Long-Term Road Test Intro
Current Mileage/Months in Fleet: 12,089 miles/4 months
Average Fuel Economy/Range: 13 mpg/432 miles
Service: $75
Normal Wear: $0
Repair: $0
Damage and Destruction: $1847
We’re a little late with this introduction, although regular readers may recognize this big Ram crew cab as the winner of a three-way, all-Detroit pickup comparison test earlier this year. To be accurate, this isn’t quite the same truck as the one that prevailed down in Texas. That one was the top-of-the-line Laramie version, with a base price of $44,935 and an as-tested price of $48,965. It was tops in that test. This one is the SLT trim level, which starts at $36,000, and has been optioned up to within a few hundred bucks of the Laramie in the comparo.
Not only is that SLT base price much easier to live with, but we also can’t imagine that an owner of such a truck is going to feel even slightly deprived. You don’t get the superb needlework that distinguishes the leather surfaces in the Laramie, but you do get leather seats, which are perforated and cooled, too. Other civilizing goodies include automatic climate control, satellite radio (playing through a very good sound system), power everything, shift-on-the-fly four-wheel drive, Hemi V-8 power, and those clever Ram Box storage bins that flank the cargo bed.
The Hemi Habit
We’re impressed with this truck’s structure, build quality, styling, comfort, and nifty storage features. But it’s that big ol’ Hemi V-8 that’s the winning element in this big boy’s personality. Whooma! Power for sorting traffic. Power for hauling assorted stuff, and lots of it. Power for towing the various vehicles that provide weekend entertainment for several C/D staffers
And there’s the supple ride quality, too. Dodge ignored the traditional full-size-pickup rear-suspension rulebook with the Ram’s last makeover, forsaking leaf springs for a coil-spring setup that does an excellent job of smoothing out lumpy surfaces and is particularly effective off pavement. Even so, the Ram will tow a maximum 10,450 pounds, which is competitive with Ford and Chevy’s leaf-sprung offerings. (Our long-termer, owing partly to its 3.55 rear axle and 20-inch wheels, is limited to 7400 pounds.)
Dodge is betting that the combination of smooth ride and a 390-hp Hemi V-8—capable of hustling 5680 pounds of he-man truck to 60 mph in 6.7 seconds—will be a winning parlay. It has certainly won with us, at least so far.
Bumps and Grinds
However, it would be hard to perceive love in some of the abuse we’ve given this Ram so far.
Two incidents stand out in this regard. The first, at about 5300 miles, involved the Ram’s rear window. If you happened to be passing through Lexington, Ohio, in the early morning last May 31 and saw a shiny new Ram in a gas station with a guy standing in the bed resolutely kicking in the center of the rear window, that was your humble narrator. He was on his way to the nearby Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course for his first SCCA race of the season, and in the course of a routine refueling stop, the Ram had locked itself up with the keys in the center console well.
Apparently, his passenger, better known as his wife, brushed the lock button with her elbow when she disembarked for a visit to the station’s loo. With a half-hour before it was time to be on the starting grid, five miles distant, there wasn’t any time for finesse. We’d hoped to be able to slither into the cab via the absent window but were stymied by the center headrest, which resisted all attempts at removal.
Eventually, your narrator abandoned the rig in the station, catching a ride out to the track with another customer. He left his wife to deal with the Ram. She resolved the dilemma by enlisting the help of the Lexington Police Department. The keys were soon fished out, and the Ram was back on the road, its interior littered with about a million pieces of crumbled glass.
It was obviously not a warranty item: $764, please.
Three weeks and some 1300 miles later, we arrived at beautiful Road America, in Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin, for the SCCA’s annual June Sprints race weekend and were horrified to see that the tailgate had suffered a very nasty ding in the middle of its upper edge. To accommodate three sets of spare wheels, we’d used the bed extender, so the tailgate was down, and at some point apparently bounced—hard—off the screw jack mounted on the trailer tongue.
Since the damage was bad enough to keep it from reopening once shut, we replaced the tailgate: $922. Oy!
A Smooth Operator
Aside from these incidents, which are pretty hard to blame on Dodge, it’s been smooth sailing so far with this Ram. The logbook is full of praises for the truck’s ride quality, general comfort, storage features, and, of course, power, enhanced by the muted basso rumble of the Hemi.
The only demerits that have turned up to date are for its straight-line tracking, which seems to require constant tiny corrections to maintain; overly sensitive touch-screen secondary controls, particularly those related to the radio; and so-so fuel economy. The EPA rates this rig for 13 mpg city and 18 mpg highway. To date, we’ve averaged just over 13 mpg in a driving diet that’s included very little real city use, although there’s been a fair amount of towing.
One other nonwarranty item that occurred at 2903 miles was a slash in the sidewall of the right rear tire. We don’t know how this injury was inflicted. It looked like a close encounter with a sharp rock. We replaced the damaged skin at Tire Rack for $161.
Aside from that, we’ve had one routine service visit, at 6585 miles, for an oil and filter change plus tire rotation: $75.
We look forward to the miles ahead.
