New truck pricing...MSRP versus fair pricing.

[Gardener]

I'm looking for a new 3/4 ton truck (8 foot bed, extended cab, 4wd, minimal bells and whistles). I would rather stick a fork into my eye than deal with a dealership salesperson. What is a fair price, as a % of MSRP, and have any of you had experience using Costco auto program or an auto broker? Thanks!

 

[pcgeek11]

This is not a buyers market for a vehicle of any kind with the chip shortage. If you buy you will pay a premium price.

Your best deal will be from a private party and a used Truck.

 

[NutBucket]

Except used vehicles are ridiculously expensive too.

You're hosed either way. Costco may be your best bet as the HD market typically doesn't have many incentives. I just used Costco to purchase a Subaru. The salesman told me there was no way they could beat the price so I took them at their word. Obviously YMMV...

EDIT: "Fair" pricing is whatever the market will bear. And yes, new vehicles are absolutely in short supply. Factories are closing down as a result.

 

[rstrohkirch]

I'm assuming you don't want the W/T? The reason I ask is because moving to an 8' bed cuts new inventory in half and on top of that most dealers spec crew cab for normal trucks and extended cabs for work trucks. So if you want a 2500 extended cab with an 8' bed then a majority of on the lot inventory will be work trucks with a portion of them being actual work trucks with the bed storage. If you include crew cab you open up your selection quite a bit. From there you can use something like Autotrader and Car Guru set to nation wide and check to see what dealers are offering below MSRP pricing. I see a few dealers around me giving some discounts off of trucks spec'd like you want.

 

[Scarpozzi]

From like 2013-2019, I was looking at F150s. What I found was the MSRP was $X and they typically would have promotions that dropped that anywhere from $5-11k at any given time. The caveat there is they were adding $900 doc fees and often would have dealer-added features that would be built into the price to inflate the overall price from the factor sticker. In any case, this typical $8-11k inflation, let's call it, would mean you could get an F150 STX 4WD SCREW for $33-36k brand new if you did the work. The STX trim is a cross between FX4 (painted bumpers/bench seat/column shifter/18" sport wheels for streets) and a low-end XL trim....but they had a "sporty" grill and wheels.

For $3-5k more, you could go up to XLT....a little more than that, you could get a Lariat or FX4.

In all cases, the used market price depreciation on the lot came off the MSRP and not the actual price people bought their trucks for. This meant that used trucks on the lots were being marked up artificially because of the promotions available for new vehicles. If you want a used Ford or Toyota....don't buy those from their respective dealerships...go elsewhere.

I ran into a similar issue on my 4Runner and opted to use a Costco like buying experience to bypass the stupid dealerships that aren't willing to give their best offer right off the bat. Basically, all you do is put your name on a list and the dealerships reach out to you. I had 3-4 dealerships in the next state that were jockeying to get me the black 4runner I wanted with leather and 3rd row....2wd. There were only a handful of them at the time and they kept losing inventory before they could secure the vehicle in my name. After about 2-3 days, they finally found one and held it for me 140 miles from here. I ended up saving $3k from my local dealership's BS because they were a different Toyota dealership network....best of all, the salesman was from Colorado and wasn't full of shit. It was straight business and commission without the crap.

Just figure out what price you're willing to pay and refuse to give up on it. There will always be more trucks in the pipeline no matter what they say about supply chain sucking right now.

 

[Gardener]

Thanks for the responses, guys. I do intend to use it for work, which includes some light hauling...tools, equipment, yardwaste, sand, mulch, crushed rock. I currently run a 3/4 ton 1980 gmc but am finding myself with less time/energy to keep it up, and considering just getting a new truck so I can spend time earning, instead of doing old truck maintenance. Not interested in a service body, as I need a bed. Most of my driving is short hauls to the site, and I average 4,000 miles a year.

I've found that local Seattle-metro dealer inventories are low or inaccurately show trucks that do not exist, so it looks like fixing the old truck is a necessity at least as a stop gap measure. I think turn around on a factory order is 8 weeks during the best of times.

My thought was to spend about 45k on an new, basic truck, expense and depreciate it for my business, and when I retire in 7 or so years to have a good running truck with 30k miles on it.

 

[deadlyapp]

Thanks for the responses, guys. I do intend to use it for work, which includes some light hauling...tools, equipment, yardwaste, sand, mulch, crushed rock. I currently run a 3/4 ton 1980 gmc but am finding myself with less time/energy to keep it up, and considering just getting a new truck so I can spend time earning, instead of doing old truck maintenance. Not interested in a service body, as I need a bed. Most of my driving is short hauls to the site, and I average 4,000 miles a year.

I've found that local Seattle-metro dealer inventories are low or inaccurately show trucks that do not exist, so it looks like fixing the old truck is a necessity at least as a stop gap measure. I think turn around on a factory order is 8 weeks during the best of times.

My thought was to spend about 45k on an new, basic truck, expense and depreciate it for my business, and when I retire in 7 or so years to have a good running truck with 30k miles on it.

I paid about 45k OTD for a new f150 FX4 with the crew cab and short bed last year before the shortages really took off. It was exceedingly difficult to find a long bed (and I really wanted one). The F250 are even more challenging but may be easier in Seattle area. Used F250 are selling for more than they were purchased for several years ago in Texas.

My recommendation, if you don't want to do a lot of haggling, is to come up with a price and send it to multiple dealers and see who bites.

 

[BarkingGhostar]

Except used vehicles are ridiculously expensive too.

You're hosed either way. Costco may be your best bet as the HD market typically doesn't have many incentives. I just used Costco to purchase a Subaru. The salesman told me there was no way they could beat the price so I took them at their word. Obviously YMMV...

EDIT: "Fair" pricing is whatever the market will bear. And yes, new vehicles are absolutely in short supply. Factories are closing down as a result.

Last nigt I was wading through the work hours on Autotrader and one local Ford dealership was selling a 1-year old Ford F-150 King Ranch edition with some sort of special crap on top of that and about 40K miles on it. The price? $79.909. Seriously, people, you can buy a condo for that kind of money. This was in the Atlanta market, which defies in the face of poor southern advantages.