re: Ram vs F150 vs Silverado

My dealership has 1200 vehicles in inventory so I was able to drive one of basically everything(except the new Titan) before I bought my 2014 Ram 1500.

Here are my takes:

The Chevys and GMCs are so incredibly nice and smooth and quiet for a truck. They literally feel like a lifted Impala, but that was part of the turnoff. Not truckish enough for me. My parents also always had Chevys growing up so subconsciously they aren’t that interesting to me, and I wasn’t going to spend $35k on a truck unless I was excited about it. Plus, I’ve never really liked GM’s 6L80E transmission. Not terribly responsive and they don’t seem to age well in my experience.

Tundras are awesome trucks but I just don’t like them enough to buy one. Refinement-wise they’re still stuck around 2010 and their tech is hopelessly outdated. The 5.7 is one hell of an engine but it sounds like a leaf blower and I can’t get past that either. I have yet to keep a vehicle longer than 2 years so the longevity of a Toyota doesn’t matter to me as a buyer right now. I’ve never liked the way they handle in the snow either, and it does snow a fair bit here in Montana so that was a no-go.

I very nearly pulled the trigger on a 2015 F150 Lariat 5.0L with 7500 miles on it. Extremely nice place to be, plus it was fast as a motherfricker. Genuinely the fastest gas-engine truck I’ve ever driven, and I’ve driven a few. My issues with the Ford were too much useless tech(IMO) coupled with very numb and disconnected-feeling electric steering and a touchy, hard-to-modulate brake pedal. Those last 3 things made it difficult to drive smoothly/confidently in the snow.

Then I drove the Ram, and that was that. Felt so much more like a truck, plus it rode better with rear coil springs instead of leaves. Natural-feeling talkative hydraulic steering, good brake pedal and I absolutely love the ZF 8-speed auto. It’s been the luxury car industry standard for 6-7 years now and I can definitely see why.

As an aside, I’ll say this about how well Tundras age: from a salesman’s perspective, I don’t worry about any Tundra we get traded in as long as it’s under 200k miles. Anything less than that and I just kinda shrug and say whatever, it’s good to go, and even if it’s over 200k as long as it runs and drives well then no worries. The highest mileage vehicle I’ve ever sold was a Tundra, a 2006 with 262k that ran and drove literally perfectly. On the flip side, drawing from my experience with American half-tons, anything over 130k on a Ford/Chevy/GMC/Ram makes me nervous. They just aren’t made as well. Don’t know how else to say it.

Ultimately, I chose the Ram because I felt more at home in it than anything else I drove. Buy what feels the best to you, financially and otherwise.