Josh wrote: ↑Sat Jun 26, 2021 7:03 am
If you want to buy a new truck off the lot all you can get are Platinum, Lariat, etc models. The XL or XLT type of models are sold out,
Lead times are pushing 6 months now, I know someone who ordered an f350 XLT in November and still hasn’t taken delivery.
As far as “you don’t need that for a work truck”, some people use new trucks for their work trucks because they don’t want employees driving old trucks that break down. Smaller outfits can handle old trucks better. Everybody I know that uses a truck for business has the same problem.
I’m not sure why you claim the third world is somehow better on this front; good work trucks are really expensive there right now. Old stuff that barely runs has also gone up in price. This is a global problem. U.S. emission laws prevent selling the kind of trucks new that are popular in the third world (and “cash for clunkers” resulted in many of the used ones getting scrapped). I personally wouldn’t want the levels of pollution that are acceptable in, say, Vietnam or China.
I'm not suggesting that the fleets of trucks you see in the third world are better or newer or whatever than what we see here in the US.
I'm just saying there are a lot of smaller economic basic work truck models available overseas that are not sold here in the US for whatever tax or marketing reasons prevent it. For example, in Chile you can get small Nissan trucks called the Navara that are not sold here:
https://www.nissan.cl/vehiculos/nuevos/ ... avara.html and you can get small economical Mitsubishi pickups that are not sold here:
https://mitsubishi-motors.cl/modelos/l200-4x4/ and you can get Toyota Hilux trucks, which are simpler cheaper foreign-made versions of the Toyota Tacoma:
https://toyota.cl/modelos/pickup/hilux/ And you can get small basic work trucks like the Hyundai Porter
https://hyundai.cl/modelos/porter-camioneta/
The main reason you can't get these small trucks in the US is the so-called "Chicken Tax" which insulates Ford, GMC, and Ram from overseas competition in the light truck market and makes it completely uneconomical for foreign manufacturers to import light trucks to the US:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_tax
That is why your only choices are ridiculously expensive Platinum and Lariat type models if you want a new truck. Government policy made it that way.