Yesterday’s post about our drive of the new Jeeps was actually only part of our day, the other part was an opportunity to sample some of RAM’s new Heavy Duty truck lineup. I know we sometimes have big debates here about trucks, who uses them, who needs them, and why they are so popular, but let’s just enjoy the fact that we have the freedom to choose what we want to drive or, in some case, need to drive, which is in large part the raison d’etre for these larger (than life?) trucks.
RAM has obviously made an outsize splash in the truck market several times over the last few decades, mostly we remember the bold styling in 1994, then the HEMI marketing masterstroke and now over the last year, the new RAM light duty series has been gaining accolades for their wonderful interior options and variations. Never one to rest on their laurels, RAM has significantly reworked (improved) the Heavy Duty versions for this year. Over the years RAM has become very popular, especially in their 2500/3500 trims – in fact in the entire area of the country west of Colorado they are the #1 marque in HD, and #2 in the U.S. overall as well as boasting the highest residual values in the HD segment overall. Lots of feathers in lots of caps at RAM HQ these days, methinks.
They realize that Heavy Duty buyers are looking for capability and that their trucks help them earn money but also are aware that “work” and “Heavy Duty” doesn’t have to mean “utilitarian”. When someone drives all day (or all week) with a giant load (up to 35,100 pounds when properly equipped if we are talking about the RAM 3500), having a comfortable cabin with easy to use features makes a huge difference in reducing fatigue and enhancing driver endurance, productivity and in the end, safety. They are aiming to provide a way to be comfortable and ensconced in a luxury environment while hauling or towing large loads for long distances. Our own Jason Shafer wrote a little expose on how large HD trucks are used in various parts of the country while writing about the prior generation of the RAM 3500 and the little side post I wrote about a car hauler a while back is another perfect illustration of how one might use one of these trucks to provide a living for themselves and their family. Our own Ed Stembridge himself owns a RAM 2500 for use around the farm that I don’t think he has reviewed (yet).
Some people perhaps get an advanced degree and use it in an office somewhere between 9 and 5, and some other people perhaps use the same money to purchase a mobile office that can tow a house and has 1000lb-ft of torque. Both options are valid, both careers I’m sure have their difficulties and joys, triumphs and heartbreaks, and I’m sure there are some that get both the degree and the truck, such as the computer engineer friend of mine that goes to the office every day in the Bay Area and on his vacations uses his Heavy Duty Dually truck to tow a massive house trailer all over the country to relax.
So anyway, RAM invited us (me) to try their trucks, they are very proud of them and after taking a closer look I can see why. I also understand better that what seems like an enormous sum of money at first really isn’t compared to what lots of people spend on regular cars and SUV’s in more urban environments. Take resale into account and this starts to make a lot of sense (depending on the specific situation of course, I fully realize as do you that the average condo owner in Toronto or San Diego has zero use case for something this large or likely even a 1500 series). But let’s just enjoy these for what they are, another option on the automotive smorgasbord that is the American market that fills a legitimate need for some (or a lot of) folks with a different lifestyle than perhaps your own.
Yeah, that’s right, I tucked into the largest truck I saw first. It was hard to see anything else, frankly, as this Ram 3500 Limited Crew Cab 4×4 with the 6.7liter Cummins inline-6 High Output TurboDiesel can almost block out the sun it’s so large. This one is the version that ups the torque wars again to an even 1000lb-ft, the first 4-digiter. Mated to a special version of the Aisin 6-speed, it can pretty much tow the mountain it’s going over.
The maximum tow rating is 35,100 pounds, which a normal person with a standard driver’s license isn’t even allowed to tow in many states. The frame is 95% high-strength steel, the engine block is made of compacted graphite to save weight that can be put back in the payload, everything just exudes strength and power. And guess what? Zero diesel smell.
Here’s the cabin of that behemoth from the backseat while my seat heater was on Broil. Everything is leather. Except for the parts that are wood, real open-pore wood with some kind of resin stripe layer sandwiched every 1/4″ or so for a beautiful effect. And also except for the parts that are the 12″ touchscreen that you can’t fail to see.
The touch screen is especially neat in that there is so much space on it that almost everything can be reconfigured, i.e. the most commonly used functions can just be dropped and dragged to the lower edge of the screen for example but then many of the functions also have dedicated redundant buttons below. In the end no two will really ever look the same as different users have different preferences/priorities in what they want where on the screen. Of course as with most touch screen systems, many (most) of the functions can also be controlled via your own voice commands.
I sat in the back seat at first while someone else drove and was astounded that I could NOT hear the large diesel engine in front. While riding back there I heard a bit of wind rustle from behind my ear, either it was the corner of the cab or the large fender or the dual wheel itself, it wasn’t a bother and in fact the type of noise that would cause me to fall asleep within ten minutes. RAM’s version of whale-song, perhaps.
Once I got in the front I had to readjust my road standards at first as this was just huge and wide. But a funny thing happened, it shrank around me. It did not take long to get used to it and while I don’t want to attempt the Dairy Queen drive-thru in it, it was fine tootling through town. Once the town was left behind, and the foot went down, it was shocking how fast 50, then 60, then 70 miles per hour came up on the dial, all with zero drama and very low noise.
Turns out I like 1000lb-ft of torque. I like it a lot. You would too. You do hear the engine from the driver’s seat but it’s more or less mostly a murmur and not at all objectionable, I have to wonder how many pounds of sound deadening are on the firewall. If I had to tow my five cars over the Continental Divide or my (non-existent) stable of horses to the Derby, I think I would like this and at the price would find this far preferable to an Audi Q7 or whatever (If I had a use case for it of course, not in my present life.)
That price…Well, this is the Limited, so it is the top dog, even more than the Laramie Longhorn that was also in attendance. Base price is $65,250, this engine adds $11,795 (yes the price of a quite nice used car), and then the Max Tow package that includes a 5th wheel hitch and sundry other towing related items including amusingly to me a couple of red vinyl flags is another $3,695.
The “Limited Level 1” equipment group for another $2,995 adds a 17 speaker Harman Kardon sound system, surround cameras, the large screen and some other niceties including the safety nannies which I appreciate this driver having when he’s behind me coming down the mountain. A couple of other minor frills bring the total up to $87,810. That’s a lot as just a number but looking at what this truck can do and what it’ll still be worth with several hundred thousand miles on it, I don’t think it’s bad.
I will tell you, when I was on the freeway in this, I was ready to keep going and not stop, I didn’t want for anything. Which is the point. Just for grins the least expensive RAM 3500 variant lists at $34,845 but that doesn’t get you the big numbers etc but still an extremely strong truck. Oh, and this Limited isn’t even the biggest one, there is an even larger (longer) cab available called the MegaCab as opposed to the regular Crew Cab.
I didn’t drive the other Dually (the Pearl White one in the group pictures above and in the background immediately above) as while it was also a 3500 but with the aforementioned MegaCab, it was a trim level lower (Laramie Longhorn). I had gotten used to the ultra luxury of the Limited and didn’t want to slum it (not really, I simply ran out of time later in the day).
So I decided to sample the Ram 2500 Limited MegaCab instead. This one courteously extended its running boards for me as I touched the doorhandle, and were helpful in hefting myself up into the captain’s chair. Hooboy, it’s a 2500 but still with all the fixin’s!
You can see the striped wood I mentioned earlier just next to the vent in this shot, it also stretches across the passenger side. The leather covering pretty much everything else is a combination of Indigo and Frost in RAM-speak, to you and me it means glorious blue and cream interior colors, when’s the last time we saw a blue interior (actually my old 2008 Civic Hybrid had blue and cream as well come to think of it but that’s the only thing it has in common with this)?
Colored interiors, bring them on! And it was lovely, RAM clearly has someone on staff that is head and shoulders above their counterparts at Ford and GM when it comes to colors, materials, textures and the relationship between the elements.
Still, it’s not all just pretty-ness. There are oodles of USB ports of various sizes, other types of plugs/ports, some of them are hidden in the consoles so the tech can be put away when parked, room for laptops in the center console, room for hanging files (it’s a work truck, alright), I’m surprised there isn’t a currency counting machine somewhere. But you could plug your own in, I suppose. There’s an outlet for that…
The MegaCab lets you recline the seats in the back and still has extra space behind the seats. The program engineer said he uses the space to hang his dry-cleaned suits back there in his truck while his kids’ seats are mounted on the rear bench. He was fancy, we would toss our muddy boots back there. This one had the “regular” Cummins TurboDiesel with “only” 850lb-ft of torque and also uses a 6-speed Aisin transmission (but not the same one as the 3500).
Again, stepping off was effortless, the power was smooth, the engine was quiet, I was relaxed and since this was the skinny version of the trucks almost felt svelte driving around the countryside’s narrow roads. Surprisingly the 2500 doesn’t cost that much less than the 3500 above, this one (MegaCab, remember) actually based at $65,700 (slightly more!) and ended up at $83,915 (just a skosh less). Again there was a Cummins upgrade for $9,100, the interior package for almost three grand, clearance lights for $95 (I guess it’s an option on this one and not required), and a few other minor bagatelles to get to the big number.
While both were HD RAMs they did feel different, hard to describe but the vibe was different, this one felt a bit more playful and frisky (all in the context of HD trucks of course, it’s not a Mini Cooper). This one could only (only…) tow about 19,000 pounds which would be plenty for me and my two annual bags o’ mulch. But I hear Mr. Shafer is breeding steers on his acreage now so…Anyway if you suspect you are in a market segment heavier than the 1500’s check out both the 2500 and the 3500, who knows which is better for you.
And then there was one left for me to finish up with. This is the red truck so by definition the best one, right? I don’t know…but anyway this was a fun one in that it was a 2500 CrewCab 4×4 in the most basic trim (the Tradesman) which they never show to people who like to write about such things BUT it had the PowerWagon option package.
So while it has a plain dashboard with hard materials (still styled like the others but more durably hose-it-down I suppose, zero blue leather) and only a small 5″ touchscreen and a base price of $39,850 which includes the 6.4liter HEMI gasoline V8, it also had the Power Wagon package for $7,995. Now, to me, Power Wagon is one of the all time great truck names and it doesn’t disappoint here.
That $7,995 gets you a Warn 12,000 pound capacity winch with synthetic rope, the 17×8 wheels with All Terrain tires, front disconnecting sway bar like a Rubicon Wrangler (via onboard button), Bilstein shocks all around, Hill Descent Control, various skid plates as well as Tru-Lok (electronically locking differential) front and rear axles as well as some other minor stuff. In addition this truck had some typical stuff like spray in bedliner, carpet and rear defroster (yeah that’s extra on the Tradesman) etc. The cloth seats use the same cloth that’s in the RAM 1500 Big Horn and if you’ve seen that you know it looks feels very nice without that crappy nylon-ish texture/sheen of many modern cloths.
If the 2500 Limited above was more playful than the 3500 Dually, well, then this one was the rambunctious puppy. With the Hemi churning out 410hp and 429lb-ft of torque, now mated to a Heavy Duty 8speed automatic it didn’t hang around for the mail either. It had plenty of giddy-up and it went, apparently it also has cylinder deactivation but I kept causing myself to see single digit numbers on the instant MPG readout so perhaps I never experienced that feature. Perhaps next time I shall focus on an economy program.
None of these trucks, while all Heavy Duty, felt anything like firmly sprung unloaded U-Haul trucks. Their suspensions, while firm and taut, were not crashy and the ride was generally very composed and confortable. It’d probably be worse on that section of I-80 in Northern Indiana with the frost heaves (you know the one) that almost caused me to lose my fillings a few years ago but here in Colorado on well-paved roads at least, not too shabby.
You all know I’m not the biggest truck expert by a long shot (very long shot) so if I missed something important here, I apologize. However I’m smart enough to know when I need something. Currently I don’t personally have a need for a Heavy Duty truck but should that ever change, this RAM lineup seems like something to seriously look at. Comfort, luxury, power, convenience, and capability, why not? Just be glad it’s available.
The red Power Wagon is the one. It’s missing the throwback Simon and Simon style PW blackout graphics but that’s an easy fix. I ld scrap those ugly flimsy chrome bumpers for something black, tubular and off-road ready, then get a matching bed bar with 4 round KC lights. A lift kit and some slot mags would round it out for a throwback style on a modern rig.
Those blinged out country Cadillacs with the 20” wheels and/or muted paintjobs…leave those for the rhinestone cowboys and the moneyed retirees hauling their campers. Not my style, never will be.
I liked the PW as well for what it was, a relatively basic truck with the money spent on the parts that really matter for taking it wherever and doing so for a long time. I missed the “Simon&Simon” graphics as well, that’s funny, you have to be a certain age I think to understand that!
The 3500 dually actually had a delete credit of $500 for forgoing the standard 20’s and an additional option price of $795 for the dually package with polished aluminum 17″ wheels all around shod with LT235/80-17’s all around including a 17″ spare, so a net upcharge of $295… Paint color was Granite Crystal which I believe is available on various FCA products across brands.
But as you obliquely alluded to, the range really is vast with massive differences in use cases from one end to the other.
This will be fairly short since I’m on my iPad on lunch break, and I will indeed write up the 2500 in more detail at some point. I started with a 2015 single cab, longbed Tradesman 5.7 and added wheels and tires, running boards, LED heads and tails, an aftermarket CarPlay head unit, tonneau cover with tie downs, and full width all-weather (and manure) floor mats. Later on, I had a gooseneck hitch installed. Finished it off with discrete Power Wagon badging, since the PW is on a slightly modified 2500 chassis anyway. The only thing I don’t have is the unlocking sway bar. I feel it’s more in the spirit of the original PW anyway.
I’ve done multiple 1700 mile trips in it while I was caring for my dad before he passed last year, and in fact, just got home from one last trip to deliver the full ledger marker for his grave. 1300 pounds of granite in the bed makes it ride smooooooth. Empty, it’s a pretty harsh ride, as it has the snow plow prep package that comes with uprated springs.
However… while it’s never broken down on me, it’s had more recalls than any other car I’ve owned. I’ll be taking it in for the 6th or 7th next week, in fact.
Guess this got longer than planned, so I’ll save some for a write up…
Yours is a good looking rig, Ed. Pretty old school and that’s how I like it. Owning just a condo townhouse, a 2500 is gross overkill for me, hell even my old 1500 was overcapable—but stupid fun being a lowered 2wd Hemi shortie.
I had about 3 recalls myself in just over 3 years. The airbags were legit, but the pinion gear retaining nut one was apre-emptive thing. I remember the service mgr telling me that failure rate was super low but that they were playing it safe. My attitude is, better to deal with aggressive recalls than actual failures.
Did yours have the closed center console that had a USB port in it and when folded up became the seatback for the middle seat? I saw a 2015 Ram single cab with this feature and I found that pretty cool as I could plug a flashdrive or iPOD in it and keep other things in it and then put the seat back up and nobody would know that stuff was hidden there.
My 2011 Colorado and 2010 Ranger lacked a center console and was a pain to hide stuff in it
Yes – it’s pretty handy. My son and his wife rode with me in the truck on one of our trips to my Dad’s (16 hours one-way), and he sat “on the hump” in the middle. Said it was actually quite comfortable!
S&S was a bit before my time…I was just a mischievous toddler in those days! But the pop culture references live on, and I’ll put it to you that you can’t have a love of Dodge trucks and stay unaware of that PW from the show. Hot Wheels even had a replica of it.
You’re absolutely right though. In the world of HD pickups, as much moaning and whining over the prevalence of bro-hamm trinkets, the back to basics versions are still very much available. They just have to be spec’d out, and still aren’t cheap.
Very interesting Jim, you don’t need the truck but the 10 gallon hat could be the right look for you.
1000 ft*lb is planetary levels of torque, Archimedes’ lever just got a lot shorter. (I think I’m mixing my metaphors here but you get the idea)
Sounds like it was a fun day
Thanks, it was. While I’ve been known to occasionally hit the local dealerships to bag random test drives to check stuff out, I don’t think I’d have ever sauntered up to the HD truck department and requested a drive, so this was an excellent and welcomed opportunity to check them out with competent people around to explain various things and answer questions.
I like the idea of a large hat if only to protect my thinning head of hair from sunburn but I think you have to be born into it. Otherwise I’d probably come off looking more like Chevy Chase with the giant sombrero in The Three Amigos.
Wow. I wonder if the good people at Cummins ever had the slightest inkling back in the late 80s that by linking up with Dodge they would eventually be part of a lineup outselling Chevrolet. For that matter, I doubt that Dodge people ever considered this possibility either.
And I imagine it would be possible to get much further away from the hard metal ride of those HD units from the 1960s Sweptline series. A heavy duty truck nicer than the Lincolns my father was driving in the 70s – this is a concept I am still coming to grips with.
Thanks for the writeup on these. I don’t foresee myself in the market for one any time soon, but I guess I am just a lottery-win and a horse farm away. 🙂
Nice writeup, Jim, looks like you had yourself an informative and entertaining day or two!
Impressive machinery, without a doubt. The line between personal transportation and industrial equipment blurs. HD is not my arena, but the 2500 Tradesman Power Wagon catches my eye more. Bit big for trail use, though, expect to mar that red paintwork with a bunch of clearcoat scratches. Oh well, $50K or no, that’s what it was bought for, right?
Turns out, truck buyers did want the fancy-pants soft-touch keister-coddling interiors that made the import luxury cars so easy to make fun of. They just wanted it in a cowboy theme 🙂
Thank you, it was a great day! I think the scratches are known as “Trail Pinstripes” and are a no-cost aftermarket option. From what I saw a couple of years ago with the previous PowerWagon at an off-road event the trail itself is merely a “suggested” route for it, it has a very different mission than the Ford Raptor for example, less high speed running and jumping across the desert and more of a brute force “get directly from over here to over there” approach (Not that it can’t go fast and catch air too.) It’s almost more of a supersized Jeep Gladiator Rubicon in concept.
Yes, I’ve installed the similar “Desert Pinstripe Package” on my 4Runner. The customization options are endless.
Cummins is the attractive feature of Ram utes, they look big if you’re used to driving cars but are substantially smaller than what I drive all day, fit a non syncro Eaton manual transmission to them and I’d be a definite fan, No I dont need one and at the eyewatering prices Rams command here I simply couldnt afford one,
PACCAR (Kenworth/Peterbilt/DAF) offers an engine called the PX-7. It’s a 6.7 liter inline-6, which IMO must be the very same Cummins engine as in the Ram.
Below a DAF LF 290 FA (so a 4×2 truck chassis) powered by said engine.
The double-cab dually full-fat Cummins jobbie in the article starts in tariff-free Australia at somewhere over $170K AUD, albeit converted to RHD here in Melbourne. They don’t have any role that they play in the US and are just for showboating. (I don’t know how the owners can be bothered – there’s just too many places where they simply can’t fit, on road or in parking spot).
It would be fun to have a fang with 1000nm on the go, but the question, Jim Klein, is how does one achieve this? That is, how do you occasionally get these test gigs?
Not to get too deep into it but I (and some of the other editors) began to realize a few years ago that CC is somewhat known these days and being part of it has helped us get some behind the scenes peeks/access at some museums and entry into auto shows etc. over the years.
I somehow got myself on a list somewhere and met a few people and after a lot of work some people are noticing that we tend to review things fairly, don’t sugarcoat stuff but also don’t unreasonably go off on negatives. We realize that not every vehicle should be looked at by one absolute standard and our commenters are usually intelligent, mature and offer well-reasoned commentary with the authors often jumping back in to clarify questions etc. And we keep politics out of it as much as possible. Our overall reach is larger than it can sometimes appear as many/most of our contributors and commenters are viewed as influential in their families and circle of acquaintances as “car people” and not just random teenagers in basements somewhere whose opinion isn’t often taken seriously but actually people that, while interested in older cars, also purchase new vehicles and/or even more frequently consider discuss them with others.
The biggest hurdle to overcome (along with some other, more boring but important administrative ones) has been the initial perception that we exclusively focus on really old cars (actual Classics, people miss the Curbside “pun” part) which really hasn’t ever been the case. While we certainly started out with covering interesting oddballs and survivors and very much still do we’ve often reviewed new cars as they became available as rentals, our own driveway contents, as well as industry trends both historical and current. We are seeing that often it’s a different set of commenters on different subjects which is interesting as well but makes sense. Also, the absolute number of comments is rarely directly related to the number of views of a given post. We’ve also attracted new commenters and contributors that used to read and comment on other sites a lot more than they seem to do nowadays from what I can tell so I think we are doing something right overall.
Anyway, I’m glad to get these opportunities and enjoy them tremendously and realize/understand there are a lot of people on the other side organizing events and creating vehicles as their career (and usually their passion as well) while spending a large amount of a company’s money to do so. While fun for me (and all of us), it’s still a big time commitment to attend events or even just take random pictures of a parked car and then write about them, the whole thing (CC) really is more of a passion project which I believe is a big part of the appeal to begin with and lets those who write insert or share their own worldview into things, rather than a “review” of something just being a random commodity item. I like the fact that many of you who read what I write know about what was in my automotive background (through my COALs) and believe it helps to flesh out my opinions more for you. That was a little longer than I intended but hope it answers your question (and someone yesterday had a similar question as well). Thanks!
Very interesting answer, and all power to yourself and any other editors for whom these opportunities arise, as there’re very much deserved.
Jim, a great couple of pieces (this and the Jeep). I’m having major deja vu here—where did they stage the event? The building and rock formations look very familiar to me.
Thank you. Morrison, CO, just a few miles from Red Rocks Amphitheatre at a well known restaurant just outside of town. I won’t name the restaurant here as I’m not sure if that’s kosher but I think you probably figured it out with the location info.
That’s a great summary of CC and the CC community, Jim.
Thanks for the detailed answer Jim, and thank you and Paul and all the other contributors for your great work here.
$119K in NZ from memory and thats the start price of the little one, 1000 ft lbs is nice but twice that is better in a real truck.
It’s worth noting that while a Mega Cab truck has a bigger cab, it’s still a shorter truck overall because it’s only available with the 6’4″ bed (the cab is 11″ longer, but the bed is 20″ shorter).
Pairing the DRW option with the Mega Cab/6’4″ config gives you quite a squat-looking truck, not unlike a bulldog.
Huh, I had a picture with this. Oh well. If you wanna see it, go to page 2 of the 2019 Ram HD brochure.
If all you need is a truck but had to choose one from the RAM stable, I would still prefer the ’94-’01 with the 5.2L V8 Magnum. That’s what my grandfather used for his chicken house business. His was a gray ’96 1500 Regular Cab Short Bed with a tow package, bed liner, 4WD, and not much else–but 90% of the time it was perfect for the job. The styling of these was done “right” in my view, later generations not so much (except maybe the outgoing model’s facelift). Despite now being 23 years old it is still on the road under ownership of one of my older cousins–he got it to replace his GMC K1500 Sierra after it got rear-ended by an inexperienced SUV driver (I know, right?). If you change the color & ditch the fancy wheels on the pictured model you basically have my (formerly) grandfather’s truck.
Some wonderful insight into the current state of HD trucks. There’s a good reason Dodge, uh, Ram is doing so well.
At lunch I saw a one-ton Ram pulling what appeared to be a 30 foot gooseneck trailer. It was comparable to what I’ve seen used to haul prebuilt toolsheds and such. Anyway, it got me to thinking about what having that 1,000 ft-lbs would be like when such a trailer was loaded. It definitely made the task sound less tiring, which is what it’s all about.
Jim, thanks for going. It sounds like it was quite the experience.
My truck is rated for 11,500 lb towing (single cab, longbed, 4×4, 3.73 rear axle). It has the 5.7 gasoline engine, which is rated at 383hp/400tq. While I’ve never towed near the limit, the load in the attached pic is probably ~1 ton on the bed and ~2.5 tons on the trailer (plus the weight of the trailer), for a total of maybe around 8,000lb.
The 5.7 pulls it just fine. Double the torque would be fun, but it’s not an absolute necessity.
The biggest complaint I have with the truck is the horrid shift point programming in the 6-speed automatic transmission. It really makes driving unpleasant if you’re in even slightly hilly terrain, as it’s constantly hunting and always a gear or two away from where it should be.
Thankfully, it has a “tow/haul” mode that holds gears longer and has a hill descent (engine braking) feature. I’ve taken to leaving it in this mode almost all the time, as it drives much more nicely and acts like an old 3-speed auto.
Definitely a nice truck. I realize it’s largely my own prejudice but I have much more respect for a regular cab pickup. I’m daily driving my first pickup, a RCSB ‘96 Ford, and it’s just right for me.
Anyway I just wanted to point out that leaving it in tow mode might burn a little extra gas but it most likely saves a lot of wear on the transmission. All that hunting around will eventually wear out the clutch packs. If it were my truck I’d look into getting the PCM reprogrammed; it made my old B-body 4L60E shift much nicer and makes those relatively fragile transmissions last longer as they are prone to the same hunting issue at certain speeds.
I like the ’08 Civic Hybrid’s version of blue-and-cream better – the cream color was mostly the seldom-touched interior plastics and the seats were a glorious deep-blue velour. Blue carpets too. If Hondas came a la carte like pickups do, I’d have been unable to resist a Civic Si with that interior.
Great review! While I could never imagine needing this type of vehicle personally, I see my fair share of HDs around here in Houston. When the annual rodeo happens in March, every possible subphylum of the HD world is represented. As well, deeply ingrained in my memory in the invasion of HD work trucks during the recovery from Ike and Harvey.
If I needed one of these beasts to do my job, I could see how one could go full-zoot with the options, especially if long distance driving is involved. That blue interior is remarkable.
This new Gen Ram is a gorgeous design. I could see how GM is being relegated to 3rd place. It’s only going to get worse with the new Ford coming out in the fall.
Amazing what unlimited amounts of money will get you these days.
For $39,850 the red one in Tradesman trim (without the $8k package) is more my style. That is a reasonable price in today’s dollars for a lot of capability.