2013 Ram 1500 SLT Crew Cab 4x4 - Car and Driver
Despite our love of driving other people’s cars, we do occasionally use our own rides, and oftentimes these pristine machines need assistance getting from place to place. While heavy-duty pickups are designed for hauling serious tonnage, Chrysler’s high-tech updates to the light-duty 2013 Ram 1500 made it an ideal candidate for a long-term transportation study. During 40,000 miles in less than 12 months, in which our True Blue Pearl crew cab rarely sat idle, one of the wimpiest of Ram’s pickups proved more than capable on nearly every front, and especially when towing our battered heaps to tracks across... Unlike our previous long-term Ram 1500—a 2009 model with four-wheel drive and the 390-hp, 5. 7-liter Hemi V-8 [“ Handy Man ,” July 2010 ]—our 2013 SLT crew cab 4x4 featured the standard 305-hp, 3. 6-liter V-6. It seems an odd powerplant for a work... Would it be enough for us. In the end, the wee motor worked well in our 5601-pound test truck because of its standard pairing with the TorqueFlite 8HP45 eight-speed automatic transmission—a smooth-shifting upgrade over our previous Ram’s... Also fitted: the new four-corner air suspension ($1595) in place of the Ram’s standard coil springs. They also work in concert with the grille’s automatic shutters to reduce aerodynamic drag, lowering the ride height by nearly an inch at highway speeds. Source: www.caranddriver.com
