Are Trucks really worth $150,000.00? Its only a cab and two reils, wheels, engine, and axles

My new truck cost $278,000

 

Jeez,last and only new road tractor I bought was in 1977,new IH Eagle 4300 Conv. was 39k.I moaned and groaned about that.But,money was a lot different then,in all aspects!

 

Supply/demand, raw materials, R&D, specs, what the market will bear, the customer, debt based society with a worthless fiat currency that inflates every year as a given - there's a lot that goes into the price of any given truck. I doubt if Scania or one of the other Euro brands decided to build one or several truck plants in North America that it would really have that much of an pact downwards on price.

 

i dont think you would get too far building a truck with 2 x 4's
how many computer modules you figure in a truck wiring harness etc
the $5000 furnace in the house or the $70000 engine in the truck
not exactly comparing apples and apples

 

PACCAR currently is running about an 8.2% profit margin. That's what they sell to dealers then the dealer adds in their markup. Figure an average of 10% dealer profit. That's 18.2%. So figure all in costs are ~$127,000

Parts is where the money is. 50% markup is cheap as most parts are around 100%.

TA

 

I remember around '78-'79 the boss and me went to the local IH dealer for parts, there was a new Transtar Eagle 350 Cummins in the show room for 50 some Grand, told me that if he bought it I would have to just about run around the clock to pay for it, said no thanks I'll drive my ,73 4070 Pumpkln truck.

 

Here's a pic of that truck from 1978,NTC 350,RTO 12513,Reyco.200"wb.Stickered for 43k,they gave me a good price at 39k,but got me on my 69 CO 4070A trade in.
Couldn't get legal with a 40' trailer in the 55' states.Sorry for the pic size,don't know how to enlarge it.

 

What did you buy for 86k in 1988? I bought a nice '97 W9 in 1997 for 79k.

 

truck prices have been going up about 5-7% a year, back in 75 a new truck w/o a sleeper was about $25-30K ( in 75 a new Corvette was $6K), In 86na new sleeper tractor was about $85K, In 07 a new truck was about $100K,, about $15K of the cost today is new emission reguires crap, Now if you are a big fleet and buy 10 or more exactly equipped truck you will get a price 10-15% lower ,,
If you buy a new truck today for $150K in 5 years it will be worth about $80-85K as long as it is not a fleet spec'd freightliner or Volvo,,