Most truck owners rarely tow or go off-road
Ford responded with roomier cabs, shrunken beds, and plusher features, and buyers lined up.
PolyMatter · Why the Average New Car Costs $50,000Only a quarter of truck owners tow multiple times per year.
Ford surveyed owners on how they use the trucks and found limited hard use. Only about 30% take them beyond paved roads multiple times per year, and 35% say they put something in the bed once a year or never.
So the company flipped the old design. Pickups that once paired a huge bed with a cramped cab now pair a huge cab with a shrunken bed, packed with nicer seats, screens, and trim, and sold at much higher prices.
The trade worked. The F-150, which now runs from about $40,000 to well over $100,000, sells about 2,490 units a day. The work truck did not disappear. It became a family car with a tailgate.
Questions people ask
If they are not hauling, why do people buy pickups at all?
Largely for the same reasons people buy large SUVs: a high driving position, room for passengers and car seats, a sense of safety, and image. A four-door cab with a bed also works as a second family car that can still handle a rare move, a camping trip, or bad weather.
Can today's plush pickups still do real work?
Yes. Modern half-ton pickups can typically tow 7,000 to 13,000 pounds when properly equipped, far more than older work trucks, and carry over 1,500 pounds in the bed. The capability is there, even if most owners rarely test it.
How much smaller are pickup beds than they used to be?
Bed lengths have shrunk as crew cabs grew. A common full-size bed is now about five and a half feet, versus six and a half or eight feet on older regular-cab work trucks. The cab gained the space the bed lost.