2014 Ram 1500 Crew Cab EcoDiesel: Track Tested

Comments

• agentorange Member Posts: 893

  October 2013

  Which brain donor specified 20" wheels on a truck? Holy inertia, Batman. Four-wheel drive vehicles don't use 60 profile tyres, either. I know Dodge like to push the envelope on the rules of truck building, but this time they've gone too far. When you test one with 70 or 75 series boots and no bigger than 18" wheels, get back to us.

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• agentorange Member Posts: 893

  October 2013

  BTW, great mileage on your test loop.

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• darthbimmer Member Posts: 606

  October 2013

  26mpg highway in a fullsize pickup is awesome. But are buyers going to look at the 9+ second 0-60 time and say it's too slow? How was the "seat of the pants" feel with the 0-30 time... was there enough of a low-end kick for drivers to feel the truck gets going quickly?

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• emajor Member Posts: 332

  October 2013

  Wowsers, it's a bit slower than I would have thought and a lot slower than the gas V6. The fuel economy makes up for that, but then $3000 premium reminds me again that this is a slow expensive truck. It will be interesting to see how well these sell. This strikes me as a powertrain for people who actually need a truck for doing truck things.

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• shriker66 Member Posts: 7

  October 2013

  pretty underwhelming numbers. 6000 lbs.....this does not sound so great . This thing BETTER get phenomenal gas mileage .....no other good thing about this diesel .

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• cynic783 Member Posts: 30

  October 2013

  but it is so torque rich at low low RPM's who cares how slow the actual measured acceleration times are, it's got that awesome diesel torque!!!

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• greenpony Member Posts: 531

  October 2013

  A sub-10-second 0-60 really is good enough in today's driving environment. Buyers who want more power can always downgrade to the gas-powered engines. The real key here is the fuel economy, which would appear to be substantially greater than the V6's 20 mpg combined. (26 mpg on your test loop? Wow.) Combined with decent tow ratings. Still, if I was in the market for a pickup, I'd probably get the gas powered V6 and save a wad of cash.

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• desmolicious Member Posts: 671

  October 2013

  This motor/transmission combo will be great in the Wrangler.

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• quadricycle Member Posts: 827

  October 2013

  I don't need a pickup truck, but if I did this would be the one I would get. Based on my driving I would get my money back on the diesel premium in 3-5 years. That's the minimum amount of time I would keep the truck so that's all fine. Also, I assume that I would use said pickup for actual pickup-y things, like pulling and carrying heavy stuff, where having the low low rpm torque of a turbo-diesel would trump the higher placed power of the 5.7L. I think that this would make it more enjoyable to use, as well as resulting in better real-world mpg when actually using and driving like I would. Lastly, this would indeed be fantastic in the Wrangler. Completely agree with you there desmolicious!

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• billc11 Member Posts: 1

  October 2013

  What they always fail to mention when they talk up these diesels and their gas mileage is that any gain in mileage is offset by the additional cost of diesel fuel at the pump. Not to mention the cost of ownership is traditionally higher with the light duty diesel than with the gas engine.

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• 500rwhp Member Posts: 99

  October 2013

  0-60 in 9+ seconds is pretty slow. Ouch. Compared to an ecoboost which is under 7, that's an eternity. I get it....you get 2-3 more mpg than the ecoboost. Still....a heck of a tradeoff.

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• quadricycle Member Posts: 827

  October 2013

  @billc11: No, *some* gain is offset by the higher price, not all. In fact, feel free to head over to AAA's Daily Fuel Gauge Report to find out that gasoline is cheaper than diesel by 14% nationally. This 3L diesel (using somewhat conservative numbers) is

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