Tested: 2025 Ram 1500 Tungsten

Ram's new top trim marks the point where workhorse meets muscle car ... meets luxury sedan.

When Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone on January 9, 2007, he described it as "an iPod, a phone, and an internet communicator." He said, "Are you getting it? These are not three separate devices. This is one device."

Ram's range-topping half-ton truck manages a similar trick. Pickups have been growing ever fancier in recent years, and the 2025 Ram 1500 Tungsten follows suit. It is packed with luxury features and gains a new turbocharged inline-six—the same engine that will power the new Dodge Charger next year—to replace the previous V8.

A pickup truck, a luxury sedan, and a muscle car. Are you getting it?

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The Lowdown

Widely considered the best half-ton pickup since the current generation's 2019 debut, the Tungsten trim and the 3.0-liter twin-turbo inline-six are the big news for the Ram 1500's 2025 model year. Tungsten is meant to match against the likes of GM's Sierra Denali Ultimate, bringing the opulence of the Jeep Grand Wagoneer to a pickup package; the new engine, dubbed "Hurricane," aims to beat the outgoing Hemi V8 on everything from power to refinement to efficiency. The end result is a true luxury vehicle that just so happens to have a pickup bed hanging out back.

More Specs

Engine: 2997cc turbocharged six-cylinder

Power: 540 hp @ 5700 rpm

Torque: 521 lb-ft @ 3500 rpm

0-60 mph: 4.4-sec (Motor Trend testing)

Transmission: Eight-speed automatic

Weight: 5960 pounds

EPA MPG: 15 / 21 / 17 (City / Highway / Combined)

The idea of a quick truck—a pickup with pickup, if you will—is hardly new. GMC was blowing minds with the Syclone nearly 25 years ago. Back then, a truck that could knock out a 5.3-second 0-to-60-mph sprint made it competitive with the Ferraris of the day. Maranello has pulled its act together since then—a Ram driver's best hope of embarrassing a 296 GTB lies in reminding the Ferrari's owner their cars are corporate cousins—but this crew-cab pickup is certainly capable of pacing today's muscle cars off the line.

Our siblings at Car and Driver haven't run a Hurricane-powered Ram through their instrumented tests yet, but the folks at Motor Trend saw a Tungsten hustle from naught to 60 in 4.4 seconds, putting it just two-tenths behind a Ford Mustang GT.

The 1500 seems quietly proud of its straight-line prowess. Slide the Ram into Sport mode, and not only does it tighten up the shift points and throttle response, but it also shifts the four-wheel-drive system to 4-Auto and turns off the traction control—exactly how you'd want the truck set up for a drag race.

It's a shame that it doesn't sound happier doing it, however. The Hurricane's biggest flaw is a lack of character, especially compared to the boisterous 5.7- and 6.4-liter Hemi V8s it replaces. Under heavy load, it sounds downright industrial—a mechanical wheeze with all the character of ice water. (Here's hoping Dodge does better for the upcoming Charger Six Pack.)

At least the new engine's power delivery is both smooth and forceful, with the turbocharged delivery bringing full torque earlier in the rev range than the old normally aspirated V-8s. Apart from a bit of transmission jerkiness off the line on occasion, it is very refined. Buyers in mountainous areas will also appreciate the switch to turbocharging, which will mean smaller power losses at altitude.

The Ram's demeanor in turns is also reminiscent of a muscle car, albeit more like one from a few decades back than today's highly honed machines. Steering feel is, well, largely imaginary, and the Tungsten-standard four-corner air suspension is tuned for comfort and carrying weight, not maximizing grip and keeping the body level. But at its core, this is a rear-wheel-drive vehicle with a nose-biased weight distribution; if you can't find a way to have fun, you should turn in your driver's license for a bus pass.

That relaxed suspension does pay dividends on the open road, however, where the Ram exhibits impressive high-speed stability for a full-size truck. It was so well composed, in fact, I repeatedly glanced down on the highway to notice myself doing 90 mph without even realizing it—something I can't recall ever happening in a pickup before.

One demerit for Ram's Active Driving Assist—the brand's version of SuperCruise or BlueCruise, though it goes without a spiffy brand name—as it isn't worth using. On a wide-open interstate at 75 mph, the truck ping-ponged back and forth, wandering around in the lane and constantly making sharper-than-necessary corrections. I turned it off after a mile and didn't bother with it again.

The heart of the Tungsten's appeal is its cabin. The branch of Stellantis formerly known as the Chrysler family has leveled up its interior work in recent years, and the new Ram trim level is a showcase of that success. It may not bear the brand of a luxury marque, but this Ram's interior is every bit worthy of one.

There's only one colorway available, but the Indigo/Sea Salt (dark blue and light beige) trim looks gorgeous and high-class. The 24-way power-operated front seats offer five massage programs on top of ventilation and heating, and they're supremely comfortable over a long haul. Soft-touch materials abound in a way that would make GM interior designers green with envy, and the 14.5-inch central touchscreen and 10.3-inch passenger side display beat the much-hyped Mercedes-Benz Hyperscreen, doing the same tasks without looking nearly as crass.

On top of that, the Tungsten delivers all the pleasures that make full-size crew-cab pickup trucks generally popular. Both front and rear rows offer space to stretch out, as well as an almost-ridiculous number of cubbyholes, storage spaces, and charging ports. Its versatility is remarkable. Flip up the rear bench—or just part of it, as it offers a 60/40 split—and you're left with a cargo bay that could match a Civic Hatchback with its seats down. Need more storage? The Tungsten comes standard with two bed-mounted RamBoxes, which offer a combined 14.6 cubic feet of lockable, drainable space.

Yet from the outside, you'd never realize how special the Tungsten is. Ram gives the top trim a bespoke front fascia, but to the untrained eye, it looks no different than many less pricey variants—and even a trained eye will only say it looks different, not fancier. In my tester's Billet Silver Metallic paint, the truck slips into anonymity. Perhaps market research found would-be Tungsten buyers prefer an understated look. To me, it's almost too subtle for its own good.

You sure should—if you have close to 100 grand to spend and don't have an allegiance to another company. Remarkably, the Tungsten's $90,000 price tag isn't that crazy by the standards of modern American pickup trucks. Even the luxury SUVs that come closest to matching the Tungsten's features and capability—the Cadillac Escalade, Lincoln Navigator, etc.—are only starting out where my tester's window sticker landed.

To the second point: Pickup truck buyers are notoriously brand loyal, especially when it comes to the Detroit Big Three, with relatively few defections between Ram, Chevrolet/GMC, and Ford. Most people shopping for a truck at this price probably aren't buying their first pickup, which means odds are good their choices are already set in stone, hence why Ford and GM offer their own luxury trims for the F-150, Silverado, and Sierra. The Tungsten outclasses all of them for now, but the endless arms race between truckmakers means those rigs will surely have their own ultra-luxury trims soon enough.

Yes, the Tungsten isn't a perfect solution for every truck buyer. Anyone planning on doing serious towing would be better off with Ford's turbodiesel F-250 Super Duty; anyone with aims on regular off-roading would find a better fit in the GMC Sierra 1500 AT4X AEV. If your pickup needs are well served by the jack-of-all-trades approach, though, the Ram 1500 Tungsten is an excellent fit.

We Love:

We Don't:

Favorite Detail:

The 23-speaker, 1228-watt Klipsch reference stereo, which offers the best in-car listening you'll find this side of a Bentley. Unlike in many a smaller vehicle, the wide-open space of a crew cab gives the music room to breathe, making the Ram's interior feel like the control room of a studio as whatever band you're listening to lays down one banger after another. (Also, the speakers just look cool.)

Will Sabel Courtney is a contributing editor at Road & Track. A 12-year veteran of journalism, he formerly worked at Gear Patrol, The Drive and RIDES Magazine, and contributed to the New York Daily News and Jalopnik, among other outlets. You can often find him test-driving new cars in New York City, cursing the slow-moving traffic surrounding him.

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