The trend for genuine American pickups in Russia has long moved beyond the interest of a dozen enthusiasts. The Ford F-150, Ram 1500, Chevrolet Silverado, and their high-performance versions—Raptor, TRX, Rebel—have become a distinct segment with its own subculture. These phenomena are generally divided into two categories. The first is factory tuning, where divisions like Ford Performance, Ram’s SRT, or RTR transform a standard pickup into an off-road sports car—featuring reinforced suspension, a turbocharged engine, and modifications for racing wheels. This is precisely how the Raptor R came to be. The second is customization performed in private workshops, where the vehicle is adapted for local road conditions: the suspension is modified for harsher use, heavy-duty bumpers and winches are installed, ground clearance is increased, or the electronics are upgraded.

In Russia, this is handled by specialized studios—there are only a handful. The price for a serious tuning package (suspension, snorkel, winch, wheels, protection) starts at 500,000 rubles and can exceed several million if the customization involves full off-road preparation for expeditions or competitions. Simply importing a pickup truck from the United States is an expensive endeavor. In addition to the vehicle’s factory price, buyers must account for logistics, customs duties, the disposal fee, and certification, which often results in the final price in Russia being one and a half to twice as high as the American price. Nevertheless, demand remains strong: buyers are attracted by the uniqueness, the genuine off-road capability, the status, and the simple fact that these vehicles are unavailable in official dealerships.

Recently, the most extreme version of a Ford pickup truck appeared for sale on «Auto.ru,» having traveled all the way to Siberia. This is a 2025 Ford F-150 Raptor R with four-wheel drive. The body is almost six meters long. Under the hood is a five-liter V8 gasoline engine producing 720 horsepower. It features a ten-speed automatic transmission.
The suspension travel is 33 cm in the front and 36 cm in the rear—specifications you wouldn’t be embarrassed to see on a rally prototype. It has beadlock wheels (protection against wheel separation) and heavy-duty bumpers with tow hook mounts. The interior includes a 12-inch central touchscreen and a heads-up display on the windshield.

A seller from Novosibirsk is asking 19.8 million rubles for the pickup. For comparison, in the U.S., it costs around 8.8 million rubles. The near twofold difference is explained by the very customs duties, fees, and waste payment—and considering the rarity and the vehicle’s complete readiness for off-road conditions, the price can be considered perfectly market-rate. For a buyer of such a vehicle, the extra cost for customs clearance is also a kind of insurance: a similar model in Russia is rare, meaning the issue of liquidity doesn’t loom as heavily over it as it does for the owner of a more mass-produced model. In this sense, the Raptor R from Novosibirsk is not just an expensive off-road toy—it’s an indicator of how much it costs today to own a vehicle that no one else in the area possesses.