Luxury Car Owners Ditch Sedans For Expensive Full-Size Pickup Trucks

Detroit’s Big Three are faced with surging demand for their full-size pickup trucks, especially for the most expensive versions; luxury car owners opt out of sedans and coupes, spending instead $70k to $100k for a fully loaded truck.

General Motors said it’s trying to keep up with demand for the 2019 Chevrolet Silverado, with customers especially interested in the new High Country model that can be fitted with upmarket features like heated seats, active noise cancellation and more, CNBC reports.

Tick these options and the Silverado’s price moves closer to the $70,000 mark, about the same as a fully loaded Mercedes-AMG E43.

Take a look at Ford’s best-selling F-Series trucks and you’ll find a variety of models that can reach up to $100k, like the new Super Duty Limited model that retails for $97,000. Doug Scott, Ford’s truck marketing head until recently, said that “every time we add a new premium edition, buyers tell us they want more.”

Of course Ram couldn’t be absent from the high-end of the truck spectrum; the new Ram 1500 Limited Edition can be fitted with features like a 19-speaker Harman/Kardon Sound system, the “Limited Level 1” equipment pack, heavy-duty shocks and other accessories, topping out at $90,325. And that’s before counting delivery fees.

FCA’s CEO Mike Manley said that they may continue producing a more expensive version of the Ram truck at their plant in Saltillo, Mexico, to aid production at their U.S. assembly lines. His predecessor, the late Sergio Marchionne, was planning to stop production of the truck in Mexico under pressure from the Trump administration, and instead building it in Detroit but the current demand can support three plants, according to Manley.

Mercedes might even join the full-size pickup truck segment

The phenomenon of the luxury truck has even forced Mercedes to study its options; the German carmaker has already launched their first pickup truck, the X-Class, but its smaller size than the full-size American trucks is one of the reasons Mercedes doesn’t offer it in North America. However, Daimler’s CEO Dieter Zetsche suggested that the time “may be ripe” for the company to get into the American truck business.