Just Drove 3.6L Big Horn

[habu987]

Interesting data point!

Instead of waiting on the 3.6L Rebel, I am thinking of just getting the Hemi w/ eTorque to compensate for the slight difference.
For me, it's mostly urban driving where the eTorque will help with the start/stop and bumper to bumper driving....

If I were to redo my truck order, knowing what I know now about the V6 fuel economy compared to the V8, I'd probably have just ordered the V8 eTorque instead.

When my lease is up in 2021, I plan to go with the diesel if they fixed the issues the current gen has had, unless there's another engine with substantially increased fuel economy compared to the current two engines.

 

[4sallypat]

If I were to redo my truck order, knowing what I know now about the V6 fuel economy compared to the V8, I'd probably have just ordered the V8 eTorque instead.

When my lease is up in 2021, I plan to go with the diesel if they fixed the issues the current gen has had, unless there's another engine with substantially increased fuel economy compared to the current two engines.

How about the upcoming diesel ?
That 3L oil burner sounds promising.
Love the low end torque and growl off the line from an oil burner...

 

[Stasek]

How about the upcoming diesel ?
That 3L oil burner sounds promising.
Love the low end torque and growl off the line from an oil burner...

Only if they figure out and fix the catastrophic engine failures in Gen 4...

 

[taumaz]

I am thinking the same (hoping they fix the issues) I almost bought a 2018 ecodiesel, i wanted it so bad, but my buddy who works in the service department strongly advised me against it. He told me they have a mechanic thats done so many ecodiesel swaps he can complete one start to finish in a shift.

Then I started googling and I was out..

 

[Stasek]

I am thinking the same (hoping they fix the issues) I almost bought a 2018 ecodiesel, i wanted it so bad, but my buddy who works in the service department strongly advised me against it. He told me they have a mechanic thats done so many ecodiesel swaps he can complete one start to finish in a shift.

Then I started googling and I was out..

I had one of the "dirty" Jetta TDIs for almost 5 years (THANK YOU VW!). If you read the VW forums, you would never buy one, because of the wide spread problem with disintegrating HPFPs. For me, though, it was one of the - if not THE - best cars I ever owned. 80K miles and literally not a single problem/visit to the dealer.

 

[habu987]

Yeah, if they've fixed the DS diesel issues, it'll be at the top of my list in 2021. I'm assuming that Ram will have a refreshed engine lineup by then, so I'll evaluate all the available options then, but the diesel will hypothetically be the engine to beat for me.

 

[devildodge]

If the twin turbo straight 6 is tuned for mileage it might be a bit hard to pass up. The performance V8s have to be coming. Gonna be real hard to decide between all the engines...as each will do one thing slightly better than the other. These decisions they make us ponder.

 

[Predfan]

I was wanting to pull the trigger on a truck in the next couple months but after all these dissapointing reports I may wait untill ram reveals a new engine or improves the 3.6. Ram will have to answer fords new hybrid with something fairly quick. Fuel economy is one of the biggest factors buying a vehicle.

 

[Maineiac]

I was wanting to pull the trigger on a truck in the next couple months but after all these dissapointing reports I may wait untill ram reveals a new engine or improves the 3.6. Ram will have to answer fords new hybrid with something fairly quick. Fuel economy is one of the biggest factors buying a vehicle.

Not as much as you’d think. The majority of truck buyers are of the mindset that “real trucks” have a V8 and lots of HP - they don’t shop on fuel economy.

 

[lowell3170]

So I've been waiting since January to take a 2019 on a test drive. I live in Alberta and the pickings are slim for the V6 engine on RAMs site there's only 4 V6 in the province and they're fairly low options. I treated myself to a little vacation in the mountains to finally see one in person. I've always had my heart set on a higher trim 1500 like the longhorn. Recently I've had a change of heart and have been finding it difficult to justify paying an extra 10 grand over a well equipped bighorn for some leather and adaptive cruise I can only use in the 5 summer months a year we have. this leads me into sitting in and test driving the V6 bighorn for the first time. fairly low optioned only had the lvl2 group and bucket seats with 3.55 gears. I really want the pano roof and LED headlights. I'm coming from a 2010 reg cab long box 1500 as base as you can get RAM with the 5.7 L. The first thing I can say is holy cow I am impressed with the interior the cloth was amazing with the heated seats along with the rubber heated steering wheel. then there was the cloth accents on the doors and fancy trim on the dash and my god going from a digital clock to the 8.4 screen I was blown away. I fell in love it's just leaps and bounds ahead of my 2010 ram.

My dealer was excited to drive with me as this was the first time he was able to ride in the new v6 as well. we started off leaving the lot waiting @ the stop sign I remember to look @ the RPMs which read 0 showing the stop start is working and i punch the gas. I was shocked at there being no shudder or lag. also the V6 loves to Rev and was very fun coming off the line not as deep a growl as my Hemi not as quick but it was still a fun get up and go. then there was the ride quality and how smooth it was. Reading reviews just doesnt do it any justice. My 2010 feels ancient with how it bumps around and with how much outside noise you get with it. The best part was getting onto the off ramp to merge onto the 110km/hr hwy. i punched it and it had absolutely 0 issues getting up to speed and merging honestly it was not anemic at all and i doubt it would have any trouble whatsoever making passes on the HWY. I dont know if the salesman was just trying to pump it up for a sale but he also said compared to the 2018 V6 this years does feel like it has more punch to it. my only regret on the short drive I had was I didn't reset the L/100km reading. which was showing 14L/100km when I sat in the truck @ 24km on the odometer so it was probably a lot of idling. I really wanna see more real world economy ratings on this truck.

So all said and done I think I've fallen in love with the 2019 V6 bighorn. that being said I still want to test drive a 2018 2.7L ecoboost just to see what ford has to offer as you can get a lariat trim for the same price as the big horn right now.

I just pick up my 2019 Longhorn with the V6. It is a Dream Truck. I only have 140 miles on it and will be leaving for Florida next week. I'll post how it ran on this trip later.

 

[wblynch]

My v6 4x4 is getting an average of 22 mpg all around. I mostly drive 100 miles round-trip to work on Los Angeles stop-and-stop freeways. Just in town on surface streets it seems to be getting 19 mpg. Less than 2,000 miles on the truck so I expect it to improve after more break in miles. My Mercedes' all needed 10-15,000 miles to break in so I expect this (first truck) to be about the same.

 

[Predfan]

thats some great news your the first guy ive seen getting decent mileage

 

[habu987]

My v6 4x4 is getting an average of 22 mpg all around. I mostly drive 100 miles round-trip to work on Los Angeles stop-and-stop freeways. Just in town on surface streets it seems to be getting 19 mpg. Less than 2,000 miles on the truck so I expect it to improve after more break in miles. My Mercedes' all needed 10-15,000 miles to break in so I expect this (first truck) to be about the same.

What are your truck's details? Trim, cab, bed length, RamBox, axle ratio, wheels/tires, payload, etc.

My truck is up towards the top of the weight chart for short bed 1500s since there are only a few options that I don't have. I would imagine a modestly optioned Big Horn, for example, would get significantly better mpg since it would likely weigh several hundred pounds less than my loaded Longhorn.

 

[Predfan]

So my 2010 Ram finally died on me 2 days ago and it wasn't worth getting fixed. I had to make a quick decision. I went into a local ford dealership after doing a bunch of research and took a 2018 lariat 2.7L ecoboost fully loaded minus the sunroof but has all the fancy driver assist packages, 502a, offroad package and 2.7 towing payload package.

I found the 2.7L to be very quick off the line seat of the pants dyno told me it had the 3.6L beat. I found that the transmission didn't shift as smooth as the bighorn did. as well the ride was a little more bumpy with the offroad and bigger tires. one thing i didnt get a chance to see was the auto start stop as the truck didn't meet the conditions for it. but im sure it wouldn't have beat the 3.6L which i couldn't even tell shut off.

Overall I was quite impressed the dealership offered the truck to me for 50700 msrp of 69800. which would have came out to about the same price as a v6 optioned up bighorn I wanted. I just couldnt pass it up for all the extra features the lariat gave me over the big horn. If they had 3.6Ls on the lot I may have still went with a ram but I'm not upset with my decision.

I pick my new truck up on monday after they put on the protective wrap and detail it. my out the door price with 5 year warranty and 5 year maintenance package along with the protective wrap taxes and fees was 64000 so a little more pricey. Atleast now I have a truck I can wait and see what happens in the next 5-10 years with hybrids and not get a first gen. I'll see if I daydream about the ram anymore after driving the f150 for a few months.

 

[VdMer]

So my 2010 Ram finally died on me 2 days ago and it wasn't worth getting fixed. I had to make a quick decision. I went into a local ford dealership after doing a bunch of research and took a 2018 lariat 2.7L ecoboost fully loaded minus the sunroof but has all the fancy driver assist packages, 502a, offroad package and 2.7 towing payload package.

I found the 2.7L to be very quick off the line seat of the pants dyno told me it had the 3.6L beat. I found that the transmission didn't shift as smooth as the bighorn did. as well the ride was a little more bumpy with the offroad and bigger tires. one thing i didnt get a chance to see was the auto start stop as the truck didn't meet the conditions for it. but im sure it wouldn't have beat the 3.6L which i couldn't even tell shut off.

Overall I was quite impressed the dealership offered the truck to me for 50700 msrp of 69800. which would have came out to about the same price as a v6 optioned up bighorn I wanted. I just couldnt pass it up for all the extra features the lariat gave me over the big horn. If they had 3.6Ls on the lot I may have still went with a ram but I'm not upset with my decision.

I pick my new truck up on monday after they put on the protective wrap and detail it. my out the door price with 5 year warranty and 5 year maintenance package along with the protective wrap taxes and fees was 64000 so a little more pricey. Atleast now I have a truck I can wait and see what happens in the next 5-10 years with hybrids and not get a first gen. I'll see if I daydream about the ram anymore after driving the f150 for a few months.

You may want to post this update int he F150 Forum. That said, I just traded my '16 F150 2.7L Lariat with 26k miles in for Ram (so you in reverse). The F150 2.7L eco is very fast off the line and did well on gas. I was easily averaging 19.5 mixed. That said, I live in the Northeast where we have this thing called winters and Ford to this day still has a 4-year old problem now with Frozen Door Latches. Struggling to open my doors for months rendered the car rather pointless and insanely frustrating (see the forum topic, its about 150 pages long). I didn't mind the truck, but I will tell you mine was filled with issues from week 2. Sync, 2 panoroof replacements (which you don't have, very smart as Ford has numerous issues), windshield wash line, IWE, etc. Each MFG has their lemons and I got Fords. So gas mileage aside, from a creature comfort to ride experience...the F150 (for me personally) doesn't hold a candle to the Ram.

FYI: Bookmark this in case: https://www.f150forum.com/f118/2015-frozen-door-latch-tsb-recall-poll-status-402319/index153/

 

[19Jake]

Debuting in the all-new 2019 Ram 1500, WardsAuto named the proven 3.6L Pentastar V6 with its innovative eTorque mild-hybrid system as one of the 10 Best engines for 2019. Rated at 305hp/269tq it helps improve fuel economy – without sacrificing horsepower, torque or capability.

 

[Longhorn5G]

I have the 3.6 in my 15 Grand Cherokee. Its 290 HP for that year.

Generally its fine. On highway rrips to beach or ling distajce, when newer, i had no problems getting 26 mpg, and better if i stayed 65 below. Regular gas, DC area altitude and spring weathers.

In the city, its decent. But to me, highway is where it exceeded epa numbers and expectations.

The Grand Cherokee isnt heavy heavy, but its got some weight.

Also, I drive a lot of diff people around a lot, and often people ask if its an 8, because of how it tends to sound sometimes. I proudly say no.

Speed wise, it moves easily. At 65,000 miles on it, I can say it never felt strained. It picks up and passes a car quite easily.

I dont think theres any reason to shy away from that V6, other than for the simple reason many of us have, and its because we want to the audio of the Hemi V8, whetger or not an Ecoboost can beat it in a 0-60 or tow challenge.

 

[L2R512]

With my latest tank, I was about 80% city, 20% highway. Hand calc shows 17.1 mpg. The last ~90 miles or so of the tank were almost all highway, and the lie-o-meter ticked up from 16.8 to 18.7 mpg over that time. I've got an approximately 1000 mile road trip coming up over the holidays, so I should be able to get a good highway reading then.

So far I'm not all that impressed with the fuel economy, but I'm hoping it improves as the engine breaks in. I'm only at ~1000 miles right now.

ETA: I'm a pretty conservative driver, the only times I ever stomp on the gas pedal are when I'm merging onto a busy high speed road, which happens at most twice a day. The rest of the time I'm definitely much closer to the little old granny end of the spectrum, so the low mileage isn't from me being an aggressive driver.

Just wondering how that V6 is doing as far as real-world mpg is concerned. I'm considering ordering a Quad Cab V6 Laramie because I can't find one anywhere. But I really want to know if the overall mpg will be better than the Hemi.

I don't need to tow or haul much weight on most days so the V6 seemed the natural choice - but now The Motor Trend article has me second guessing that.

 

[rcos152]

Just wondering how that V6 is doing as far as real-world mpg is concerned. I'm considering ordering a Quad Cab V6 Laramie because I can't find one anywhere. But I really want to know if the overall mpg will be better than the Hemi.

I don't need to tow or haul much weight on most days so the V6 seemed the natural choice - but now The Motor Trend article has me second guessing that.

I just did a 1200 mile trip with mine and averages 21 mpg going from Detroit to Scranton. About 2000 miles on the truck now and I'm seeing around 18-19 in town driving.

 

[habu987]

Just wondering how that V6 is doing as far as real-world mpg is concerned. I'm considering ordering a Quad Cab V6 Laramie because I can't find one anywhere. But I really want to know if the overall mpg will be better than the Hemi.

I don't need to tow or haul much weight on most days so the V6 seemed the natural choice - but now The Motor Trend article has me second guessing that.

You can see my cumulative mpg in my signature.

We got back last night from a ~1000 mile road trip (DC area>Buffalo area>Cleveland area>DC area).

Probably 85-90% highway holding speeds of 60-75 mph with about 2/3 of the trip going through hilly or mountainous terrain, and I used ACC for all highway driving. Total passenger and cargo weight was probably somewhere in the vicinity of 600-700 lbs.

The highest the average mpg in the instrument cluster read during the trip was 21.8 mpg, though I'd say it spent most of the time between 20.5 and 21.5. I filled up three times on the trip, once (a partial fill-up) right before we left, the 2nd time leaving the Buffalo area, and the last time 2/3 of the way back from Cleveland.

Fuelly pegged that 2nd tank at 19.88mpg.

Not gonna lie, not impressed with the highway mpg (or the overall mpg). Sure, my Longhorn isn't far off the heaviest you can get, and I had 600-700 lbs of weight in the truck, and I was driving through hills and mountains, but I was hoping for substantially higher than 20 mpg with an extended stretch of highway cruising, especially in the flat stretches of NY and OH.