First, let me say I'm an Engineering VP whose been doing product development for over 30 years so I'll admit I'm very detail oriented and have very high expectations when i buy something expensive. I know what it takes to engineer a quality product that delivers on customer expectations, and I also know when a product falls short. Also, I'm not a die hard fan of any brand, I will buy what I think is best and/or a good deal for what you're getting. I've owned Chevy, Ford, and Dodge trucks. This is not my first Dodge, I bought a new SRT10 Quad cab when they first came out. I bought the 2021 Ram 2500 in January after reading about the 3-peat win of TOTY by the Ram in Car and Driver, and because I needed a better tow vehicle than my F150.
That said, I'm not yet feeling like this truck lives up to my expectations. I'd like to share some take aways I've had, and like to hear other's feedback.
1. Fuel economy - I thought diesel engines were supposed to get better mileage than gas counterparts. I traded in a 2016 F150 Limited with the Ecoboost V6. That truck got around 13 mpg around town (nowhere near what ford claims btw), and after 1100 miles on the 2500, I'm seeing about 13 mpg. I do not drive this truck hard, or accelerate hard. I was expecting better than the ford. Also, while I've not done any long trips yet, when I'm cruising on the toll road at 75, I'm seeing about 17 to 18 mpg on the instantaneous mpg display. That's telling me I'm not going to see the 25 mpg highway I've heard about.
2. Acceleration - I know this truck is much heavier than the F150 but was expecting decent acceleration from the Ram. Unfortunately, the 2500 has really disappointing acceleration for all the torque it's supposed to have. Haven't timed it yet but my seat of the pants guess is at least 8 to 9 secs 0 to 60 or more. Before, you guys flame me, i didn't buy this truck for its acceleration, but this is disappointing coming from the ecoboost. You've really got to time your merging and passing with this thing. Whereas the F150 would light up the tires from a dead stop and even bark the tires if I stomped it at 20 mph.
3. Interior - This is a bright spot, mostly, for the Ram. The interior design and build quality is very good for the most part. Materials are nice and the interior looks really upscale for a pickup. Now for the disappointments. I'm 6'7", so very tall. I had no fit issues in the F150, headroom and legroom were great. Btw, both trucks have power sun roofs (which I hate but buying a truck off the lot always has these). I have limited headroom in the Ram and my hair rubs sometimes. Also, legroom between my right knee and the trailer brake control module on the lower part of the dash to the right of steering wheel is very limited. This truck is HUGE, how am I having fit issues?
4. Feature execution - There are a few features on this truck that are nice features, but poorly executed. The first is the Auto High Beams. Whoever wrote the user story (defined how it should work) for this feature must not drive at night. If you enable this feature in settings then you MUST keep your turn signal/high beam stalk pushed forward for auto high beams to work. However, when you use the turn signal to indicate a turn or lane change, it's very easy to pull the stalk back accidentally then your high beams turn off, and you won't notice it until the next time you're driving at night and realize your high beams aren't coming on. Also, there is no way to override the truck's decision about whether the brights should be on. To manually override and turn the brights on, you have to go into settings, navigate the menu, find the right setting, turn it off, then you can push the stalk forward and get them on, this isn't going to happen while your driving. Why does this matter? It matters since the truck's light sensors seem to be oversensitive to reflections from street signs and keep turning the brights off. There's also no hysteresis built in so the brights will go on and off often on certain stretches of road. The F150 did this right. Just turn the setting on and the brights come on and off as the truck determines, but if you push the stalk forward, you can override the truck and force the high beams to stay on. Another poorly design feature is the gauge/center stack backlight control. The dial isn't fully linear meaning you can't just rotate from dim to max brightness as you would expect. If you rotate it to the highest brightness, without clicking it into "max brightness", there is a big step in brightness between those two settings. Why does this matter? Well if you're driving in very overcast days or at twilight, and the truck turns its headlights on, the gauges will dim to the point they're very difficult to see. The only way to fix this is rotate the dial to the max position which it clicks into. The gauges are now readable but as soon as it gets fully dark, they're WAY too bright in the cab and are distracting. Another feature is how you select channels on the sound system. In GM's, you can set your favorites from any receiver (satellite, FM, or AM). Your favorites then present all these to you and you can select from what you like without needing to switch receiver modes. The system does that for you. On the RAM's 12" system, if you want to switch between an FM station and a Satellite channel (which I do often), you have to switch screens to the source screen, then select the mode you want, then switch back to the main screen to see your favorites, then select your favorite from that list, all while you're driving - not going to happen. Yes, there's a button on the back of the steering wheel, but you have to rotate through all the sources to get to the one you want. GM did this right.
I list these as examples of where Dodge had good ideas, but really don't spend time undertanding their cutomers like Ford and GM seem to have done. I could go on, but the point is made.
Ok, I'd like to hear other's thoughts about their experience with their new Ram 2500.
