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July 12, 2016 60 mins

How much would you pay for a new truck kitted-out with all the bells and whistles? It's a question more and more U.S. car buyers are asking as they purchase trucks with amenities previous generations never imagined -- but it leads to a bigger question: How long will the trend persist?

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Episode Transcript

Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
Go behind the wheel, under the hood and beyond with
car stuff from house stuff Works dot Com. I'm welcome
to car Stuff. I'm Scott and I'm then we are
joined as always by our super producer Noel Platinum round. Yeah,
and we're in one of our satellite studios, right, called

(00:23):
a satellite studio, but it's really like away, right, but
it's down the hall. It's the main studio. Is that
like in another building somewhere, another compound or space. It's
nothing like that. But we are in a separate Uh.
I guess a second location. Maybe a secret location, a
secret bunker maybe, sure, an undisclosed location. Yeah, let's let's

(00:44):
leave it at that. But we're gonna talk about high
end pickup trucks today or luxury pickup trucks depends on
where you go to find that information. What they call them,
and a lot of places will shy away from calling
them luxury pickup trucks. But yeah, this is a this
is a listener suggestion that came from Rudy Smith and
you read this. Uh it was a while back. Now,
I guess one of our nuts and Bolts are listener

(01:04):
mail episodes. Yeah, exactly. And it was the one where
we were catching up from the previous years. So this,
the suggestion actually comes from early and so a little
bit of this has changed. UM. I'm sure Rudy will
understand what we're talking about as we go through here.
His his examples are about a year old now, so
we we updated a few of these. But here's the note.
I'll read it to you so that you you understand

(01:26):
where we're starting from here. So Beck in May of
Rudy wrote in and said, Scott and Benn, I had
a surreal experience on my recent road trip, and it
might interest you. It started with a conversation with my
brother in law's. We were headed to Florida on a
fishing trip. We just finished listening to the recent car stuff.
How how how is the true luxury car to find?

(01:46):
That's good? He's on the road, he does that often.
He always takes us along with him. Um. And he
says that when it was all wrapped up, his brother
in law told him of a neighbor of his who
took a post retirement job of delivering cars for a
Ford dealer. Um in Missouri. Let's leave it in Missouri.
One of the cars the man delivered was a pickup
truck with a sticker price of ninety six thousand dollars. Now, listen,

(02:11):
I'll tell you. He says, it's not a typo, but
it was. It was ninety six thousand dollars, and I thought, well,
it's it's a little strange. But and later he says,
we were unable to find in the nineties in the
ninety six K range. But he says, I found it
really hard to believe initially, but I looked it up
on his on on his phone, and he found that
some of the Ford F series pickups do indeed have
really super high sticker prices, and they're the Platinum series trucks.

(02:34):
He says that it was easy to find pickup trucks
that started around seventy seven thousand dollars for some Ford
F four fifties. Uh, actually they started around seventy and
then of the upgrades they got around seventy seven. And
he said, we weren't able to find any around ninety six.
But we have no reason to doubt the guy that
reported the K because you know options and add ons
and all that stuff. There's a there's a chance that

(02:54):
whatever this guy wanted, Uh, it did amount to that
probably plus you know, this delivery charge might have been more,
who knows, um, But he said, you know, these these
high end pickups were something of interest him. And then
he says, here's the here's the improbable thing. We met
a third member of our party in Florida and he's
a Georgia peanut and cotton farmer, and he had the
boat that they were going to use for that fishing trip.

(03:16):
And he said he had a brand new Ford F
two fifty Platinum series pickup truck and he got to
ride in the shotgun seat. He said, it's really super nice.
It had a comfortable interior, a backup camera for the
boat that was outstanding. He says, you don't even need
to turn your neck to launch a boat in this thing.
And the camera and mirrors were were fine. You know
what camera merors are fine, I guess to launch the boat. Um.

(03:37):
He said. He drove it a short while and it
was a privilege to do so. It's very comfortable yet
very utility utilitarian, very quiet inside. It was had the
comfort level of like a luxury car with the ride
and handling that didn't seem truck like at all. It
was one of the most amazing experiences of my driving life,
he says. So it really is because Rudy has been
behind the wheel of a lot of different vehicles in

(03:57):
his own and rental cars and things like that along
the way, a lot of road trips, a lot of time,
you know, behind the wheel. So for him to praise
the vehicle like that, that's that's really something, he said.
I was surprised to realize that you or learned. I
guess that such things exist. And here's the thing that
really caught my attention with this, and I hadn't thought
of it this way. It seems to me that pickup
trucks flirting with Corvette zero six prices might interest you

(04:20):
and perhaps other listeners. And I completely agree. And I
hadn't really thought of it in that term that terms.
I guess that, yeah, you can have the top of
the line Corvette or near the top of the line
Corvette for the same price as a pickup truck. That's
we'll call it loaded with all the you know, the
buttons and i'm sorry, buzzer buzzers and with whistles. The

(04:41):
term yeah, it's lost of time then loss of time,
but um, yeah, fully loaded pickup trucks are very very
expensive now, but they're also packed with luxury items that
formally we're coming only in luxury cars or real, real
high end sports cars, and now you're gonna pay the
same amount of the same amount of money for that
vehicle versus you know, an outright luxury car. It's an

(05:04):
interesting trend, I guess, because it's not what pickup trucks
were twenty years ago. It's not what pickup trucks were
even I'm gonna say even fifteen years ago. I think
this is a more recent trend that they're starting to
steadily climb in price, features, options, um, you know, uh
and and um, maybe even acceptability, if that's the right

(05:24):
way to say it. That's a yeah that I think
that's a pretty good way to say it. Because let's
set this straight at the top of the show. The
pickup trucks of yesteryear are not going away. You know,
the little uh to three seaters, right, No extended cab,
no crazy camera options or heated seats or anything like that,

(05:47):
just something that does the job. Those are always gonna
be around because there's always gonna be a demand for them. However,
in previous decades, like twenty years ago, the kind of
trucks that are coming out now would have been considered
somewhat contradictory, you know, because they they're sacrificing in some cases, uh,

(06:10):
pickup bed space for more things are usually associated with
a higher end auto motive. Well in some cases and
some not at all. Yeah, because a lot of these
trucks are are you know, very of course, they're as
capable as any other pickup truck. In fact sometimes more
because because of the well the engine and the transmiss
transmission and you know some of the other features that
will talk about that add onto this price or what

(06:32):
make them so desirable for ranchers or um, you know,
people that have to do towing, like the hotshot towers. Um.
You know, there's a lot of uses for these great
big pickup trucks. Some people buy them strictly for um,
you know, just just as well they like pickup trucks.
They buy them for around town. They don't buy them
to haul anything. They buy them as a status symbol almost.

(06:53):
And and and that's what I meant before I said acceptability.
I meant um maybe in uh, what's the other term
I'm looking for here? That um commonality maybe I mean
that that, um, you know, when people realize, like when
you pull up in a in a high end pickup
truck to uh, you know, to the ballet at the
you know, outside the club, Um, You're you're not going
to be looked down upon for driving a pickup truck.

(07:14):
This is like the top end pickup truck. They realized, like,
this is a status symbol. This is something that uh,
you know, you chose this because you wanted this set
of features, this type of ride, this comfort level. There's
a little bit of cachet to it. Yeah, exactly right.
And so, you know, just a couple of quick things
that I want to mention here before we get started.
We'll probably touch on a few of these as we go,
but a few different Like one quote from the you know,

(07:37):
there's a psite called true Car true car dot com,
and the president of true car dot com wrote, and
I thought this was pretty interesting. He said, you can
do so much with a fifty tho dollar pickup. And
now almost choked on that part right away, right there,
fifty thouar pick up. But we'll talk about something that
are way more than that today. He said, that's the
American expression of premium right now, that's what that's what

(07:57):
like a lot of Americans who dry have luxury vehicles
are now switching over to luxury pickups, are high end pickups,
and that's the kind of the the newest American expression
of luxury is these these great, big pickup trucks. And
it makes sense too, because if you look at the
history of popular luxury brands in the US, one thing

(08:21):
that's always been a common belief is that European automakers
run the game as far as the luxury vehicle market goes.
But you know, that's not to say they're not American
luxury vehicles, but it is to say that the market
itself was largely seen as a European dominated market. And

(08:43):
now in many ways, the luxury pickup which we should
still talk about that difference in terms the high end
pickup trucks are being seen as American is cheeseburgers and
apple pie. Can I tell you something about that number
that just mentioned. You said that what we said, Uh,

(09:04):
as far as top selling vehicles, Uh, you know that
the trucks are are on the increase. Now I don't
I don't know what says status you're looking at I
think you're probably looking at the same thing. I am
right with the true car information, and it's very recent.
But the luxury vehicles in the United States that sold
for over fifty dollars is why wouldn't say dominated, but
it is. It's topped by pickup trucks. And that's kind

(09:26):
of surprised because, as you said, it used to be
German sedans that were at the top of the list
and dominated the list. Really, I mean, of course pickup
trucks were in there because of the fourd F series. However,
what's really important about this list is that this list
that I'm that I'm looking at is only vehicles that
were over fifty tho dollars. And that's the new part

(09:46):
of this is that you know, base prices over fifty.
So this this kind of up and coming segment, I guess,
and it's funny to call it that because it's been
happening for you know, a decade or more at this point.
But um, on this list that we're looking at, eight
of the top ten bestselling vehicles in the fifty dollar
and up segment in the United States again our trucks
or SUVs, and of those, six of those are Detroit

(10:09):
brand models, so they come out of Detroit there their
US built to their their US manufacturers that create these. Now,
I gotta tell you, I'm I'm questioning the uh maybe
there's a typo here because I see on this list
of ten, I see four pickup trucks and two SUVs,
and the other SUVs would be the German vehicles. So, um,

(10:30):
I'm not sure those numbers exactly, But what's at the
top of the list Man as you would expect. Yeah,
the FOURD F series they sold, they sold nearly two
hundred thousand vehicles at the over fifty k price, so
almost two almost yeah, almost two hundred thousand F series
pickup trucks over fifty k were sold last year. Um.

(10:52):
The next one would be the Ram pickup at seventy
six thousand, So that's a huge gap there by the way,
I think it's it's almost a hundred. Let's just at
the actual number. It's a hundred eighty nine thousand, seven
hundred and seventy six, so just under one thousand for
the F series. The Ram pickups at number two is
all the way down to seventy six thousands. So they
can see an idea of just how big the F
series pickups are for Ford and I got an even

(11:15):
bigger number later which includes the lower end models as well,
So so you know, not not just above the fifty k.
If you skip down the list, there's the Chevy Tahoe,
which I know is an SUV H. Then there's the
Chevy Silverado, which is at what went number five on
the list, and if you go all the way down
to number ten, there's the GMC Sierra. The rest of them,
there's there's a suburban is on there as well, that's

(11:37):
an STUV UM and there's a couple of German vehicles
Mercedes BMW but UM, interesting numbers. Interesting that they're topping
the list as they are now at that price. Yeah,
and so what do you get for that price? That's
the that's the million or fifty k plus question in
this In this circumstance, well, you get a lot of

(11:59):
amenities that, as we said, would typically be associated with
luxury brands like you will have um. The cab will
be built more like a full size SUV cab. There's
a lot more leg room than there was because you know,
you and I come from the generation where an extended
cab meant that there were two jump seats that might

(12:22):
fold out in the back so that you you're crammed
in there your shoulders there's no room for shoulders. You
have big shoulders and and typically they're trying to carry
you know, a work crew. Um, you could cram a
kid back there, I guess if you wanted to. You're
a kid or two, and uh, you know, and a
few in front because that was the day when you could,
back in the day when you didn't necessarily have to
have front you know, seat belts in the front as well.

(12:44):
True that the rules are a little bit more laxed
with that, but yeah, yeah, that's changed and the whole
seating thing has changed the pickups, uh tremendously across the segment.
Now you can now it's not unusual at all to
have a cab with enough room to comfortably seat five adult. Yeah,
which is when you get to that level, it's as well.

(13:05):
See here's the here's the thing about this and we'll
talk about base prices versus loaded prices later. But you know,
you start out with a pickup truck that's forty three
thou dollars to start, you know, base price, which is
already pretty expensive really, but you're not going to get
the crew cab for that part. And and okay, I
know this is in every situation, but but just this
is an example. You're not gonna get the crew cab.

(13:25):
You're not going to get the great big V eight
or the diesel V eight that you want. You might
get a V six option. You're gonna get an automatic transmission.
You might not want that automatic, or you might be
the other way run. You might get a you know,
a five speed manual, you want the six speed manual,
or you want the you you would prefer the heavy
duty UM automatic that they offer. You know, there's there's
all different axle combinations and four world drive options, and

(13:46):
you know, it's just there, there's so many things here.
In fact, one of the biggest increasers here on the increaser,
I don't know if that's a word, but increasers. An
increaser on these on these base prices is the of
either a big turbo diesel engine, which sometimes can add
you know, six, seven, eight, even ten thousand dollars to

(14:07):
the price of a vehicle just for that option that upgrade,
or um as we said, you know, heavy duty transmissions
like six speed transmissions from big name manufacturers like Eisen
Um you know that that are known for quality and
durability and uh oh heavy duty axle options. Of course,
if you're gonna be towing, you're gonna want you know,
maybe even a dual rear axle. Uh something that you

(14:29):
know has dual wheels. UM. Lots of interior and exterior upgrades.
There's mirror packages, you know, they go along with like
the towing packages. There's camera options like what Rudy was
talking about with the backup systems, which do I will
go to bat for those because they do come in
handy given the size and the turning radius of these vehicles. Absolutely,
I mean even in some of the SUVs, you know,

(14:50):
not even a giant suv, but like a midsize suv.
Some of those cameras are fantastic to have in a
in a parking structure like ours here because it's it's
so tight. So it would be uh really wise to
get that upgrade to you know, the backup camera or
even the camera that's mounted higher for um, you know,
seeing traffic as it passes behind you. Um. There's so
many UM. I guess that's the same thing. I guess

(15:11):
I think I'm the one that's mounted up above higher
for you know, watching the cargo behind you. This, yes,
load behind you. Um, so many different options for entertainment
and navigation, as you said, interior packages, because people are
getting these now with like, you know, finally stitched leather
seats and it's not the vinyl seats of the past.
It's our cloth, you know, in the in the cheaper models. Yeah,

(15:32):
it's kind of I guess our non American listeners, you
guys might think of this as having the cake and
eating it too, you know what I mean. And you know,
I gotta say, though, it's not always and we we
mentioned all these kind of add ons and extras and
all that stuff, and it's not always a case of
somebody having or lacking discipline when they're when they're filling

(15:54):
out the order form for that vehicle. You when they
go online and start clicking. Sure, it's fun to build,
you know, the top end vehicle. It's fun to you know,
it's window shopping though, well of course, yeah you can
do that, but if you're really going to build one,
it's not always a lack of discipline that leads people
to select the options that they do so you can't
fault somebody for having a pickup truct that's in the
you know, sixty five dollar ranger or more. They might

(16:15):
need that for again, hotshot towing, or maybe they haul
a horse trailer halfway across the country on a regular basis. Yeah,
that's the thing. I'm glad you said that, because it's
it's easy to fall into stereotypes. But quite a few
of these are not going to be somebody with more
money than sense. As a matter of fact, I would

(16:37):
argue that the majority are people who are making an
investment in something like a work truck essentially, you know,
so you need that durability and if you are going
to be riding across the country, like you pointed out, Scott,
on a regular basis, comfort does matter to the point
where I know some people may roll their eyes at this,

(16:59):
but it's important. And it's true on a long drive
comfort can matter to the point where it affects safe driving. Yeah.
So if that is the case, then it is worth
paid more for this. All these things we're talking about,
by the way, ladies and gentlemen, are are just little
pieces of an interesting statistic. We'd like to give you

(17:20):
The average price of a pickup truck in the US
has risen higher and faster than any other segment here
over the last decade. And that's at rise over two
thousand for two thousand fourteen. That's from a Forbes article. Yeah,
that's right. Forbes reported that, and they said that that
is a bigger jump than luxury cars, which rose at

(17:42):
a rate of eighteen point eight percent, and higher even
than luxury suv s, which I thought would have been,
you know, comparable to the pickup trucks, but they rose
at a level about sixteen point four percent over the
same time period. So, um, interesting that pickup trucks have
taken off like this. I mean, that's a huge increase
of forty one sent jump um just over ten years,

(18:02):
you know, two thousand four to two thousand fourteen. I
would I would guess that that number, if they updated
it now, I would say that that is remains steady.
I don't think that that is is declining by any means.
I think that is either that or even higher at
this point. Because some of the examples that we've got
and I've got a couple of lists here, we'll get
to uh, you know what I'm gonna tease you just
a little bit here and say that UM Car and

(18:25):
Driver has found the most expensive pickup truck that you
can order in the United States, you know, with all
the options, all the you knowells and whistles, there's that
phrase again, maybe even buzzards, I don't know. But but
they've found the number one most expensive pickup truck for

(18:45):
you can order from a US manufacturer. And we'll tell
you what that is near the end of the podcast,
along with a few others that are eye opening in
their range. But we have a Hall of Fame or
a rogues gallery, depending on your opinion. Yeah, and you know,
one more quick thing before we we dive into some
other stuff here. I want to I want to say this,
and we we've hinted at a couple of times a

(19:08):
lot of manufacturers that won't outright say that these are
luxury vehicles, which I which I find kind of strange.
I am so glad you said that, because clearly there
are luxurious aspects to these vehicles. And I've got some
ideas on this is just rampant speculation. It's like, uh,

(19:33):
it's like a marketing thing, right, you know, no one
wants to no one wants to buy something that that
counteracts the image of themselves they have associated with the
purchase they make. And that's not just for automotive industry
related things, right Like, no one wants to buy beef

(19:59):
jerky that is, you know, called like soft tooth beef
jerky for people who can't handle beef jerky. And what
you know what I mean, well, I think you're you're
saying that you don't want to cannibalize the sale of
your other product, the rest of your product. Uh. And
another way you can look at this too is that, okay,
they call it platinum. You know, the Forward series calls

(20:19):
it platinum. That right away has a a connotation of
something high end, of something that you know that's above goldie. Um,
so you call the Platinum series and and then it's
kind of an understood um nod to the fact that
this has got a lot of luxury features inside and
or outside or you know whatever. It's their top end.
And then you know, there's the other way to look

(20:41):
at this too is that you know, you you mentioned
you don't want to compete with your own products. So
for a long time manufacturers have done this too, Like uh, um,
I'll use GM as an example. I don't know if
this is still the case or not because of all
the special additions and everything, but for a long time,
you were never gonna buy a Camaro that was faster
than the Corvette. Yeah, the Corvette is the top dog. Again,
that net performance UH arena there for general motors. And

(21:05):
they would, you know, even even in the same vehicle,
if they would, they would um not same vehicles, same engine,
I guess, you know, if they would put the same
engine in the Camaro, they would list it as having
less horsepower, less torque, even though it was the exact
same and you know that everything everything should have lined
up so that it was exactly the same, transmission options
and all that stuff. It should have been exactly the same.

(21:26):
But they would, they would make the numbers slightly lower
for the Camaro. And it's I know, it's just a
it's a mind game. It's it and it's marketing, it's sales.
It's a little bit of internal politicking too. And I think,
you know, of course, anybody can say, like, well, there's
the you know, the Copo Camaro, which is gonna be
faster than the Corvette. You know, there's gonna be special
order options that you can do, and of course there's

(21:46):
ways around all that, but I mean, just strictly from
what they convey to the public is that you know,
the Camaro is in the pecking order, is slightly below
the Corvette, in some cases a lot below the Corvette.
But um, you know they're not gonna let that happen
in their their the print materials that they send out
to the public. Absolutely because I see what you're saying.
So the question is the customer would ask Rudy, I

(22:10):
hope you don't mind me taking you for an example,
but if Rudy Smith is going to buy a luxury
vehicle and there's a luxury pick up, then why would
he bother buying? You know what I mean? Like they're
the markets bleed over? Then well, because here's and it's
getting back to what we started this whole thing with,
is that you know, they won't say luxury. They'll say

(22:30):
things you know that hinted luxury. I'm gonna say like,
they're gonna say a lot of words like quiet and
comfort and that. But but that goes along with what
they can still offer with a pickup trucks. So they're
gonna still say that it's it's rugged, it's durable, it's dependable. Yeah,
well see that it's like the best of both worlds,
and they don't they don't outright say it's luxury because
they don't want to cut into luxury car sales. So

(22:53):
it's it's really it's an interesting, uh mind game, I
guess that they're playing. And I don't have a better
way to say that, really, but it is. It's a
it's a a little bit of fooling people with it,
I think. And you know, when you get to the
articles like this one from Forbes, they outright do say
and and say the best selling luxury cars and now
pickup trucks. So they're calling it luxury vehicles all the
way through this whole thing, so they're not afraid to

(23:13):
do that. Um, it's one of the few places I
did find that that will call them luxury pickup trucks
outside of blogs. Yeah, that's something that you and I
both found in the course of our research. Most official
marketing stuff and even a lot of reviews of the
specific trucks we're talking about, shy away from saying this

(23:37):
is a luxury thing. They will extol the the advantages
of various amenities or add ons or packages. But they
you know, they won't ever say like relax in the
you know again heated leathers, crew cab comfort of the
Bard Platinum series. Yeah, it's it's just like that. I mean,

(23:58):
you're right, that's the that's all a lot of a
lot of marketing speak, I guess in this in this case.
And uh, you know, we we talked about crew cabs.
Of course they're really popular for um, you know, people
that are hauling crews of workers, you're workment around and
work trucks or whatever. But a lot of these are
just hauling families, so they can also play up that
aspect that you know, it's not it's not the old
pickup trucks that can only see three maybe at most,

(24:21):
or with the jump seats as you said, you know,
an extra two. But if they're going to be crammed
in this one again, you could pull up to you know,
the country club in this one with five full grown
adults and get out with your you know, of course,
plenty of room for the clubs in the back or
whatever you're hauling, you know, tennis rackets or whatever, and
and none of the and I'm gonna say stigma, but

(24:41):
none of the stigma of pulling up to the country
club in a pickup truck as there was in the past.
Not that it was a bad thing, it's just, uh,
you know, when you're accustomed to seeing the high end
sports cars and luxury vehicles, this now is definitely on
par with those vehicles, um, you know, in that luxury realm.
I guess it's it's true. And you know, this is
a bit of a side topic here, Scott, but I

(25:04):
think it began with the widespread acceptance of high end
suv s. I think this is an evolution of that acceptance,
and it started, uh, you know, it started the way
so many other things start with some form of celebrity endorsement. Athletes, musicians, uh,

(25:26):
race car drivers showing up in these very high end vehicles.
And now it's normal. Now it's not like going to
some I was gonna say tuxedo party, but I don't
think people actually call them that. But you know, it's
not like going to some red carpet event and and
just your beat up jeans, yeah, black tie event. That's

(25:47):
the word tuxedo party is just something I made up.
But yeah, you know, whatever they're called now. It's now,
it is more accepted, it's common, and it's seen as
a bit more unique in comparison to the ubiquitous orthodox luxury. Well,
you know, you know what, Ben, I'm glad you said
the luxury vehicles because that that sparks a memory here

(26:09):
and it comes from the Fords article that I had
written a note here somewhere in the side. I'm gonna
try to find as I was speaking. But, um, luxury
brands that have kind of tried to enter into this
market as well, you know, tried to you know, the
luxury suv s I should say, yeah, well, yeah, that's right.
The I guess they called it the Blackwood I think, right,

(26:31):
the pickup truck version. Yeah, stripes on the side, and
it was supposed to be like the dressed up version
of the of the pickup truck. But that was really
a failure. I didn't do too well then. Um. I
think Cadillac Escalade, you know, the Escalade brand tried to
have an Escalade based pickup truck for a while as well,
and that didn't pan out all that great for them.
I mean, they just didn't sell as many as you

(26:52):
would expect, so they kind of gave up on that thing,
I think, unless if you're still building them, I see
very few around. Usually you see the poll suv instead
of the pickup truck version. Well the I think the
Lincoln Mark LT is still around. Okay, so, but but
there's a thing here, Scott, and I don't wanna roll

(27:13):
over you here with this, but there's a thing that
I've noticed that listeners, I believe you have probably noticed
as well, and it's this. It is far easier for
a for a brand or type not usually associated with
luxury to put out an elevated version of itself, like

(27:35):
a pickup truck. It's always going to be a pickup truck,
but it can also be a higher end pickup truck.
It's much much more difficult for something that is considered
a luxury brand to issue something that is seen as
a step down in that hierarchy of what premium is.
So like, if, for instance, well Escalate, yeah, birth Escalade

(28:01):
was looked at as are still is looked at as
a premium suv, very expensive, very very high end, with
interior options, exterior options as well. But um for them
to offer a pickup truck version is uh is and
I again, I hate the way that this sounds when
I say stuff like this, but it's like a it's
a step down from a lower level vehicle for them.
That's how people seem to perceive it. Yeah, it's strange,

(28:25):
isn't it, Even though it's still a Cadillac Escalade. It's
it's just an escalade that has a I don't know,
like a four ft bet on the back or something.
It was it was a small bed I remember. Um.
But yeah, you're right, and you know there are other
other vehicles that that do this too. It's not just
the US manufacturers, so it's it's other manufacturers, I should
say they do this. Um oh wait, sorry one amendment here,

(28:47):
let me correct myself. Guys, my spires since went off,
and I just checked the mark LT recently stopped. It
was in two thousand and fourteen in uh In, Mexico,
and that they've stopped. Okay, well interesting, So well, it's
it's strange how the luxury brands have tried to do

(29:09):
this and not done so well as we said. As
you said, but other brands, like there are other entries
into this segment as well, So it's not just US
manufacturers you know of course Ford, Chevy, UM and what
it was GMC, and there's RAM and UM. But but
they're also UM some of the Asian truck manufacturers that
do this as well. They're not quite as expensive as
the US trucks. But Toyota, they of course have UM

(29:31):
their top of the line vehicle, which is the Crew
Max war By four, and that retails at fifty thousand,
two and seventy five dollars and that includes like a
two thousand dollars or nearly I'm sorry, twelve delivery charge,
and then of course, you know what all these are
gonna have a delivery charge. It's like twelve or hundred bucks.
We'll talk about that later to UM. Nissan is another one,

(29:54):
and they've got the full size Titan pickup trucks, and uh,
let's see, I'm trying to get some other one, but
I think I think UM they also have like Platinum
Reserve crew cab models, so they have their own platinum
type of series as well, but it's different, and they're
right around the you know, fifty two dollar range or
even sixty one dollars in some cases, so UM, you know,

(30:15):
for anything between uh, you know what they call their
diesel powered you know, x D s L Pro four
by poor Model, and you know they've got um, you know,
top end vehicles, just like the US manufacturers, and they
see this at this segment in the United States is
a growing segment and something worthy of of, you know,
putting new product out here on the showroom floors or

(30:36):
on the lots for you or for Yeah, I guess
the US buyers to look at and consider as alternatives
to the US manufacturers, and and people are buying them.
I mean, they're not making the top ten list, you
know yet, but maybe we'll see them replace some of
those Germans Sedans soon, who knows. Speaking of top tens,
I've got something for you if you're interested, just a

(30:59):
quick laundry list of some of the most expensive pickup trucks.
And you might have some similar research, but our stuff
maybe a little different. So I'm gonna run through this
pretty quickly. Maybe we'll have some greatest hits that show
up for your listeners out there. Heck, maybe you're writing
in one now. Before I begin this, I must say,

(31:21):
long time listeners, the nicest way to say it is
that I have been the times portrayed as a thrifty
person It is true. I am so very very cheap
at times. But I will say in defense of these
vehicles another thing that I think is very cool about

(31:43):
them is, honestly, it is multifunctional. The old pickup trucks,
or the the original pickup truck style was more of
a tool, you know, to get this job done, whether
that's construction, whether it's landscaping, moving, what have you. So
one of the big only points of these is now
they they say to a family, now you don't have

(32:04):
to buy two vehicles, your work truck, and you have
the things you can take the kids out to the
movies with. It's still very utilitarian, it's still a tool,
but it's that plus so much more at this point.
So with that being said, I'm on my best behavior here,
Scott as I as I say, the prices of these
all right, So the GMC Sierra fift hundred four will

(32:27):
drive Denali, all right, it's you know, it's like the
tougher Silverado, right, the tougher Chevy Silverado based price fifty
eight hundred and sixty dollars American. That's where we're starting
this list. That's where we're starting. Dollars per pickup truck. Alright,

(32:50):
well still still shocking. Yes, that means that if all
forty something of the people who worked at House of
Works contributed, you know, to the pot, we contributed a
grant to the pot, we'd still be twelve short. So that,

(33:11):
you know, you get a five point three Leader Eco
Tech V eight with that as the base horse power, Well,
who wants that? I mean, that's that's trash. You probably
won't even get where you're going in that vehicle. Come on,
I mean you're only spending on it and it has
what dude, would you say, is a V eight or
V six? V eight? Now it's a V eight, Okay,

(33:32):
five point three that's something I guess. Yeah, But that's
just the base. So how how far can we take this?
If you add on all the again those bells and
whistles that I love to talk about in this episode.
Sixty seven thousand dollars is what the prices that vehicle
jumps up to. So you can add one thousand dollars
worth of options, you know, more than that as a

(33:53):
matter of fact, But um, that's not all that uncommon
as we go through this list. So they're they're vehicles
that jump up in price significantly. As we said, Uh,
you know, some of these these engine options will will
jump it up nearly ten thousand dollars in some cases
strictly for the engine and transmission combinations. So it's not
that difficult to see where a few of these things

(34:13):
that you know, you you kind of throwing here and there,
a chrome package, a mirror package, a camera here and there,
and suddenly you know you've had it on fifteen thousand
dollars and options. But it may it may literally be
something that you need in that type of vehicle. If
you're doing a very specialized type of work or hauling,
it might be something that you actually really do need.
For comparison, fifteen thousand dollars would get you what like

(34:38):
twelve Tata nanos, maybe a Baker's dozen't it's not pacific,
I don't know. You know what you I bet you
get a free one. If you buy a ball, you
probably do, I would guess in that case, and throwing in, uh,
here's another one, the Ford F two fifty four by
four platinum. Uh, that's gonna run you fifty three thousand,

(35:00):
center fifty two, So not that much of an increase,
but you get a six point two Leader V eight engine. Uh,
you have the option of the six point seven Leader
power stroke diesel motor. So we see that, you know,
we see those diesels popping up at a premium. I'm
gonna guess that that jumps it up about ten grand.
But I don't have the numbers in front of me.
I've got I've got my own set of numbers over

(35:20):
here with with other interesting It was some interesting jumps. Well,
you have some significant interesting jumps, I should say. You know,
one one quick thing. Yeah, we we had talked about this.
We can get back to some prices and just but um,
just how important is the F one fifty to the
two to four? It as a manufacturer, and we had
talked about you know that that surprise number. Well, actually

(35:42):
you know the luxury Surprise. I guess it is a
true car calls it. And uh, the number one vehicle
that we said was the FOURD F series pickup truck. You,
of course, over fifty thousand dollars, and not all of
them are over fifty thou but they had sold nearly
what was it a hundred and ninety thousand? I think
I said at over fifty thousand, But that number pales
in comparison to the overall number of F one pickups

(36:04):
that that Ford sells every year and in the US
sales of just again, just the F one trucks all
combined seven hundred and eighty thousand, three hundred and fifty
four units, and of those, about fifty fifty of those
are said to be of their more expensive line of vehicles,

(36:24):
which are the Lariat, the King Ranch Edition, which we
haven't really talked about, and the Platinum Term levels, which
we have talked about. But um again, those are the
three I guess levels that are the most expensive of
the f one fifty, and not all of them top
the fifty thou ranges we see, and that's really only
about um well, Jesus, close to about almost a quarter
of them are about fifty thousand. It's still a significant number,

(36:47):
but they sell so many pickup trucks every single year,
and it's been that way for decades and decades, um.
Just to kind of give you a little bit of
perspective on on, you know, the number of units sold
versus some of the other um, I guess, I guess
we'll call them high end crossover vehicles and just other uh,
you know, like the German sedans that we're talking about.
I suppose UM or even SUV small SUVs UM in

(37:08):
the United States. This is you know, numbers here in
the United States alone. But the Alexis r X crossover
vehicles they sold one hundred thousand, six hundred ten units
all of last year, and the BMW three series sold
four thousand and five and twenty seven units UM and
the Ford pickup trucks surpassed the entire full line of
sales Ford luxury brands like Cadillac, which only sold a

(37:30):
hundred and seventy five thousand, two and sixty seven and Infinity,
which sold a hundred and thirteen thousand four. So the
F series is is vitally important to Ford. But man,
they're they're really cleaning up on this, on this luxury segment,
you know, with those three you know, the the Lariat,
the King Ranch on the platinum trim levels huge. So
you want to hit us with a few more prices

(37:50):
before we lead up to the number one most expensive.
Let's just skip around, so we'll start, of course the
Chevy Silverado hundred high trees on there. Uh, it's if
you want enough work to turn it into a family hauler.
See the the entry this is the entry level for
the heavy duty, right, so the h D is a

(38:15):
little less than thirty three grand. But if you want
the four wheel drive high country, that jumps to fifty
six thousand, eight hundred and seventy five entry price. And
you know what fully loaded is because that is seventy
one thou dollars. So it jumps up to seventy one
grand for this. So we're we're now into the seventy thousands.

(38:37):
And there's there's many of them here on my list
at the top that uh, not even close to the
number one yet number one. Actually let's see, uh you
know what, let's just go straight to the number one
that I have. Yeah, uh, fair enough, because actually, honestly,
I've got I've got twenty examples of pickup trucks that
if you if you want to just grasp this, try

(38:58):
to understand this, that without being able to see it
in front of you, I've got I've got nineteen trucks
that start at fifty thousand dollars minimum, so that the
lowest one on my list begins at um I think
it starts at fifty thousand and seven thirty five dollars.
And that's the High Country Silverado that you mentioned before.
That's the base price. The lowest loaded price on this

(39:21):
list would be the sixteen Nissan Titan X D s L,
which uh that's fifty six thousand dollars, So if you
get fully loaded, it's fifty six thousand dollars. And I've
got nineteen examples like that. They go all the way
to the number one, so uh, they climb pretty quickly
from the you know, the low fifties all the way
up through the sixties and into the seventies, and then
I've got a the number one that I want to

(39:43):
spring on you at the end here. But what's your
number one vehicle? Been? So according to cheat sheet dot com,
as of January sixteen, the most expensive pickup truck in
the US that you could buy was the Ford F
four fifty Platinum and it is uh. It starts at

(40:04):
sixty four thousand, nine d sixty seven dollars uh, and
it's described as the range topper in terms of trim
and model options in the super duty lineup, so you
can get all of the extras found in the F
two fifty and F three fifty Platinum packages. But incredible
towing capacity, way wider bed and uh a six point

(40:29):
seven leader power stroke V eight is what you know
when it comes off the factory floor. Is that what
you got? You got a different one? Nope, I've got
a different one. Now that was that was a loaded
price you gave me right? Uh? That is the starting price,
the starting price. Okay, okay, what did you get? Okay? Well,
here's according to car and driver. And of course you know,

(40:52):
this is the funny thing, like between different sources. I
think that they all just go to one of those
you know, um like a calculating saying yeah, you know,
like the site where you can build and and buy
your own and and they start adding on things, but
they don't realize I think, like this is this is
the discrepancy here. I think that when you add on
certain things from one package, it excludes you from adding
on other stuff that is more expensive. So if you

(41:13):
were to contact the dealer and say, what's the most
expensive vehicle I can build here? You know, with every option,
they would give you something different than what you're able
to build online. Because I think it the packages don't
allow you to do that. I think, I mean, maybe
maybe that's the way it is, but or or you know,
it's removing things from previous selections that you don't realize
they're happening. So price is going up and down. That

(41:34):
that's to me, is is what's probably causing discrepancy here.
But according to Car and Driver, for the most expensive
pickup truck that you can buy in America right now
is the RAM Limited Edition and the base price, which
will surprise you in a good way, I guess you know,

(41:55):
based on the way this discussion has gone, is only
fifty six thousands, hundred and ninety five dollars. But that's
the base price. Yeah, now you start adding on a
bunch of stuff. And what's good about this here is
that it's got specific So let myself, okay, if you
get this vehicle that the again, the ramure Limited Um
fully loaded eighty thousand, two hundred and forty dollars eighty

(42:19):
thousand dollars for a pickup and that's the most expensive
one that they found and I never saw one higher
than that as well. Rudy had mentioned this thousand dollar version,
but I'm not sure exactly what's happening there. I think
it's because you know what it was also I was
going off base price. Oh yeah, that's right. Yes, So
if so, if so, these numbers are maybe not as
uh in conflict as they might appear, because if we're

(42:42):
talking a base price for the Ford, Um, and was
the base price again for this one? For this one,
the base price is only fifty six thousand, six dollars. Yeah,
that's the ms r P. But um, you can you
can up that to eight thousand, two hundred forty dollars loaded.
And I'll tell you where that comes from. Um, mostly
this comes from the first three or four things I'm

(43:04):
gonna mention here. Four wheel drives expensive. Of course you're
gonna get the mega cab, which is bigger than just
the crew cab. I guess, um, what do you want
to look like? A peasant? Plus eleven thousand, five hundred
ninety dollars which comes from you know, an extras which
comes just from the coming six point seven Leader diesel
engine and an Eisen six sped automatic transmission. So just

(43:28):
for those two things is eleven thousand, five nine dollars.
Do you want to add on again for you know,
for towing? Probably for a dual rear axle twelve hundred
dollars UM two fifty dollars for you know, chrome bumper package.
Sunroof is another almost a thousand dollars for a sunroof.
Three dollars for a bed view camera. That's the one

(43:48):
I was talking about before, the bed deep camera, the
higher up dangle for the for the cargo, UM five
hundred dollars for a tunnel cover. Ninety dollars for something
they call the cold weather group. I'm not exactly sure
what that means. Probably heater or options or something. UM.
Fifty dollars for what they call the protection package. Now
I don't know again what that is. It's probably uh,
they probably spray something in the wheel wells or something,

(44:10):
you know. I think it's uh. I think it's the
money you have to pay to the mafia. So protection package.
And then if you want a rear window to froster
in that vehicle, it's almost two hundred dollars um. It's
just it's crazy, But that's the most expensive pickup truck
you can buy in America right now. Is about eighty thousand,
two hundred forty dollars fully loaded against that Dodge Dodge

(44:30):
RAM undred limited. And the question here, Ben, and this
is kind of is what we're we're getting to in
this whole podcast final, right is the question is is
a one hundred thousand dollar pick up that far off? Like?
How long before do you before you think that we
will see a manufacturer that lists of vehicle that you
can you know, upgrade an option up to one hundred

(44:52):
thousand dollars or even more than that, and not like
one off, not like a special edition something you could
buy it and time in that model. Yet the way
it's climbing with the numbers that we said, you know
with the over there there's ten years and you know,
the steady rate of ascent of this, uh, these prices,
this M S R p UM, I don't think it
would be that long at all. I'm gonna guess three

(45:14):
or four years. I was going to I'm being conservative. Yeah,
I think you're You're probably right, three or four or
five years. Somewhere in there, you're gonna see manufacturers that
will offer one thousand dollar pickup trucks. Now, the follow
up question, would you buy one? Would I buy one?
Uh No, I don't really, I don't really see it.
You know, you know, it's a tricky question. We've we've

(45:37):
talked about the the used vehicle thing, you know, like
where the sweet spot is about two years two years
old for for depreciation and you know all that. You know,
someone just wanted to get out low miles and all that. Um.
But even so, what does an eight thousand dollar pickup
truck depreciate to after two years? I mean, it can't
be It's still got to be expensive. It's probably more

(45:58):
than um um some of the the stands that I
would be looking at. And I don't need a pickup
truck for you know, ranch work or anything. I'm not
I'm not a farmer. I'm not hauling anything other than
just you know the occasional trip to home deep on
the weekends, you know, pick up some lumber or whatever.
You can do that and not in my card and
right now, but I can do that sort of in

(46:19):
my wife's jeep. There are other their workarounds on these.
You can borrow a neighbor's pickup truck. Maybe that's a
lot more affordable than buying a used pickup truck or
fifty tho dollar pickup truck used. Um, I don't know,
would you would you ever consider buying something like that?
I mean utility vehicle that is so much money, it

(46:40):
seems like you would have to have a a a
special intent for that vehicle. Yeah, that's a good point.
I wouldn't be sold just on the social cash or
the look good factor. However, if I'm in a situation
where I'm all work outdoors a lot, especially if I'm

(47:02):
not around a city, then I would definitely. I mean,
you gotta have four world drive if you're if you're
going off the road. And then also, I will admit,
pretty cool to get uh like, get some kind of
modified line or top or camper top on that and
then just live in a truck. You always want to

(47:24):
live in your vehicles, That's true. Man in a van
or an RV or whatever you are. The liveability thing
is as big with you, isn't it. It's huge. I
spend a lot of time, you know, I spent a
lot of time driving. The only time I really am,
you know, in an airplane or something is for work.
And I thought a little bit behind the curtain for

(47:44):
everybody here. I thought, we moved to our new office,
and I lived walking distance from our new office. I thought, well,
I'm gonna save so much money on gas or you know,
I'm not gonna use my car as much just because
I'll be a pedestrian in for at least during the
daytime five days a week. However, what I found is

(48:05):
that when I'm not at work, when I'm not walking
to work with that specific intent on the weekends, I
just hop in my car and drive around to driving
more for pleasure now than you were before because the
commute is now shorter. Yeah, absolutely, you still need the
seat time, that's what you're saying. I think I do.
I think there might be something I didn't see it
coming with its definite It's funny you've been consistent on

(48:27):
that message throughout this whole podcast, from from the very beginning,
back in what the late two thousands, tens um you've
always said that you want to either buy an RV
or you want to live in a bus, or you
want to uh um, convert your Monte Carlo back seat
into a sleeping area and of some sort and living
that if you could. Yeah, no, no, I will say

(48:47):
in defense of the Monte Carlo, those back seats do
fold down, so you can make kind of uh bootleg
bunk or bootleg sleeping area. But also I understand that
the RV lifestyle listeners. We have received the message the
RV lifestyle is not what I think it is. Yeah,

(49:09):
so I so I'm gonna I'm gonna take the loss
on that one. But still a custom van or maybe
one of these trucks for city driving, However, I don't
see a need for me to have one of those.
It would make things difficult, that's for sure. It's tough

(49:29):
to navigate one of those vehicles in the city with
a lot of traffic around. They're they're big, they're they're
definitely um I guess that's a downside of of having
one of these if you're in the city, or you
have to be in the city, if you have to
you know, pull into tight parking areas, you have to
navigate through parallel even cramped gas stations because in the
city they're they're a little bit tighter than they are

(49:51):
even out in the suburbs even. But but one one
other thing that that we should mention, which might be
boring for some people, but several of you out there,
you guys are gonna know what I'm talking about. If
you buy these things for your business, then you know,
you save a little money when it's uh when Uncle

(50:13):
Sam comes calling. Yeah, the tax when tax time rolls around.
It's not that's necessarily a bad thing. It's not necessarily
a bad thing. So I I can't say that right
now this would be the best choice for me. Actually,
this would be one of if if I were to
get one of these, this would be one of those
things where my friends would ask me, you know, like

(50:38):
what's wrong with you? You know, it's a life changing
moment for you. It would be it's life you know
for me. I think if I were to get a
pickup truck right now, I don't think I go for
one of these luxury pickup trucks. I mean they're they're beautiful,
they look really cool, they look nice. Um, but I
don't think that I would get, you know, this level
of vehicle. I would I wouldn't go for the vehicle
if that was in my price range right now, Um,

(51:00):
I would, you know, just get a simple pickup truck
and not necessarily new. I like the old pickup trucks.
I like the very utilitarian, simple, simple but strong um
that I I don't have to worry about, you know,
knocking a piece of wood into the fender or um,
you know, the scratch in the bed or you know,
if the I mean hopefully it wouldn't hapen. But if
the back window gets knocked out by a piece of

(51:21):
metal or whatever, it is no big deal. You get
a new one put in. But it's not like, um,
you know one that has a power sliding window with
a with an electronic defroster. Yeah, the defroster that's two
hundred bucks in the power window would be another you know,
five hundred dollar option or whatever. It would be something
that's real simple. I I would say, in as far
as pickup trucks go, I'm I would like to keep

(51:44):
it simple for myself. I understand why a lot of
people would want this. It's a it's it's great for
hauling around, you know, the toys to the lake. You
don't have to jet ski whatever you've got. I mean,
And I have no doubt that there's super smooth drives
because I know some people who own maybe not as

(52:04):
extreme as a fully loaded version, but but who own
very nice structs. And I was so surprised a few
years back when I hopped in one for the first
time and I had lost the race to call shotgun.
I'm just gonna admit I wasn't on the ball, and
so I was stuck in the back and I was
fully expecting, you know, really cramped seat or something, but

(52:26):
it was it was pretty comfortable. And this room lots
of room, man, And I think these trends will continue. Obviously,
this is something that the market wants, right, and this
is something that a lot of people are finding uses for.
I mean, it's serious business if you drive for a living,

(52:48):
and if you drive in a group for a living,
whether that's across a state or whether most of your
week will just be you know, maybe thirty to two hour,
thirty minutes to two our drives to a work site
with a group of people. You need to have something
that's both reliable and ideally comfortable. And we do know

(53:10):
that a lot of pickup trucks have pickup trucks have
a reputation for consistency, for reliability. Now that you mentioned um,
now now that you mentioned the idea of having a
vehicle that can take take a linking, pretty much, I'm

(53:30):
going even further away from a high end pickup truck because, man,
can you imagine me with like a nice car, I
would be the worst nervous. I would be so nervous
it would automatically turn into like a garage baby. Yeah.
I think a lot of people probably feel the same
because you know, again it's a it's a serious investment.

(53:52):
If you get to the eighty dollar range, that's that's
a real investment. Um, I don't even even at the range.
I mean, that's you're you're bordering on what the average
luxury car costs. I think the average luxury car costs
is like average, Yes, average sedan price is like, you know,
brand new. But these luxury pickup trucks are are verging on,

(54:15):
you know, topping a hundred thousand dollars. Now, you know
we're getting close. Um, I don't know, I just I
can't see myself again, you know, picking up one of these,
even used a couple of years old. Depreciation just won't
bring it down even into my price range. Really, yeah,
fifty is too rich for my blood, honestly. But but also,
you know, there's that other argument that is you're not

(54:36):
just buying one car, You're buying a multifunctional thing that
is essentially two vehicles exactly. You may you may have
a need for that, And that's where we started out
this podcast to saying that, you know, there's there's always
gonna be somebody who needs everything that the vehicle has,
you know, for for work purposes or comfort purposes, you know,
whatever the case may be. Um, it's it's gonna make

(54:57):
sense to somebody to buy that eighty tho pickup truck,
but at everybody, and not everybody's gonna see the same,
you know, the same way on a fifty thousand dollar
pickup truck or forty thollar pickups. They may say pickup
trucks should be twenty thousand dollars brand new, you know,
the most. And that's even you know now, but you're
not going to really find that anywhere. That's it's it's
a it's a tough find. Not not here, not a

(55:19):
full sized pickup, not in the United States, not not legally.
Yeah you might get a hot one, yeah maybe maybe.
But but it's an interesting thought, isn't it, these high
end or luxury pickups. So I'm glad Rudy brought this
to our attention. Thanks man, And for the record, Scott,
if I could speak for both of us for a second,
neither of us are saying we would say no to

(55:39):
a free one. Of course, if I ever say no
to free right right. However, I think I think we've
got a pretty good prediction here, and you know, you
and I are both fairly cautious and conservative with predictions.
But within five years that ruck is coming. Yeah, it's

(56:01):
gonna be here. I think. I just wonder who's gonna do.
It's gonna be Forward or is it gonna be Chevy,
Is it gonna be GNC, Is it gonna be you
know Ram? Or is it gonna be one of the
Asian market trucks that like a tighten or it comes
out with some crazy luxury features or something, you know that. Yeah,
it brings it up to hunter k Or is it
gonna be a Tesla Tesla truck? Yeah, you know what
that might be. It that may be the one. And

(56:22):
if they if they develop a pickup truck, why not.
I mean there's Adans or a hundred thousands, so yeah,
but they're all there's still some Oh man, this is
almost like we discovered a new episode at the end
of this one, because there's some questions right about it's
how would it have the hauling power? You know that
I see would have. But this is a solid prediction,

(56:44):
and you know, when when that comes out. I also
wonder what features or options will be the things that
you know, the proverbial hair on the camel's back, right,
or feather on the camel's back. Because one thing that
we need to just at least mention is that as
these become multifunctional vehicles, you know, family sedans that can

(57:08):
also be work trucks. What another thing we saw where
the addition of many safety features, Yeah, inflation alone isn't
enough to push this over a hundred King'll have to
be extra stuff. There's going to be an advancement or
something that's going to dramatically increase the price of those
options on the vehicle that is going to push it
over the hundred k. Now, again we can't predict what

(57:30):
that would be right now. If we could, that would
be our million dollar, billion dollar idea. But um, yeah,
inflation alone won't do it, so so there's gotta be
something else. What are they gonna add on? It's like
it's almost like, you know, the the ultra luxury sedans,
like what you know, what are they offering that makes
them worth five thousand dollars or a million dollars? What
are they offering? But you're gonna throw some of those
features towards the luxury pickup truck or a high end

(57:52):
pickup truck. Maybe, I don't know. I mean I wouldn't
have guessed some of the stuff that's in a pickup
truck right now would be in there twenty years ago.
That's for Oh yeah, are you kidding? It's just it
just wasn't the place for it. I mean, I know
we keep mentioning it, but I'm still just baffled these
heated seats in a pickup truck exactly. But it turns
out it makes sense. I mean, you're out in the cold,

(58:12):
you know, a job site or whatever. Yeah, it does.
It does pretty nice to have a heated seat. It does.
I'm just surprised cold Sea. Yeah. And we have, uh,
we have more surprises in this market coming very soon,
relatively speaking. And in the meantime, we want to hear
from you what do you think will be the future
of these high end we won't say luxury, of these

(58:36):
high end platinum whatever you want to call them trucks.
Do you see a hundred K truck coming up in
five years or less? And if less? Win and wait?
Is it now? And what's going to push it over that. Yeah, specifically,
you can let us know on Facebook and Twitter where
we are car stuff HSW. You can check out some

(58:56):
of our earlier podcasts that occurred to that. Uh you
know what occurs to me, Scott are very one of
our very first podcast, if not our first. What will
luxury car be in the future? That's right, And we've
done other pickup truck topics as well, and I think
the history of pickup trucks, which oh yeah, that was
a good one. That was good, and that was a
fun one to do. I don't want to your research,

(59:17):
m so let us know what you think and if
you have an idea for a topic we should cover
in the future. Some feedback maybe on a high end
truck that you own, whether good or bad, if it's
a war story or a glory day, we still want
to hear about it. I would love to hear those.
And also I know that some people are going to
write in with some reminiscing about their old pickup trucks,
you know, the utilitarian ones that I was talking about before,

(59:39):
so us and those as well. We we like to
read all that stuff. Yeah, and you can email those
stories to us directly. We are car stuff that our
stuff works dot com. For more on this and thousands
of other topics is how stuff works dot com. Let
us know what you think, Send an email to podcast

(01:00:00):
at how stuffworks dot com. M M m

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