Perrysburg Dodgeboy wrote:
Well the 5.0 Cummins will not make the fuel mileage that the 3.0 VM will and fuel mileage is what Fiat was going for. Would the baby Cummins make a better towing engine, yes but at the cost of fuel mileage.
Also VM is owned by Fiat so cost will be lower. It's smarter to in source then out source. Cost and quality can be controlled better not that Cummins has any quality issues. The 5.0 just did not fit the bill for what Fiat was trying to achieve. For Nissan and Toyota it makes perfect sense. They get the reputation that comes with Cummins and they can jump into the 2500 market. It's a win win for them.
Don
JMHO, but RAM could clean up in the MPG running empty dept on this 1500 RAM if they spent some money in the wind tunnel and cleaned up the cD on the nose of this truck, as well as perhaps figuring out a way to make the back end have a "boat tail" ballistic effect to clean up the aerodynamics.
Of course, it wouldn't then look like a very bulky, manly truck, but it would pay huge dividends in the MPG contest.
As fuel gets more and more expensive, those MPG's are going to be very much more in demand than peak HP or peak torque numbers... something irrelevant as I never drive a vehicle anywhere near where the peak numbers are being made. Peak Numbers is just an exercise in "My deck is bigger than yours" shouting contest. I don't need the extra compensation. Not at my age, anyways.
Besides, this is a RV'ing forum. I think the Eco Diesel has a market in towing the UltraLight trailer stuff, nothing over 4500 to 5000 pounds dry, 4000 would likely be a better limit.
