2020 Ram 2500/3500: MotorTrend Truck of the Year

Terryallan wrote:
Y'all remember when Honda won it with a Ridgeline? and it was only truck appearing. These awards mean nothing

That kind of puts it into perspective doesn't it?

I've had both RAM 2500 and 3500 (with Cummins) and also the F-450 powerstroke. I love the Cummins. I think you could run a Cummins for half a million miles, but the powerstroke will pull way more, and it's twice the comfort.

Ford found a niche market with that F-450 Lariat and King Ranch..nobody comes close to the comfort and ease of the F-450..

My humble opinion.

Y'all remember when Honda won it with a Ridgeline? and it was only truck appearing. These awards mean nothing

Magazine based awards mean nothing to me.
Who ever has the largest advertising budget with them seems to win.

Groover wrote:

Boomerweps wrote:
IMnotsoHO, Motor Trend awards are garbage. Most of their writers seem to be industry shills. I remember when the new Plymouth Duster was their "Car of the a Year". ;(
That was a rounded fastback Valiant upgrade for those not aware.

I don't know what your issue was with the original Duster. I had a '67 Valiant but my brother had a '72 Dart equivalent to the Duster. both were great cars. The Dart had the 340 Magnum in it and would hold its own against any Mustang or Camaro he encountered and was a lot more functional when you weren't racing. It had a huge trunk and decent back seat, plus it would tow his small boat. With the factory hood scoop, hood mounted tack, rear spoiler and lake pipes it was as sporty as any of the competition. The speedometer only went to 120mph but it would do 55mph at 2000rpm and you could take the tach past 6000. It ran on regular gas and idled smoothly but when you punched it, it was gone.

They called some other cars Dusters later on. Maybe that is what you are thinking of. But, from 74 through mid 80's nobody had anything to brag about.

So-so styled small (for the time) economy car that had a big engine option. Valiants were a good economy (for the time) car with a very dependable slant 6. Good basics but "Car of the Year" I never understood. I expect a Vehicle of the Year to have something significant or special to it. Maybe I'm jaded. Fond memories I can understand.

Boomerweps wrote:
IMnotsoHO, Motor Trend awards are garbage. Most of their writers seem to be industry shills. I remember when the new Plymouth Duster was their "Car of the a Year". ;(
That was a rounded fastback Valiant upgrade for those not aware.

I don't know what your issue was with the original Duster. I had a '67 Valiant but my brother had a '72 Dart equivalent to the Duster. both were great cars. The Dart had the 340 Magnum in it and would hold its own against any Mustang or Camaro he encountered and was a lot more functional when you weren't racing. It had a huge trunk and decent back seat, plus it would tow his small boat. With the factory hood scoop, hood mounted tack, rear spoiler and lake pipes it was as sporty as any of the competition. The speedometer only went to 120mph but it would do 55mph at 2000rpm and you could take the tach past 6000. It ran on regular gas and idled smoothly but when you punched it, it was gone.

They called some other cars Dusters later on. Maybe that is what you are thinking of. But, from 74 through mid 80's nobody had anything to brag about.

Groover wrote:
. . . GM is having an emergency update on the new trucks already to better compete with RAM. Of course, they don't really want us to know that the were designed to be behind.

GM redoing new trucks

According to the article, this update is an interior update to compete with the "praised" Ram interior.

I've always been put-off by the interior/dash design on GM trucks. If you're used to GM's styling cues, probably not an issue. For my tastes, Ram and Ford have a much more functional, aesthetically pleasing interior/dash design.

IMnotsoHO, Motor Trend awards are garbage. Most of their writers seem to be industry shills. I remember when the new Plymouth Duster was their "Car of the a Year". ;(
That was a rounded fastback Valiant upgrade for those not aware.

BB_TX wrote:

wanderingaimlessly wrote:
kinda surprising with both ford and gm offering new powerplants.

Seems to me that it is a different truck every year. If one was any better than the others there would consistently be repeat winners. Just a way to sell magazines because it creates controversy. The owners of that truck love to brag about it. The owners of the other brands love to complain about it.

I think that they only consider trucks with significant changes. Even if an older truck is still best it is not considered in this competition.

This is concerning for GM. Their new trucks came out after Ram and still lost a lot of market share and gathered few accolades. I noticed that they never stopped promotions during the 5 week strike and had plenty of inventory. GM's story was that they had built up plenty of inventory. If the trucks had been selling well they wouldn't have had the capacity to build enough inventory.

GM is having an emergency update on the new trucks already to better compete with RAM. Of course, they don't really want us to know that the were designed to be behind.

GM redoing new trucks

wanderingaimlessly wrote:
kinda surprising with both ford and gm offering new powerplants.

Gas engines dont carry a lot of weight (no pun intended...) in the HD segment