[chunker]

I have off and on looked at truck upgrades and for the time being I'm going to put serious looking on the back burner. I will put air springs on to get my headlights out of the sky. On IRV2 there is a thread about lack of availability of the 1 ton segment. Covid is a major player since the factories were shut down for a significant time and probably not ramped up to full production. Additionally the 1T segment is a smaller niche and manufacturers are going to make more of the more popular cars/trucks rather than the niche section. Pricing is rather high due to above. That 19 RAM I referenced above had an original window sticker of $75K and they want $69.7K now. I strongly suspect that's more the the original owner paid for it with incentives/rebates that were available last year.

I don't need a new truck, I have a good and capable truck that will do the job but as stated above, I have to be careful in loading. Next year if I feel the fine line I'm walking/driving is too much trouble, I'll upgrade then. Additionally I'll still be looking because stuff comes on the market all the time. Another major item influencing pricing, this November if the country screws up and elects the wrong way, the economy will start tanking and there will be a ton of very lightly used 350/3500s available as unemployment goes through the roof.

NOTE that is not a POLITICAL assessment, that's an ECONOMIC assessment.