I got the chance to drop into a RAM dealer yesterday. They had some of the new 2019's on the lot so I was curious to how they looked in person. Front end has that bold, wider appearance. From the windshield back looked the same to me as far as body. The tailgate spoiler is flat. Shouldn't hold water and give folks a sudden bath. So, the salesman seen what I was driving, asked me how I liked it. I said its a good truck, have had a crap-ton of updates and recalls, but except for the transmission gap when towing its doing ok. He went and pulled out a new Black Appearance Package 3500 CCSB with the 6.4. Damn beautiful truck if your into the black thing. Looked at the sticker, it had 4.10's, oh, goody... it also said $63K'ish...loaded. Yeah, it had the big 12" tall center stack inside. Its neat, I guess, if you want a big TV look in the center of your dash. Its not for me, I'd do just fine with the smaller 8.4 screen. EVIC was refined, very detailed, smaller fonts than my current 7" EVIC display in my 2014.
Been driving my 6.4 since June of 2014. I reached for the transmission stalk...woops...you ********...the frickin' dial is right in front of you..lol. Pulled out of the lot and was easy on it but there was more there than what I'm used to. Went 2 miles and pulled up onto the on ramp onto I-80 where this speed limit is 80. I looked in the rearview and nobody was there so I stopped. Figured out how to show my top gear of 8 in the EVIC quickly, and punched the accelerator. So...there wasn't an immediate thrust, think there's a touch of torque management going on and its new, but that truck picked up in a hurry from what I'm used to, caught 2nd gear and there was this nice push in my seat, and just as that was tailing off it picked up 3rd and pulled hard to 4th and soon we were on the interstate at 70 mph. A big truck cleared out of my way and 80 mph was there in a hurry. Had about a 3 mile run down the interstate and for a short box 3500 gasser it road pretty damn good on the hard concrete pavement from what I've experienced in other 3500 4th gens.
Took some rural roads back. It was a fun 15 minutes. On my short drive, the 8-speed delivered the acceleration I thought it would behind the 6.4. Am I going to trade my current 2014 on a brand new 2019 right now....no. If I didn't have a 6.4 now and wanted a new RAM,would I go buy a new one, HELL YES! Looking forward to some towing reviews too.
