Ram 1500 RHO Review

With the supercharged Hellcat V8 gone, the RHO becomes Ram's flagship desert runner, and it swaps eight cylinders for the 3.0 liter twin-turbo Hurricane inline-six. Output is 540 hp and 521 lb-ft, enough for a 0 to 60 mph run of 4.6 seconds, only a tenth behind the old TRX. It starts at $71,990, which is about $26,000 less than the truck it replaces.

The trade is easy to defend. You lose the V8 theater but keep almost all the speed, gain roughly 40 percent better fuel economy in real driving, and retain the full off-road hardware: long travel Bilstein dampers, huge tires, a wide track, and a genuinely capable high-speed desert chassis. As a do everything toy truck it is hugely accomplished.

The downsides are the ones every truck like this carries. It is enormous, still drinks fuel at around 15 mpg, and the interior, while pleasant, is not special for the money. Some buyers will simply miss the noise and character of the Hellcat V8, which the smooth six cannot replicate.

If you want a factory-built truck that can blast across the desert and still shuttle the family, the RHO delivers nearly TRX thrills for meaningfully less money. It is the rational version of an irrational idea.