logo
3 Used Luxury Trucks That Are Good Investments for Middle Class

3 Used Luxury Trucks That Are Good Investments for Middle Class

Yahooa day ago

A truck can be extremely valuable to a middle class family. There's ample space to haul items from stores, garage sales and road trips. Many trucks come with a backseat, too, so all the kids can fit comfortably. Drivers can even put a camper on the truck for an easy shelter during a camping trip. There's no question that a truck is worth the money, but are luxury trucks worth it?
Trending Now:
Consider This:
Alex Black, the chief marketing officer at EpicVIN, says yes. 'They're good value because trucks last longer than most luxury cars,' Black said. 'They're made to work. And the luxury versions depreciate rapidly in the first few years, so the used purchaser gets the technology and comfort for half of the original cost.'
Read on to find out which luxury trucks Black recommends buying, and how much you can save by getting them used.
The 2025 Ram 1500 starts at more than $75,000 new. However, picking up a used one from 2019 through 2022 will be significantly cheaper, and the features are worth every penny, according to Black. 'They're full of amenities, ride extremely smoothly, and aren't expensive used,' he said. 'They depreciate rapidly, so you'll score a bargain a few years down the line.'
Looking at Carvana, interested buyers can find a 2019 Ram 1500 Limited for as low as $26,000. Used Laramie Longhorn models were more expensive, starting at around $40,000 for a 2019, but still much less expensive than buying new.
I'm a Car Expert:
The Ford F-150 King Ranch is often praised for its comfort and powerful engine. It's certainly one of the more respected luxury trucks on the market. The same goes for the Platinum, which is also praised for its comfy seats and high-powered engine. '[These trucks] are extremely reliable, simple to work on, and there are many used ones available,' Black said. 'If you steer clear of the hybrid or the first generation of EcoBoost, you're generally good to go.'
These models start at around $75,000 new. However, Carvana showed King Ranch models for as low as $35,000 for a 2018 model. Platinum models from 2018 can be found for right around that price, as well. Drivers can get all the features for half the price when shopping the used market.
The 2025 GMC Sierra Denali boasts a powerful engine and seats with lumbar support for long drives. Black praised it for delivering a great experience for drivers. 'Smooth ride, luxurious interior, and good residual value.' However, the starting price for a new truck is $65,400.
Black said although the Sierra Denali depreciates slower, you can find good deals for the 2019 through 2021 models. On Carvana, 2019 models start at $39,590.
More From GOBankingRates
6 Hybrid Vehicles To Stay Away From in Retirement
8 Common Mistakes Retirees Make With Their Social Security Checks
This article originally appeared on GOBankingRates.com: 3 Used Luxury Trucks That Are Good Investments for Middle Class

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Best Stock to Buy Right Now: Uber vs. Carvana
Best Stock to Buy Right Now: Uber vs. Carvana

Yahoo

time3 hours ago

  • Yahoo

Best Stock to Buy Right Now: Uber vs. Carvana

The world's mobility landscape is changing in several different ways. There may be room and reason to own both of these companies right now. One of these stocks, however, is experiencing oversized growth for reasons that aren't apt to persist. 10 stocks we like better than Uber Technologies › Uber Technologies (NYSE: UBER) and Carvana (NYSE: CVNA) aren't just two different companies. They're seemingly polar opposites. Ride-hailing giant Uber is thriving largely because owning and driving a car is an increasingly expensive hassle. Used car dealer Carvana, conversely, makes it easy and affordable to own your own automobile. One could reasonably argue there's solid -- even growing -- demand for both businesses. But it's difficult to deny the contrasted underpinnings of what make these two companies tick. Investors could understandably be confused. The good news is, one of these names is a clearly better bet than the other -- now and for the foreseeable future. You almost certainly know the companies. Uber Technologies isn't just a major personal mobility name, after all. It largely brought the domestic ride-hailing industry into existence, and now controls three-fourths of the U.S. market, according to data from Bloomberg. It's developing an international presence as well, even if it's not quite as dominant overseas. As for its fiscals, the $175 billion company's drivers provided over 11 billion rides last year, up 18% year over year, turning that into nearly $44 billion in revenue and almost $3 billion worth of operating net income. Nearly half of its revenue, however, came from deliveries and freight services rather than passenger trips. Carvana isn't quite as big, although its growth is just as impressive. The used car dealer reported $13.7 billion worth of revenue for 2024, up 27% year over year, generating a record-breaking $404 million in net income. Most of that profit came from sales of used vehicles to retail consumers, although wholesaling accounts for the bulk of its total unit transactions. A rebound from a inflation-crimped slide in demand after the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic helped drive these top and bottom lines higher. Last year's forward progress, however, also extends a choppy trend that's been in place for some time thanks to Carvana's clever marketing, and brilliant use of technology to establish scale. And yet, these two seemingly growing companies' stocks aren't exactly performing in tandem. Carvana shares are up by more than 200% for the past year, and testing their peak reached in 2021. Uber shares haven't made any real net progress since March of last year, upended multiple times by earnings reports marred by one modest shortfall or another. The market has largely lost its bigger-picture perspective on both companies, however. Take Uber Technologies' recent quarterly results as an example. Yes, since early 2024 either sales or earnings or guidance haven't always lived up to expectations. The company's never failed to make actual forward progress at any point during this stretch, however. Again, last year's revenue improved 18%, and is expected to repeat the feat this year. Although its sales growth rate is slowing, that's a purely mathematical matter. On an absolute basis, it's chugging along as well as it ever has. It's apt to continue doing so well into the foreseeable future, too. Uber is plugged into a serious secular trend. That is, although plenty of people still own and drive cars, there's a growing segment of the domestic and foreign population that doesn't want to do either anymore. A recent survey performed by Deloitte indicates that only 11% of people living in the United States over the age of 55 would consider giving up their vehicle, whereas 44% of people living in the U.S. under the age of 35 would consider doing so. And the disinterest is greater the younger the crowd. Thirty years ago roughly two-thirds of eligible teenagers held a driver's license. Today that figure's about one-third. The advent of a viable alternative like Uber is a key reason for this paradigm shift that's likely to remain in motion for years, as younger non-drivers grow up and pass along these new norms to their children. To this end, Straits Research believes the global ride-hailing market is set to grow at an average annual pace of more than 11% through 2033. Uber is well positioned to win more than its fair share of this growth. The food delivery industry is also set to grow at an annualized pace of 17%, by the way, according to an outlook from Precedence Research. This is another big growth opportunity for Uber, which already enjoys a strong presence within the market. But is Carvana just too promising to pass up? The bullish arguments hold water, to be sure. Chief among them is the sheer cost of a new car. Data from Kelley Blue Book indicates that as of April the average new automobile in the United States was being sold for a hefty $48,699. That puts the monthly payment well over $700, and subsequently, out of reach for most would-be buyers. Used cars are considerably more affordable though. Kelley Blue Book reports April's used car sales rolled in at an average price of $25,547 apiece, roughly halving the monthly payment as well. There's an important footnote to add to this dynamic, however. That is, the car business is incredibly cyclical. Once the current wave of updates and replacements has run its course, don't be surprised to start seeing Carvana underperform. Making matters even more challenging is the lack of new cars manufactured and sold in the U.S. between 2020 and 2022. As Edmunds points out, a three-year-old car (plus or minus a year) is Carvana's sweet spot, so to speak, where affordability and value intersect. Available inventory of these vehicles now stands at more than a decade low though, making it difficult for Carvana to offer what most consumers want. Never say never, of course. It's possible Carvana will continue to consolidate the country's highly fragmented and largely inefficient used car business, achieving growth through greater scale. There's certainly plenty of room for it. As it stands right now, Carvana estimates it only accounts for about 1% of the used car business. It's also possible Uber will run into an unexpected headwind sooner rather than later, even if it's not clear what that headwind might be. Be realistic though. Increasingly crowded urban and metropolitan streets and parking lots paired with car prices that aren't apt to abate anytime soon works in Uber Technologies' favor. Meanwhile, Carvana's recent sales strength doesn't reflect a new long-lived norm as much as it reflects the fact that the average vehicle being driven on U.S. roads is now 12.6 years, according to S&P Global Mobility, an age at which replacing it makes more sense than repairing it. The resulting demand for quality used cars isn't apt to last forever though. Now throw in the fact that Carvana's shares are currently trading 14% above analysts' consensus price while Uber's stock is 16% below analysts' (most of whom rate Uber as a strong buy at this time) average price target of $97.39, and there's little doubt that the ride-hailing powerhouse is a better stock to buy right now than the used car dealership chain's. Before you buy stock in Uber Technologies, consider this: The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the for investors to buy now… and Uber Technologies wasn't one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years. Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $669,517!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you'd have $868,615!* Now, it's worth noting Stock Advisor's total average return is 792% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 171% for the S&P 500. Don't miss out on the latest top 10 list, available when you join . See the 10 stocks » *Stock Advisor returns as of June 2, 2025 James Brumley has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has positions in and recommends Uber Technologies. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy. Best Stock to Buy Right Now: Uber vs. Carvana was originally published by The Motley Fool Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

Column: Full-size electric pickups are failed product planning experiment and industry disaster
Column: Full-size electric pickups are failed product planning experiment and industry disaster

Yahoo

timea day ago

  • Yahoo

Column: Full-size electric pickups are failed product planning experiment and industry disaster

There is a statistic in my colleague Laurence Iliff's story on the failure of full-size electric pickups that, pardon the pun, shocked me. The combustion and hybrid Toyota Tundra had more new-vehicle registrations during the first quarter than the entire industry's collection of full-size electric pickups — by a lot. That statistic is in no way a brag on the Tundra, which remains a distant No. 5 in what is now a five-horse segment since the death of the even slower-selling Nissan Titan. According to S&P Global Mobility, the Tundra recorded a meager 36,895 new registrations in the U.S. in the first quarter, while the Ford F-150 Lightning, Tesla Cybertruck, Chevrolet Silverado EV, GMC Hummer, Rivian R1T and GMC Sierra EV collectively posted about 22,000 registrations. By comparison, combustion-powered pickups from Ford, Chevrolet, GMC and Ram reached 478,823 registrations in the first quarter, S&P said. Were it not for investments and expectations that rival the size of the immense front fascias on virtually all of the aforementioned full-size behemoths, this failed experiment would already be over. The score: Newtonian Physics ∞, Hype & Hope 0. Sign up for Automotive Views, Automotive News' weekly showcase of opinions, insights, ideas and thought leadership. I can't begin to fathom how many tens of billions of dollars were spent by automakers and their suppliers developing and building those full-size electric pickups over the last decade. You can, however, get some sense of how bad the miss was when you look at the sales/production volumes auto executives anticipated, including Elon Musk's quarter- to half-million annual sales estimate for the Cybertruck, or Ford's initial F-150 Lightning estimate of up to 150,000 sales annually. So why did full-size electric pickups fail so badly? I would argue that it wasn't just physics — though the need for a bigger, more expensive battery to push these bigger vehicles farther as long as they are not towing anything shouldn't be minimized. But I think a share of the responsibility for this collective flop also lies with the companies' product planning departments. While all vehicles are compromised in some form or fashion by the time they reach consumers, full-size electric pickups lack a fundamental quality that has made their combustion-powered counterparts the U.S. sales champs for decades: Uncompromised utility. The legacy pickups are renowned for accomplishing whatever task their owners set them to. That unstoppable capability is what gave rise to the 'lifestyle' pickup in the first place, as consumers desired at least a taste of that confidence, even if they rarely, if ever, actually needed that power. Product planners and their auto executive bosses failed to account in their sales projections for just how much compromise an electric-pickup owner would face in everyday life. Sure, the trucks have some excellent features, including loads and loads of torque, but so do their combustion counterparts. And while it may cost extra fuel to tow a trailer with those combustion-powered vehicles, a heavy trailer sucks up a battery pack's juice quickly — and recharging is not nearly as quick and convenient as a gas station fill-up. It's the same reason that battery-electric semis are probably doomed to failure: It's just the wrong technology for that use case. Sorry. In a world ruled by logic and not emotion, society would consign new technologies to the areas where they have the greatest advantage. Battery-electric powertrains make the greatest sense in vehicles with limited mass and with limited demands, while hydrogen (and diesel) is more efficient in larger, demand-dependent vehicles where towing capability is paramount. We don't live in that world, unfortunately, which is why full-size electric pickups are failing. Have an opinion about this story? Tell us about it and we may publish it in print. Click here to submit a letter to the editor. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data

3 Used Luxury Trucks That Are Good Investments for Middle Class
3 Used Luxury Trucks That Are Good Investments for Middle Class

Yahoo

timea day ago

  • Yahoo

3 Used Luxury Trucks That Are Good Investments for Middle Class

A truck can be extremely valuable to a middle class family. There's ample space to haul items from stores, garage sales and road trips. Many trucks come with a backseat, too, so all the kids can fit comfortably. Drivers can even put a camper on the truck for an easy shelter during a camping trip. There's no question that a truck is worth the money, but are luxury trucks worth it? Trending Now: Consider This: Alex Black, the chief marketing officer at EpicVIN, says yes. 'They're good value because trucks last longer than most luxury cars,' Black said. 'They're made to work. And the luxury versions depreciate rapidly in the first few years, so the used purchaser gets the technology and comfort for half of the original cost.' Read on to find out which luxury trucks Black recommends buying, and how much you can save by getting them used. The 2025 Ram 1500 starts at more than $75,000 new. However, picking up a used one from 2019 through 2022 will be significantly cheaper, and the features are worth every penny, according to Black. 'They're full of amenities, ride extremely smoothly, and aren't expensive used,' he said. 'They depreciate rapidly, so you'll score a bargain a few years down the line.' Looking at Carvana, interested buyers can find a 2019 Ram 1500 Limited for as low as $26,000. Used Laramie Longhorn models were more expensive, starting at around $40,000 for a 2019, but still much less expensive than buying new. I'm a Car Expert: The Ford F-150 King Ranch is often praised for its comfort and powerful engine. It's certainly one of the more respected luxury trucks on the market. The same goes for the Platinum, which is also praised for its comfy seats and high-powered engine. '[These trucks] are extremely reliable, simple to work on, and there are many used ones available,' Black said. 'If you steer clear of the hybrid or the first generation of EcoBoost, you're generally good to go.' These models start at around $75,000 new. However, Carvana showed King Ranch models for as low as $35,000 for a 2018 model. Platinum models from 2018 can be found for right around that price, as well. Drivers can get all the features for half the price when shopping the used market. The 2025 GMC Sierra Denali boasts a powerful engine and seats with lumbar support for long drives. Black praised it for delivering a great experience for drivers. 'Smooth ride, luxurious interior, and good residual value.' However, the starting price for a new truck is $65,400. Black said although the Sierra Denali depreciates slower, you can find good deals for the 2019 through 2021 models. On Carvana, 2019 models start at $39,590. More From GOBankingRates 6 Hybrid Vehicles To Stay Away From in Retirement 8 Common Mistakes Retirees Make With Their Social Security Checks This article originally appeared on 3 Used Luxury Trucks That Are Good Investments for Middle Class

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store