Ram Rebel vs. Tundra

I had complete shit for luck with my Tacoma, many issues, some minor, some where the truck turned off on the freeway...

My Tundra has been flawless, but is only at 10k, mind you though the Tacoma started having issues within 3k miles.

The Rebels are nice, IMO, I think they look great. Im more of an old school kind of guy though, the Tundras dated ways appeal to me more. Something can be said about simplicity and the prevalence of problems. Either way, youre right, people only come to the forums to talk about the bad days, no ones making threads about how they had an uneventful day.

 

The demo I took was a rental...must have been the one you drove, because it drove exactly like that.

The shifting - my god the shifting....you felt everyone of those shifts too.

salesman remarked “you don’t need an 8...6 is fine” just looked and said yea...when it feels like your struggling to reach 30...doesn’t matter what you’ve got. It reminded me of older Dodge automatics.

 

Both great trucks, both have loyal followers....but I’ve never heard anyone use the term “old man” when referring to my truck... I think it’s a sexy mofo...

 

Were they new trucks? These new transmissions seem to calm down after a few thousand miles. Search the Tacomaworld threads and youll see tons of people complaining and a few saying it got better after a year. Possibly a learning phase.

 

My buddy has a ram rebel on 35s. Next time I see him we’ll race. That’s all that really matters

 

Seems like a tall order to program a trans with 8 or 10 speeds to handle multiple variables at each gear in regard to throttle input and load. 6 seems to be a sweet spot. 5 speeds feel dated to me now, my 4runner can get a bit aggravating at times, but I just manually drop it down when it does. Some people had luck with the new 6 speed auto in the Tacomas by limiting them to S4 in the city, keeps if from going to 6th at 30 mph.

 

Buy the Ram..let us know how it goes. They ride nice and have lots of cool tech and the interior is super nice. I gave it a try in 2015 on a 2015 and lemon law'd that thing. Have fun and good luck.

 

Sounds to me like you answered your own question.

Not since 1985, anyway.

 

The movie Twister sold a lot of new Rams.

 

Well you must have known I’d give my 2 cents .. lol . I have the Rebel with the 12” screen and the pano roof and I haven’t had any issues with it , however it was built in Dec 2018 so it’s not like I’ve had it long . The 8 speed transmission in the Ram is built by ZF not dodge but it is a learning transmission which a rental would screw that all up just because of how many different drivers were behind the wheel . Another thing with the Rebel is you don’t have to get flashy , you can get a 5” , 8.4” or 12” screen . If you’d really like to see what they’re like I would suggest test driving a Laramie with the Sport package and the Off Road Group , that’ll give you the all terrain tires a 1” lift and all the skid plates and the all terrain tires on it are a lot quieter than the Rebels . I’ve had really good luck with Ram which is why I went back but it’s whatever you’re comfortable with because you have to drive it and neither one is exactly cheap either .

 

Rams are sweet trucks and the 0/84 financing offer on the 1500 now is insane. If you’re planning to stick with a Ram for no more than 7-8 years and 100k miles, a new Ram at a heavy discount with an extended warranty is a very attractive option. The ZF8 is an excellent modern transmission and FCA Infotainment is among the best of any manufacturer.

Longer term or in the used market, obviously Tundra will be the better option.

 

I've posted this before in similar threads:

The Woman's uncle is a sales manager at a Ram dealership. He flat out refuses to sell his products to family and friends. He also turns down the free manager's vehicle he could get. He believes Ram trucks are the cheapest built, most problem prone trucks on the market. He sells them because he makes piles of money doing it since people lose their ass on trading them in every few years and/or spend thousands in the service dept once their warranty is up. IIRC, he said that the average Ram owner only owns their truck for 3 years or something like that before buying a new one.

 

Hard not to be wow'd by the interior tech. My buddy just bought a brand new '20 at 0% interest. Personally, there's two trucks I wouldn't buy...an F250 or a Dodge Ram

 

FCA has spent a lot of money providing for these internet reviewers. I noticed the Jeep Rubicon on TFL conveniently disappeared after an electrical issue. Apparently gave them a Gladiator. I wouldn't but an FCA product.

 

Top reason why I bought a used Tundra over a new Ram. Reliability and value.

 

My buddy just leased a new ‘20 and the interior tech sure is nice but how long will it work flawlessly? Time will only tell but I will bet that he will have some sort of issue before his lease is up. A co worker has a ‘19 and it’s already been in the shop for a recall addressing the airbags possibly deploying without cause.

 

See , I don’t count recalls as reliability issues , every manufacturer has recalls , to me that’s just them fixing something before it becomes a problem .

 

I think Big 3 dealers typically give you either discounts or 0% financing. Have to run the specific numbers for each case but it's generally cheaper to take the discounts and finance at ~2-4% than to pay full price and get 0%.

 

big 3 manufacturers do that. dealers usually slap their own (big) discounts on top. Unless the factory incentive is like $3-4k in lieu of financing, it’s usually better to take the 0%

 

I haven't actually looked into it but everybody on the GM Trucks forum says the opposite. Maybe it varies by manufacturer.

 

This is not always an easy decision to make so take your time and go with what you like. I am in the exact same boat, Tundra TRD PRO vs RAM Rebel. My heart wants a Rebel my head says get the Tundra, I will most likely get the Tundra. In fact I was all decided on the Tundra and then a few months ago my wife and I went to So Cal on a 10 day vacation and dumb luck, Avis was out of the car class I reserved and they happened to have a brand new 2020 Rebel, V8, 4X4 with 10 miles on it. I LOVED the truck and my wife loved it even more and wants us to get that instead of the Toyota. It is beautiful truck inside and out, drives great and very comfortable inside. My only negative was it was bear to park, I am also not used to driving a full size truck so I am sure it will come with time. Even though i dont like all the crap on the new diesels engines I am really tempted to get a diesel, I really wish Toyota had a diesel option.

I am spending more time on this forum to try and get the RAM out of my head because I know the Toyota would be the smarter choice and is as close to bullet proof as you can get, which is REALLY appealing to me but it is not an easy choice. I know I will learn to like the Toyota in the end, I have owned a couple in the past and they have always been great vehicles, but it is not an easy choice. I am not bashing the Tundra's, I am going to buying one in the end but what a gut wrenching choice.

Good luck with your decision.

 

You only live once, do whatever makes you happy. Get the Ram...if you hate it, ditch it.

 

Maybe, I’ve only seriously shopped Ford and their manufacturer discounts that would be cancelled by financing were not the biggest part of the deal

 

I did see it that Ford is offering $7k off and 0% right now but I wasn't sure if that was unique to the current situation.

 

Yeah they’re doing pretty crazy deals on F150s too, I’m not gonna lie, if they had that kind of deal on a 250 I’d be wringing my hands about it. Absolutely zero use for it but what an opportunity

 

Well seeing that we seem to get a lot of 1-2year old big threes trade ins and the used car inspections typically involve a lot of work for “new” cars. I do believe the reliability isn’t there.. the rams are neat. But so far of the 3 I’ve personally done used car inspections on 2 of them have had major electrical issues one was 14k miles the other was 30. Big turn off

that being said, Toyota’s radios suck. We replace them all the time. But at least installing an aftermarket system in tundras is much easier than newer dodges


If I were to buy dodge, I’d lease.