The Tradesmans with the right options don't give up much to the SLT models IMO.
After a year with a fleet of 2014 ram diesels, mix of tradesman and SLT models, the only options I'd miss on the tradesman are as follows.
No driving lights. Easy add on for some nice LEDs but I like OE driving lights.
I prefer the bigger 8.4 Uconnect radio but the ones we had all had backup cams and Bluetooth anyway.
Never noticed they didn't have lumbar support. But that appears to be the case. Kind of a big deal, but not worth thousands$ IMO. You could get creative with lumbar support. It's not too difficult to remove the seat covers and foam. You could bolster up the foam just how you like it and put it all back together. Less than $20 at the hobby store for foam. Have done this before on vehicles including my ole Dodge in my sig. Turned the drivers seat bottom from a wore out pos that dug into my hips to a comfortable ride.
Been looking at new Rams ALOT since being spoiled by those 2014s at work and it appears the tradesman diesel Rams are far and away the best value in a HD diesel pickup.
Agree used prices are through the roof, and not going to get better with low oil/fuel prices, but I've seen a lot of tradesman models, low mileage for under $40k usd.
That said, '16 models have a bunch of quirks and recalls worked out that the older ones don't.
