Diesel truck discussion

Admittedly, I am viewing this through my own lens only. But, even though my "luxury" sedan (2011 BMW 335i X-Drive 6MT MSport) gets craptacular mileage around town, about the same as the wife's minivan... and not certainly good enough to have any significant economic impact, my pickup sits in the driveway 95% of the time. I think my wife might drive it as much as I do these days.

A pickup is never going to handle as well as the sedan in traffic, and certainly never to going to have the parking lot manners of most sedans. That may not matter out in the country, but my circumstances changed, and Greenville has a lot of infrastructure that was designed and constructed when it was roughly half the population that's here now. My pickup is also a GMT900, which is fairly well-known for being a bit underwhelming thanks to bankruptcy-era cost-cutting by GM. Despite that, the MSRP on my pickup wasn't to awful far off from the sedan. And the sedan is two years older but of similar "design age" to the pickup, makes more HP/TQ (yeah, it scoots ), and is aging waaaay better.

 

I'm right there with you on freedom of choice. But I have to laugh as the trend continues toward pickups that are optioned like high-spec Mercedes, with similar price tags, and have to be spec'd with all kinds of off-road or high-performance packages (sometimes both!) just be daily driven to the office and loaded up for occasional vacation. Kinda reminds me of this guy, if only he had added a (5.5ft) bed!

 

We wouldn't need step tailgates if load height was a primary design criteria......


I'd be good with the prices if they were built to the same level of quality. But air suspensions are still pretty rare, even at $60k, and we are only now starting to see adaptive dampers in things like the AT4x and Colorado/Canyon ZR2 packages. Let alone full hydraulic suspensions or even (gasp! ) independent rear suspensions. IRS makes a lot of sense for the SUVs and Mall-Crawlers and could certainly be durable enough for half-ton pickups. Especially at the $70-80+k price points. These are things that were in $100,000 sedans TWENTY YEARS AGO. Even adjusted for inflation, it doesn't seem unreasonable that such things could brought to market at current price points. Don't even get me started on the rust, even the worst of those sedans/wagons don't have anywhere near the cosmetic issues of trucks built in the last 10-20 years. You can pretty much count every GMT800 sold into the rust belt as an LS Engine Donor at this point.

We just seem to be forking over 20, 30, even 40k+ over base MSRP for louder/more speakers, red/blue/purple thread in the stitching instead of black/gray/tan, infotainment systems that are less capable than a $500 tablet, ..... As consumers, we are getting ripped off, and we should be pizzed off. Manufacturers certainly looked at what people were doing to trucks with aftermarket parts and conversions. And that's not a bad thing. But what you used to do with a volume production 4x4 half-ton (Roughly $30k) and $10,000 in modifications, is now a $60k+ vehicle. Say WHUT?! I must have fallen asleep in economics 101/the economy of scale discussion. And these aren't even special edition or limited production vehicles.

 

But people LIKE and ACCEPT that they must trade in their vehicles every 5-7 years. Regardless of what it means for their personal finance situation, it's just an accepted fact that as soon as the bumper to bumper warranty is up and that vehicle might generate an "unexpected" repair bill, it's time to get rid of it. It's just easier. Less headache, and who wants to get stuck , blah blah blah... We've all heard the reasons. My wife's minivan is due for it's major service. 2013 Honda Odyssey, 105k on the clock. Timing Belt, Water Pump, Belt Tensioner, Valve Adjustment (not as simple as your dad/gramps/uncles Chevy 350 for sure), Spark Plugs, it's likely ready for shocks and struts (originals up front), and I may need to replace the rear brake calipers. I'm paying a local shop with a 5-star reputation to do the work (painful for me as I have trust issues with mech work but I just don't have the time) and all in all, I'm probably facing about $4k in 'maintenance' work/parts. Anybody I've discussed it with thinks I'm crazy putting all this work into my baby-hauler but my wife and I agree that keeping the current van makes a lot more sense than updating to a newer van that will likely need the same work in 2-3 years. To date, this van has asked us for *nothing* beyond tires, brakes, oil/filters, and a battery. Rear shocks were replaced for unknown reasons when we bought it at 33k miles. I'm going to spend the $4k, go another 7+ years/100k and we'll get her something shiny when the kids are in/graduating from high school and less prone to beating the crap out of everything. By then, all three of our vehicles will be 15-17 years old.