Dodge 1/2 ton Diesel

Problem with it is that it costs too damn much to buy and operate.

None of them are likely to be big sellers, and that's why you don't see ford and chevy offering one in a half ton. Diesels belong in small trucks and big trucks, not normal sized trucks.

The right diesel motor for a regular half ton truck will be far too slow for anybody to buy it despite that it would last forever and pull trees down.

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people own diesels now and money doesn't seem to be a concern

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Those people will continue to drive the big rigs IMO.

The duramax coming out in the chevy colorado is up around 400 ft-lbs and I imagine ram's engine has to be somewhere close to that. I bet it pulls damn good. I would have expected better mileage than that. I think the cummins titan is projected to be in the low to mid 30mpgs

Chevrolet has publicly stated that their half ton diesel motor is staying on the shelf until they see how the dodge does. Can't really blame them for that. Ford looks like they're going to stick with the eco-boost for their attempt at fuel economy and I'm not sure that they have even developed a diesel engine for the half ton market yet.

I personally would like to see chevy's small duramax that's going in the colorado offered in half tons. I have a full size chevrolet built in 1994 that gets 23 mpg. It pretty much just has an electronic carburetor separating it from 1950 engine technology. There's no way in hell that, with today's tech, we shouldn't be able to be that by a LONG ways, especially with a diesel.

Wouldn't surprise me if they were. They should just to be ready in case that market takes off.

I also don't like that nissan is going with a 5.0 V8 cummins. That's a big arse engine for a small truck.

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pick up drives are now use to high HP/ TQ in 1/2 tons

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Well we can't have it all now can we???

Something like the 4BT cummins putting out about 190hp would turn out some great fuel mileage at the expense of not being able to do tire shredding burnouts.

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Cummings

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I don't think money will be issue too many people own diesels now and money doesn't seem to be a concern. There is a big market for it, I think dodge fell short with this one. MPG on the GC was 21 /28 I don't think the truck will get that good of mileage and it doesn't look very torquey based on that video. Maybe the truck will have a 3.73 or something like that in the rearend to help it out.

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It's been EPA rated at 28 mpgs hwy and has just as much low end torque as an ecoboost. What are you talking about?

I didn't watch the video, but that was a video of a Grand Cherokee, not a Ram. Two entirely different vehicles. There is a reason a GC with a hemi is still rated to tow less than a Ram with a hemi.

The diesel makes the same 420 lb-ft. of torque below 3000 or 2500 rpm as the ecoboost and people rant and rave about the ecoboost's power.

I don't understand your argument here. If the diesel doesn't sell, it'll be because of price and added maintenance costs...not power and mpgs. They're just giving the market what they've been begging for for years now...

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ts the same diesel motor that will be in the Ram. So when the guy on the video complains about how the torque is not very impressive and drops off very quickly it doesn't give you a warm fuzzy feeling that the motor will all of a sudden get better once you put it in the Ram.

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Because he was towing at or near max towing capacity in the GC. The GC has independent rear suspension, short rear gears, and is a unibody. It's not going to tow much very well at all. That test could have been done with a Hemi and he would have likely said the same thing.

I've seen the argument go both ways...

Personally, I probably won't buy one...but I could understand why someone would.

I just think it's funny, like what were people expecting? 35 mpgs in a 6000 lb truck? All things considered, 28 is impressive and I don't see that number being topped by GM or Ford for a couple of years at least, not without them having to sacrifice power/displacement to get there.