I love my ram, I really do, but here's the issue.

I bought a 2011 new in 2012. I bought it cash, so I don't owe anything on it.

I've always owned a truck as a DD, but a few years back I bought a 2 door roadster (mercedes SLK) for fun on nice weather days. A year after buying this truck however, I got rid of the SLK for a "replacement" that was a 4 door sedan, and while I love the truck, when considering gas, parking, and all the luxuryt bells and whistles that are on the car etc. I find I drive the car as a daily driver and I really only use the truck for 4x4 winter weather.

However, I just bought a car hauler for my race car to start taking it to races, which is within the Ram's hauling specs. In the past I drove the car directly. I've also been talking to my wife about getting a camper, but we aren't quite sure about it yet.

Here's the predicament- I currently have 16,000 miles on the car. I'm anticipating putting a few thousand miles a year on it, mostly hauling, which would be great because I could "keep it forever",

While I love every feature it has and it fits what I need near perfectly, its a 4.7L and if I'm really having a truck just to live out its life as a "work truck", it makes sense to get a medium mileage 2500 (or with the Hemi + bags), because the 1500, while great, is not the best "work truck/hauler". Now I thought about doing some "performance improvements" and just keeping the ram for running to races and to drivewhen the weather's bad or when I just feel like driving it to a tailgate or something, but then I almost feel "guilty" wasting such a good car. It will sit as an "abused" loaded 4.7L 10 years from now with 40k miles on it.

While it was $40k new msrp (I paid a little less than that), It looks like the used value on craigslist is somewhere in the low 20s, so if I bought a 60k mileage hemi or something it would probably cost about the same as what I'd sell this for.

Is it worth it? Should I just love what I have or would it be performance-wise and financially wise intelligent to let it go and pick something else up for my specific needs?

Thanks for your thoughts. I bought the truck planning on owning it forever, and got rid of a 1998 ram to get it, so I really did think I could keep it for 14 years or so... (and I went with the 4.7 because it was 100 HP more powerful than my 98 ram 5.8 magnum was, and that motor served me just fine! the hemi seemed like overkill, although in retrospect I made the fatal mistake of not looking at torque numbers, as its about 100 ft-lbs of torque less)

 

I specifically intended to put this in the non-tech section but somehow posted it in the tech section... sorry about that. Maybe a mod could move it for me?

 

I was in a similar situation as you. I have a 2001 Pathfinder that I intended to keep forever. It's got 148,000 miles on it and still going strong. But when I upgraded my race car, I needed to start towing it to the track. My Pathfinder only towed 3500 lbs, and so I got the Ram to haul the car and trailer. I thought I'd use the truck only for towing, but it's such a nice DD that I now am selling the Pathfinder.

Well, it's not exactly the same situation because the Pathfinder is only worth about $6,000. It's worth more as a driveable vehicle than the cash in my pocket, but when I realized that the Ram could do everything the Pathfinder can, and the Pathfinder just sits in the garage, I'd rather have the cash.

Sounds like you need to sell your Ram and convert it into something you will use more. It's not worth much to you if it just sits there and does nothing.

 

My .02 - if it pulls your trailer then keep it. Not much sense in selling a truck that hasn't got many miles on it and losing your shirt on it to buy another one with an unknown history and more miles.

 

Thank you both for your insight, even if it is conflicting.

old jeep- I'm still conflicted. I mean what use is having a 40k ram thats been pushed to its limits in towing. I mean it can tow the 6k trailer, but it doesnt like the hills... and the travel trailers are at least 7000... The 4.7l ram 1500 is pretty much the worst truck you could buy if your only buying it to trailer with... haha.

on the flip side, I have it, I know its in good shape, and as you said it does what I need it to.

Maybe I should consider getting like an 05 though, then I could actually picket 10k...

Yellow Jacket - The problem here however is that the 2011 Mercedes E350 (and we also have a E90 BMW my wife drives) are both nicer than the ram, plain and simple, I love the ram and mean nothing negative about it, and it has a whole lot of bells and whistles, and its nicer than my last 25 cars... haha.

I guess I should be grateful that either option is a "good" option. The triviality, while stressful, still just made me realize how blessed I am now. It wasn't TOO long ago that I was worried if I'd have transportation to GET to work, now I'm stressing out over the best option.

Thanks!