My neighbor has two pick up trucks. A new Silverado and an old one. The old one is relegated to dirty jobs and the new ones takes his grandkids fishing.
People love to buy the new fancy trucks and the manufacturers make a lot of profit off them.
Vehicle Buying Power...
- Thread starter Coastie05
- Start date
People love to buy the new fancy trucks and the manufacturers make a lot of profit off them.
I read this thread before going to work this morning, so as I was walking through the parking lot I paid attention to the trucks in it. 27 trucks, 26 were 4 full door crew cab, there were zero extra cab trucks and the only regular cab truck was an old square body chevy long bed.
Do you think that "back when" most people had a truck AND a family car or SUV? vs now replacing that with a single vehicle in the shape of a crew cab truck?
It’s best to just ignore him/ her etc.
I think manufacturing has become more advanced and things are easier/ cheaper to make in todays dollars. Seems to me like we see more higher trim levels on the road today than we did in the late 90’s. Vehicles have become more advance too and what was once a luxury is now taken for granted. AC or crank windows being decent examples.
People definitely don’t care for base and simple today. The death of the manual gearbox is proof of that.
People definitely don’t care for base and simple today. The death of the manual gearbox is proof of that.
All these fancy things do cause problems when the cars are with their second owners and out of warranty. Whether it's $135/each HID headlights or $500/each shocks vs $20 headlights and $50 shocks...
Yes they do.
This is the correct answer. That and for some reason people now days seems to not have a good concept of wants vs needs.
In this case, I think a lot of it was due to fleet sales and some was due to thrifty older men born during the Great Depression era buying just what they needed. My grandfather born in 1933 bought a new Dodge Dakota in 1988 with some of his AMC retirement/buyout money. The only options I could see on it were cloth seating surfaces instead of vinyl, a pinstripe, and perhaps the chrome front bumper. It had a 2.2L carbureted 4 cylinder, vinyl on the floor, no power steering, no rear bumper, and no radio.
What has changed is there hasn't been any small econo trucks for sale new for quite a few years. The manufacturers went to big ticket high profit trucks partly because small trucks were not selling. Now things are changing and small econo trucks are getting popular again.
On another note, I still see quite a few S10's and Blazers on the road wink wink
On another note, I still see quite a few S10's and Blazers on the road wink wink
Eh, I dunno, how fast is a commercial truck? 30s 0-60? They do fine. I've never had trouble merging with my slowpokes, even while towing.There are some on-ramps that make that a serious challenge
Yes, the EPA regulations seem to be have been written for the Detroit 3 to sell bigger trucks and SUV's... with big gas engines...
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They tend to just merge and you are going to have to move over, because otherwise, they are coming into you. Though I'm not sure how many large commercial trucks use the on-ramp at Washago? That's one that immediately comes to mind:
The clover leaf ramps in New Brunswick are also super fun, though they have a longer lead than the one in Washago by a fair bit, the speed limit is 110, and the on-ramp becomes the off-ramp, so you hope somebody moves over so you can get on:
So many things have changed between then and now. I was 26 in 1996 and was on my 2nd newly purchased pickup truck at that time. Like you say, most pickup trucks on that lots in that era were 2wd, basic models. Not many 4x4s, extra cabs or anything fancy. At least where I live. So basic that you had to pay extra for a rear bumper. I started with a 1993 Dodge Dakota 2wd, reg cab, Magnum V6, 5MT, no a/c, etc. It was $12K brand new. "Upgraded" to a 1996 Chevy W/T, reg cab, short bed 4.3L 5MT later on. $13K for that one.
I don't think many people would tolerate the lack of a/c these days, but something comparable to a 2.2L powered S10 would sell like crazy in today's market if it was priced accordingly. Those days of manufacturing are gone. No manufacturer builds or stocks bare bones "loss leader" base models of anything.
Most of what I’ve seen is 36 months. Is this considered a long term loan?
60% 2.2L take rate? Huge fleet use - easy load height, plenty of cap options for service tools, these were super common. high school crowd loved to lower them hard, too.
I mean, everyone wanted HP back then too, but at least where I was from not everyone wanted to go upside down to pay for it. except for one car they bought my brother at some point, my folks never owned more than 4 cylinders, including the minivan. My folks exclusively purchased new, 4 cylinder manuals. We’d keep the A/C alive in mom’s car, but for the rest of us AC was mythical. my dad … he drove a VW rabbit with vinyl seats. Hers were vinyl as well, and once they tore we put cloth covers on them from western auto. I remember when the Jeep Cherokee came out… and was just in awe of them - I remember a friend who’s mom had one - navy blue with silver steel wheels - sucker was basically exotic to us.
theres something fun about having a smaller engine - you get to drive it. And with a stick, you had the opportunity to learn torque curve, timing, and clutch work and refine it all. There was something fun about getting every ounce of power out of a 4, and knowing it.
For this very reason I’ve kept my eye out for a clean 318 sedan with a 5mt. Would love to find one.
ok trying to get back on topic, we simply didn’t have +200 hp vehicles. Most 4 bangers were 110-130. Some were still in the 90s. Our van had 65, water cooled. our 89 accord had 118, dad bought a CRX si with 125. My car in high school had 85. A 4 cylinder compact pickup with decent rear gears would get us anywhere we needed to go, very practically.
I mean, everyone wanted HP back then too, but at least where I was from not everyone wanted to go upside down to pay for it. except for one car they bought my brother at some point, my folks never owned more than 4 cylinders, including the minivan. My folks exclusively purchased new, 4 cylinder manuals. We’d keep the A/C alive in mom’s car, but for the rest of us AC was mythical. my dad … he drove a VW rabbit with vinyl seats. Hers were vinyl as well, and once they tore we put cloth covers on them from western auto. I remember when the Jeep Cherokee came out… and was just in awe of them - I remember a friend who’s mom had one - navy blue with silver steel wheels - sucker was basically exotic to us.
theres something fun about having a smaller engine - you get to drive it. And with a stick, you had the opportunity to learn torque curve, timing, and clutch work and refine it all. There was something fun about getting every ounce of power out of a 4, and knowing it.
For this very reason I’ve kept my eye out for a clean 318 sedan with a 5mt. Would love to find one.
ok trying to get back on topic, we simply didn’t have +200 hp vehicles. Most 4 bangers were 110-130. Some were still in the 90s. Our van had 65, water cooled. our 89 accord had 118, dad bought a CRX si with 125. My car in high school had 85. A 4 cylinder compact pickup with decent rear gears would get us anywhere we needed to go, very practically.
Absolutely THE MOST important performance variable: the elasticity of an engine as a result of torque. 0-60mph is whatever, a YouTube thing. 30-60 or 30-80mph is where the emphasis should be. Mazda when developing 2.5T engine to fit in CX-9 was following (literally) soccer moms after dropping kids to school. What they realized is that they really stepped on it while merging and that based on driver behavior that was the most stressful part of driving. That sealed the deal to go turbo instead of a new V6.
In my case no highways around are posted at 60...the interstate is 75. People need to be willing to unleash their ponies to merge properly and safely.
Usually you can just carry speed through the corner, so even with 127hp lugging around 5500lbs of vehicle and trailer, I found I was up to a speed where I could merge into a gap without anyone having to brake hard, or anyone getting annoyed? It takes some planning, or extrapolation where you are going to fit in, but I can't recall any real merging issues? Also I've never ran into two a-holes following each other, so if one guy makes it into a drag race, it's always easy to go in behind him.
I have driven with people that do need 400+hp to merge semi-safely, as they seem to have little spatial awareness, can't use their mirrors, and are afraid to carry some speed around a corner. They can see a gap ahead of them though, so they have to gun it and go for that. If that's their only merging strategy, then I guess they better get the big engine...
Around here the Toyota/Honda/Subaru drivers are petrified to take the curve at anything more than 30mph, and then STILL don’t step on it when they are onto the actual highway. Traffic behind them be ****ed!
And yes I’m singling those 3 out. It’s almost ALWAYS one of those 3.
SammyChevelleTypeS3
$50 site donor 2023
Prices for Cars, Ten year span ...... 2013-($25,000) 2023-(30,150)
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, prices for new cars are 20.60% higher in 2023 versus 2013 (a $5,150.00 difference in value).
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, prices for new cars are 20.60% higher in 2023 versus 2013 (a $5,150.00 difference in value).
