I realize my headline is blasphemy and could get me shot in at least 12 states south of the Mason-Dixon line, but I stand by it. The 2025 Ram 1500 hoists the 5.7-liter Hemi V8 that has decorated Ram 1500 engine bays for over two decades up and into the scrapyard, replacing it with a 3.0-liter twin-turbo inline-six. For Ram, the switch was done to improve emissions; when some customers hear that, they immediately cringe and think of so many examples throughout truck history when “improving emissions” resulted in a degraded driving experience. But that’s not the case this time, because this inline-six is legit.
There are lots of reasons why Ram ditched the V8 for a straight-six. The six is 90 pounds lighter, it’s got some cost-saving opportunities over a V-engine (there’s only one cylinder head, for example), it’s an inherently balanced engine layout, and it’s narrow enough to leave room for a set of turbos to fit between the frame rails. But the overarching theme, and the one that Stellantis came right out of the gate with during the media presentation in Austin earlier this week, is that this engine is all about efficiency.
[Full Disclosure: Ram flew me to Austin, put me up in a fancy hotel, and let me drive the new 2025 Ram 1500. At the hotel, I dusted a few hors d’Oeuvres and enjoyed some redfish and brussell sprouts; the next day I crushed some barbecue at a ridiculously fancy ranch/wedding venue. It was all probably far more expensive than anything my cheap-bastard-self would have paid for. -DT].
The engine is the same 3.0-liter “Hurricane” straight six that we’ve seen in the Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer, and according to Alan Falkowski, Global Chief Engineer for this family of engines, a key way it increases fuel economy and reduces emissions is through reduction in displacement. When you don’t need the turbos, you can drive along in what is essentially a 3.0-liter NA engine — nearly half the size of the old V8 (which used cylinder deactivation to try to effectively reduce displacement; of course, this then necessitated some active tuned mass dampers that were bolted to the frame — something the buttery smooth inline-six doesn’t need). When you need passing or towing power from the new Ram, you punch the throttle pedal, and the turbos hit to get that 3.0-liter up to 420 horsepower and 469 lb-ft of torque in “Standard Output” guise and up to 540 horsepower, 521 lb-ft of torque on “High Output” variants.
The New Engine
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It’s at this point that many truck owners are probably wondering if this means that the real-world fuel economy woes that Ford F-150 EcoBoost owners have been complaining about for years are going to make their way to Ram. ‘F-150 turbo engines seem to suck fuel pretty much as badly as V8s when they’re in boost,’ some might say. Falkowski addressed this, telling me that a major reason why EcoBoost engines perform so poorly fuel economy-wise when under boost is that they find themselves retarding spark to reduce engine knock.
“To make boosted engines efficient, you gotta suppress knock,” he told me. Among enablers that Ram uses on Hurricane engines, Falkowski tells me, are EGR, a Liquid Charge Air Cooler, and a small engine bore size.
The bore size thing, he told me, has to do with the fact that the flame – initiated from the spark plug – is able to effectively get to the perimeter of the cylinder, yielding healthy combustion and thus reduced knock. He also talked about the cooled exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) cooler, which sends cooled, inert exhaust gases into the combustion chamber. I recall being taught during my engineering days that this improves fuel economy by allowing a driver to have their throttle wide open in more conditions (because so much of the intake charge is inert gas, thus allowing for a wide open throttle even at low loads), thus reducing pumping losses.
But Falkowski says it actually has to do with reducing combustion temperatures. “We’re feeding water into the engine,” he told me, reminding me that water is a byproduct of any combustion reaction, and thus exists in exhaust gases. Water, he told me, absorbs a lot of heat, allowing an engine to run a high combustion ratio without knock.
Then there’s the liquid-cooled charge air cooler, or intercooler, which reduces air charge temperatures, also aiding in knock reduction. To understand how that works, we’ll need to take a closer look at the Ram 1500’s intake:
Air gets sucked through the air filter and into a duct on the passenger’s side of the truck. The air then travels across the front of the engine to the driver’s side.
Once on the driver’s side, the intake air is split:
Air then enters the two turbocharger compressor inlets:
The turbos are being spun up by the exhaust gases exiting the engine on the driver’s side. This exhaust spins a turbocharger turbine, which is on one side of a shaft, which has a compressor on the other side. That compressor squeezes the intake air that comes into the turbocharger axially, and sends that compressed (and thus hot) air out tangentially:
Here you can see where the intake air is sent out of the turbos, and up and over top of the engine back towards the passenger’s side:
Once back on the passenger’s side, the air enters plastic intake “runners” (as I’ve decided to call them), which feed a liquid-cooled charge air cooler (or intercooler):
That’s where that compressed (and thus hot) air enters the charge-air cooler, which has cold liquid coolant flowing through it:
After the LCAC (liquid charge air cooler), the air goes through a throttle body and into the intake manifold, and then into the engine:
The jury is out on whether these enablers (many of which Ford utilizes, as well) will actually give the Ram’s engine a fuel economy advantage over EcoBoosts, especially under load, or if this is all just some clever marketing, but it’s cool to see how the engine works, regardless.
The presentation showed a few slides that look at the innards of the motor; this slide discusses its aluminum closed-deck block, its forged crankshaft, and its cross-bolted main bearings:
Here’s a look at the cylinder head:
And here’s that liquid-cooled charge air cooler, which Stellantis says helps enable better response (less lag) over an air-to-air charge air cooler, which would require an even longer air path since the intake air would have to travel to the truck’s grille:
So that’s the story of the 3.0-liter Hurricane: It’s all about emissions. In fact, it’s so much about emissions that the Ram’s tow rating is actually down. “This engine was really meant for efficiency,” Ram said during the presentation. “There’s more heat rejection…it’s a slight decrease [in tow rating].” The current 5.7-liter Ram’s rating is 12,750; the new Ram 1500 can tow up to 11,580 pounds.
What Else Is New?
Ram breaks up the 1500 into three different buckets: Sport Truck, Core Truck, and EV. The Core includes the Tradesman, Bighorn/Lone Star, Laramie, Limited Longhorn, Limited, and Tungsten; the Sport Trucks include the Rebel and an upcoming off-road-focused RHO (which is expected to launch in Q3 of this year with the 540 horsepower high-output Hurricane engine); and the EV includes the fully-electric REV and the range-extended plug-in hybrid Ramcharger.
This press event that I attended didn’t include much discussion of the RHO or the EVs, focusing only on the core trucks and the Rebel, but placing the most emphasis on the new “Tungsten” trim. Ram found that there’s still unmet demand at the high-end of the pickup truck market, beyond the current top-dog Limited trim, and so the Tungsten will become the most expensive standard 1500 truck at $87,000.
It comes with lots of standard features, including massaging heated and vented 24-way power seats, a new power tailgate, LED lighting all around, a special RAM badge, special interior trim, a suede headliner, a “Klipsch” 23-speaker audio system, dual wireless chargers, a standard sunroof, standard surround-view camera, various safety systems like drowsy driver detection and traffic sign recognition, standard body-color front bumper, and more.
All new Rams have bigger grilles than before, and various interior and exterior styling changes distinguish the 2025 from the outgoing truck. There’s an “improved” 12-inch touchscreen, a new available 14.5-inch touchscreen, an available 10.25-inch passenger touchscreen, a new driver footrest, an additional 3.55 axle ratio to join the 3.21 and 3.92, an available power tailgate, Active Driving Assist “Level 2” automated driving and “Level 2+ hands-free driving, and a new “Advanced ‘Atlantis’ electrical architecture” that promises faster touchscreen response times.
Here’s the outgoing truck in Limited guise:
And here’s what the new top trim, Tungsten, looks like (notice that the grille badge is on the “chest” of the grille, not centered):
Here’s a look at the 2024 Limited interior:
And here’s the new Tungsten cabin:
The truth is that the changes to the truck are fairly subtle to the layperson; the big thing is the new engine, a new top-dog trim, some new luxury options, and some styling tweaks here and there. This is still the same “DT” platform as before, the sole transmission is still an eight-speed automatic, and in fact, the Pentastar V6 remains as a base engine option.
What’s It Like To Drive
I started my drive by hopping into the black Tungsten trim shown above next to the white truck, and I’m glad, because the cruise to the lunch spot (where Ram had set up an off-road course) was quite long.
I don’t know what I can say about the comfort of this truck that’s going to be particularly profound, because the outgoing truck — with its multi-link coil suspension (or available air suspension, like this truck had) and gorgeous interior — was already a smooth-riding penthouse on wheels, but I’ll just say that the Tungsten Ram 1500 that I drove was baller. There’s really no other way to put it. I mean, look at this thing:
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The massaging seats, the big 14.5-inch touchscreen, the huge sunroof, that buttery ride — it’s a true luxury truck, and it made the long drive feel effortless. The “Hands-free Driving Assist,” which Ram calls “Level 2.5” automated driving, worked reasonably well. You just set the adaptive cruise control, and the vehicle will let you know if you’re on a road for which the truck can offer a hands-free experience.
A green light means you can take your hands off the wheel, and I did just that. I did notice that the truck wasn’t the best at staying perfectly centered in the lane (it bounced left to right a bit), so there’s still room for improvement, but it was nice to just sit there and look ahead, without having to think too much.
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But just because I didn’t have to think too much, I did have to pay attention; you can see that sensor there just ahead of the steering wheel – the Ram is watching you! And if you don’t pay attention, it will know:
The 14.5-inch screen worked great, and I have to hand it to RAM for keeping physical HVAC/volume controls to the left and right of that screen:
Just below the screen are two wireless charging spots that hold the phones upright. Those are just ahead of a giant center console that includes a sliding cupholder/storage tray:
I’m glad Ram has kept its dash-mounted rotary-dial shifter; modern automatic transmissions are electronically shifted anyway, so who are we kidding with the big lever-style shifters? Just move the shifter out of the way, and you can offer loads of storage like Ram did here.
Honestly, overall, Ram does a great job with storage. Those rear seats fold up yielding a huge flat floor for bigger items; the Ram Box is huge, fitting both of my carry-on bags; there’s the aforementioned center console; there are little pouches on the backs of the bucket seats; there are storage areas in all four doors; and there’s a glovebox. But only one. And that brings me to a lowpoint: The 10.25-inch passenger-screen that’s standard on high trim level Rams is wack.
Ram describes the point of this screen in its press release, writing:
New segment-first 10.25-inch passenger screen with three major functions: co-pilot (navigation, device management), entertainment (via HDMI) and the ability to view the exterior vehicle cameras
Let’s be real, though: The main advantage of this screen to a passenger is entertainment, but nobody is going to be plugging in via HDMI — that’s ridiculous. Without Bluetooth functionality, this is just silly, and honestly, this doesn’t seem like much of an advantage over just looking at your phone.
If I were buying a Ram, I’d buy one without this feature so I could have this second glovebox:
Or, on lower trims, this little storage ledge:
That passenger screen and a few fit and finish imperfections (see below) are pretty much the only complaints I have about an otherwise fantastic interior:
As for the engine replacing the legendary Hemi, I like it. I recognize that there are going to be concerns about serviceability given that this engine is more complex than the outgoing V8, and given that it’s new, meaning parts/expertise just aren’t there yet. But there seems to be a good amount of room in the engine bay to work on the thing, and as far as outright performance, it’s so good that it has me not really missing that old Hemi.
The Hemi sounds better, to be sure, but the straight-six doesn’t sound bad. It’s not like a wheezy, whiny four-cylinder or V6. It sounds OK; neutral, I’d say. And as far as performance goes, the new straight-six gets it done.
I love the old Hemi, yes, but I don’t miss it, because when boost hits on this inline-six, the thing moves with fury. Like, it’s an event. The Tungsten I drove comes standard with the High Output (HO) engine making 540 horsepower, so it probably goes without saying that this thing moves. Here’s a clip of the first time I punched it in that white Tungsten:
At least in the drive mode that I was in, I found that it takes a second or so for the transmission to downshift and for the boost to build, but once that happens, WHACK! It’s like a freight train hits the truck from behind and shoves it forward with vigor.
I later hopped into a base-model “Tradesman” truck with the Standard Output, 420 horsepower version of that engine (total price was $57,000, though you can get a 4×2 Tradesman Quad-Cab for just over $42,000, or $45,000 if you want the straight-six), and I found that, too, to be more than powerful enough.
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Speaking of that base-model truck, how about that split bench seat? Ram continuing to offer that in 2025 is something worth applauding:
A split bench seat and a straight six? What is this, 1985? I’m a fan,
I also had a chance to take a few 2025 Ram Rebels off-road, and they did great. I won’t spend a ton of time talking about off-roading, because the truth is that, especially at low speeds in low range, the differences in performance between the outgoing Hemi and the new straight-six are imperceivable (dune driving, where you’re often at wide-open throttle, is where you’d be able to see the biggest difference, I bet).
In any case, as before, the new Ram is limited by its geometry. With air suspension jacked all the way up, it’s got a respectable 10.3 inches of ground clearance, though its overall size, its 23-degree approach and departure angles, and its sub-20-degree breakover angle limit its capability.
Still, one can have fun off-road; that 2.64 low range ratio in the transfer case, the 3.92 axle ratio, and the 4.71 first gear ratio all yield a great crawl ratio of nearly 50. That, combined with great Goodyear Wrangler 35-inch all-terrain tires and a great locking differential that activates seemingly instantly means the truck will go damn near anywhere you can get that front chin up and over. I had a great time.
I also got to tow a ~7,000 pound airstream, but given how flat and low-speed the roads were in that part of rural Texas, and how moderate the temperatures were, I wasn’t really able to learn much about the truck’s performance other than that: On 45 mph roads, the truck gets the job done; it never felt underpowered.
The screen read 11.3 MPG over the prior 30 miles, which had all involved towing. Obviously, that figure is hardly representative given that I have no clue how the prior person in the truck had actually driven the machine, and also given how few miles were involved. Still, that doesn’t sound far off; it’ll be interesting to see what it does on the highway while yanking a trailer.
Verdict
The 2025 Ram 1500 is a refreshed version of the outgoing truck. Sure, there’s a new fancy trim level, some styling tweaks, and some new high-end options, plus the engine changed dramatically, but the overall experience feels familiar. The truck is still powerful and luxurious, and it still looks handsome.
Real-world fuel economy and reliability/serviceability will ultimately decide how great of a truck this is, but from my standpoint, the straight-six is a good Hemi replacement. It’s an emissions play from Stellantis, but one that yields nice power behind the wheel of a truck that can pretty much do it all. It’s a workhorse, it’s a luxury car, it’s an off-roader; it’s also not cheap.
Thank god they kept the physical HVAC controls. I wish they were knobs, but I’ll take what I can get. I used to be in the MEH camp about physical controls, but then after a number of rentals, I am fully in the physical controls are best camp for HVAC and most other comfort controls. I don’t want people staring at screens to change their heating etc.
I miss the 8 inch screen layout. It had knobs for all the things you should have knobs for, and an 8 inch screen is plenty large enough for anything you should be doing in a vehicle.
Yeah, I don’t want or need that huge vertical screen with it’s glossy glass. I like my matte screen way more.
How long before we see someone in Ram’s marketing try to equivocate the Hurricane I6 with a Cummins?
Why wouldn’t you? Dodge has a powerful association with straight sixes and turbos because of the Cummins. In their shoes I would very much make play on associating them together.
If I ever needed to replace/upgrade my Ridgeline, this would be a consideration… assuming serviceability and reliability are reasonable. The Rambox is about the same size (if a different orientation and shape) as the under bed trunk and far better than the silly little storage pocket the Canyon/Colorado has in the tailgate. Coil and air suspension make for a smoother ride than the other BOF trucks. I just can’t trust Ram to do this powertrain reliably at jump.
As a former ridgeline owner who went to a Sierra AT4X, don’t do what I did. Many problems with the AT4X, Honda essentially no issues besides recalls.
Test drove a 23 Ram Laramie hemi, nice truck – and the whole giant center screen kept freezing on my test drive…
Before I bought the Ridgeline, I was considering a Silverado RST or a Canyon Denali. The half ton won’t fit in my garage and my wife said she’d never drive the Canyon, so I went Ridgeline. It’s been trouble free for 2 years and her Fit has been trouble free for 6. I see no reason to leave the Honda family any time soon unless I need to upgrade my towing capacity.
What kind of trouble was the Sierra?
My Sierra fits in my garage, just barely tho. In month one I had it go into limp mode from a bad egr harness, new battery, radio kept dropping sound, nav freezes randomly; spent first month of ownership in dealer. Last few months better but.. I just don’t trust it anymore.
Holy cow, that’s a lot. I’ve had good luck with both GM products I’ve owned so far (Pontiac G8, Buick Regal TourX). At least GM dealers tend to offer loaners…
Yeah it was quite a thing, yeah loaners helped a lot. It’s funny my 21 Camaro ZL1 basically had had two issues, one was a new seat bolster and a new battery (both under warranty), no issues otherwise.. funny I figured the truck would be good and Camaro the problem car, oh well
I like inline engines with boost… but this looks like 10lbs of crap in a 5lb bag. It seems impressive but after looking at it; it also seems really obnoxious to work on.
Meanwhile, my ancient Audi 20v I5 turbo is super really easy to work on. Why can’t modern engines be easy to work on? They’ll all need work eventually.
This is weirdly right up my alley. I’m getting to the point in adult life that having a truck would be increasingly more helpful. Rams have always run deep in my family, 1500s, HDs, even an SRT-10. They’ve all been great. Except my dad’s current beater… 20 year old, 5.7 1500, which is the worst vehicle I’ve ever had the displeasure of driving.
I’m a sucker for nice and overpriced things, so that Tungsten trim is right up my alley. Like V10omous said, though, I’d prefer it with a long bed. I’d use it for truck stuff, but it wouldn’t leave the road, so I’d prefer to be as comfy as possible and have as much utility as possible.
I also really appreciate that Ram hasn’t gone down the GM rabbit hole of ‘make it as angry as possible’. I prefer the look of the pre-facelift, but it’s still a handsome truck.
Now they just need to add a small battery and electric motor to the HO motor, and let you get the Tungsten as a longboi…
A small battery and electric motor should be a given on practically every car, but especially on trucks. Even if it didn’t have the power to move the vehicle in EV-mode, it would help flatten the torque curve, add regenerative braking, and reduce the inefficiency to stop/go traffic.
The eTorque is still on the NA Pentastar I think.
Did the Ram reps explain the benefits of two turbos vs a single dual-scroll turbo? Any commenters that address this? Am I imagining things or doesn’t BMW use a single twin-scroll on its I6’s. Or this really more of a I4 thing?
Hard to tell in the pics, but they look like different size turbos. My guess is it’s a sequential system using the smaller turbo for low RPM quick spool and switching over to the larger for high RPM power.
Cynically, this engine looks to me to be a ‘greatest hits’ of technology packages that tier 1 suppliers have been pitching to OEM’s for years – the twin sequential turbos thing is a Borg Warner thing, the dual loop cooling for the intercooler is a Behr/Mahle thing… I’m sure there’s more if I cared to squint.
Is it just me or does this have strong hints of German engineering with Stellantis execution?
I agree. I have strong suspicions that Stellantis outsourced a large part, if not all, of this engine’s design to FEV, a large engineering consultant company from Aachen, Germany.
The are matching turbos, and the slides pictured state that they are for spooling faster than a single large.
Ah yeah I missed that slide. It does imply a parallel setup, not sequential.
David explicitly said each turbo is fed by three cylinders, indicating a parallel setup.
Which is why I wonder which is better. A single dual-scroll (from what I understand) is like a sequential twin-turbo in a single housing, acting like a small turbo under light load and opening up under heavy load.
We need an article devoted to the new driver footrest
I’ll leave the comments on engine architure to the more smarter people. I’m writing to you once again to ask for enlarged pop-up images on desktop. Yes I know I can open in a new tab but dammit, I’m a Cloth man and I deserve better! Even those lowly mobile users get a tap-to-enlarge feature.
Also, I legitimately laughed at spending $87k on a Ram. I know people will but I can’t fathom it.
The $87k number is a big one but that’s just the cost of a loaded full size truck now. What made you laugh?
Maybe my view of them is outdated but I still don’t associate any Chrysler brands with the quality you expect paying the better part of 6 figures.
I like straight 6s in general (praised be the Roundel) and the Hurricane looks fantastic on paper…but I just do not trust Stellantis to mass produce an engine like that that’s overstressed from the factory. It’s pretty high strung in its base configuration, and in the HO guise with nearly 200 horsepower per liter stock?
(Bad NY accent) Fouggetaboudit. Maybe I’d lease one but you just know there are going to be a lot of growing pains as they roll the engine out. And this begs the question I’ve always asked…I’m conscious of my carbon footprint and care about the environment, but is mass producing super high strung, smaller engines actually better than just keeping the bombproof, under-stressed, NA V8 in them?
It gives you a small emissions advantage and a minuscule fuel economy advantage…but if it’s going to be way more parts and labor intensive to keep running and negatively effect longevity, is it even a net positive?
I don’t think you understand the word stress. There’s a very simple way to maintain stress when force is increased…
So when does a V12 version of this engine become available? Let’s hope that when it does, it’s attached to a brand new version of the Viper. Hello, Stellantis, are you listening? 12 cyls and 4 turbos would make for absolute madness – I see no reason why this couldn’t be done, and you’d be looking at possibly 1000 bhp. In fact, I’ll sweeten the deal here… have a button on the dash with a ghostbusters logo, but instead of a ghost in the red slashed circle, there’s a picture of a nanny there – one button to shut all of that shit off.
As for me? I’ll stick with the Asian brands (momma didn’t raise no fool!), but hey, this is really a great opportunity to just end the horsepower wars by going out with a bang.
Go ahead and build that car, just call it something else.
Name and avatar checks out…. duly noted!
Sign me right the fuck up. Cram it into a completely base spec trim of the new Charger. (Ivan Drago voice) If we die we die.
V12? Pfft.
W18
I want to see a Hurricane version of the Chrysler multibank tank engine from WWII. They took 5 complete I6 engines and arranged them around a single shaft to create a 30 cylinder monster. Ironically the US Army wanted nothing to do with it because they thought it would be a nightmare to maintain, but the British received them in Lend-Lease Shermans and loved them. The individual I6 was so reliable that they didn’t find having 5 distributors, 5 fuel pumps, etc to be a problem.
I’m psychologically prepared for the insanity of a “Category 4 Hurricane TetraTurbo V12.” How cool/badass/stupid would that be?
Put it in a Viper?! There’s a perfectly good supercar idea Chrysler had back in the 2000’s that’d be great for this kind’ve V12….
Either your rights and lefts are screwed up in your article or you reversed the pictures.
“reason why EcoBoost engines perform so poorly fuel economy-wise when under boost is that they find themselves retarding spark to reduce engine knock”
It’s either that or run premium I guess? I babied the Flex’s I had with it and liked it in that application, both power and mileage. Have a Transit now and like it even more.The Ram solution is maybe better, sure seems like a lot of piping/tubes. With water/coolant in them. Maybe good to avoid this first year new tech and see how it holds up. I’d like to know why they did this instead of a traditional inner cooler before the turbos. I guess it wouldn’t yield the same results?
water-ish injection has been used in other turbo applications, so there is lot going on here.
I’ve had a Hemi before and they’re fine. Although mine in particular had issues with lifter noise and exhaust leaks. If I got a Ram now, it would probably come equipped with the Pentastar. They have the gearing dialed in so well with the drivetrain that all of the usable power comes early and steadily. It’s a good drivetrain.
I’ve heard some folks say that the Hurricane HO in the Grand Wagoneer seems high-strung to move that curb weight. I’m guessing the new Ram is going to be at least somewhat lighter, but I’m curious what your impressions were in that regard, David.
I wouldn’t want to be the first kid on the block with one of these – as you mentioned, these seem to be a lot more complex than the V8, and I wonder about reliability as these get stressed. Let’s see how they hold up in the real world for a few years.
It’s Stellantis, so you’ll definitely get the chance to see what it looks like 16 years from now!
As a jeep guy, I am ok with the strait 6. Jeep Strait 6s have been a good thing since like 70+ years ago and the hurricane name was involved. .
Don’t miss the HEMI DT?
In my hood bullets are expensive…They will most likely just chain you to the back bumper and drag your ass down the street. Til you beg for mercy. Not a joke.
And I live in a decent hood…Be careful is all I can say.
And I expect the take rate on the Hurricane will be low here.
“Hurricane you say? We don’t take kindly to Hurricanes down here..”
I suspect that, just like Ford’s EcoBoost motors, the Hurricane will underdeliver on the gas mileage promised in EPA testing. Carefully keeping the engine out of boost as much as possible is just not how most people drive in the real world. I might drive that way because I’m a tightwad but I don’t expect everyone to do that.
*In theory* it sounds like they won’t tank fuel economy when it gets on boost like Ecoboost. Not needing to run a richer fuel mixture to avoid knock would help. Of course, that’s all in theory. I want to see some real world numbers before I get too excited.
It’s wild you can get a truck from factory running almost 2 bar of boost. That use to be “blow up your SR20 on a dyno pull” numbers. The N54 had like 8psi, the RB26 had 11 psi. And this French truck is like, “sure 28 psi no problem, plus warranty, don’t worry about it.”
I love the idea of calling the Ram a French truck. That’ll irk the red-hats that seem drawn to Ram even more so than the other makes.
Ramme Le Truque 1500
Le Mouton Tungstène
Le Mouton Tungstene Edition
When this first came out in 2019, people called it the Italian truck, now it’s French?!
Guess the next one will be Chinese then.
If were going to be specific Stellantis is based in Amsterdam, so technically a Dutch truck.
I have a 2021 and would gladly upgrade to the new engine, but I’m keeping my truck for many more years and holding out for the PHEV.
Does this still have the E-torque?
Does the payload go up with the lighter engine? That was always the limiting factor with the Ram towing capability. I also have a 23′ Airstream that I tow with mine and it does great, especially with the air suspension, but the payload rating is only like 1200 pounds, so by the time I have 600 pounds of trailer on the hitch, I can’t really put much in the truck (passengers or stuff).
The interior was a main reason I picked the RAM back in 2021. It hasn’t changed much since then, but having lived with it for nearly 3 years, I have no complaints other than the heated seats and wheel being in the screen only. It’s still a very nice place to be.
400+ hp out of 180ish ci.
I remember, for so long, people asking me why I kept the I6 in my ’67 Mustang, or in my F150. Power is possible, you just have to know what you’re doing and not be afraid of pushing more air into the things.
Old Ford sixes are as tough as anything too
I absolutely love that Tungsten interior.
I realize I’m in the extreme minority who wish you could pair it with a long bed.
I bet the trim will move up to the HD’s soon.
Probably correct, but the HDs have a older, smaller cab and outdated powertrains. They have been due for a full revamp for a while.
You’ve got at least one more in the minority. Besides the fact that crew cab short bed trucks just have goofy looking proportions, I use the truck bed quite regularly and will not sacrifice utility for a short bed. My online configurating stops at the trim level that only allows short beds.
This truck should make dummy power with a tune and appropriate octane fuel.
However, if the split bench is available with a sunroof on any of the EV variants, that’s the one I’m getting.
Kind of a bad omen there, allowing a press car to have such an obvious trim panel flub pass muster. It instantly makes the whole idea of owning one a no-go. Even if it was on a bare-bones stock version that’s a bad look, but on a fancy one? Yikes.
Don’t worry, as a Mopar guy, I can tell you that’s just part of the experience. You get
Stockholm Syndromeused to it.I’m definitely a fan of both this straight six, and the one in the Mazda CX-90. Going away from v-engines isn’t losing something, although many people still see it that way. The reason, is that we understand combustion physics so much better now, that we don’t need that many cylinders to optimize getting fuel from its potential energy state to kinetic energy in the transmission. Adding various forms of forced induction, and using electromechanical assist by integral electric motors, has created huge opportunities to tailor engine output to exactly meet the driver’s needs, without wasting energy on the obligatory parasitic losses of more cubes.
As one of them, I think most of the mourning is over the simplicity of an OHV V8 and auditory experience of the crossplane V8 crank. Outside those two specific items, I’m fully behind the I6TT move.
I’m curious to see how these hold up long term. The Ford Ecoboost engines are a joy to drive, but I wouldn’t want to own one for 18 years like I’ve owned my ’06 Sierra. My wallet wouldn’t survive that.