First drive Ram 1500 diesel

RobertRyan wrote:
Wilbur1, Nissan sells the Petrol , Nissan Patrol SUV with the 5.7 engine . It has been a failure here in sales compared to the 4.5 Diesel Toyota Landcruiser SUV, which beats it in fuel economy and towing ability by a considerable margin.

I thought the Patrol used to be available with a diesel in many parts of the world. But not in OZ?

RobertRyan wrote:
Wilbur1, Nissan sells the Petrol , Nissan Patrol SUV with the 5.7 engine . It has been a failure here in sales compared to the 4.5 Diesel Toyota Landcruiser SUV, which beats it in fuel economy and towing ability by a considerable margin.

That's because Toyota relied heavily on their "vegemite sandwich" promotion to sell vehicles.

Wilbur1, Nissan sells the Petrol , Nissan Patrol SUV with the 5.7 engine . It has been a failure here in sales compared to the 4.5 Diesel Toyota Landcruiser SUV, which beats it in fuel economy and towing ability by a considerable margin.

It depends on what people are expecting from this truck. Who buys a diesel pickup to do empty 0-60 runs? I've no doubt a 5.7 hemi would clean my 6.7 Cummins 0-60 empty but which am I going to choose to pull my 5er? HP rules when it comes to flat out performance but low and mid range grunt is preferred for towing and daily driving in traffic. The normally aspirated gas engine's narrower power curve will also probably benefit more from the eight speed transmission than the turbo engine in a drag race.

The torque curve I found shows the 5.7 hemi making 330 lbft at 2000 RPM. That equates to 120 HP. The 3.0 diesel's 420 lbft at 2000 RPM has it making 160 HP. Unless you are in perpetual boy racer mode, more of the diesels power will be usable even though it won't win many drag races.

I also think this engine will get better mileage. When you compare the Audi, VW and Mercedes 3.0 turbo diesels to their gas counterparts in the same vehicles, they all get at least 20% and in one case 28% better combined mileage according to the EPA.

Sport45 wrote:
So is this 3.0 liter going to become the "Ego-Diesel" for those that want to join the club? :)

I'm not too sure there's room for anymore Ego's on this forum:B

We did get a chance to take some shorter loops later in the day with a Laramie 4x4 with the EcoDiesel; when navigating the navigating the wide open city streets on our 12-mile test loop, we averaged 42 mph and 22.7 mpg.

We also got a chance to do a bit of towing. Ram provided us with a small boat and trailer (weighing about 3,000 pounds) for us to drive the urban 12-mile route. We managed to get 15.4 mpg under load in tow mode.

In all fairness, that is city mileage, not open road. I get around 14 unloaded in the city, and towing my trailer with the constant stopping and starting and low speeds I'm sure I get much worse.

I'm not sure what to expect with this engine, but it seems like the mileage is going to be pretty good. My hat is off to Ram, they just raised the bar pretty high with this engine. I like the idea of the Ecoboost, but this seems to have better mileage. Yea, the Ford with max tow and max payload allows for higher pin weights (good thing in my opinion) but Ram doesn't seem to be going after that market. Ram seems to want a standard half ton with much better economy. So far, it sounds like they will get that.

So is this 3.0 liter going to become the "Ego-Diesel" for those that want to join the club? :)

I think that Ram has a winner here. The market will tell us soon enough.

And, about that boat. For what it's worth, I think they are quite a bit off on it's weight. I have a 21' stern drive boat. Brochure weight of the boat is 3700 - 3900 pounds. Add the trailer, and I have had it on a scale at 5060 pounds.

Well at least someone tried. You have to start somewhere. I must have missed how much it is going to cost buy. I am not a diesel guy, just real comfortable with gassers, but it is good to see a small diesel come to market in a 1/2 ton. They will only get better.

Perrysburg Dodgeboy wrote:

Talk about a hater, man dude you must have rally gotten screwed of by a Chrysler dealer at some point in time. Maybe some therapy with a shrink would help you get over it.


Don

Just wait till the haters come out with some of these recycled Ecoboost 'drive by' comments:

"We'll see how it is after 100K miles"

"if you take the turbo off that thing, it wouldn't get out of it's own way"

"1/2 tons are for girls."
"6 cylinders aren't for towing"
"no replacement for displacement"

Etc. Etc. Etc.

Personally I'm glad Dodge actually put up. I personally think this is a direct competition for the Ecoboost. And GM will be next.