Analysis updated April 16, 2026
Pickup trucks span a wider price range than any other vehicle category. A compact truck like the Ford Maverick starts under $25,000. A heavy-duty crew cab with a diesel engine and towing package can exceed $80,000. Monthly payment comparisons miss the real question: how much does each mile of transportation cost?
IAVTA measures ownership cost using Cost Per Mile Remaining (CPMR). It adds up every cost of owning a vehicle, including purchase price, financing at current rates from FRED (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis), insurance projected over the vehicle's remaining life, fuel at current national prices, maintenance, repairs, and state fees, then divides by the estimated miles left. The result is a single dollar-per-mile figure that makes a $25,000 compact truck directly comparable to a $70,000 heavy-duty.
Pickup trucks are known by different names around the world. In Australia and New Zealand, the common term is ute (short for utility vehicle). In South Africa, they are called bakkies. In parts of Latin America, camioneta is standard. This analysis covers all pickup-body vehicles regardless of market or naming convention, from compact to heavy-duty.
Across 75 pickups with enough data, the median "best year to buy" is only 2 years old. And 66.7% of pickups have a brand-new CPMR within 10% of their cheapest year. Pickups hold their value exceptionally well, which means the depreciation savings from buying used are smaller than in other categories.
The chart below shows the median CPMR across 155 pickup trucks, analyzed at the trim level by model year. This includes light-duty half-ton trucks, mid-size trucks, compact trucks, and heavy-duty 2500/3500-class workhorses. Lower means cheaper per mile of remaining life.
The dark line tracks the least expensive trim at each model year; the gold line tracks the most expensive. The wide gap between them reflects the enormous range within this category, from fuel-efficient compact trucks to $80,000 heavy-duty diesels.
Pickups cost more per mile than any other non-luxury category. The least expensive trim median bottoms out around $0.57/mi in 2022, roughly 70% higher than the sedan floor and 50% higher than the SUV floor. The most expensive trim runs $0.10-$0.15/mi higher and peaks at $0.72/mi for 2026. The cheapest model years cluster around 2020-2024, more recent than sedans or SUVs, because pickups hold their resale value better than almost any other vehicle type. A five-year-old truck has not depreciated much relative to new, so the sweet spot sits closer to the present.
Trucks older than 10-12 years see CPMR climb steeply. Fuel economy for pre-2015 trucks was significantly worse than modern models, repair costs rise with age (particularly for 4x4 drivetrain components and diesel engines), and the remaining-mile denominator shrinks, meaning all of those higher ongoing costs get divided across fewer miles. A $12,000 truck with 40,000 miles left can easily exceed $1.00/mi. The category trend line is also pulled upward by heavy-duty trucks (2500 and 3500 class), which carry 2-3x the CPMR of their half-ton counterparts. Vehicles like the Dodge Ram 3500 Crew Cab ($2.32/mi) and Chevrolet Silverado 3500 Crew Cab ($1.95/mi) represent the expensive end of that spectrum.
The gap between new and used is the smallest of any category. A brand-new 2026 pickup costs $0.65/mi versus $0.57/mi for the cheapest year, only 14%. For two-thirds of individual pickup models, the gap is less than 10%. Trucks depreciate slowly, which means used buyers save less on purchase price than in other segments. The "never buy new" advice applies least to pickup trucks. For light-duty pickups specifically, models like the Toyota Tacoma, Ford Maverick, and Hyundai Santa Cruz achieve CPMRs in the $0.37-$0.46/mi range, comparable to mid-range SUVs.
These are category medians that blend light-duty and heavy-duty trucks, and the specific model matters more in this category than almost any other. Use the search box below or the comparison tool to look up individual trucks.
The category median blends compact trucks, half-tons, and heavy-duty workhorses into one number. The actual spread between classes is larger than the spread between new and used within any single class. The chart below makes this visible.
Two-thirds of pickup models have a new CPMR within 10% of their cheapest year, the highest figure of any vehicle category. The Toyota Tacoma Double Cab, the best-selling mid-size truck in the country, shows why: its 2025 SR trim at $0.37/mi is the cheapest on its own curve, beating every older model year. Toyota's long expected lifetime and the Tacoma's strong resale value keep per-mile cost low at every age. At $0.46/mi median CPMR, the Tacoma is competitive with many compact SUVs.
Trim selection can matter as much as age, especially on trucks with wide trim ranges. The Ford F-150 SuperCrew Cab, the best-selling vehicle in the United States, has a median CPMR of $0.73/mi. That figure blends base XL work trucks with $70,000+ Limited and Raptor editions. Buyers who stick to XL or XLT trims see CPMRs far below the median, and the 2019 XL at $0.44/mi beats the 2026 model by 20%. The traditional used-car sweet spot applies to the F-150, but only after accounting for which trim.
The gap between classes dwarfs the gap between model years. The Ford F-250 Super Duty Crew Cab carries a median CPMR of $0.89/mi, nearly double the Tacoma's, driven by higher fuel consumption (12-16 MPG), more expensive insurance, and pricier repairs. Its 2016 XL at $0.59/mi ties the 2026 model, another case where new and used cost the same per mile. Buyers who need heavy towing capacity should expect to pay 50-100% more per mile than half-ton and mid-size alternatives.
Want to see the numbers for a specific pickup?
Every vehicle in the dataset has a full cost breakdown, trim comparison, and interactive chart.