“The old one was so much better.” I’m guilty of saying that sometimes, especially as it relates to cars and honestly, it’s never entirely true. Still, this type of thinking tends to become commonly accepted “truth” and creates myths that drive prices into the stratosphere.
We’ve seen that in recent years with cars like the “Neue Klasse” BMW 2002 and air-cooled Porsche 911s. These will commonly sell for prices close to that of new cars despite being archaic in most ways and, in many cases, just not that much fun to drive as some far less expensive newer rides. It seems a bit absurd to me. However, it’s not as absurd as watching the same thing happen with some pickup trucks. Talk about a product that has improved in leaps and bounds over the last few decades. Why are people asking nearly-new-truck money for thirty-year-old diesel Ford trucks with a design that goes back nearly half a century? Are they idiots, or smarter than the rest of us?
We Don’t Want No Jellybean Trucks
Messing with an icon is one of the most dangerous things anyone can do. Ford did just that in 1997 with their Tenth-Generation F-Series pickups, and the results were certainly polarizing. Personally, I have to agree with Tenth-Gen fan Matt Hardigree: they’re great designs.
These trucks were a bold move to bring Taurus-like aerodynamics to the great American mainstay of the full-sized pickup, honest and forward-thinking designs that suddenly made the GM products seem brick-like. They also made RAM’s mini-semi-trucks appear to be a bit cartoonish; I can hear David Tracy and a million Twister-truck fans with pitchforks right now, but seriously, the fake-big-rig thing was styling, not functionality.
Not everyone shared (or still shares) Matt’s opinion and mine. There are plenty of fans of the previous 1992-96 Ninth-Generation truck that became known as the “OBS”, or old body style. “Old” is the right word; this thing was fundamentally a seventeen-year-old truck when it was finally discontinued in 1996.
Other than the slightly softened front clip and detailing, the Ninth-Gen truck was just a refresh of the 1987-91 Eighth Generation, like our man Jason drives with a FARM USE plate.
That truck was itself a rehash of the Seventh-Gen “Bullnose” trucks that came out for 1980.
These “OBS” aficionados see these last boxy trucks not as anachronisms but instead as a perfected, final edition of an old favorite. As such, they often seek to get one with what they consider to be one of the most durable diesel motors ever put into a Blue Oval: the 7.3-liter Power Stroke.
There was nothing fundamentally wrong with the International Harvester V8 “IDI” (indirect injection) turbo diesels used in Ford pickups up to the early nineties. The problem was a pesky 5.9-liter six-cylinder turbo diesel motor that Cummins made for RAM trucks that appeared in 1989. Sure, the Mopar truck was a liter-and-a-half smaller in displacement and had two fewer cylinders than the 7.3-liter IDI, and at 400 lb-ft of torque (with an automatic, 425 with the manual) it was more than the Ford’s 388 figure, but the numbers alone don’t tell the full story. The RAM produced that power much lower in the rev range and held it steadier, making it the clear choice for hard-core towing.
Midway through the 1994 model year, Ford atoned for this deficit with an all-new computer-controlled, Navistar-made 7.3-liter direct-injection diesel they named Power Stroke. Despite having the same displacement as the earlier IDI, the engines were entirely different, with the Power Stroke pumping out 425 lb-ft of grunt and making it a much better match for the vaunted Cummins. You can read a far better and deeper dive on the Power Stroke by clicking here for Mercedes Streeter’s always excellent posts.
All of this means that the mid-1994 to 1996 editions of the boxy F-Series with the legendary Navistar turbo diesel are desirable trucks to many old-school Ford fans. The question, though, is it really almost as desirable as a new truck? I ask that because that’s where some of the price tags are trending.
Is That Decimal Point In The Right Place?
Sometimes you see an anomaly online and just dismiss it. That’s what I thought when I saw one seemingly astronomical price for a late OBS Power Stroke online. A deeper dive said that ain’t so.
The one that caught me right away was this low-mileage one that sold for damn near six figures:
Good Lord. That’s a nice-looking old truck, but for that kind of money? Take a look inside:
Very clean, but those seats! That upholstery! This was a work truck; it wasn’t even nice when it was new. Actually, it’s a nice change from can’t-get-it-dirty embroidered King Ranch logo leather, but a hundred grand? That has to be a fluke, right? Apparently not. Here’s a similar rig with over 66,000 miles on the clock. Less money, to be sure, but still a huge chunk of change:
Look! Here’s a bargain for barely much more than new Maverick money! Oh, wait, the odometer reads 166,000. Make no mistake, I bet this thing has a lot of life left in it, but at that price?
Another one with under 100,000 miles and yet it went for top dollar.
What’s funny is that for the same money, this dealer has a nearly new and much more amusing truck available with lots of new-car warranty left in terms of mileage and time. I want this one!
Sure, I’m not denying that these OBS Power Strokes are appealing old-school things, like a country music song embodied in a vehicle. What I am saying is that these are old pickup trucks, people! Are you insane? The most tragic part of these inflated values is that these aren’t like, say, an old Hispano-Suiza or fifties Ferraris that look great but are pretty useless and unsatisfying to drive anyway; go ahead and drive up the value on those and turn them into inanimate objects. A Power Stroke OBS, on the other hand, is a very usable machine; putting near-six-figure price tags on them seems to kill that utility. What a shame.
You Can Get Better, But You Can’t Get More Expensive
Will this trend continue? If so, what can be learned from this? I’m not entirely sure, but if anything, it says that a certain segment of the population really does miss a simple, boxy, and no-frills pickup.
I don’t blame them. Sure, we need all of the safety equipment that’s required today, along with emissions and fuel economy standards that result in small and complex turbocharged motors. That doesn’t mean we can’t get more of the spirit of the old OBS in the design of our brand-new pickups.
Give us A/C, CarPlay, and power windows, but forget your massaging seats, full-width screens, and insane skyscraper-tall grilles. Give us honesty, functionality, and durability. People seem to put a high value on those qualities – literally.
Top graphic images: Bring A Trailer; iOS
So it sounds like the move is to snatch up some of these and drop in a Cummins, add Apple Carplay/Android head units and upgrade the seats to heated comfy ones from a crashed newer vehicle. Some of that is light work. Maybe not the motor swap, but the refresh of the rest is classical vehicle restoration in a nutshell.
Maybe have someone from Autopian contact the buyer of the $96k, or the $60k, truck and ask what they plan to do with the truck? Yes?
Is it nostalgia or childhood aspiration?
Maybe a family member owned one?
For Trucks and Truffles (unless Cars and Coffee accepts them)?
This might help resolve the speculation of it all. As I can’t imagine a real business ever making a purchase for this much.
These trucks require a seriously huge garage or place within a barn.
My contractor cousin has two of these crewcab 7.3L trucks. While riding in the one with 375,000 miles, conversation about his trucks included that his other one has 290,000 miles… He still uses them, and doesn’t have a garage for his trucks or his wife’s SUV.
Maybe the buyer is a farmer or somebody who owned a couple of these when new, but used them up doing work. They now have the space to keep a truck indoors and the cash to make the purchase for nostalgia. If people are spending $250K buying those ICON trucks with an old body on top of a new pickup, then this isn’t insane money for that sort of buyer.
You’re definitely right that $96k doesn’t get close to an ICON restomod cost. Yet I’d like to meet the farmer who could plunk down 96 large for a work truck when similarly capable trucks are readily available for half or a third of that. More power to them if they can, and hope they’re not just a ‘garage queen’.
Not judging those who have the resources and inclination to spring for these amounts on a 30 year old ‘work truck’. Though am curious of their motivation and (general) backstory. Brian S had been a staff writer here who followed up on a few such questions.
Sort of related, my dad bought a 1951 F-1 truck new, optional 4 speed with AM radio… Traded it with his father a few years later for a car because the car faster than the low geared truck. My dad got it back when his father died, and then had off frame restoration done. Local small town parades, etc. followed. Fast-forward to today, and my oldest brother has it, by way of inheritance, and brother uses it as a regular truck. Guy at the local rural dump questioned him (I was there) why he’s driving it and brother simply said he’s using the truck as a truck. Right now as I type, there’s a load of small gravel in the truck’s bed (with a tarpe between the bed and rocks) he had dumped into the bed at local gravel place (again, I was with my brother). It takes all kinds in the world….
People are not buying those to drive with diesel prices today. I passed a station in Salinas, CA on Friday and diesel was $9.59 a gallon!
I think it’s mostly the market for clean trucks and exceptional collector grade trucks that’s going up. You can still get work trucks for $3-5k, but they’ll all be rusted out or otherwise beat.
I think there’s a few factors at play for why the market is going up:
New trucks are big, tech heavy, intimidating, and expensive.
Lots of these OBS Fords driving around are rusty, beat up, pasture junkers, or stupidly modified by teenagers and social media truck bros, creating the sense that there’s not many good ones left (dealers saying this under every OBS Ford listing doesn’t help).
As things go from being old to classic (like lots of things from the 90s are now), they become more desirable to collectors
Nostalgia
The 7.3L Powerstroke has achieved the reputation as an unkillable legend
The crew cabs are super desirable, despite the fact that they handle like a lumber wagon and turn like a container ship
You can’t join a Facebook group, YouTube comment section, blog post, without seeing some variation of the comment “these were the best trucks Ford ever made, no electric crap to break, the old trucks will take the new junk to the scrap yard, I’ll take my 1996 F-350 diesel over any new diesel any day.” Believe it or not, this might make people want the older trucks
Add all the other factors that makes old vehicles increase in value
For the record, I really like these old Fords, and I’m not too upset they’re going from $2k beaters to $7-$20k modern classics. I personally wouldn’t pay more than $35-40k for a perfect one, but obviously the market disagrees-especially when it comes to crew cab diesels. I paid $12k for my one owner rust free 1996 F-150 with 70k miles and feel like I did alright. It’s a great truck to drive and it should last me awhile
The lines I crossed out are part of the reason why these trucks sell for as much as they do. Remember that moment in The Bus Movie where a Westie sold for $100,000.00? Now it’s the pickup trucks turn.
** For those that might refute the safety and emissions difference, let me point out this is the same arguments you have for importing and driving Kei cars, vans, and trucks. These trucks are smaller and lighter than the trucks that are out there now. Peace.
Nope. Not buying your Kei car argument. You seem to be arguing that the safety features aren’t important for new cars because… we are OK with Kei cars. One is a conscious acceptance of risk primarily to oneself (the Kei car). Requiring modern cars to have safety features impacts drivers… but also passengers, pedestrians and people in other cars. You can assume risk for yourself. Please don’t suggest I should accept risk from you.
And emissions… I’m fine with Leno’s Law. But I have little patience for someone who suggests modern emissions regulations are somehow unnecessary. Likewise fuel efficiency standards. I’ll simply suggest you take a science course or two.
Nope. You misunderstand. I’m saying that people will happily forgo some safety standards as personal preference. (Look at motorcycles) As for your risk, you can choose not to ride with me.
As for emissions, synthetic fuel is going a long way to alleviate that. I’ll simply suggest you check into some modern chemistry achievements.
OK, gotta go “old man yelling at cloud” for a minute, but the “OBS” nickname is so stupid. The 9th gen F-Series already had a nickname, Aeronose, that went well with its predecessors Bricknose and Bullnose.
I thought OBS encompased all 3 from ’80 to ’96.
I’ve heard both, that it refers to 7th-9th gen, and that it’s specific to 9th gen, but here The Bishop was so definitive I figured “OBS” must only refer to the 9th gen. Regardless, it’s a dumb nickname.
well, no, but then again there are morons paying $5 mil for a pokemon card.
What’s the weird obsession with people wanting to whine about what other people pay for old vehicles? It’s worth what someone wants to pay.
We are in a weird era where anything from the mid 80s to mid 90s is doing better then it probably should. Mid to late 90s even better. I think different tv shows and movies are part of it. And all these kids have mullets and want a mullet worthy vehicle. They also seem to think odb 1 vehicles are simple. They haven’t driven anything before 2007 but they sure think it. At least it’s an odbii truck and rare spec. It’s a similar but maybe more more extreme version of what happened to c10s and broncos a decade ago. I’m so sick of crew cabs.