Almost all cars have differences between sticker price compared to what you can negotiate as the purchase price. In some cases, you'll pay more than MSRP because of limited inventory and popularity. In other cases, you can easily pay less.
>Almost all cars have differences between sticker price compared to what you can negotiate as the purchase price. In some cases, you'll pay more than MSRP because of limited inventory and popularity. In other cases, you can easily pay less.
Only pickups routinely have manufacturer rebates in the $10k range. These are manufacturer rebates paid by the OEM. You either qualify or you don't, no haggling needed. We're not talking about small differences, we're talking about changes as high as 20% (10k off a 50k truck), sometimes more. Other vehicles do not have that massive error bar tacked on to their price over time graph.
My guess is that manufacturers enjoy and encourage this margin and the apparent rapid inflation of pickup truck pricing. In other words, if MSRP keeps going crazy, even though savvy shoppers can purchase a truck for way less than MSRP, the general consensus is that they are more expensive than before, and you'll have to spend more than you did last year and the year before. People throw around "spending $50k on a truck" all the time, and while it's true that you can probably get a brand new crew cab with decent trim for $35k (and feel like you got a super good deal), the perception of truck prices has been inflated over time.
But back to the original raise/lower prices, we still see the same thing with trucks as with other classes of car. The price is increased each model year. The trim levels are tweaked. Options are bundled. Rarely does a manufacturer announce a big drop in pricing, or a spur of the moment increase.