Premium Pickups Are Intruding on America's Luxury-Car Market

Luxury-car makers are contending with an unlikely adversary in the U.S. auto market: Detroit’s hulking, high-end pickups.

For years, Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV have been stuffing their trucks with opulence including two-tone leather, wooden accents and ventilated seats in a bid to push price tags on their most profitable product lines toward six-figure territory. All those bells and whistles may be starting to nibble at the luxury market that Daimler AG still leads, though only by a nose after a steep drop in August.