Yeah I forgot that some years past - when was it, maybe '08, they had a buy-back on older "gas-guzzlers" and I was at the recycle place one time and there was a huge line of vehicles and some of them were really nice. I was asking about getting an engine and they were like, no way, the engines have to be destroyed - they did something major to them that rendered them totally useless.
So that's probably where some of the trucks are gone to.
Don't forget, and I've mentioned this, if you look at say a '00 truck you can't look at its ask price and compare to its new price without first adjusting the value of the dollars; so let's say a truck cost $20k in '00, in today's dollars that's
$34.5k. So if the ask price is $10k today, that's not "half" of its new cost, it's more like under 1/3.
Which is still way too much... but I'm just saying.
I wonder what is the algorithm Manheim uses. That graph was scary.
Somewhere I read new cars are supposed to be at 1/2 new cost at 3 years. I don't see anything close to that happening.
But you do see prices coming down a bit if you look at enough vehicles you see it. Not much though.
It all makes me feel ok about paying under $4k for my truck; granted I have some money in it for mntc/repairs but not much and did the work myself with average shop tools (except the starter which Fastpakr put in for me). So now I have a truck that everything works, cold a/c and good heat, good tires, brakes, everything. Drives great (knock on wood) and does everything I'd want except when I get a ways up a fire trail then I want 4x4 otherwise I wouldn't even be looking. Anyway, seems like today $4k will get you what - a wrecked vehicle, or a piece of junk. Upside is, it probably won't take much of a hit on price when things settle out because it's already so low.
Not sure what it takes to change out the front end to 4x4 or if it's even possible. I imagine it takes a complete dis-assembly of the front. I wouldn't even bring it up if prices were better. When I look at '09-'11 Rangers the prices make me go "you have to be kidding". I think the problem is they are sort of a specialty market for people who absolutely want that. Versus F150 where there are tons, more of a commodity market. But F150 is gigantic in size/weight by comparison, not sure it's for me unless I require the towing.
I've been using the Carfax app lately, you can put a watch on a bunch of vehicles then just check how they are doing (are they coming down).
I'd love to find a nice "low miles" '09 B4000 SE that was a southern truck. Those had basically everything on an FX4 maybe plus some, tended to be a bit more upscale as to options/features. Problem there is you're talking about maybe 5k of them originally sold, here we are almost 15 years later, how many are left, and how many of those are in decent shape? They are few and far between.