13 months and ~13k miles with my Pentastar Longhorn...drivability review so far

[habu987]

I've had my loaded up Pentastar Longhorn (every option except ORG and the trailer tow group) for 13 months and just shy of 13k miles so far. You can see the specs in my sig.

Overall, I mostly thoroughly still enjoy the truck! Rather than wax on about the areas that are great (seriously, besides the three areas listed below everything has been awesome with none of the problems other members have listed on this forum) I'll point out the areas that are not as great as I'd hoped:

• V6 performance: My truck is quite heavy, especially with the retractable tonneau cover, and the engine is noticeably overmatched by the weight. Where I live there are lots 'n lots of rolling hills and the truck often downshifts into 4th or 5th gear with fairly high RPMs to more or less maintain speed on the hills. My neighborhood is in the dip between two hills, so coming out of neighborhood going either left or right you go up a hill--one is shorter but has a steeper incline, while the other is taller but has a more gradual incline. The prevailing speed on that road is 55-60mph, and the engine usually labors pretty hard to get up the hills at speed, especially if it's a cold start. Once I'm driving around at speed, performance is usually satisfactory, but it's apparent that it has to work fairly hard when hills are involved.
• Fuel economy: I've got a lifetime fuel economy of 17.3 mpg over my approximately 13k miles, and that includes two 1000+ mile roadtrips that were 90%+ highway miles. My normal commute is approximately 70/30 city/highway. I don't have a heavy right foot in the slightest...I don't quite drive like a little old granny, but I do tend to drive more to that end of the spectrum than the other end. My truck is a real porker and I think it's simply too much weight for the Pentastar to be a good match for. If I were driving a comparatively stripped down Big Horn model, I'll bet my mileage would go up substantially.
• Suspension: This is really just a quibble, as 90% of the time it's smooth sailing, but there is substantial body roll and unsettled motion going over expansion joints and the like at an angle instead of head-on, as well as general jitteryness when going over rough pavement. It goes over gravel and unpaved surfaces just fine, it's when the pavement starts to look like a moonscape that it's an issue.

Besides those three things, I love it! Unless something catastrophic happens in the next 20ish months, I plan to get another Longhorn when my current 36 month lease is up.

 

[Edwards]

I've had my loaded up Pentastar Longhorn (every option except ORG and the trailer tow group) for 13 months and just shy of 13k miles so far. You can see the specs in my sig.

Overall, I mostly thoroughly still enjoy the truck! Rather than wax on about the areas that are great, I'll point out the areas that are not as great as I'd hoped:

• V6 performance: My truck is quite heavy, especially with the retractable tonneau cover, and the engine is noticeably overmatched by the weight. Where I live there are lots 'n lots of rolling hills and the truck often downshifts into 4th or 5th gear with fairly high RPMs to more or less maintain speed on the hills. My neighborhood is in the dip between two hills, so coming out of neighborhood going either left or right you go up a hill--one is shorter but has a steeper incline, while the other is taller but has a more gradual incline. The prevailing speed on that road is 55-60mph, and the engine usually labors pretty hard to get up the hills at speed, especially if it's a cold start. Once I'm driving around at speed, performance is usually satisfactory, but it's apparent that it has to work fairly hard when hills are involved.
• Fuel economy: I've got a lifetime fuel economy of 17.3 mpg over my approximately 13k miles, and that includes two 1000+ mile roadtrips that were 90%+ highway miles. My normal commute is approximately 70/30 city/highway. I don't have a heavy right foot in the slightest...I don't quite drive like a little old granny, but I do tend to drive more to that end of the spectrum than the other end. My truck is a real porker and I think it's simply too much weight for the Pentastar to be a good match for. If I were driving a comparatively stripped down Big Horn model, I'll bet my mileage would go up substantially.
• Suspension: This is really just a quibble, as 90% of the time it's smooth sailing, but there is substantial body roll and unsettled motion going over expansion joints and the like at an angle, as well as general jitteryness when going over rough pavement. It goes over gravel and unpaved surfaces just fine, it's when the pavement starts to look like a moonscape that it's an issue.

Besides those three things, I love it! Unless something catastrophic happens in the next 20ish months, I plan to get another Longhorn when my current 36 month lease is up.

Wow, I'm a little surprised at your mileage. I would have thought the V6 would get a little better than that but I totally get the overmatched comment. There's been a few times I thought the Longhorn/Limited was a bit overmatched for the Hemi. I've got the eTorque and it's been a while since I calculated the lifetime mileage but the last time I did it was at 16.9 MPG.

 

[habu987]

Wow, I'm a little surprised at your mileage. I would have thought the V6 would get a little better than that but I totally get the overmatched comment. There's been a few times I thought the Longhorn/Limited was a bit overmatched for the Hemi. I've got the eTorque and it's been a while since I calculated the lifetime mileage but the last time I did it was at 16.9 MPG.

My mileage has actually been decreasing, the only thing that's even kept it above an avg of 17 mpg has been road trips. I stopped changing the default city mpg a while back for everything but road trips, and missed a couple road trips like the one in May, but you can see how my non-road trip mileage isn't anything to write home about!

 

[SpeedyV]

I've had my loaded up Pentastar Longhorn (every option except ORG and the trailer tow group) for 13 months and just shy of 13k miles so far. You can see the specs in my sig.

Overall, I mostly thoroughly still enjoy the truck! Rather than wax on about the areas that are great, I'll point out the areas that are not as great as I'd hoped:

• V6 performance: My truck is quite heavy, especially with the retractable tonneau cover, and the engine is noticeably overmatched by the weight. Where I live there are lots 'n lots of rolling hills and the truck often downshifts into 4th or 5th gear with fairly high RPMs to more or less maintain speed on the hills. My neighborhood is in the dip between two hills, so coming out of neighborhood going either left or right you go up a hill--one is shorter but has a steeper incline, while the other is taller but has a more gradual incline. The prevailing speed on that road is 55-60mph, and the engine usually labors pretty hard to get up the hills at speed, especially if it's a cold start. Once I'm driving around at speed, performance is usually satisfactory, but it's apparent that it has to work fairly hard when hills are involved.
• Fuel economy: I've got a lifetime fuel economy of 17.3 mpg over my approximately 13k miles, and that includes two 1000+ mile roadtrips that were 90%+ highway miles. My normal commute is approximately 70/30 city/highway. I don't have a heavy right foot in the slightest...I don't quite drive like a little old granny, but I do tend to drive more to that end of the spectrum than the other end. My truck is a real porker and I think it's simply too much weight for the Pentastar to be a good match for. If I were driving a comparatively stripped down Big Horn model, I'll bet my mileage would go up substantially.
• Suspension: This is really just a quibble, as 90% of the time it's smooth sailing, but there is substantial body roll and unsettled motion going over expansion joints and the like at an angle, as well as general jitteryness when going over rough pavement. It goes over gravel and unpaved surfaces just fine, it's when the pavement starts to look like a moonscape that it's an issue.

Besides those three things, I love it! Unless something catastrophic happens in the next 20ish months, I plan to get another Longhorn when my current 36 month lease is up.

Thanks for posting. I recall you being the very 1st 5th-gen buyer to take delivery of a V6 with RamBoxes.

You’ve threatened 20 mpg on several tanks, and that’s impressive for a full-size, heavily-optioned vehicle. But I appreciate your honest feedback on the tradeoff; the engine works pretty hard a lot of the time.

My lifetime mileage remains shy of 15 mpg, but I’ll take the hit for the performance of the V8, though. I’m still hoping to take a true road trip with it. As you and @Edwards wrote, the Hemi is “necessary” for these heavy configurations. I wouldn’t mind an extra 50-100 hp either. The new V6 TT, if it reaches production, might be a solid alternative.

Cheers!

 

[jdmartin]

Thanks for the honest review. I have the hemi and have had a lifetime of experience with trucks such that I want more power than I need rather than the other way around. I've had some real dog truck engines in my life, good torque but don't try to merge into the interstate. I loved the drivetrain on my last truck (Nissan Titan) and tried to match it as best as possible, I'm pretty happy with the 5.7.

 

[habu987]

Thanks for posting. I recall you being the very 1st 5th-gen buyer to take delivery of a V6 with RamBoxes.

You’ve threatened 20 mpg on several tanks, and that’s impressive for a full-size, heavily-optioned vehicle. But I appreciate your honest feedback on the tradeoff; the engine works pretty hard a lot of the time.

My lifetime mileage remains shy of 15 mpg, but I’ll take the hit for the performance of the V8, though. I’m still hoping to take a true road trip with it. As you and @Edwards wrote, the Hemi is “necessary” for these heavy configurations. I wouldn’t mind an extra 50-100 hp either. The new V6 TT, if it reaches production, might be a solid alternative.

Cheers!

I'm quite interested in the I6 and it'll definitely be at the top of my test drive list if it's out by then. I'm not a V8 purist by any stretch of the imagination, so I'd even be open to a hybrid or plug-in hybrid if it provided better performance and didn't kill my wallet upfront, though I doubt Ram will have anything like those out anytime soon.