2025 Ram 1500 test drive review

While the Ford F-150 has long been the best-selling vehicle in America, we’ve felt for some time that the subjectively better truck to drive is the Ram 1500. In our experience, as expressed in our review of the 2023 Ram 1500 Limited, it’s an exceptionally comfortable, well driving and capable machine.

It was also more luxurious than most cars we’ve driven, with an amazing independent suspension and exceptional ride quality. Heck, even the old 5.7-liter V8 sounded amazing and was surprisingly efficient, achieving 19 mpg in our combined week of driving. 

We’re also a huge fan of the 6.4-liter 392 V8 found in some of the heavy-duty Rams, as well as the sacred Hellcat 6.2-liter supercharged V8 found in the Baja blasting Ram 1500 TRX. Mopar’s calling card has been big, burly, good sounding, powerful V8s for, well, decades, and we love it. 

And so, needless to say, when Stellantis put all of their V8s on the chopping block for 2025, we were very, very skeptical, not only of the inline 6-cylinder’s chops but especially its character. 

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Photo courtesy of Stellantis

Stellantis isn’t alone. It’s rare to find a V8 in a new truck these days, whether it’s a Ford, Ram, Chevrolet, Toyota, Nissan or some other brand. Most have moved on, whether by choice or forced government efficiency and emissions standards, to smaller, turbocharged or electrified engines. Depending on your perspective and experience, this can either be a great move or one that spells trouble, especially in terms of reliability and driving engagement.

To assuage our skepticism, Ram gave about 20 journalists some seat time in its new, twin-turbocharged Inline-6 cylinder powered Ram 1500 Big Horn at the 2024 Rocky Mountain Driving Experience. And while it didn’t completely remove all of our hesitations about the move away from V8s, we can report that the new engine is very, very good.

It’s smooth and powerful

Ram has released two variants of the Hurricane engine: a detuned version that produces 420 horsepower and a high-output version that produces 540 horsepower. We drove the 420 horsepower version — which is more than the 395 horsepower generated by the outgoing 5.7-liter V8 — and it felt plenty powerful. The turbocharged thrust is immediate — maybe even too immediate, as the throttle tip-in was surprisingly sensitive. 

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Acceleration is linear and smooth, which is characteristic of most inline-6 motors. It honestly was great to drive. The fuel economy on our brief drive was in the higher teens range, which is about on par with the outgoing V8. We’re sure that on a flat road going at a steady speed, the I-6 will outgun the old V8 in fuel economy, but further testing is needed to confirm.

Photo courtesy of Stellantis

It’s too quiet

As good as the new engine is to drive, there’s a huge elephant in the room that needs to be talked about. The engine and exhaust notes are just too darn quiet, especially for a brand built on sound.

We honestly couldn’t hear the engine during most of our time with it. At all. Unless you’re under near full-throttle acceleration, you’d almost think you were driving an electric vehicle. The total absence of anything resembling an exhaust note only compounded the surreal experience of driving a mute Ram.

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Some might write this off as something “the customers want” or “luxurious,” but mark our words, Ram will lose customers over this. It doesn’t matter how good the engine is, if it doesn’t sound like a lion on the warpath, then we expect there will be a large number of loyal and would-be Mopar enthusiasts who will walk away to other options.

Sure it makes decent power, but where’s the drama? Where’s the excitement? We left the drive as impressed as we were disheartened. We were sad to see a brand we love so much neutered by external forces. But, as seen in the likes of the Nissan GT-R, BMW M cars, and heck, even the Ford F-150 Raptor, 6-cylinder engines can still sound great. It’s just going to take a little more engineering and creativity.

Photo courtesy of Stellantis

Final thoughts

The 2025 Ram 1500 is an excellent truck. It’s comfortable, easy to drive and very capable. It’s also more powerful than the outgoing version and has more standard features. However, somewhere in the process, it’s lost some of its character. If you don’t care about those things, then the 1500 is an easy sell. But if you do, you might be a little letdown.

We’ll have a more in-depth review of the new Ram 1500 once it comes our way, so stay tuned to KSL Cars for that. Until then, well done, Ram. Just give us a little more character.

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Highs

• Smooth power delivery

• Comfortable and feature rich interior

• Rides supremely well

• More capable than ever

Lows

• No engine sound

• No exhaust sound

• Prices can escalate quickly depending on options and trims

*KSL Cars does not endorse any vehicles. The views or opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer and do not reflect the views or opinions of KSL.com or its employees.