I live in Atlanta as well, so I dont have alot of room to complain about my HEMI's mileage. I'll have to ask my dad about 1973, pretty sure he wasn't thinkin about gas/oil at the time tho since I was born a couple years later.

 

i see what you're saying on maybe being forced to get rid of the hemi! I have one and love it but i have never gotten more than an average of 15 on a tank, i don't get on it all the time, it has 3500 miles and probably 3000 of them are highway miles but just don't get the mileage and granted everywhere i go i'm facing 25 mile an hour winds which kill it but i will not be getting rid of my hemi any time soon unless the right price comes up from someone, i think there's 2 sides to the money game as far as these trucks go!!

1) if you can afford a 30K truck then you can afford $50 a week for gas

2) you spent all you have so you can drive a bad *** truck then gotta turn around and spend $50 more per week for gas which sucks

either way it's all personal opinion and i'll spend however much in gas that i use as the people flaggin me down at walmart to see my truck or someone taking pictures as i go by gives me the satisfaction of the money i just put in it!!!

 

I have an 06 Dodge RAM with the 5.7L Hemi/MDS and I get outstanding fuelk mileage. Flat crusing without the AC on (here in Alaska) with a true dual exhaust system installed I get on the hwy 23-24.8 MPG consistantly. In town 15.5 to 16.8.
the picture was taken on my camera phone the other day while cruising to Girdwood Alaska. Winds calm, 60 MPH, road flat, no AC running.



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The way the pickup truck market is going
Dodge might do well to 'split' the offering of their Hemi engine offering.

For those who don't care about anything but street performance
offering a 6.4 Hemi 'might' sell some additional trucks,
but many of these 16-36 year olds have already purchased
on credit a 2003-2006 Ram and are 'tapped out' on their cash flow.

For those customers who are using their pickups for towing or commercial work
the 5.7 has proven to a little too fuel thirsty and the 4200 rpm of maximum torque
is not ideal for a 'real world' pickup. Dodge would be able to offer these customers
a better fit of engine if they:
de-stroked down to about 5.0 liters of displacement or less,
installed a longer connecting rod,
fitted a sodium filled exhaust valve (like the present 6.1 has)
raised the compression ratio to 10.5 or higher
and used a camshaft/intake port size that placed maximum torque at 2800 rpm.
and most importantly fitted variable valve timing.
These changes would improve the fuel efficiency another 7 to 14%
and would cost something like $300-400 more at the factory.

Refitting the Kokomo IN transmission plant to build the 7 speed design Mercedes automatic transmission would also be a step in the right direction, as it would benefit both a 6.4 and a 5.0 Hemi engine in a Ram pickup. {but judging from DCx's recent actions they would probably build that 7 speed in a new factory in Mexico}