American Pickups in the UK??

[DodgyGeezer]

There are quite a few tradespeople round here that have Dodge Rams (and F150's) of varying ages so I'd imagine you're not alone in your desires.

As others have said lhd ceases to be an issue after about 10mins. It does, however encourage you to hang a little further back (not a bad thing). The Lightning is ridiculous fun, but quite old now.

Nearer to you you've got http://www.lunacustoms.com/ or https://www.oldcottmotors.co.uk/ and if you're thinking of Essex way there's also https://51stateautos.com/ as well as Boatwrights

[ChainsawSam]

That’s great thanks Dodgy, looking more and more likely that it’s the way to go.

There’s a joiner here today in a full-size Merc Sprinter and it’s wayyyy longer than any of the pickups I’ve looked at

[ChainsawSam]

Camaro said:

I spent that last two and bit years driving my GMC Sierra as a daily. It has a small double cab and a 7" bed making it a bit of a long one.

Driving on the roads, fine, I prefer it to be honest as you can plod along and keep the thing way over to the verge. I don't tend to try and make lots of progress when I'm in it, but when it comes to overtaking, hang back, swing out and be observant. Haven't yet had an issue on the road with being in a LHD car. Size comes into when trying to park or use a multistorey car park with a ticket barrier. I'll even aim to avoid them or have someone ride shotgun if I need to use one. Ticket booths can just be a pain, but thats about it.

Mine has LPG and it's been really really hit and miss whether the local asda has it in stock of late, it's also gone up 1.5 times what it used to be making it now more expensive to run than my Ford Focus was.

Personally I like driving mine, I was looking for a UK pickup truck (Hilux etc) but hated the way you felt so cramped. Went to view a couple of yanks and was sold.

I'm not using it as a daily any more as my Ford Focus that was on long term loan to my brother in law has come back to me, but I still pick up the keys every now and then, it's a much more relaxed driving experience.

Thanks for the comment!

Yeah a friend of mine has an f150 that runs on MPG, but liking it up it seems it’ll be fazed out in a few years.

I think I’ve gone into 1 multi story since I passed my test 7 years ago and very rarely use toll booths etc so that should rarely be an issue for me.

I need to get myself to a dealer asap to sit in one after jumping straight out my Hilux and see how different they are.

Yeah where I live there’s a lot of Winding B Roads, one I was driving on yesterday and trying to picture myself in a bigger LHD car and like you say, I almost think it would be better as you could jump straight into the verge knowing exactly where you are

[Baggie austin]

I have had quite a few yank trucks in the UK
Let hand drive is not an issue
It's more the size of them on the smaller roads
A quad cab ram is pretty large

Have had a few run on gas
My current srt8 is on it, I am not concerned regards getting LPG
Loads of places in Birmingham where the taxis fill up
Current paying 74p a litre.... At 9 mpg it helps

[EViS]

I ran an 11th gen F150 4.6l with a 6.5ft bed (the model after the Lightning) for 7 years and then moved onto a 4th gen RAM 5.7l with a 6ft bed as daily drivers. Prior to that I upgraded from a 3rd gen Ford Ranger. The F150 ran on LPG and comparatively to petrol on price gave me 30+ mpg. The much newer petrol Ram gives me mid 20's mpg on a mix of town and motorway driving. LPG is getting hard to find now and just isn't worth the hassle on the newer yanks, imo. Gas guzzlers they are not when compared to any Jap/Euro trucks and the slight extra they do cost is easily made up by their increased versatility, comfort, power, sound and smiles per gallon.

Unless something momentous changes in my life or the market, I would never return to a small pickup. There simply is no reason to downgrade.

Where in the country are you based?

Edited by EViS on Thursday 6th October 10:13

[ChainsawSam]

EViS said:

I ran an 11th gen F150 4.6l with a 6.5ft bed (the model after the Lightning) for 7 years and then moved onto a 4th gen RAM 5.7l with a 6ft bed as daily drivers. Prior to that I upgraded from a 3rd gen Ford Ranger. The F150 ran on LPG and comparatively to petrol on price gave me 30+ mpg. The much newer Ram gives me mid 20's mpg on a mix of town and motorway driving. LPG is getting hard to find now and just isn't worth the hassle on the newer yanks, imo. Gas guzzlers they are not when compared to any Jap trucks and the slight extra they do cost is easily made up by their increased versatility, comfort, power, sound and smiles per gallon.

Unless something momentous changes in my life or the market, I would never return to a small pickup. There simply is no reason to downgrade.

Where in the country are you based?

Edited by EViS on Tuesday 4th October 16:25

Thanks EViS!

What do you prefer between the ford and Ram?

I’m in the South of Scotland

[EViS]

ChainsawSam said:

Thanks EViS!

What do you prefer between the ford and Ram?

I’m in the South of Scotland

They're world's apart in terms of refinement and luxury. Both were seemingly 'modern' in terms of comfort and gadgets, but the F150 was 20 years old when I sold it. The RAM was 5 years old with barely any mileage on the clock when I bought it. I did research all the new yanks at the time (F150, RAM, Sierra, etc.) and there's not much to differentiate between them. For me, the RAM was a cut above the rest in terms of styling, wide availability and appeal (in the UK and EU market which will help resale), and it has a Hemi which I wanted.

I'm on the complete other side of the country to you, otherwise I'd have offered you to take a look around and give mine a whirl .

Edited by EViS on Wednesday 5th October 09:04

[ChainsawSam]

EViS said:

They're world's apart in terms of refinement and luxury. Both were seemingly 'modern' in terms of comfort and gadgets, but the F150 was 20 years old when I sold it. The RAM was 5 years old with barely any mileage on the clock when I bought it. I did research all the new yanks at the time (F150, RAM, Sierra, etc.), but the RAM was a cut above the rest in terms of styling (imo), wide availability and appeal (in the UK market), and it has a Hemi which I wanted.

I'm on the complete other side of the country to you, otherwise I'd have offered you to take a look around and give mine a whirl .

Yeah fair point, there does seem to be a lot more “dealers” of the Rams over here, any idea why that is? I imagine they’re like comparing BMW to Audi, they do much the same job it just depends what badge you want?

Thankyou very much! Where are you as I often travel around and down south

[EViS]

ChainsawSam said:

Yeah fair point, there does seem to be a lot more “dealers” of the Rams over here, any idea why that is? I imagine they’re like comparing BMW to Audi, they do much the same job it just depends what badge you want?

Thankyou very much! Where are you as I often travel around and down south

Pretty much. All you need to do is google for Chevy vs Ford vs Dodge memes to realise this . It can be subjective, but GMC seem to have the better (Allison) transmissions, Dodge the better (Hemi) engines, Ford the better gadgets (auto parallel and bay parking, 360 cameras, trailer backup, etc). In terms of purchase price, Chevy/GMC hold their value the best, followed by Ford and then RAM. You also have the Toyota Tundra in that mix but they're incredibly rare over here and the interior reminds me of a beefed up Prius.

Regardless of the manufacturer, the latest generations of yank trucks is easily on-par with any small Jap/Eu trucks in terms of quality and reliability, and far outweighs them on features and price. Sure, you'll still find the odd piece of paper-thin interior plastic and exterior panel on the budget models, but the old (valid) perception of cheap quality is no longer true.

There is a RAM UK facebook group which might be worth you joining. A large percentage on there run the bigger 3500 trucks, but there is still a healthy number of us with the baby 1500's.

Edited by EViS on Wednesday 5th October 09:30

[ChainsawSam]

EViS said:

They're world's apart in terms of refinement and luxury. Both were seemingly 'modern' in terms of comfort and gadgets, but the F150 was 20 years old when I sold it. The RAM was 5 years old with barely any mileage on the clock when I bought it. I did research all the new yanks at the time (F150, RAM, Sierra, etc.), but the RAM was a cut above the rest in terms of styling (imo), wide availability and appeal (in the UK market), and it has a Hemi which I wanted.

I'm on the complete other side of the country to you, otherwise I'd have offered you to take a look around and give mine a whirl .

Yeah fair point, there does seem to be a lot more “dealers” of the Rams over here, any idea why that is? I imagine they’re like comparing BMW to Audi, they do much the same job it just depends what badge you want?

Thankyou very much! Where are you as I often travel around and down south

[RB Will]

ChocolateFrog said:

I just laugh whenever I see someone driving the V10 Rams over here, which seem the most popular yank pickups. I'm sure they're having fun and loving the attention but I just know they're watching the fuel gauge move in real time and feeling a bit sick.

I'd say there are far more Hemis than V10s over here in the UK. I don't actually worry about the economy in my SRT-10, just enjoy the noise and the drive. It actually isnt as bad as I feared anyway. Ive had 2 Rams now, one a quad cab, auto, 4x4/4x2 ,5.7Hemi and now the regular cab, RWD, manual, 8.3 V10. Generally pootling about they do about the same MPG, early to mid teens, but on a run the SRT is actually better! I had 23 UK mpg from Bristol to Swindon the other weekend. Of course on the flip side if I'm hurling it down my favourite B road I have achieved an average of 5mpg

Hopefully the rest of this post isn't too late for the OP.

LHD, obviously varies by driver but I didn't find it too hard to adapt to, very rarely a problem.

Size wise it depends what era you are looking at. Both of my Rams have been 2004 models. These look pretty big compared to Euro stuff but are not actually too bad. They will fit on the road fine and can fit between the lines in most normal parking spaces, will stick out a bit length wise though. I used my quad cab as my daily driver, around town, doing the weekly shop, taking dog out, off roading, etc and it was fine.

They have grown with time though. Id been thinking I'd like one of the new Ram TRXs sometime but then saw a pic of one compared to an SRT like mine



and bearing in mind this is mine next to a my mates X5M so a large car by normal standards



Im a Ram guy but whatever US truck you opt for is so much better than any other equivalent. So much more room inside, nicer to drive and ride in, waaay better engines, better equipment, cooler. When I got rid of my first Ram I tried all the typical Jap / Euro pickups and they are just terrible in comparison so went without a pickup for 9 years until I got the SRT I always wanted.

If you are looking at older ones, just remember bigger isnt always better. The 5.9 and early 8.0v10 are awful compared to the 5.7