SANTA MONICA, Calif. -

If a shopper brings a truck in on trade, chances are likely — especially this year — that he or she will buy another truck.

According to Edmunds.com, 74 percent of truck trade-ins through three quarters of 2016 have resulted in the customer buying another truck.

Edmunds began tracking trade-in data in 2005 and said this year represents the strongest loyalty rate it has seen for trucks.

And loyalty to other segments isn’t even close. Vans had the second-highest loyalty rate through nine months (52 percent) and compact SUVs (47.3 percent) were third.

Toyota pickup owners — particularly those who own a Tacoma — are the most brand-loyal, with Chevrolet and Ram nipping at their heels.

Edmunds estimates that roughly 70 percent of Toyota pickup trade-ins going toward another truck ended up spurring another Toyota purchase, while 69.5 percent of Chevrolet truck owners bought another Chevy and 68.1 percent of Ram owners stuck with the brand.

Edmunds said about three-quarters of folks trading in Tacomas bought another Tacoma.

“Truck owners are especially passionate about their vehicles, most likely because trucks offer hauling and cargo capabilities that you just cannot find in any other vehicle segment,” Edmunds senior analyst Ivan Drury in a news release.

“Today’s trucks are particularly appealing because manufacturers pack them with more luxury and technology features than ever before,” he said. “These options just weren’t available on trucks in years past. It also doesn’t hurt that today’s low gas prices make truck ownership much more economical than just a few years ago.”

Of course, the actual price of the trucks can be somewhat steep.

On the new-vehicle side, Edmunds puts their average transaction price at $43,277 this year, which is a 46-percent increase from 2006.

Meanwhile, transaction prices for the entire auto industry have only gone up 23 percent.

That hasn't curtailed truck popularity, which Edmunds said is hitting a near-decade high. Year-to-date new-vehicle market share for pickups is at 15.1 percent; the last time it was that high was 2007, when it reached 17 percent. 

In the used-vehicle market, pickup prices have been strong this year, though they have softened in recent weeks. 

“The truck segments, particularly SUVs and pickups, are beginning to see larger declines after experiencing strong retention so far this year,”  Anil Goyal, Black Book's senior vice president of automotive valuation and analytics, said in an analysis from the company.

That said, small pickups had the strongest year-over-year retention of any segment for the month of September (down just 8.9 percent), according to Black Book, while full-size pickups were second (down 12.4 percent).

Month-over-month, small pickups were third (down 1.6 percent) behind subcompact luxury CUVs and subcompact crossovers, while full-size pickups were middle-of-the-pack (down 1.9 percent).

Black Book shared a graph detailing quarterly depreciation in truck segments (i.e. pickups, SUVs, CUVs) for Q3. Full-size pickups (down 3.22 percent) had the strongest retention and small pickups (down 3.83 percent) were second.