Apr 5th, 2012 by Ross Edwards
The 2013 Ram 1500 has been revealed at the 2012 New York Auto Show. While the half ton truck won’t be visually changed much for next year, it will get two very important powertrain updates. Most importantly, the Ram 1500 will get a new eight-speed transmission on all engines. That’s two more gears than most vehicles have, and should give the Ram a significant advantage in acceleration, towing (at least in easiness, maybe not total towing capacity), and fuel economy.
The 2013 Ram 1500 will also get a new base V6 engine. For a long time, the V6 engines in full sized trucks were reserved for simple work trucks destined for hard lives where their owners did not care about fuel economy or acceleration as long as they would haul whatever was needed and not cost much. With a pickup bed now a requirement for a lot of people in their daily driver, a good V6 engine that won’t run out of steam at highway speeds and can get decent gas mileage might be a viable option for non lead-footed buyers.
Chrysler says that the Ram 1500 with the 3.6-liter V6 engine will have 305-hp and 269 lb-ft of torque and get 20% better fuel economy than the old V6. The V8 engines remain basically the same, with the 5.7-liter Hemi getting a power bump from 390 to 395-hp. According to Jalopnik, the now marginally-better-than-the-V6 4.7-liter V8 with 310-hp and 330 lb-ft of torque will for some reason continue to be offered and probably bought by some fool that thinks a truck ain’t a truck without a V8.
Image via Jalopnik.
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