PoMansRam
Senior Member
- Joined
- Apr 30, 2018
- Posts
- 2,089
- Reaction score
- 2,549
- Location
- East Aurora NY
- Ram Year
- 2019
- Engine
- Hemi
Months back I got the itch to trade in my 2019 Ram 1500 classic CC 4x4, hemi for a new classic. I had about 63K trouble free miles on the 2019 that was purchased in 2020 as an ex-rental and I loved my 2017 Ram 1500 QC pentastar I had before it as well. That one was purchased lightly used as well.
I paid $27K for my 2019 classic w/ 15K miles on it in June 2020. With ~63K miles on it and 2yrs later I was getting trade-in offers in the $26K range. I owed about $8K on it, so had a bit of trade equity.
As we all know, the truck market is insane and the best offer I could find back in Sept/Oct on a Ram 1500 that was close to what I could tolerate, was a quad cab, pentastar 4x4 at about $43K. Basically MSRP or nothing at the time. I tried 4 different dealers. That is just too much for what you get IMO.
Still having a bug up my butt for a new truck, I wound up finding a deal on something totally different, but a make/model I was familiar with because my family has owned them in the past. A Nissan Frontier. I struck a deal on a 2022 Frontier S-model with crew cab and 4x4 and 2K miles on it for ~$33K. It's a sweet little truck with great power, handles like it's on rails and is a breeze in a parking lot, but it rides like a truck. Every little bump jostles your body badly, where a Ram 1500 soaks them up like a big old Buick.
The Frontier has the new direct injected VQ38DD in it and the Jatco built 9G Tronic 9spd AT (Mercedes Benz trans). They all have 3.69 gears now with M266 axles. They still use hydraulic power steering and the frame/chassis is the same since 2009, although my short wheel base crew cab turns on a dime compared to my father-in-laws 2017 crew cab long wheel base.
As we all know, small trucks don't do much better than full size in terms of fuel economy. I'm getting 21mpg average tank to tank with the Frontier, vs the 19-20 I would get with my hemi Ram.
In the end, the 2022+ Frontier is neat little truck, but I do miss my Ram 1500 classic and I'll probably be back some day. I'll always be poking in on this great board of course.
My 2019 Ram 1500 classic vs my new Frontier:
I paid $27K for my 2019 classic w/ 15K miles on it in June 2020. With ~63K miles on it and 2yrs later I was getting trade-in offers in the $26K range. I owed about $8K on it, so had a bit of trade equity.
As we all know, the truck market is insane and the best offer I could find back in Sept/Oct on a Ram 1500 that was close to what I could tolerate, was a quad cab, pentastar 4x4 at about $43K. Basically MSRP or nothing at the time. I tried 4 different dealers. That is just too much for what you get IMO.
Still having a bug up my butt for a new truck, I wound up finding a deal on something totally different, but a make/model I was familiar with because my family has owned them in the past. A Nissan Frontier. I struck a deal on a 2022 Frontier S-model with crew cab and 4x4 and 2K miles on it for ~$33K. It's a sweet little truck with great power, handles like it's on rails and is a breeze in a parking lot, but it rides like a truck. Every little bump jostles your body badly, where a Ram 1500 soaks them up like a big old Buick.
The Frontier has the new direct injected VQ38DD in it and the Jatco built 9G Tronic 9spd AT (Mercedes Benz trans). They all have 3.69 gears now with M266 axles. They still use hydraulic power steering and the frame/chassis is the same since 2009, although my short wheel base crew cab turns on a dime compared to my father-in-laws 2017 crew cab long wheel base.
As we all know, small trucks don't do much better than full size in terms of fuel economy. I'm getting 21mpg average tank to tank with the Frontier, vs the 19-20 I would get with my hemi Ram.
In the end, the 2022+ Frontier is neat little truck, but I do miss my Ram 1500 classic and I'll probably be back some day. I'll always be poking in on this great board of course.
My 2019 Ram 1500 classic vs my new Frontier:
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