Daily Dot reached out to Thomas via direct message, and to Chevrolet/GM via email.
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