Former F150 guy here, had an 04 FX4, 05 Lariat and an 06 FX4. Passed over a Ram Sport back in 04 due to the redesigned F150 with the center console and bucket seats. For 09, was going to get another FX4 but drove all the competition first. Even had an FX4 for 2 hours when our 2008 Ford Edge was getting the PTU seal in the AWD unit replaced again. Went to another dealer that sold Ford, Toyota and Dodge - New Holland Auto Group in PA - and got to see these three all in one place, even had an FX4 and a Ram Sport side by side, sort of angled, facing off parked out front. The Ram really looked beefer than the Ford, much more actually. And the interior is up to par with Ford but Dodge has the padded stitched dash, and padded door panel, no hard plastics which my previous F150's all had as well as the new 09. I would have bought another Ford if I hadn't seen the two side by side. As far as power options, there are more custom tuners I found for the Fords, I even went to about 1/2 dozen 'dyno days' with the 05 and 06 and had a stage II package from one custom tuner on the 06. The tuners would even post on the forums. The 09 with the 6 speed, 3.73 locker, will be nice with a custom tune, not to be under-estimated. Hard to find the same with the Dodges but my truck makes decent power stock with this new hemi and 3.92 rear. But.. still needs a tune for throttle response and shift pressures, and obviously I'd take more power too.. so waiting patiently and looking. Both Ford and Dodge are great trucks, I'm glad and have no regrets since my Ram purchase in February, 3000 miles ago, Dodge really did a great job with the 09.

 

I love to here you guys talk up your new cars. Thats what the new Rams are. Cars with open trunks. I have owned two Rams in the past and both got bought back by Dodge under the lemon law. Was surfing the web and found posting for Tundra vs. Ram. Try this on I bought a truck to use as a truck. I have 08' Tundra double cab long bed(Dodge doesn't offer) with 5.7, tow package etc. (work truck) This truck regularly gets 17-18 in city driving and regulary gets up to 22 mpg on the highway. This is with 4.30 gears.(nice 6 spd. trans.) The worst mpg. I get is when pulling hay(180-200 bales) and that is around 14mpg. I took my father with me to look at this truck before buying and he agreed that the Detroit had some competition. HE owns a 2004 2500 Ram with cummins. First new truck in almost 30 yrs. He has had hs truck in for multiple issues with various oil leaks, steering issues, electrical problems. He states if he could get that motor in a ford or chevy he would kick that truck to the curb. Mind you he farm and drives trucks. SO this vehicle is no show truck. I would have happily bought "American" if Detroit would learn what customer service means including having a proven history of reliable vehicles that they stand behind. Its kind of irronic to say American made anyways don't you think; seeing that most of the Rams made come from Mexico. My Tundra was made in Texas by Americans with 92% American made sourced parts. No Detroit company can say that about there trucks!!!! PS. only complaint with Tundra is that you can't get the Crewmax with a long bed.

 

Tundra was my #2 choice when I was looking for my new truck.

Only real reasons for choosing the ram over the Tundra was that the Ram rode better and it was impossible to find a tundra that didn't have every option on it, and I wanted an SLT type set of options and 6 seats. Cheapest Tundras were around 40K locally and my ram was 26K.

The Ram has the same problem with the crewcab, only the super short bed available.

 

So you would have been comparing the Toymotor with the '08 RAM, not the '09, and there is a HUGE difference. I agree my neighbor's 07 Tundra is a much better vehicle than the equivalent vintage RAM. The game has changed though with the 4th gen RAM.

Well RAMs come from Warren in Detroit and St Louis. Not Mexico. Granted there are imported parts (some of them major, like engines). But not assembled in Mexico at all.

Well I'm guessing thats because Toymotor don't make 2500, 3500 or 4500 class chassis.

 

Toyota has it's share of problems too. Now they are finding that the Tundras frames are rusting out just like the Tacomas. And what about the folding tailgates? A work truck needs a strong gate, not one that folds in half when you put a load on it.

IMHO, buy what you like. You can find faults with every truck out there. All I know is that there are a ton of Dodges where I work and I can honestly say that problems are few and far between. I liked the look and price of the 09 Ram so that's what I bought.

 

I would stay away from Ford, if you live in area with lots of companies

with Ford fleet vehicles. Why? Who come first at the sevice department,

companies that spends lots every month on sevice, or the guys that come

in once or twice a year.

I owned a 1996 Ford Windstar, what bad Van, but what made it even

worse was trying to get into a service department that looks after lots of

fleet vehicles. Had to start dealing with Ford of Canada directly to get my

only vehicle at fixed, Ford of Canada help alot (thank you) but i will never

buy another Ford if I live here. If you live in area with lots Ford dealers

this might not be a problem.

(I live in area with total of 4 new car dealers 1 GM, 1 Ford, 1 Dodge, and 1 Toyota and would travel 2.5 hours to get next closest one, but have to travel 4 hours to get to city with mutiple dealers of the same brand name)

 

I had a 2002 Ford F150 and have nothing bad to say about it. I test drove the 2009 and it was a decent truck, I just thought that the excessive chrome that was on them was really ugly and I thought that the visability while drive was terrible.

 

ahh, we have a tundra troll guys...

Some of us drove the tundra before buying the Ram and have also been on many road trips in a new tundra. We are now posting our trucks on this forum, not the tundra forum. Some of us also have a buddy that had his crank replaced on his new 07 tundra. Some of us do not care for the cheap hard plastic interior of the tundra. Some of us have no interest in attempting to tow 10k lbs with a 1/2 ton truck. Some of us own and have owned Dodges with 150k miles with zero problems, and some of us call your mpg claims bs. Go away troll and enjoy your jap truck..

 

All that I know is that I got a 40k truck for 30k that looks sweet, drives like a dream, is lightning fast and makes my boss jealous as hell! I come from a Ford family and never even considered a Dodge until I was riding in my boss's Ram that was several years old, with quite a few miles on it, and he has never had a single problem with it. I LOVE my Ram Sport!

Oh did I mention it has vented seats.

 

Unfortunately mine has them too. You won't be bragging on those in about 15-20k miles down the road. Trust me, they're ****.