2wd Crew Cab 140.5 on 2040-cars

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Ward's Automotive Ten Best Engines of 2014 dominated by diesels, turbos

With the Car and Driver Ten Best decided, the North American Car and Truck of the Year finalists announced and Cadillac, Ram and Subaru chalking up wins with Motor Trend, it's fair to say that the automotive awards season is in full swing. The next set of trophies to be handed out will be from Ward's Automotive, which has announced the winners of its 2014 10 Best Engines.
The latest contest was marked by the widespread emergence of diesel power and the continued success of turbocharged engines. There was even an electric motor on this year's list. In fact, only three of the ten winners were naturally aspirated and only two winners returned from last year.
"We weren't looking to throw the bums out, as they might say about an election. We were just really impressed with the flood of new powertrains," said Ward's Automotive Editor-in-Chief Drew Winter. Those new powertrains include the 83-kilowatt electric motor from the Fiat 500e, the 1.0-liter, EcoBoost three-cylinder from the Ford Fiesta and the 2.0-liter turbodiesel from the Chevrolet Cruze.

Recall: The Ram 1500's driveshaft could fall off

Ram is recalling 10,160 pickups built for the 2018 and 2019 model years, because the driveshaft may fall off. That would be bad. The recall involves the previous-generation truck. Specifically, some units of the normal 2018 Ram 1500 and some of the 2019 Ram 1500 Classic. In Ram-speak, "Classic" means the previous-generation truck that's sold alongside the all-new version for 2019. The trucks involved were built in a month-long time period in 2018, and Ram has identified the problematic driveshafts by part number. Apparently, the rear driveshaft may "have an incomplete weld fusion between the tube and tube yoke, which may lead to weld cracking or the driveshaft fracturing," according to the recall documents. This could cause the driveshaft to drop off the vehicle, and cause you to lose drive power (among other hazards involved with a driveshaft falling off a truck). At this point, FCA says it's not aware of any accidents or injuries related to the problem. However, it has seen eight occurrences of the driveshafts breaking, prompting this voluntary safety recall. Ram says that an extra noise or vibration could signal that the driveshaft is on the way out. FCA is going to start notifying owners about the recall in mid-June. When you take your truck in, the dealer will replace your driveshaft with one verified to have complete weld fusion. It will, of course, be free of charge to the owners of the affected vehicles.

2019 Ram 1500 prices released: What pickup will cost, by trim

One of the final pieces of information about the 2019 Ram 1500, and one of the most important, is finally here: the price. A base model Ram Tradesman, which nets a V6, the smaller four-door cab, a 6-foot 4-inch bed and two-wheel drive, starts at $33,340 with destination charge. That's a a bit over $1,000 more than the cost of the same outgoing Ram 1500 Tradesman. But you'll also get new features such as the eTorque mild-hybrid system and a touch-screen infotainment system with Uconnect. At the other end of the spectrum, the top-rung Ram 1500 Limited Crew Cab 4X4 V8 now starts at $59,035, an increase of almost $4,400 over the old model. Although the base price of the most basic and the most opulent Ram 1500s have gone up, some other things have become cheaper. You won't have to pay as much to upgrade to a V8, for instance. The plain 5.7-liter V8 with its 395 horsepower is $255 cheaper now, costing $1,195. To get that engine with the eTorque system costs more at $1,995. The RamBox bed-side storage bins are $300 cheaper now at $995. The Rebel trim has a better entry-level price, too. The base version with the smaller cab, four-wheel drive (the only drivetrain available with the small cab) and V6 with eTorque starts at $46,340. That just slips under the $46,690 price of the outgoing base Rebel with two-wheel-drive, and is over $2,000 less than the old Rebel with four-wheel drive that started at $48,790. Of course, the outgoing model was only available with the larger "Crew Cab" four-door body. Adding that larger body to the new Rebel will probably offset the cost savings. Here's the entire 2019 Ram sheet of base prices by trim/configuration: Related Video: