The marketplace is 100% efficient In American 4X4 Pickup Trucks

The 2004 GMC Yukon XL was on its last legs, so I was browsing CarsDirect to see what the replacement landscape looked like. I felt a little bad about it, like if the wife was sharp with me and I started browsing Tinder...

Anyway, the Yukon is safe, for now: I put $2,200 into 100% new brakes--we are talking all new stainless steel brake lines and new calipers. So she darn-well better last a bit more. Though given the price of pickup trucks, she really only needs to last 4 months to earn back the payments on a new truck.

This brings me to pickup trucks. Why is a pickup a replacement for a large SUV? It can do two things I need: Haul bulky items and serve as transportation to work. What it can't do is haul 8 people. But the kids are older and largely scattered to the four winds, we will not be driving to NJ or PA with the tribe of kids plus in-laws, so a pickup makes more sense.

So, what was I saying about the market? I looked at two factors: Price (as found on CarsDirect) and payload (ibid). I ranked them from 1-5 on both factors. The least expensive gets a 1 and the highest payload also gets a 1. Here are the stats:

Ram: $28,541 (2) 1,580 lbs (4)
Chevy Colorado $26,778 (1) 1,404 lbs (5)
Chevy Silverado $32,280 (5) 2,130 lbs (1)
Ford Ranger $29,344 (3) 1,650 lbs (3)
Ford F-150 $31,976 (4) 1,730 lbs (2)

They all add up to 6!

A few things stick out besides the above stats: The Ram is the 2nd least expensive but has the most power. The full sized Chevy doesn't just have the most payload, it has substantially more and is the only PU with an 8 foot bed. The Ranger has a nice balance between being in the middle price-wise but in the same league as the others in terms of payload--besides the full size Chevy.