Looking for luxury

2019 Sierra Denali, its luxury pickup, to dealers around the same time. Cox Automotive said the average transaction price in 2018 for the Sierra 1500 is $51,794 and $58,738 for Denali trims.

Like GMC, Chevrolet started shipping the loaded Silverado pickups first in a “staggered launch,” said Monte Doran, a Chevrolet spokesman.

“The first production trucks are our most popular: crew cab, V8 models — LT trim and above,” said Doran in an email. “By the end of the year, we will expand production to include the other cabs, models and engines.”

The average transaction price for F-series pickups is higher than the other two brands because about a third of F-series buyers purchase high-line Lariat, King Ranch, Platinum, Limited and Raptor model pickups.

Also, Ford does “a lot of volume on XLT and work trucks, which gives us year-to-date (September) sales numbers that are now 254,000 trucks higher than Silverado and 303,000 trucks higher than Ram,” Ford U.S. sales analyst Erich Merkle said.

But Ford also offered the lowest incentives last month at $4,863 on average compared with $5,266 on the Silverado and $5,588 on the Ram, J.D. Power data said.

Even on the more basic pickup models, the surge in prices over the years is driven by added bells and whistles to the trucks as well as consumers increasingly using them as family vehicles instead of strictly for work. Low gasoline prices help drive demand for pickups, supporting higher pickup prices, analysts said.

“There are consumers who can afford the bare bones basic vehicles at $30,000, but once you’re shown an