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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.

Ram 1500 Mossy Oak Edition ready to hit the woods

Among all the debuts at the Detroit Auto Show next week, Ram will remove the ghillie-suit veil from its 2014 Ram 1500 Mossy Oak Edition, but the truck's bigger - and more fitting - debut will take place later in the week at the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade (SHOT) Show in Las Vegas. The new Mossy Oak Edition is aimed at hunting, camping and fishing enthusiasts, and it will go on sale within the next couple of months with a base price of $39,985, not including $1,195 for destination.
With plenty of accolades already in the bag for 2013 (including Motor Trend Truck of the Year and Truck of Texas), the 2014 Ram 1500 is definitely getting plenty of attention, and the new camouflage job from Mossy Oak should help get a few more eyeballs on this truck. Starting with the Ram 1500 4x4 Crew Cab Outdoorsman, this special edition is only offered in three exterior colors - Black, Black Gold or Prairie Pearl (shown above) - to go with the Mossy Oak camouflage along the lower edges of the body as well as the upper edge of the cargo bed. Unlike the previous Mossy Oak Edition (2011-2012), buyers can now opt for the innovative RamBox system in which to store plenty of hunting, camping and fishing gear.
Inside, there's more camo on the center stack and door panels, and the headrests are embroidered with the Mossy Oak logo. Like the Outdoorsman, the Mossy Oak Edition comes standard with cloth seats in two available colors, but it adds in a new option: Katzkin leather in Espresso Tuscany with the Mossy Oak logo embroidered into the seatbacks. Scroll down for more information on the 2014 Ram 1500 Mossy Oak Edition.

Ram goes all-in on SAE J2807 tow ratings [w/video]

Thanks to the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), when car shoppers look at horsepower and torque figures on vehicles, they know that all the automakers are calculating them the same way. However, that isn't the case when it comes to truck buyers and max towing capacity ratings because each company figures the value differently. That practice finally changes with the SAE's standardized J2807 system, though, and Ram Truck is the first one to apply the new test procedure to its entire light- and heavy-duty pickup range.
All models of the Ram 1500, 2500 and 3500 use the new, standardized rating for the 2015 model year, but buyers might not notice too much difference. According to the company, in 99 percent of cases the max towing weights are unchanged or even improve slightly from last year. That's a strong result compared to the 2015 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra that are seeing few increases but mostly decreases under the new testing procedure.
"For too long, an uneven playing field existed and towing capacities went unchecked. We're happy to be the only pickup truck manufacturer to align with the SAE J2807 towing standard across our pickup truck lineup," said Mike Cairns, director of Ram Truck engineering, in the company's announcement of the new specs.