Too Much Truck for Me - 2014 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel Long-Term Road Test

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Too Much Truck for Me - 2014 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel Long-Term Road Test

Our 2014 Ram 1500 test truck offers a comfortable, smooth ride. But that doesn't mean it drives quite like a midsize sedan.

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longtimelurker

Um, not clear on what the actual difficulty was. Are you saying that the accelerator pedal was hard to press - ? I don't think I have heard a similar criticism of this vehicle over the 40,000+ miles they're had it. I don't think vehicles that weigh more take more muscle at the go pedal, if that is the inference here - ?

nuieve

He probably meant driving a Buckingham palace on wheels is more difficult than a normal car.

handbrake

nuieve said:

He probably meant driving a Buckingham palace on wheels is more difficult than a normal car.

I'm pretty sure Kelly is a she. But I'm sure you're right about what was meant.

longtimelurker

handbrake said:

nuieve said:

He probably meant driving a Buckingham palace on wheels is more difficult than a normal car.

I'm pretty sure Kelly is a she. But I'm sure you're right about what was meant.

I guess that's what was meant, but...fatigued right leg? From what? I had not heard anything about a strong throttle return spring or hard brake pedal in this vehicle - is that true?

daryleason

My first thought about the gas pedal comment was "Why didn't she use the Cruise Control?" But normally if your leg is sore from holding the gas pedal down, it's because you don't have the seat properly adjusted. She's either having to extend her leg out too far or she's too close and is having to bend it back. However, this did get me to thinking...I wonder if anyone has ever done a study to see how many calories you burn per mile driving a car? Obviously, a manual will give you a greater workout than an automatic and Highway Driving won't be near as high as in-town stop and go traffic.

As for the difficulty of driving, considering today's power-everything vehicles, it can't be any more physically exerting to drive a large vehicle as a small one. I can see some apprehension if the driver is used to smaller vehicles and feels disconcerted about the size difference.

PF_Flyer

I'm sure you burn more calories driving than if you were just sitting at rest, but I know it's not as much as sitting in a small boat all day keeping yourself level as it rocks

When I find myself driving a larger vehicle, it's never so much about needing more oomph to do anything, but discovering where the edges of the vehicle are for things like backing up, parallel parking, etc. back up until it clunks might have worked when bumpers were bumpers, but not so much now

g35buf

My wife considers our 2015 RAM EcoDiesel to semi-truck like to drive...but not sure it requires much extra attention or effort to drive. I've put 5k miles on mine since mid August..it is such an effortless, highway trip vehicle with great seats that you need to make sure you don't get TOO relaxed. Like a lot of current full sized trucks: There just aren't many better road trip vehicles.

rod_r

I am not understanding this at all. I recently purchased a 2016 Ram Laramie Longhorn crew cab 4wd with the diesel. It is one of the easiest vehicles to drive that I have ever experienced. I also owned a 2013 Ram 1500 with the hemi and it was not at all demanding to drive. I can see that the size may bother some people the first couple of times they drive it. This is typical of all the full sized half-ton trucks these days so not really a valid criticism. Mine has adjustable pedals and the throttle effort is not at all high. Mine has rain sensing wipers and auto high beams and such so it could not be much easier to drive unless it was autonomous. I wish it had radar cruise control but outside of that I can't imagine how it could be any easier. As mentioned many times in the course of this long-term review the Ram 1500 with the diesel is a great road trip vehicle. Hard to believe something this size gets this kind of fuel economy. It almost seems to good to be true. But it is true. In mixed driving for my first thousand miles I got 25.1 mpg. Since then in only city driving with heavy traffic it has gotten 21.8. I only have a bit over 1300 miles on the truck but so far it has far exceeded my expectations. Great truck.