We know you can’t turn back the clock, but we wouldn’t mind returning to a time when full-size pickups were simple, stripped-down, work-duty affairs, and they cost less than a large sedan, and we called them “half-ton” trucks.With the average price of a basic, no-frills full-size pickup creeping toward $40,000,we don’t even need to debate whether the cost of entry has gotten too high. New trucks are simply too expensive, and we’re holding onto our old pickups for longer these days, even if that means spending more money to keep them running.
The Average American Truck Is Now 12 Years Old – And That’s No Accident
2016 Ram 1500Ram
According to a 2025 report from Mobility Global, the average vehicle on the road last year was 12.8 years of age. This marked two years in a row of this number jumping by two months year over year, meaning the average vehicle on the American highway is demonstrably getting older.
This tracks pretty closely with the average new car price. Cox Automotive put the number at $49,353 in February, this year. In November 2024, the number was more like $47,724. Five years ago, the average new-vehicle transaction price was around $45,031. But here’s what the dealerships don’t want you to focus on: what those payments actually cost you over five years.
We’re Spending A Lot Of Money On The Aftermarket These Days
2016 Toyota Tacoma SR5 front 3/4Toyota
An interesting way to measure the prevalence of older trucks on American highways is to look at aftermarket expenses. Consider that pickup truck modifications make up 30% of aftermarket sales, or around $15 billion in total, and the average repair bill is up by 33% since 2021, at around $838.
According to American Trucks, performance upgrades are especially popular among truck owners, as they essentially allow you to update your truck on your own terms, for far less than you’d spend on a brand-new pickup. A one-time payment of a few thousand dollars may seem steep at first, but it could save you several times that much money in monthly auto loan payments.
What Will A New Truck Cost You In 2026?
Roush Performance Nitemare Ford F-150 for street dominationRoush Performance
So we know Americans are spending $15 billion to keep old trucks running. Here’s why: we did the math on what a new one actually costs you per month. Checking out the big three, we get the following base MSRPs.
- Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Work Truck: $39,695
- Ford F-150 XL: $37,290
- Ram 1500 Tradesman: $42,025
The most affordable of the bunch is the F-150 XL. If we assume 5% interest, 5% sales tax, a $10,000 down payment, and a five-year loan term, that gives us a total purchase cost of $43,010, with $3,856 going to the interest, $1,864 going to taxes, and $550 a month going to paying off the loan. That’s according to our math. You’ll want to check the auto loan calculator and run your own numbers for a more personalized estimate.
Keeping Your Old TruckSaves You $225 A Month, Even After Maintenance
2016 Ford F-150 Limited frontFord
RepairPal gives us an annual maintenance estimate of $788 for a typical F-150 owner. CarEdge suggests we’ll be paying $2,414 a year for insurance, and FuelEconomy.gov will have us spending $2,950 a year in fuel expenses. If we add all that up with our monthly payments, we’re spending $12,752 a year on the most affordable full-size pickup produced by Ford, Chevy, or Ram.
That comes out to around $1,063 a month until it’s paid off. Even if we’re paying for all of our maintenance out of pocket, $788 a year for upkeep is still a lot less than $550 a month for auto loan payments.
The Used Trucks That Deliver New-Truck Reliability at Half the Price
Hyundai Santa Cruz rear close upHyundai
There are some things you miss out on when buying a used pickup. It’s nice being the first owner of a brand-new truck, and it’s nice to know you have a warranty covering you for the first three years of ownership. The question comes down to how much you’re willing to pay for that peace of mind.
When a new pickup is reasonably priced, it’s an easy choice to make. When the average cost of a new vehicle is around $50,000, while the median salary for a young adult is just over $40,000, the equation increasingly favors going into your own pocket for repairs in order to save thousands on the price of purchase, and not having to worry about monthly auto loan payments.
So, this is the part where we recommend some of our favorite used pickups.
- 2021 Honda Ridgeline: A 2021 model is currently trending at $27,033 from an MSRP of $36,490. We’ve named the Ridgeline our most underrated pickup on the market today, and it’s our number one recommendation for anyone who’s after a daily driver, with its 280-horsepower V6 power plant and unibody construction lending it more of a crossover feel.
- 2021 Ram 1500: A 2021 Ram 1500 is currently trending at $23,699 from an MSRP of $32,795. We like the 305-hp V6-driven Tradesman trim for its no-nonsense work-truck capability, towing up to 7,730 lbs, and producing 269 lb-ft of torque at 4,800 rpm.
- 2022 Hyundai Santa Cruz: The 2022 Santa Cruz is trending at $20,484 from an MSRP of $24,440. If you’re after a smaller pickup, now’s the time to get in while the getting’s good. The Santa Cruz was recently discontinued, meaning that scarcity may keep prices high, even as the odometer ticks away. The straight-four in the SE model produces 191 hp, the truck packs a real 8-speed automatic transmission, and it tows 3,500 lbs, which is plenty for a lifestyle truck. If you’re looking for a no-nonsense work truck, a Tradesman Ram 1500 is more pickup than most of us will ever need.
The Santa Cruz and the Ridgeline are both excellent daily drivers for people who know they don’t need three tons of steel and aluminum to pick up the kids from school and go grocery shopping.
High MSRPs Translate To High Used Pricing
Roush Performance Nitemare Ford F-150 for street dominationRoush Performance
If you want proof that trucks are getting too expensive, consider the Ford F-150 Lightning. The Lightning is the top-selling electric pickup on the market. People who buy it love it. And it’s not coming anywhere close to breaking even, costing Ford tens of thousands of dollars for every unit sold.
The Lightning’s disappointing sales can be blamed in large part on its steep base MSRP, in the area of $55,000 before any incentives are applied. The truck might have survived the evaporation of EV credits, and it might have survived an administration that doesn’t seem particularly enthusiastic about electric vehicles, but it couldn’t survive high sticker prices in an era of belt-tightening.The irony when it comes to certain popular trucks like the Toyota Tacoma and the F-150, is that higher new truck prices tend to result in higher used truck prices. If you want a good deal on a five-year-old pickup, you really need to skip some of the more popular nameplates and go with the underrated and overlooked models.If you’re shopping for an F-150, the used truck savings don’t really kick in until the truck has been on the road for close to a decade. A Tacoma might never lose enough value to make sense as a used purchase, holding near MSRP for years, especially since Toyota pulled the V6 engine option.On the other hand, used electric trucks may offer an unexpected path to near-new truck ownership, with more savings available the higher up the trim list you go. A 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning Platinum with a 5.5-foot box and a SuperCrew cab is currently trending at $48,560, which might sound steep, butit initially sold for an MSRP of $90,874. That’s a four-year-old truck selling for just over half its sticker price.
There’s something about that new car smell that will keep us coming back. But when you actually add up the cost of ownership, new full-size pickups just don’t make as much financial sense as they used to.
Sources: Cox Automotive, American Trucks, Yahoo Finance, Mobility Global.
