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Last Call: Will the Ram 1500 TRX give the Raptor some serious competition?

Colby Buchanan

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A Hellcat supercharged V8 in a big boy truck. Do you need anything more? The 2021 1500 TRX sounds like it will be a pretty beast of a pickup. Launch control and 702 ponies along with other performance bits show that it means business. Personally, I’ve never been a fan of Ram trucks, but the 1500 Rebels I’ve valeted in the past few years have honestly changed my mind. They feel sturdy and the interior isn’t too shabby. Obviously the Ford Raptor is quite the opponent to beat but I wouldn’t be surprised if they change a lot of minds with this car.

Would you get one over a Raptor or is having a double-digit MPG more important?

 

About

Colby Buchanan

Colby Buchanan

My name is Colby Buchanan and I love all things car-related all the way from rusted 240sx’s to McLaren Senna’s and of course I have a soft spot for American Muscle. You can spot me in my bone stock ’06 350z named MackenZ.

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13 responses to “Last Call: Will the Ram 1500 TRX give the Raptor some serious competition?”

  1. Maymar Avatar
    Maymar

    My son just got a little wooden car transporter. Similar to Chekov’s Gun (that, if shown in the first act must be fired by the third act), I’m trying to teach him about Ponch’s* Ramp, that if a truck has the ramp down, someone must jump it. He mostly wants to jackknife the truck.

    *CHiPs seems like the best namesake, although you could probably make an argument for the Dukes of Hazzard.

    Reply
    1. Wayne Moyer Avatar
      Wayne Moyer

      We paid for an air ramp and damn it we are going to use it! https://media3.giphy.com/media/v6NcqzpVastlm/giphy.gif

      Reply
    2. Scoutdude Avatar
      Scoutdude

      Well a good jack knife is often a good set up for the carrier jump in CHiPs. My poor memory says Bo and Luke only pulled the transporter jump once while it showed up on CHiPs a few times, though often with a car that catches just enough of it to roll.

      Reply
      1. Maymar Avatar
        Maymar

        I admittedly might be thinking of the 2005 Dukes movie.

        Reply
    3. GTXcellent Avatar
      GTXcellent

      “seven mary three and four, we’ve got some serious stunt work over at Maymar. Back-up has been requested.”

      Reply
  2. Batshitbox Avatar
    Batshitbox

    Google is making their maps even harder to read.

    I’ve always hated the look of Google Maps because the roads are only one slight shade different from the background. Evidently I’m not alone in this, as the forst result for “Contrast” in the Maps Help has the reply, “The ability to change the color scheme in Maps have been requested by us users for years, but with no word from Google.”

    I was briefly hopeful when I read a Gizmodo article today that claimed Maps’ look was getting an update, but no. In fact, from the screenshots it looks like they’ve removed the borderlines and you can’t tell where the road ends and Starbucks begins. Who makes a map you can’t read?

    New and Improved version on the RIGHT

    https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/c_scale,f_auto,fl_progressive,pg_1,q_80,w_800/j7vfdvqba6et6y9k6ms6.png

    Reply
    1. Sjalabais Avatar
      Sjalabais

      I understand your criticism and I agree, a bit, but as with every design – good or bad – the basic rule is: You get used to it. Google Maps has helped me find things since it came into existence, all over the world. It worked like a charme even in the most remote places, like the mountains of Kyrgyzstan. A bit of training and you won’t be having that issue anymore (even though a higher contrast setting would make sense, especially when driving in strong sunlight).

      Reply
      1. Batshitbox Avatar
        Batshitbox

        They’re hard to read. They’ve always been hard to read. Users other than me have been complaining for a long time about how hard to read they are. And now, as anyone who looks at that image above can see, they’re decreasing the contrast instead of doing what everyone’s been asking them to do, increase the contrast so we can see the damned roads!
        Google maps works for getting directions, even gauging traffic and a bunch of other things. I’m not faulting those features.
        If by “a bit of training” you mean “using Maps since the very first month they went live on the internet” then no, that won’t make the issue with readability go away. It’s a property of physics and the human eye.

        Reply
    2. Zentropy Avatar
      Zentropy

      I see some detail improvement, but I agree that it is a significant step back in contrast. I don’t find either particularly hard to read, though. I’m assuming they are keeping it fairly low-contrast so that when you punch up directions, the route will stand out very clearly.

      Lately I’ve found that I like Apple’s map presentation better than Google’s, but as long as my map apps are set so that they don’t rotate, I’m good with them. My brain is good at making mental maps and I generally maintain a fair idea about my cardinal direction with little effort, but I like maps to be presented with a fixed compass (i.e. top = north).

      Reply
  3. 0A5599 Avatar
    0A5599

    Would you get one over a Raptor or is having a double-digit MPG more important?

    My one-way commute is normally under 15 miles, but these days, it has been zero. I’ve gone through three or maybe four tanks of gas since March, and even when things get “normal” I am expecting to primarily work from home.

    The Raptor gets 16 MPG combined. If the TRX gets half that fuel economy, the real world difference at the gas pump is only a couple hundred bucks per year. That’s rounding error on a $70K truck.

    Someone who drives 200 miles per day, 5 days per week might have additional parameters to consider. Then again, the shortest distance between two points isn’t always paved.

    Reply
    1. GTXcellent Avatar
      GTXcellent

      My guess is that mileage is not even taken into consideration when shopping a Raptor and now a TRX.

      Actually, when personally cross shopping pickups (and I’ve owned all 3 so I’m not a brand loyalist), I’ve never taken mpgs into consideration.

      Reply
      1. crank_case Avatar
        crank_case

        It’d be like worrying about environmentally friendly features when choosing a death star

        Reply
  4. Tiberiuswise Avatar
    Tiberiuswise

    According to the googles, the largest fuel tank you can get in ram is 26 gallons. Raptor is 36. Now factor in the MPG.

    Reply