today today we're talking Ram trucks and specifically we're talking about the range of Ram trucks and their use in Australia and why I didn't buy a Ram 1500 this is a ram 3500 this is a used truck this is what I purchased and I'll cover up on the pros and cons of this particular truck in another video what I did want to cover up before we get to that is why I didn't buy a 1500 the reason is because the 1500 in Australia is really compelling I've looked at u.s. trucks for a long time I've followed them ever since the f250s were sold as a factory right-hand drive vehicle in the early 2000 to 2005 and I've been interested in in the truck since then and I've followed them in the years since lamenting the fact that there is no factory right-hand drive kind of cost-effective way of getting into a u.s. half-ton 3/4 or full 1 ton vehicle in Australia I mention all that because a couple of years ago two years ago when the Ram 1500 was announced it was in many automotive outlets that the RAM 1500 was going to be released as a factory supported option converted by ASB in Melbourne that was going to be released in Australia the really compelling thing about that was the price tag I'd look many many times at bringing in a 1500 though I was looking at an eco diesel or a Nissen Titan or similar and every time I'd come to try and do it it was going to be about $90,000 was about as cheap as I could get it in here doing a lot of the work myself but can you complied through a authorized workshop 90 grand and I was like I don't know you know I'm on my own if I do it myself there's no warranty backing is risk with it and it's a lot a lot of money and just could never overcome that hurdle and then but I look at the second-hand trucks and f250s and such still training at fifty sixty thousand dollars almost their purchase price many many many years later and I just couldn't justify the expense so when the fifteen hundred was announced 80,000 80,000 dollars drive away that seemed compelling with me and there was a number of recent price was the first thing Christ was the first thing that got me interested in the RAM 1500 eighty thousand dollars utility vehicles in Australia are ever going up in price and eighty thousand dollars it wasn't that far away from a top-of-the-line Ranger or a mower or whatever it is that you might be looking at it was a step-up distinctly but it wasn't this double of the price you know might be going from $60,000 to $80,000 as opposed to $60,000 to $120,000 plus admittedly the 1500 is in a 2500 and the 2500 can do a lot more and there's a lot more power as a lot more towing rated in the 1500 but admittedly what the specs were showing for the 1500 still seem like a compelling argument so price was the first thing that got me interested the second thing that got me interested was six seats now I have a couple of kids and if you have a couple of kids you're never far away from it seems having to have another couple of kids in the car as well if you've got playdates are you taken to sport or whatever it is and five seats in a truck in Australian you just wasn't cutting it for me I wanted six seats my other vehicle is a 100 series Land Cruiser which has eight seats which is great but there's some times where I want to trade might have kids bikes or something on board and I wanted that extra seat six seats seemed really compelling now Ram trucks in Australia admitted they never announced that the RAM was going to be in six seats but they didn't ask that it was going to be a base model Ram and I looked at that this was in this particular case the Australian release it was a fifteen hundred Express no I knew the specs on the 1500 Express from the US because I looked at bring a tradesman or it expressing previously now I knew that they had six seats and the images that Ram released showed the center console finally down I want you beautiful that is great they're going to bring in a six seater round so that's what box ticked number one admittedly that was never announced was going to be a six seater but I saw the images I saw the spec sheet of my beautiful that's going to be a six seater so that's that's the second thing reason that I'm interested in price and CD the third thing I was interested in was the length of the tray I have I'm a farmer I have a farm and I have single cab you which doesn't cut kids ranks so you got one extra seat in it which is very very annoying but it has a two point four meter length tray on it which is great you can put a standard sheet of ply villaboard or railway sleep or whatever anything longer than that with your racks and put it over the top very very very flexible with a dual cab carding sheet and long stuff if you can if it's a piece of pipe or something you put it on a builder's rack you've got a steel tray great if you don't if it's got to go in and Tarbert it's got to go in a tray that option immediately goes away and I find that very very difficult about things I want to move around at a large I might have to go somewhere to get it like you know I'm in a regional area I might have to travel an hour might travel two hours to go and pick it up and I can't take the family with me was that well have a go we'll have a day out or go here or go for a drive everybody come with me and they have to stay at home because I've got to take the single cab or I go to tell a trailer and trails a pain in the butt so having a longer tray was very compelling unfortunately the Express has a two point one meter length trade but that is better than the Laramie because the Express has a shorter cabin the Laramie has bigger cabin has a shorter tray so I knew is going to have about capacity for bats 802.1 made a link tray behind the cabin and that's better than a duel cabin Australia at 1.8 typically there are variations on that but it's typically in Australia a dual cap steel trays about 1.8 meters so with on the Express I knew I was going to be able to have to point one and that was distinctly compelling for me as an option the other last reason that was particularly interesting to me was the spec sheet announced by ASB Ram trucks Australia was a four and a half tonne tow rating now again on a farm I have farm machinery I like all the towing ability that I can even if it's only moving farm equipment in between properties that's a very very compelling argument to me especially when you have a look at the crop of Australian trucks we generally have a three and a half time tow rating and really it's only on paper this has been well covered especially in the last 12 months about why a three and a half totem tow rating is not actually typically a three and a half time tow rating some vehicles like a like a 79 series Land Cruiser yep admittedly that has a higher GCM so putting that to one side but the Thai built use yes you can pull three and a half tonne on them theoretically but practically over time in all situations with you know accessories like bull bars and tow bars and canopies and bigger fuel tanks fitted with people on board if you've got a dual cab you probably got family that you want to move around with you you might have wife kids dog whatever it is luggage tools over time across circumstance it's not possible to reliably pull three and a half tonne so I'm going to see four and a half tonne on the 1500 I like yep this is good I'll be able to reliably hopefully pull four and a half tonne and it means I can move some farm machinery around I can do some heavier pulling and that is very very compelling okay so what happened was is the Dodge Ram was not there Dodge Ram excuse me my trucks of Dodge Ram modern trucks our Ram trucks that Dodge is gone Rams been spun off into its own brand the Ram 1500 was firstly it was in order he delayed it was slated to come out I believe it started the new financial year a couple of years ago and it got delayed and delayed and delayed and delayed and the announcement that it was going to come out at the beginning of the new financial year was it like a couple of days ahead it was about three months out and ASV said we're going to launch this truck at the at the end of financial year it's gonna be petrol only express and Laramie and the diesel follow at the end of the year now there was delays delays delays towards the end of the year they finally got it out there wrapped dealers so I was the first one in the door went to a couple of dealers right boom let's go have a look at this thing $80,000 show me the vehicle and people were snapping him up there was already immediately on launch there was a waitlist for them and I got I did drag my fever little B when I went to drive it and then me dragged my feet snowfall to the dealer so went to see a couple of dealers took them for a drive now the 1500 I expected to be see extraordinarily plush and Scott sprung here an hour for this is going to be absolutely magnificent I previously driving a Volkswagen hammer and personal opinion only I believe that there in terms of the you know what that's called the tie built Utes and the Emirates not build in Thailand but in any event the it with the current crop of Australian typically typical dual cab Utes that the Hamrick rides the new Isis is the most car liking that's right in my personal opinion so I thought it was going to be like that it wasn't it's not bad but it is it's got that typical skittish back in that is typical abuse and you kind of expect that when you tube dialed in to carry loads you would expect a little bit of that but it was more than I thought I thought it would be more like the Ameren world car life than it was but not to say that it wasn't bad certainly not the worst you don't ever ever driven I just thought it would be a bit better certainly got plenty of power and but would would take if you want to take off slow and ease the throttle and take a nice cruise keep the fuel economy down that did seem like it was capable of doing that the turning circle was far far better than any of the US trucks are driven P previously like the early 2000s f250 but then again that's you are the Nats a you would expect it to be better than almost pretty much every respect so turning circle wasn't too bad it was actually pretty good I was actually pretty impressed with that the ROI I can't lay down the interior comfort was fine but that's that's all I'd say so but you know that all checked out pretty good so I said if it doesn't I want to put a load on I want to see what it's going to be like with a load well you know I don't want to do that so winds from another dealer test drove it again can't put a load on it yeah you can okay radio so I got a car trailer with about with the rolling weight was about three times total up the dealer put it on the back of the tow bar and the new front end straight up in the air and driving with it pulled it no problems at all but there was distinct way and it was definitely definitely nose up and okay well this this is shouldn't be you know the suspension shouldn't be struggling with three ton load if it's four and a half ton toe rated and it wasn't struggling it was just wasn't doing it as well as I thought it might in my 100 series Land Cruiser as the airbags back on the back of it before the airbags went in you do the same thing with the airbags you know it's it manages a lot of bearing doesn't dip as much so you know maybe I was being harsh or maybe my expectations were too high but what that did do was it led me back to have a look at some things later on but after that time on yeah okay so didn't tell as well as I like I certainly got plenty of engine and it shouldn't be an insurmountable thing to overcome to level this thing yeah yeah back in that should fix it up should be fine so I said to the dealer okay what can we do when can I get one he said okay six month way okay well I really want to wait six months I'm going into harvest it was harvest time on the farm I said look we won't worry about it then because I needed you for harvest I can't you know just pour wait endlessly so I'll have to figure something out for harvest I'll talk to you after harvest and working out then after harvest I went back to a couple of dealers with a mind to negotiate a purchase this is you know three four months was February so maybe five months after actually Utes landing on the ground in Australia and I said okay let's talk Turkey let's get one in the order yet it might be three months late might be six month wait what can we do now what it was on release was it was an $80,000 79 990 release four and a half ton package that's was you know four and a half time towing different three and a half time towing DIF that four and a half ton towing differ I shows a higher help you pull that load a little easier off the mark to spoke to the dealer okay we want to get one in the system I said yet no calm that's fine it'll be eighty eight thousand dollars I said what I do thousand dollars seventy nine nine nine if I no no no no $79.99 79 990 is for the three and a half Tonto rated truck so I don't want the three nihonto Ryder truck I want four and a half times over truck you know well that one's eighty eight thousand would you watch this in you know June last year you said it was gonna come out seventy nine nine ninety when it launched in circus September 79 nine ninety I'm talking you in January and it's 88 what the heck's going on oh no that's the price was a special I look no no no special all the articles I've read seventy nine nine ninety that's the driver way price three and a half time four and a half time I know I've got an option up the four and a half ton years now you don't it's just a different show differ a so is no extra it's a it's a no-cost option in the US there's no extra cost in doing the Florida I'll we can't do it in 88 yep so I went to another dealer I've got the same spiel and immediately my credibility the credibility that I built towards a SP went from here to here you're launching your truck and then three months four months later you go you know what I reckon we can get another 10% out of people because we want to flog off these three and a half time toe road trucks four and a half ones are selling really really easy so we'll put the price on this one up but keep that down and that's fine if that's your prerogative but if this was any other mass marketed car and you just sort to gouge an additional ten percent out of people only four months after launch I think it's perfectly reasonable for people to be a little bit upset and say that you know I think your credibility is lacking if you're going to immediately push the price up on one of your vehicles under the guise that it's that it's an additional cost to have the a no-cost option fitted sorry that doesn't wash it mate so that perturbed me I thought look it's ten percent though maybe still worth paying we're in a way to have a think about it went through the detailed spec sheets on the vehicle particular notes me I had someone point out said the the rear axle writing on the four and a half tongue or even three and a half tonne RAM is very very lucky so I had a look at the payload and the rear axle writing and indeed they are very very low there are Australians like the 79 series Land Cruiser has a way heavier rear axle rating than the RAM 1500 so when you start playing with that and having a look at what's the actual dead weight of the rear axle and and then have a look at the GCM for the truck you end up in a position like the Australian youths which is this you can't call four-and-a-half time it can on paper perhaps but in reality across time and across circumstance where you're going to have accessories fitted tow bar bull the canopy bigger fuel tank fridge whatever it is that you're fitting wife kids and the dog on board luggage on board tools on board across time and circumstance you can't pull four and a half ton of them there's just not enough room in the GCM and in the rear axle rating to allow you to pull four and a half tonne consistently I quiz a couple other dealers on this they didn't have an answer for melanomas four and a half time and that's fine I suppose the only I think the real reason that people get upset about the whole three and a half time tolling and it's not practical or in this case the four and a half time towing and it's not practical is that if you walk into a dealership and you say I want to you under a Ford dealership you say I want to pull three and a half ton three and a half ton karabiner won't pull it they will say go buy this Ranger you go into a d-max dealership I want to pull three and a half time go by this d-max you go into a ram dealership he say I want to pull four and a half time and I've got about eighty thousand dollars to spend well as they blow under a hundred thousand but under a hundred thousand dollars to spend I want to pull four and a half telling you oh this Ram 1500 you exactly what's your name oh this will sort you right out and it's not true it's not true one of the dealers I spoke to was talking about the flood influx of 200 series Land Cruisers that they were getting to trade in on the 1500 and that's fine as well there's just not enough tow rating in a three and a half you know 200 series Land Cruiser with a 3.5 ton Toro and when you have a look at the spare tear of a 200 series Land Cruiser there is actually some truth in that and there is some reason some benefit potentially to go to something different if you're pulling heavy weights but the 200 series Land Cruiser but in any of it putting that to one side with the 1500 you just can't pull four and a half time across time across circumstance and b-league it can't be done it just can't be done if you say well all I'm ever gonna do is I'm going to buy my truck the only accessory is going to have on it is the tow ball I'm the only person who's ever going to be in it and I'm not taking anything else with me and I'm gonna have to take it easy because the the nose of the vehicle is gonna be sticking up in the air I'm gonna put four and a half ton on it and it's give you 450 kilos reliably down weight on the tow bar maybe you can do it maybe but if your circumstances go beyond that I don't see how it can be done personal opinion in any of it so that really removed that first benefit off the table subway 79 990 price was an advantage that's gone because now they're charging me they were ayay the tow ratings gone by four and a half Tonto ratings gone because now and look it has been put to me by a number of 1500 RAM owners and so oh look you know a 1500 grams gonna be way better to tow three and a half tons with than a Ford Ranger no argument there absolutely no argument there I agree with that statement in fact but that's not the argument that dealers on mass and making the dealers on mass of making the argument that four and a half tons under a hundred thousand you need this Ram mate that's what you need and that's disingenuous in my opinion but if you were to pull three and a half tons and you think a ram or suture and it will tow it better than your 200 series it probably will however the other thing I often hear from people who have the 1500 gram and they'll get a fifteen hundred gram or a 2500 ram and they'll buyer and they say I traded my two hundred series in on this ramp and it's just if so much larger it's the ride is nice that the comfort is better it's just an all-around better place to be in every possible regard know my opinion that is absolute nonsense I'm sorry there is no way that a 200 series appeals I just traded them a 200 series Sahara on this Ram where I mean it's just it's comfortable more comfortable in every possible respect no you just don't ride as nice as wagons now maybe it tows better maybe you're pulling heavy loads and maybe it toes better maybe you're more happy with it because you can chuck stuff in the back because it has a better payload or something that's fine but in terms of this rides better this is more comfortable to me I don't see I've got a Land Cruiser no 100 to 200 series way more luxurious than that and I've driven the 1500 Ram in Laramie and Inn Express and I've driven a new 2500 my home is a series land cruise is more comfortable the 200 series is more comfortable than my allure under series Land Cruiser it's just look if you if you like it better more power to you that's great I just don't see how a tre back that is built in for it heavier payload is going to be so it's just not it's it's not true in any of it I've got two of my principal advantages gone the other thing I was looking at as I said was six cents I wanted six cents now when Ram brought the vehicle in they bolted that they put a latch on it and and hard-mounted the the center seat the D key C or the jump seat whatever you want to call it in the front down so and there's no seat belt there it's registered as a five-seater so that got rid of that and admittedly I completely admit that that was an assumption I assumed that it would be a 600 or was it was a five-seater but that advantage was gone - now subsequent to that as we stand here today there are companies now that are engineering the RAM 1500 so that you can remove the lapse sit it up put an extra seat belt in and getting a wreck implied for the cost of and I've seen it you know from somewhere between 1500 all the way up to about five grand is what people seem to be charged that's a big spread depends what state you're in and who's offering service to convert it so that you're legally able to run the six seats in there in a 1500 Express when I was looking I figured it was possible but I didn't know and I knew was going to be an additional cost and because I didn't know whether it could be done that came an additional risk now me with a whole slew of other people have asked Ram trucks Australia through the dealer network why didn't you make it a six seater and I've heard various responses the chief response seems to be all we had to do it that way if we didn't register it as a as a five-seater it would it would attract the luxury car tax that's rubbish it's a utility vehicle if that was true Iveco with their series of transfers just a seven-seater I believe they'd be ripping seats out of that thing everywhere that's not the reason that's not the reason when I was looking to bring in trucks I looked at bringing in this entitlement I look to bring in a 1500 Ecodiesel all in with six seats I've spoken to people who've brought in 6,200 no mention of all we had to make a call because the luxury car tax was going to be termed luxury vehicles going to cost a fortune that's not the reason I don't know the reason and my conjectures only as good as anybody else's but I suspect that what the reason is is that Ram trucks Australia or ASB have always said that they want to get they've got this full compliance truck that's what they want they want to be full compliance they want to be doing large volume and I suspect that the reason that they didn't comply as a six-seater was because it was going to be an ordinary difficult for them to comply a six-seater and get a good crash-test rating it was gonna be very very very difficult for them to do that which makes sense because you have someone in the middle of the car no airbag no protection head straight into the dash if you have an accident now that's a risk that individuals if they have six centers that's it that's a risk that they have to have to consider as to whether they're willing to take that or not but I suspect that that's the real reason is the crash testing had the potential for crashed exit testing and a poor result was the reason that they didn't comply to succeed now that also brings us to a point will side note on the fact that the 1500 released through ASB is the previous generation truck when ASB announced the launch forms you know always seem to have a comment is saying well this is the last generation truck right they bringing the new truck II that's true is the last generation truck now the current generation truck is being sold and you can buy that through other importers but ASV aren't offering they're offering me the previous model this is kind of akin to in the mid-2000s where Nissen was selling the d40 Navarre and they've seen the previous generation d-22 alongside a little cheaper price from memory you know in the late mid 2000s you could buy like a d4 d14 STX for about say forty five thousand or you could buy an STR the top-of-the-line if you will d-22 430 to 990 honest I'm special so you know it was it was it was distinctly cheaper that's what Rama doing in the u.s. they're selling the previous generation truck alongside the new one generation truck is selling out at discount now the previous generation trucks selling at a discount obviously brings discounts for the Australian market and if ASV was seeking at seventy nine nine ninety as a sweet spot to retail the truck for for the Express they not going to be able to do that with the current generation truck which I assume is why they've been not Swift to bring the current generation truck it so I have my seventy nine nine ninety price point gone it's not only but it's it's going to be ten percent higher than that I'm not going to be able to pull four and a half ton and I can't put six seats so the one thing I'm left with is a two point one meter lengths trade I've still got that that's still the JIT although my telling in payload is probably compromised compared to you know why the you'd I had at the time in terms of a single cow and that may not be a fair comparison comparing the single cap with the jeweled cap Ram but that they're the things I need it I needed a full-size tray there was able to take good weight and even six seats and a four and a half times I need to get us relatively cost-effectively and I couldn't do it so pretty much all but the tray all of the advantages are previously seen with the rim were gone so that's why I didn't buy a 1500 the 1500 in and of itself is not a bad truck I'm not I dunno point you know it's a previous generation truck but you know people said I'm not being crashed it only got two airbags in the front well the the motoring journalists in Australia are more than happy to rate the v6 amarak very very highly despite having no airbags in the back still I've got a five-star safety rating on release the emmerich did that's on release that's some time ago now and they're still trading on that crash test rating where the even encap admit that there's no way that the amort would get a five-star safety rating today which is why volkswagen won't rewrite it because until maybe they get a next-generation update which puts airbags in the back of it but in any event putting that to one side it would be more than likely the RAM 1500 would also get not a great crash test range certainly wouldn't get five stars that wasn't necessarily a factor in my decision but with all these things adding up it completely eroded the value proposition of buying a ram 1500 so even Bob and I went on the hunt for for something I'm skipping ahead you can see what I got and that's a story for another day but if you have a 1500 and you're really happy with it you know there's probably people out there pulling four tonnes with it hey if you can pull it and you pull it safely more power to you I don't know what it's like in your neck of the woods but where I am in New South Wales it's becoming increasingly prevalent for people getting random randomly wade on the road with mobile mobile scales to see if they're that their car is is compliant with the GBM and their GCM and I would suspect that if you're regularly pulling four tonnes with a load that you're probably exceeding something you're certainly probably exceeding the rear axle rating but look if you're happy with it that's right and there's a quick little note to finish out the 1500 does have some inherent advantages now that I know that you can get it you can get an engineered to go six seats the we're still going to wait with this but that's probably freed up a little bit now Rams manufacturing a whole heap more trucks in Australia they did I think 2,600 across all the lines last year you know they're doing more maybe you could get you negotiate your price back down closer to 79 four and a half time truck you know it's maybe some of these things that are more easily overcome let's say but at the time I was looking at it didn't make sense to me at all I've spent my time towing heavy loads and getting pulled over for inspections with the RTA in New South Wales and always been compliant always intend to be compliant what I don't want is to be pulling a vehicle on the liver and then getting into trouble but if you're a good a 1500 and you love it and you enjoy that's awesome man and good luck to you didn't suit me for those reasons and in retrospect I probably wouldn't still blow and even with some of the issues that are overcome because I've been watching online forums about people's complaints about the RAM and ASV in terms of their I'm only relaying what I've read this is only a personal summer summer summarization of things that I've read is the amount of recalls on these things are just unbelievable if they're not recalls they're things people go out to come and cover ah do my things leaking oil out of this spot is a common probably need to go back there to fix this folks there's water leak in my car yeah yeah it's a common problem you've got to go do this your thesis oh my cars plunder the lefty a year to come from I'm gonna go to this the amount of things that seem to be just little things going wrong with these trucks it's just unbelievable and when you spend 80,000 I wouldn't tolerate that thing if I bought a fifteen thousand dollar granting car let alone an $80,000 vehicle the amount of things that he'll guy asses come from I just wouldn't tolerate and I don't know why they do but they do and that's fine if you've been unscathed that's awesome that's been great that's awesome really really flat before because that's what you want out of a new car but I probably still wouldn't put a buy one because of that issue if I was going to buy a new truck may I don't know if I'd buy a ram I don't know what I'd have to have a look at it in more detail in the current generation trucks but in any event and I would probably personal opinion only wouldn't buy from a sv I'd buy from Marylander or them all from STD or trucks and toys or somebody else you seem to have a little bit less complaints per customer that they have actually served as a else that's probably where I'd look but in any event that's something else did I'm not kind of looking for a vehicle so so I don't know I hope you've got some value out of this oh all opinions expressed are only my personal opinions that's why I didn't buy a 1500 I've really wanted to there was nothing more disappointing in the fact that I didn't buy a 1,500 I can tell you that I really really wanted the 1500 I thought I was going to tick all the boxes unfortunately the boxes that I had all but one felt died the death of a thousand qualifications once I started to get into the nitty-gritty of it and it didn't suit me suits you that's right it doesn't suit you like me that's fine too but I hope you found this video informative and watch again next video we'll be doing is why I bought the truck I did buy I didn't buy a 1500 I bought something else so we'll be covering on that in the next video and I hope that's of use to you too thank you for watching
