Awesome is the word that about sums up how I feel about this truck. It doesn't drive/handle like a conventional truck; it feels more like I'm driving a top of the line SUV. When I drove work trucks, I felt like I was driving a truck. This feels more like luxury.
As far as looks go, it's classy. It turns a lot of heads as we go through town. I got the black clearcoat with the sport package, so the only chrome color is on the 20" wheels. My husband is the one that wanted the sport package, but I have to admit it does look better than the regular chrome grille look.
We got the hemi engine (5.7L V-8) because we are going to pull horse trailers with the truck. It has a LOT of power. You can feel the power while cruising through town, or going down the highway. It's not so quick on take-offs at green lights unless you floor it--there is a little lag before it 'catches'. Unfortunately, it also goes through gasoline like you wouldn't believe. I'm averaging 12.5 miles per gallon, and that's mixed highway and city driving. It's got a 26 gallon tank (there is a 34 gallon tank option), so it's not like I'm always stopping for gas, but when I do, whew!!! We're talking $36 at today's prices!!
The brakes are good, although they can be slow to respond sometimes unless you absolutely mash them to the floor, so don't be a tailgater or you'll be in for a rude awakening. Our truck has anti-lock brakes on the back wheels, to keep it from skidding to one side or the other during a sudden stop. I would have preferred all four wheels to have anti-lock brakes, but I would have had to special order a truck and wait 6-8 weeks. After driving this truck, I couldn't wait that long to get behind the wheel of another Dodge Ram 1500 HEMI!!!!
We got shift-on-the-fly 4WD, so up to 55mph we can shift to 4HI with the turn of a knob not far below the radio!!! How convenient is that!!!! The shift knob for the other gears (P,R,D, etc.) is on the steering wheel, so you hardly ever need to remove your hands from the driving position. To shift into 4LO you still just turn a knob, but obviously you won't be anywhere near 55mph when doing that--you'll be in neutral or going very slowly.
The cruise control features are on the steering wheel itself, in little boxes. The corners and bottom of the box turn the cruise on or off, set, resume, cancel, accelerate, decelerate, etc. with the push of your thumb. It's very easy to manipulate.
The bed of the truck is very high off of the ground, and it's deep, so some smaller cars are almost impossible to see when backing up. While it's a short bed in the quad cab trucks, the depth makes the tailgate longer, so with the tailgate down, you don't actually lose too much length over a standard length bed.
In terms of personal safety, someone was obviously thinking about it when they engineered my truck. The keyless remote option is great. One push to unlock the doors unlocks ONLY the driver's door (in case there's a 'bad guy' on the passenger side), two quick pushes unlocks all the doors. Also, when you push to unlock the door(s), the headlights flash and the interior dome light comes on. There is also a panic button on the keyless remote that will make the horn sound (and also cut it off) in case you need help. The headlights will stay on for a good portion of a minute if you turn them off after shutting off the engine, to let you get to your front door with some light.
For those of us that are short-statured, they have thought of us too. There is an option to have power pedals that will come up to meet you! They operate from a switch down towards the usual hood release area, a switch just like a power window button. You can move them towards you almost a foot. Even though the power seat option will put you close enough to reach the pedals (unlike conventional pickup truck seats), you'll be on top of the steering wheel airbag without the power pedals, which allows you to sit back away from the airbag and get off the steering wheel. Ahhhh. And surprisingly, the power pedals are only a $100 option!
The shoulder belts can be raised or lowered about 4 inches, so that short people are not constantly having to readjust the seat belt off of their neck the whole time they're in the truck, which is a very nice feature. Another nice feature is that the driver's window can be operated the usual way (hold the button while it goes down or up) or it can go down all the way automatically with one click, so you have your hands free to drive after touching the button once. Nice! You still have to hold the button the whole time the window goes up, though. The driver also has control over all of the other windows, and can lock other people out of controlling their windows with the touch of a button. Our truck has side mirrors that adjust with buttons on the driver's door, also.
Little conveniences are all over this truck. Though it's high off the ground (the 20" wheels don't make it any higher off the ground than the 17" wheels, by the way), every door of the quad cab has a handle to grip when getting in the truck--it's built into the front of each door frame, in the plastic just inside the cab. You can get your whole hand around it easily.
There are storage compartments underneath the back seats and the middle front seat (I have the 40/20/40 split bench seat). The one under the front middle seat is big enough to store a license plate (here you have to carry the 'real' one if you display a personalized one), among other things. Under the back seats, you can fit rolled up travel blankets or tools. The jack is not under there, however, like it is in some cars. It has a special storage place under the passenger front seat.
The back seats fold down--you can fold down the middle and right seats only, so that someone can still sit behind the driver (and the seats fold down so that the cup holders are still exposed, so that person still has a place to put a couple of drinks!!!); or you can put all three back seats down, to make a flat cargo area inside the cab of the truck. Putting the seats down is easy. You flip up the 'seat' part, then pull forward a metal platform that unfolds as you go. That creates a cargo area that is black metal on the bottom, with the bottom of the back seats at the back, and the back of the front seats at the front. It's quite spacious. With a child in a car seat behind the driver, I stacked several feed sacks in the 2/3 seat cargo area with no problem at all on a rainy day.
The middle front seat back folds down to become an arm rest/console. Inside there is a place for change, several divisions for CDs, facial tissues, etc., and a power outlet for a phone charger or laptop. There is also a power outlet on the front panel of the car, under the ash tray (and a cigarette lighter above the ash tray compartment).
To keep a Walmart sack stable during transport, there is a built-in plastic hook on the passenger side near the middle of the front panel. It is high enough off the floor that a sack of milk will be perfectly stabilized all the way home! :)
Our truck has side mirrors that defrost, a rearview mirror that automatically dims at night to keep other headlights from blinding you, and cup holders that adjust to hold everything from juice boxes to 44 ounce mega drinks. Little spaces to put 'stuff' in the dashboard, as well as the bottom of the cupholder, are 'carpeted' with rubber that has little nubs all over it, to keep 'stuff' from moving about during transport. They made the truck so that you can concentrate on driving and not messing around with distractions--you can even get volume control for the stereo put on your steering wheel!!!
To get to the spare, you insert the jack handle in a hole above the license plate (much more convenient than crawling around on the ground to lower the spare). In case you're really in a bad spot, our truck has tow hooks so that you can get pulled out of trouble.
We had nerf bars installed on our truck to make getting in and out easier, and we are going to get fender protectors installed to protect our truck from the rocks on county line roads.
I feel safe in this truck--it's big, it has rear slip differential, it locks the doors soon after it's put into drive, it will irritate you to death if you don't put your seatbelt on while driving (it will keep beeping over and over and over and over until you put it on), and ours will even tell you how many miles of gas you have left in the tank, the outside temperature, how many miles you've driven on the trip, and you're current miles/gallon (on the overhead center console).
I like the conveniences in this truck--everything from the push-on lights in the front overhead console for map reading to the pedals that come up to meet me to the cup holders than can handle drinks bigger than a Coke can.
I like the way the truck feels--drives smooth, looks good, makes me feel happy and carefree while driving, feels powerful and reliable, leather wrapped steering wheel feels nice, bucket seats feel great, center console is spacious arm rest, etc.
This is such a great truck! I'm so happy that I bought it, and I hope to have it for many years to come. . .
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 28500
Condition: New Model Year: 2004 Model and Options: SLT, auto, HEMI, tow, sport, power, quad cab
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