Pickup trucks offer drivers more versatility than any other vehicle on the road today. Trucks are also a good bit more expensive than smaller passenger automobiles, and most drivers are okay with that. After all, trucks are an investment – they’re not just transportation.
Like any investment, it’s smart to protect the value of your truck. From grille guards to bug deflectors to bedliners, there are quite a few investment protection accessories on the market. The question is, do any of these accessories really boost resale value?
Today we’ll look at bedliners and the value they protect.
Stating the Obvious, Bedliners Make Sense
When you use a truck the way it is meant to be used, bed damage is inevitable. Even light hauling and small loads can result in scratches, dents, and dings. Leaning wood or ladders on the tailgate can create pitting and gouges in the paint as well.
Having a bedliner installed on your truck bed minimizes most forms of bed damage. Depending on the type of bedliner you install, you can either:
- Protect your factory bed finish as if it were preserved in a time capsule or
- Replace the factory bed finish with an after-market coating
While the first option seems to make the most sense from a resale value perspective (consumers love trucks that look like they’ve been very well cared for), many opt for the second option and pay to have a spray-on liner installed.
Either way, a bedliner prevents damage, and that’s why it helps preserve resale value.
How Much Resale Value Do Bedliners Really Add?
The NADA guide (which is frequently used by auto dealers to evaluate potential trade-ins) lists bedliners as adding anywhere between $50 and $400 to the value of a vehicle.
- On a 2008 F150 XLT Supercab 4WD with 75k miles, NADA lists a bedliner as a $50 “add”
- On a 2011 F150 XLT Supercab 4WD with 45k miles, NADA lists a bedliner as a $50-$75 “add”
- On a 2013 F150 XLT Supercab 4WD with 15k miles, NADA lists a bedliner as a $50-$75 “add”
Checking on Edmunds.com, KBB.com, and checking other models on the NADAGuides.com website, most bedliners only seem to add $50-$100 in resale value.
Considering that a DualLiner costs about $400, and that many spray-on liners cost twice that amount, $50-$100 in additional resale value seems like a pretty terrible deal, doesn’t it?
Why Bedliner Resale Values Are So Terrible
Most trucks that have a bedliner these days have a spray-in – upwards of 80%. That means that low resale values are mostly associated with spray-in liners, and that makes sense when you consider that:
- Problems with spray-in liner installation are common. Improper surface prep or incorrect application can lead to cracks, bubbles, and peeling.
- Faded old bedliners aren’t very attractive. Even the best quailty UV stabilized spray-in bedliners are going to fade – that’s why none of the spray-in bedliner manufacturers will warranty their products against fading. When these bedliners get old, they often get ugly.
- Spray-in bedliners don’t protect against dents. If heavy cargo shifts in a truck bed that only has a thin coating of sprayed-on polyurethane, dents are inevitable.
How much extra would you pay for a used truck that has a dented bed lined with a faded coating that may be peeling, cracking, or bubbling? $50? Maybe $100?
That low value is starting to make sense, isn’t it?
Why DualLiner Is Better For Resale Value Than A Spray-In Liners
In a nutshell, the DualLiner is better for resale because you don’t have to trade it in! If you own a DualLiner and it’s time to trade (or sell) your truck, you can:
- Transfer it from your old truck to your new truck, assuming that the liner will fit inside the new truck (and they often do, as automakers don’t change bed designs very frequently).
- Remove it and sell it separately. Unlike a spray-in liner, you can remove and re-sell your DualLiner. What’s more, whomever buys your DualLiner gets the full warranty…we don’t limit warranty coverage to the original buyer.
What’s more, imagine pulling out your DualLiner to reveal a truck bed that looks brand new. That’s a nice value-add for any truck buyer.
