One of the main complaints that pickup truck owners get, especially if you're the owner of a higher trim level truck, is whether should you have spent so much money on a pickup truck versus what else, an SUV, a car, or a crossover...If you go out and you spend upwards of $60,000 to $85,000 on a pickup truck, you're generally going to be met with people who don't believe that trucks have gone up in price so much that they're worth that much. If you're shopping for a vehicle, and you're shopping for value, what gives you more bang for the buck than a pickup truck at any price point?

Price

I don't think a single car or SUV can give you more bang for the buck than a pickup truck at any price point. Mainly because if you buy some of these other vehicles, they're mission-specific. Let's break that down a little bit. You can certainly make the case that a compact car is going to get better gas mileage and be easier to drive in more congested areas than a full-size pickup truck. I agree with that, and those are valid reasons to like cars and small SUVs and things like that. You can very easily make the argument that a mid-size to large SUV can carry more people in it, like, you know, people with a large family, and I totally agree with that as well. Those are great reasons to own those types of vehicles. However, if you're looking for the most value for the dollar that you can spend on a vehicle, you'd be hard-pressed to find a vehicle that can give you more utility, capability, and function than a pickup truck, especially a modern pickup truck.

More Features

You can't say anymore that you can get a car with more technology features, and more comfort features than you can get in a pickup truck. One of the reasons you see so many different types of packages available on pickup trucks is that the pickup truck manufacturers are trying to bridge the gap between the perception that a truck is just for work and the folks who are saying, "Well, I need a pickup truck, and now I need a midsize sedan that's more comfortable or has more technology features or is going to give me more value in this particular category. The reality behind buying a pickup truck now is that you get a lot of the features, a lot of technology, and benefits of a modern sedan or SUV, but in a much more capable and useful type of package.

Space

No car on the road gives you the storage and functionality in the size of a pickup truck. Frankly, I don't care what vehicle you buy, you're not going to have that capability. Let me give you an example: You could go to a full-size Cadillac a full-size Lexus or a full-size Mercedes, and you would be very hard-pressed to find any model of any of their vehicles in any size that gives you the same rear legroom that you get in a full-size crew cab pickup or a Ram with a mega cab. It just doesn't exist. So to make the argument that you're going to get more interior space in a luxury sedan is not a valid argument.

Width

The width of pickup trucks, especially full-size pickup trucks, are going to be significantly wider, so you're going to have more hip room, you're going to have more shoulder room, and you're going to feel like you're in a larger cabin than you would in a car. Also, if you're looking at an SUV, yes, there are all kinds of SUVs available, from crossovers to midsize to full-size to all kinds of different combinations of SUVs. And yes, the argument can easily be made that you get a lot of value in an SUV because you can carry more people, plus it gives you an enclosed cabin area as well as storage. But when you look at the specs, when you look at the towing numbers, when you look at the payload numbers and the overall cargo space, it's still not even close when you compare it to a full-size pickup truck.

Fuel Economy

Most people who are against owning a pickup truck are simply because they think it's big and because they think it uses a lot of fuel. In many cases, pickup trucks offer better fuel economy than SUVs. Some SUVs have small engines or hybrids that give you ridiculously good gas mileage, and there's a niche for that. If you're a fuel economy person, if that's what matters to you if what matters to you is the number of people you can fit in a vehicle and maximizing that as much as possible, what matters to you is having the smoothest, most luxurious ride on the road, then a car or an SUV might be a good fit for you. But if you care about getting the most value for your dollar at any price point, a pickup truck will always win.

Practicality

If you are shopping for a seventy-five thousand eighty-thousand-dollar Corvette Z06 and you were trying to compare that value to a seventy-five to eighty-five thousand dollar F250 Super Duty or GMC Denali or Ram Laramie Longhorn or Limited, you will not find the value in that Corvette, unless you want it specifically for speed. It doesn't have the cargo, it doesn't have the utility. You can't go through rough terrain, you can't go in bad weather, you can't go through water. There are so many things that limit that car to one or two specific purposes: speed and track performance more than anything else, whereas a pickup truck can give you pretty much everything you want in an everyday package for about the same price, plus all the luxury features that you'd get in that sports car or in that sports sedan or a luxury sedan.

You don't have to own a pickup truck because you're going to work. You don't have to own a pickup truck because you want to haul rocks. Pickup trucks are what make this country great. It is what allows people to do so much more with the vehicle without having to own a second utility trailer or without having to pull something behind it just to go pick up some lumber or haul something big and heavy.

The ability for you to have cargo capacity, payload capacity, towing capacity, the ability for you to have the ability to go through high water, the ability for you to go through rough adverse conditions. In no way would you ever feel confident in a car, and to do it in a package that you not only feel confident in, but you feel safer in and generally are going to have the highest possible resale value in.

Resale Value

With very few exceptions, there is no vehicle on the road that holds its value as well as a pickup truck. Pickup trucks hold their value better than any vehicle on the road, hands down, especially low-mileage diesel pickup trucks. If you have a well-maintained, low-mileage diesel pickup truck, you should be able to retain more value from that vehicle than any other type of vehicle on the road, whether it's a Corvette, whether it's a Lexus, whether it's a Mercedes, a BMW, it doesn't matter. They do that because no matter who buys that vehicle, that perceived utility, that on-demand utility is always there.

If you buy a car, if you buy a sports sedan, if you buy a sports car, there's always the possibility that the next buyer is only going to buy it for a specific purpose, whether it's speed, whether it's a whole family, whether it's just going to the store to pick up groceries, and so you're limiting your market. With pickup trucks, there are so many reasons why somebody would want one that it makes them more marketable and they sell faster. So that's one of the reasons why they hold their value so well. There's always a utility purpose to owning a pickup truck, regardless of what the price point is on that pickup truck.

Summary

Trucks are the best vehicle on the road. Pickup trucks definitely offer more value for your dollar than anything else that's out there. Other than those few reasons, I couldn't understand why anyone wouldn't want to own a pickup truck. It's what makes this country great. The main reason is that you can drive a pickup truck and you're really not going to be criticized for it, and it's really going to give you that on-demand utility that you may very well need.