2019 Ram 1500 Laramie Longhorn OVERVIEW The most hedonistic pickup a lot of money can buy PROSHandling, ride, interior décor CONSRelatively moderate performance VALUE FOR MONEYCompared with other pickups? Not so good. Compared with luxury sedans and SUVs with fewer hedonisms, pretty darn good. WHAT TO CHANGE?A little more power, a lot less lane departure warning and even more chrome. Go big or go home! HOW TO SPEC IT?Well, it’s pretty fully-loaded from the factory, but the active suspension option is worth the dosh. For purists, it is surely a tragedy, as genuinely cowboy as John Travolta was in his famed celluloid two-step. For luxury shoppers, its a way for the more, lets call them ruggedly individualistic, affluent to thumb their noses at the effete that park BMWs and Audis in their driveway. And, for Fiat Chrysler, well, its one sweet, incredibly high-profit way to line their pockets with long-amortized-on-the-production-line economies of scale margins that would make Porsche blanch. It, in case youre wondering, is the Ram 1500 Laramie Longhorn, a pickup that, in my testers guise at least, costs $88,495. Yes, youre reading that right, a $100,000 (with taxes) pickup without a Tesla Im-saving-the-world-one-overpriced-EV-at-a-time lithium battery to be seen.Just for a little context. $88,495 will buy you a brand new E-Class Benz. And not one of those pathetic little wheezy E300 four-bangers Mercedes sells to pretenders to largesse, but a full-zoot 429-horsepower E53 with Stuttgart’s latest high-tech, turbocharged 3.0-litre inline six including EQ Boost and electric auxiliary compressor, no less! with enough cash left over to buy a decent used Harley.More of an SUV person, are we? Well, for that kind of dosh actually, you might have to pony up about $3,000 more you can get fully loaded BMW Sport Activity Vehicle. And again, not one of those piddly little baby Xs that theyre selling to advertising agency social media coordinators, but the top-of-the-line, expanded-because-people-wanted-to-spend-even-more-money X7s. You know, the SUV equivalent to BMWs flagship limo-in-waiting 7 Series. In other words, the Laramie Longhorn faces some pretty stiff competition from some pretty heady marques for the American Express Black cards of the rich and feckless. Now, heres the crazy part. It might be worth it.As frequent readers already know, I am no expert on the utilitarian aspect of truckdom. Oh, I hauled a bicycle around in the Rams plasticized bed and, in fact, carted an old dishwasher to the dump, er recycling depot, with it. But thats as close as I got to doing anything even remotely manly with it. No gravel, other than that trapped in the treads of my Nikes was hauled, no wood corded, my cowboying no less urbane than Mr. Saturday Night Fevers.But, my Lord, what a truly luxurious vehicle this is. For one thing, the ride is simply incredible for something that still has a live axle out back. Certainly, it is the smoothest damped pickup Ive ever driven. Before testing the big Ram, I read up on its latest technology, singling out the Frequency Response Damping and Active Level 4 corner air suspension for conspicuously pretentious labelling. Now I am a fan. FCA says its FRD shocks can tell the difference between low-speed inputs as in the loads that occur when a vehicle sways during hard cornering and high-speed perturbations the inevitable potholes resulting from shoddy Canadian roadwork. Im not quite sure how it tells the difference, but it must work because, even on the pockmarked roads of rural Quebec, the Laramie rode like a Lexus and handled like Porsche. OK, I exaggerate, but it was mighty impressive nonetheless. Then, theres the Laramies interior. I could go through the various visual such as the humongous, 12-inch vertically-oriented, Tesla-like touch screen or aural the Harman Kardon sound system but mere listing doesnt capture the sheer hedonism of this Rams interior. Now, to those raised on BMW or Mercedes Spartanism, the Rams cabin will be a little bit of a shock, what with Longhorn badges that look like outsized countrified belt buckles, map pocket clasps that are outsized countrified belt buckles and trim that looks, for all the world, like the reclaimed barn wood that is all the rage these days. The cabin was even Lexus-like silent thanks to Rams noise cancellation system and liberal use of acoustic glass. Indeed, the decor may be different but I can assure you the extravagance was equal to anything this side of a Bentley. Everyone who climbed aboard the big Ram aided, of course, by automatically retractable side steps was impressed, nay astonished, by the Longhorns incredible interior. Indeed, the least impressive thing about the new Ram is its 5.7-litre V8. Considering that it possesses a more-than-middling 395 horsepower and 410 pound-feet of torque some of that due to the 48 Volt eTorque mild hybrid system the performance was
Origin: Pickup Review: 2019 Ram 1500 Laramie Longhorn 4’4 Crew Cab