Just a quick note here...

I personally know one of the testing engineers at Chrysler who has worked on the new ecodiesel 1500 ram almost exclusively during this past summer (he and I went to the same little school in western PA and were both mech. engineering majors). I asked him for his take on the 1500 diesel and his words were " Its a pretty cool truck, runs great with the 8 speed. Only downfall to the diesel is serviceability.. and towing on the half ton rams sucks. best riding truck on the market though. and best interiors" He seemed to be pretty honest and un-biased about it...

I'm with hambone on this one. The problem is those ****** in Washington insist on crippling the truck market with ridiculous EPA regulations...so now we have under-performing trucks with these super-eco motors to make the enviro hippies happy because god forbid if we offend anyone with our evil gas burning v8 motors

To the OP: Good luck with the new truck! Get the hemi pleaseeeeee!

 

Ya I can live with the reduced capacity..I hope!!! I don't tow anything I only haul 4-5 cords of fire wood for myself so a 1/2 ton with a 6.4' bed should handle this load. I test drove the V6 and Hemi today and you can feel the difference. I'm not looking for a power house and the dealer let me take the V6 for the day and I feel I can live with a V6. Gonna pull the trigger and a 2013, got what I feel is a good deal.. Not my wish list truck but good enough for what I use it for. They specked out my dream truck and it was more then I wanted to spend at this time.

 

I think the 1500 Diesel is cool, towing capacity shouldn't be a factor, if you need to tow heavy loads frequently buy a Cummins.

 

Just out of curiosity, how does the v6 feel as compared to your old 5.9 360?

 

My 2500 had 82,270 on it when sold and I have no idea what the gears were in the rear end... She was 15 years old so not really a comparison.
The V6 is definitely faster off the line and I would say over all faster. Snow storm here yesterday so I could not really get it going fast. But it did drive good in the mess we had.. It has the anti spin differential and drove nice in 2wd in the snow..
I never drove my 2500 over 70mph, no reason too.. Most of the time I drove it I was either hauling wood or puttin around town.
For me the real test will be when it is loaded up with fire wood. I'm hoping there is not much sag in the back when loaded..
The 2500 drove better with a load then empty..
Looking forward to picking up my new ride today at 6pm... I am looking forward to the nice smooth quite ride that the 1500 has compared to my Old Girl.
I do miss my 2500 and wanted to keep it but the wife said that was not going to happen..

 

Yeah, my truck rides like a cadillac with about 3000 pounds of dirt in the bed.

 

^ My trucks rides like a Caddy with no weight in the back

 

I guess price would be the biggest issue. K.