3 WORST and 4 BEST Ram Models You Should Actually Own

Here is the truth about Ram trucks that nobody at the dealership is going to tell you. Two guys can buy the exact same Ram, same trim, same engine, same color, park them on the same street, and one of them will hit 300,000 miles without breaking a sweat while the other one is writing checks for 8,000 and 10,000 dollars before the odometer even clears Same truck, completely different outcome, and the only thing separating them is the model year on the title. Hi, my name is Travis and this is Ram Car Clues. If you are new here, this channel exists for one reason, to make sure you never end up on the wrong side of that story. Let's get into it. Worst number three, the 2014 Ram 1500. If you spend any time around Ram mechanics, the 2014 comes up constantly, and not in a good way. This truck got hit from every direction at once and the timing could not have been worse for the people who bought one. 2014 was the year Ram introduced the 3-liter EcoDiesel V6 in the half-ton. On paper, the numbers looked great. Good torque, better fuel economy than the Hemi, and a diesel badge that made guys feel like they were driving something special. What they were actually driving was a high-pressure fuel pump waiting to detonate. When that pump fails and it fails, it shreds itself from the inside and sends metal shavings through the fuel rails, the injectors, and every fuel line in the system. One pump goes bad, and you are replacing the entire fuel delivery system. $3,000 to $6,000. Some owners needed everything replaced, and that is just the diesel problem. Opted for the 5.7-liter Hemi instead? Not safe either. The MDS lifters in that era are notorious for seizing up, scoring the camshaft, and sending metal through the oil. Cam and lifter replacement runs $5,000 to $7,000 at a dealer. On a 2014, that bill is often worth more than the truck itself. Then add the exhaust manifold bolt failures. Cast iron manifolds bolted to aluminum heads with steel fasteners that expand at different rates through thousands of heat cycles until something gives. Catch it early and you are looking at $600 to $800. Miss it and the bolt snaps flush inside the head. That is over $1,300 in machine work just to extract one bolt. Meanwhile, the transmission was still being sorted out from the year before. 25,000 NHTSA complaints. 14 recalls. Over 900 technical service bulletins. If someone is offering you a 2014 at a suspiciously good price, you are looking at the reason right there. Worst number two, the 2019 Ram 1500. The 2019 Ram was genuinely exciting. It was a completely redesigned fifth-generation platform with what many called the best interior in any full-size truck. It also introduced a coil spring rear suspension that made every other pickup feel like a farm implement. Everybody wanted one, and a lot of people got burned because of it. First year of any new platform is always a gamble. Ram's engineers knew that, but buyers do not always know it until after they sign the paperwork. The 2019 racked up nearly 2,000 NHTSA complaints and 28 recalls. Let that sink in 28 recalls on a brand new truck. The eTorque Mild Hybrid System was the headline feature that year. A 48-volt motor generator unit that added torque fill and fuel efficiency to the Hemi. Sounds great. In practice, it was leaving trucks stranded on the side of the road while owners waited months for replacement parts because the supply chain could not keep up with how many units were failing. Some owners reported multiple failures on the same truck within the first year. There is nothing quite like driving a $45,000 truck and getting a loaner because your brand new hybrid system grenades before your first oil change is due. I promise you that is not the experience Ram was advertising. The transmission calibration on early production units also had not been fully sorted, which is a recurring theme on this channel if you have been watching for a while. Shifting complaints, hesitation, and engagement delays showed up in owner forms almost immediately after launch. The 2019 is not an unreliable truck by nature. The bones are excellent, but first-year production bugs on a completely new platform cost a lot of owners a lot of time, money, and frustration that should have been spent actually enjoying their truck. Give a new platform at least one full model year to get sorted. That rule has never steered anyone wrong. Worst number one, the 2013 Ram 1500. This one stings because the 2013 had everything going for it on paper. Ram introduced the ZF 8-speed automatic that year, and that gearbox is legitimately one of the best transmissions ever built. BMW uses it. Bentley uses it. Rolls-Royce uses it. When ZF builds something, they build it right. The problem was not the transmission. The problem was the software Ram used to control it. In 2013, that software was learning on the job at the harsh shifting, hesitation pulling away from a stop, a delayed engagement where you put it in drive and the truck just sat there thinking about it before actually moving. And cold mornings were where this thing really showed its personality, not in a fun way. That first shift from park to drive on a cold winter morning could feel like getting rear-ended at a red light. One forum post I came across said it felt like the transmission was personally angry at him every morning until March. Funny, until you realize what repeated harsh cold shifts do to clutch packs over time. Every slam is heat. Every slam is wear. If you are looking at a 2013 and the price seems suspiciously low, the transmission is almost certainly why. Test drive it cold. Not warmed up. Cold. That is where the truth comes out. Best number four, the 2009 Ram 1500. The 2009 does not get nearly enough credit. It sits right in the sweet spot of the fourth generation platform, far enough in that the early bugs had been worked out and before the complexity of later years started creeping in. What you get is a truck that is genuinely simple to own and genuinely tough to kill. The 5.7 Hemi in the 2009 produces 395 horsepower and 407 pound-feet of torque, without a single turbocharger, intercooler or emission system drama anywhere on the truck. Parts are cheap. The aftermarket is enormous. Any shop in the country can work on it without needing to look anything up. The MDS lifter tick issues that plagued the 2011 through 2016 range are present, but not as prevalent on the 2009. And if you find a truck that has been maintained on full synthetic oil with regular changes, the odds of inheriting a lifter problem drop considerably. Used 2009 models in clean condition run anywhere from $8,000 to $18,000, depending on mileage and trim. For that money, you are buying a proven platform with a proven engine and repair costs that will not make you regret the purchase. It is not glamorous. It does not have the fancy interior of the fifth gen. But it works. It keeps working. And when something does need fixing, the bill does not require a payment plan. Best number three. The 2006 and 2007 Ram 2500 with the 5.9 liter Cummins. Clean examples of these trucks are selling for $25,000 to $40,000 on the used market. Sometimes for more than their original sticker price when they were new. That almost never happens with any vehicle, let alone one pushing 20 years old. But that is what this engine does to people. The 2006 and 2007 were the last two years of the 5.9 liter Cummins before emissions equipment became mandatory. No diesel particulate filter clogging up. No exhaust gas recirculation system. No diesel exhaust fluid to buy. Just a straight inline six, making 325 horsepower and 610 pound feet of torque backed by a Bosch CP3 fuel pump that handles high mileage without drama. These trucks regularly hit 300,000 miles. Some go considerably further. The all time mileage record for a Cummins belongs to a 1996 5.9 liter that covered over 3 million miles. 3 million miles on one engine block. Let that land for a second. If you find a well maintained 2006 or 2007, you buy it. Do not negotiate too hard. Do not walk away over mileage. Do not wait for a better deal next week. The people who own good ones know exactly what they have, and they are not in a hurry to let them go. Best number two, the 2022 Ram 1500. By 2022, Ram had five full years of production on the fifth generation platform. Everything that could go wrong in the early years had been found, fixed, and put to bed. What you get is the most refined version of the best riding full size truck on the market. And that is not a small thing. Here is why 2022 specifically is worth targeting. It was the last model year you could get the 5.7 Hemi without the eTorque mild hybrid system and still get the updated Uconnect 5 infotainment. That combination matters more than people realize. Fewer electronics means fewer things to diagnose at 120,000 miles. Simple always beats clever in the long run. One thing to watch when you are shopping trims, the Rebel, the Limited, and the Longhorn come with AIR suspension. The ride is genuinely impressive, but those air springs and compressors have a shelf life, and some owners are seeing failures as early as 50,000 miles. Dealer repairs run over $2,000 per incident. Stick with the Big Horn or Laramie on standard coil springs. You still get that smooth 5th generation ride without the AIR suspension anxiety. Clean 2022 models run $30,000 to $45,000. For the most sorted half-ton Ram ever built, that is money well spent. Best number one, the 2017 Ram 1500. This is the one. If someone asked me which Ram to buy, this is the answer. Every time. No hesitation. By 2017, the 4th generation platform had been in production for 8 years. 8 years of real-world feedback, warranty claims, field fixes, and engineering revisions. The result is a truck where the problems that destroyed earlier owners' wallets had already been quietly solved before you ever write the check. The ZF 8-speed that was slamming guys around on cold mornings in 2013 finally had its calibration dialed in perfectly. Smooth, fast, predictable. The 5.7 Hemi received updated roller lifters with larger needle bearings from a new supplier, which dramatically cut down the lifter tick failures that define the 2011 through 2016 range. Ram never made a big announcement about it. They just fixed it and kept shipping trucks. 2017 was the year that fix fully took hold. Average annual repair cost on a 2017 Ram 1500, $568. Lowest of any Ram model year. You can find a Bighorn or SLT Crew Cab 4x4 with the Hemi for $15,000 to $30,000 depending on mileage. That is a proven engine, a proven transmission, and repair bills that embarrass trucks costing twice as much. When you test drive one, listen on cold start. A tick that disappears within in 30 seconds is just exhaust manifold bolts being Hemi bolts. Not a deal breaker. A tick that stays warm, especially from the passenger side. That is a different conversation. Pull the maintenance records. Look for 0W40 oil changes. The Hemi is picky about viscosity, and the trucks that were fed the wrong oil show it eventually. 2017. That is the one.