Yahoo Autos Here's $50,000. What kind of pickup truck can you buy with that?
If you've been wondering how on Earth the average new vehicle transaction price can be almost $50,000, the answer is "pickup trucks." Prices on full-sizers quickly haul past the 50 grand mark, and when you consider four of the top 10 best-selling vehicles in 2022 were the four American-brand full-size pickups by an enormous margin ... well, the flaws of using a basic average to express such data becomes apparent.
There's more than just full-size trucks to consider, though, should you find yourself with an imaginary check for exactly $50,000. The No. 8 best-selling vehicle was the Toyota Tacoma, and although I would seriously doubt anyone would choose the current one (the next one is a different story), the Ford Ranger and wildly improved Chevy Colorado and GMC Canyon are also on the table from the midsize segment. Oh, and the Nissan Frontier, because I could totally see Stocksdale picking that. Oh, and the Jeep Gladiator, because of Hurd ... and possibly Korzeniewski. Come to think of it, I wouldn't be surprised if most of us put our fake money where relatively few people put their real money.
Enough preamble. Here are the rules.
You must spend every penny of the $50,000 on the truck itself with an MSRP within $1,000 on either side. You cannot spend $36,000 on a Work Truck and spend the rest on guns.
The truck must be new.
OK, let's see what everyone chose!
2023 GMC Canyon AT4 with the Sport Bar Package
Senior Editor James Riswick: I started this exercise thinking I'd go with a full-size truck. That didn't last long. After adding the 2.7-liter EcoBoost engine to an F-150 XLT Super Crew, I was left with nothing left to spend on worthwhile options. I could get a well-equipped Ram 1500 Crew Cab with the base V6 (a perfectly cromulent engine), but honestly, I looked at the thing and went "Am I really excited about that?" No, I wasn't. On the other hand, this GMC Canyon AT4 is really cool! Check out the paint and the off-road frippery and that sweet sweet Sport Bar Package that'll make me feel like Marty McFly. The interior has heated and ventilated leather seats, a lovely swath of camel-colored pleather on the dash and all the Google-powered tech gizmos I could want. Sure, that Sport Bar Package costs $2,995 and made me sacrifice adaptive cruise control, but it's really cool. The only Colorado that offers it is the ZR2, but that requires you to get a crazy amount of extra crap that sends the price soaring past $59,000. Of course, I could just get a ZR2 without the Sport Bar, but ah, I've made my bed at this point. And it has a ridiculous steel tube thing wrapped around it.
2023 Jeep Gladiator Willys
Associate Editor Byron Hurd: Predictable? Me? Never. It's no secret here that I'm a Jeep fan, and the Gladiator has been on my short list since it first debuted. Ideally, I'd have a 4xe, but the base V6 with a six-speed manual would be a solid replacement for my ageing JK Wrangler — also a 6MT V6, but of the dreaded 3.8-liter variety. With $50,170, you can get a 2023 Willys in Sarge Green with the three-piece hardtop and cold weather package. I'd have liked to spring for the spray-in bed liner and one of the available tonneau covers but alas, numbers don't work that way. Still, considering the only option on my JK was air conditioning, this would be a pretty serious upgrade.
Sure, it's possible to get a decent full-size truck at this price point, but unlike a half-ton, the 19-foot Gladiator will fit into my 95-year-old garage with the door shut. If anything, I'd be more interested in moving down into something like the Maverick, but that only really becomes compelling with a PHEV powertrain. No pressure, Ford.
2022 Ram 2500 Tradesman
Senior Editor, Consumer, Jeremy Korzeniewski: Never mind full-size trucks, turns out you can just barely get a real, fully usable, heavy duty pickup truck in America for just under our make-believe $50,000 price cap. If I were spending my own cash, I'd add a few options that would push it a couple grand over the limit, but for the purposes of this exercise, here's a brand-new Ram 2500 with a 6.4-liter V8 engine with 410 hp and 429 lb-ft, four-wheel drive, and a six-passenger CrewCab body with a long 8-foot bed. I picked this burnt orange color from Ram's Low-Volume option list because it looks cool. It's pretty basic and barebones, but it'll get just about any job done with a tow rating of around 17,000 pounds and a max payload rating of something near 4,000 pounds.
Now that's a truck, and it comes in at $50,955. You can indeed do something sorta similar starting with a Chevy or Ford, but I prefer the Ram as a starting point, in part because the big Hemi engine comes standard along with the 8-speed automatic gearbox, and Ram allows buyers to add an option or two without forcing them into a big extra package that bumps the price by several thousands of dollars right off the bat.
In the interest of full disclosure, I wouldn't literally buy this exact Ram 2500 Tradesman truck as it was specc'd for the purposes of this exercise. I'd add useful things like the off-road package and the spray-in bedliner. I'd also splurge on a few convenience features like the 12-inch touchscreen and the Level 2 Equipment Group that adds an electric sliding rear window and a rear folding seat. That'd put the price closer to $55,000 and is a more realistic scenario for most buyers. Still, even sticking to our $50 grand budget, you can just barely get yourself a workman's truck to do trucky things.
