Ram truck a no-go

So, from my previous post I was looking closely at the crazy price cutting that a local dodge dealer (Towbin Dodge) was doing on all Dodge RAM trucks.

Since my wife would be driving the truck from time to time (she actually enjoys driving bigger vehicles) she came down with me to the dealer for the drive.

We picked out a few likely candidates for a test drive:
• 2008 RAM 3500 HD MegaCab 4X4 Laramie (target vehicle)
• 2008 RAM 1500 STLT 'Bighorn' Quad Cab 4X4 with the 5.7L Hemi
• 2008 RAM 1500 Laramie MegaCab 4X4 with the 5.7L Hemi

The two Hemi-drive vehicles were for comparison, and, as it turns out, were a good idea to test.

First time out in one of the new Megacabs (read: MEGA) in the 3500HD and I was pretty happy overall. Interior-wise it was head and shoulders above my 7.3L Ford F350HD Quad cab, however, that truck is many years old and from what would be a lower trim level than the newer RAM. The leather was a nice touch, and fittings were okay.

The Cummins diesel was quieter than the old Ford's 7.3L, but that was to be expected. The 'butt dyno' felt like it had a smoother pull, but lacking a bit of power compared to my old Ford (mind you, I have a Banks performance kit on the F350HD so this comparison is, well, not balanced either).

Ride quality on the stock suspension was acceptable, above that of my F350HD, but again, I have the Ford lifted quite a bit on a Skyjacker lift. Turning and cornering were a bit of a chore, but this is one seriously long truck. Not sure if the turning ratio is higher on this truck, but it seemed to take more of a circle to do a U-turn than my F350HD.

Now it was the wife's turn and things started to go wrong.
- She doesn't like the driver's bucket
- She can't see where the front end of the truck is. Okay, I'll go with that. The Dodge hood is harder than hell to see where your front end is, particularly compared to my F350HD
- Its too low (okay, I can fix that!)
- Its turns 'too slow' (translation: It wallows through a turn like a pig and makes a bigger circle)
- The breaks suck (yeah, I've got a break pkg on my Ford)
- Its too long (sigh)
- Its ugly (okay, there's not a lot I can do about that damn ugly front end...but I'm not buying it to be pretty...)

What did she like?
- The MEGA CAB. Yeah, its freakin' big back there. You could throw a party for the kids.
- Less noise

Okay, drilling all of that down was: Its too big, turns bad, and handles poorly. Yeah..its a truck, dear. ;)

So, since they did not have any quad cab 3500s on the lot at the time, we took out a 5.7L Hemi quad 1500 so she could see if she liked the 'handling' any better. Seemed to make an improvement in her outlook, but I already knew what was going to kill the possibility of getting out with a quad cab: The rear seating.

Sure enough, once we opened the back and she looked at it, the quad cab was right out. Its damn tight back there for a quad cab. My F350 Crew cab doesn't look a lot bigger, but a little bit of leg room can make a lot of difference, particularly with two boys and associated gear on a long trip.

So, at the end of the day, we didn't make a deal. I've got some thinking to do and perhaps some selling of my own to do. Alternately, the old F350 is not going to die anytime soon (particularly not the engine, which will probably outlive me), I'd just like something a bit nicer to spend those long trailer-hauling trips in.