2017 Ram Power Wagon: This Much Attitude Comes at a Price

Matt Posky
by Matt Posky

If you are looking for a budget pickup to haul around the occasional armoire or stack of plywood, look no further than the Nissan Frontier. However, if you want the biggest and meanest off-road hauler America has to offer, you’re going to have to fork over some extra dough.

Dodge has announced pricing for the 2017 Ram Power Wagon and informed us that automotive savagery isn’t gratis.

A standard Ram 2500 starts at $32,095, but that’s a super-sized truck for super-sized babies. A man’s truck can climb a mountain, has a 12,000 pound winch, comes with tire tread embossed seats, and has an MSRP of $51,695.

Adding destination charges brings the grand total to $53,015. While that may seem like a ludicrous increase in cost, Ram’s Rebel is similarly priced against it’s own 1500 brethren. Think of the Power Wagon as the Rebel’s sketchy older brother, out on parole and ready to do something crazy.

Facilitating the crazy are things like Bilstein shocks, locking differentials, chassis armor, electronic sway bars, 33-inch Goodyear Wrangler DuraTrac tires, and plenty of ground clearance. Since every pencil comes with an eraser, the Power Wagon package includes a heavy-duty Warn winch and tow hooks.

It also comes with a 6.4-liter Hemi V8 that makes 410 horsepower and 429 lb-ft of torque.

Obviously, you want the aggressively macho looks on the outside, but classing it up on the inside using the official Leather & Luxury package adds another $4,495. Doing so replaces the tire tread interior with adjustable heated and ventilated high-back leather-trimmed seats. Additional luxuries include a heated steering wheel, parking assist, rearward visibility camera, integrated voice command with Bluetooth, Uconnect Access 8.4 Sirius XM satellite radio, nine Alpine speakers, and a subwoofer.

However, if you went with the luxury pack, you would need to reconsider if your truck was really deserving of the retro inspired x’treme graphics.

You might even want to forego the extra attitude altogether. If so, Ram says you can purchase a 4×4 Tradesman 2500 and add all of the Power Wagon equipment for $8,450 — essentially giving you an under-the-radar trophy truck for $48,315.

[Image: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles]

Matt Posky
Matt Posky

A staunch consumer advocate tracking industry trends and regulation. Before joining TTAC, Matt spent a decade working for marketing and research firms based in NYC. Clients included several of the world’s largest automakers, global tire brands, and aftermarket part suppliers. Dissatisfied with the corporate world and resentful of having to wear suits everyday, he pivoted to writing about cars. Since then, that man has become an ardent supporter of the right-to-repair movement, been interviewed on the auto industry by national radio broadcasts, driven more rental cars than anyone ever should, participated in amateur rallying events, and received the requisite minimum training as sanctioned by the SCCA. Handy with a wrench, Matt grew up surrounded by Detroit auto workers and managed to get a pizza delivery job before he was legally eligible. He later found himself driving box trucks through Manhattan, guaranteeing future sympathy for actual truckers. He continues to conduct research pertaining to the automotive sector as an independent contractor and has since moved back to his native Michigan, closer to where the cars are born. A contrarian, Matt claims to prefer understeer — stating that front and all-wheel drive vehicles cater best to his driving style.

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  • Alan Well, it will take 30 years to fix Nissan up after the Renault Alliance reduced Nissan to a paltry mess.I think Nissan will eventually improve.
  • Alan This will be overpriced for what it offers.I think the "Western" auto manufacturers rip off the consumer with the Thai and Chinese made vehicles.A Chinese made Model 3 in Australia is over $70k AUD(for 1995 $45k USD) which is far more expensive than a similar Chinesium EV of equal or better quality and loaded with goodies.Chinese pickups are $20k to $30k cheaper than Thai built pickups from Ford and the Japanese brands. Who's ripping who off?
  • Alan Years ago Jack Baruth held a "competition" for a piece from the B&B on the oddest pickup story (or something like that). I think 5 people were awarded the prizes.I never received mine, something about being in Australia. If TTAC is global how do you offer prizes to those overseas or are we omitted on the sly from competing?In the end I lost significant respect for Baruth.
  • Alan My view is there are good vehicles from most manufacturers that are worth looking at second hand.I can tell you I don't recommend anything from the Chrysler/Jeep/Fiat/etc gene pool. Toyotas are overly expensive second hand for what they offer, but they seem to be reliable enough.I have a friend who swears by secondhand Subarus and so far he seems to not have had too many issue.As Lou stated many utes, pickups and real SUVs (4x4) seem quite good.
  • 28-Cars-Later So is there some kind of undiagnosed disease where every rando thinks their POS is actually valuable?83K miles Ok.new valve cover gasket.Eh, it happens with age. spark plugsOkay, we probably had to be kewl and put in aftermarket iridium plugs, because EVO.new catalytic converterUh, yeah that's bad at 80Kish. Auto tranny failing. From the ad: the SST fails in one of the following ways:Clutch slip has turned into; multiple codes being thrown, shifting a gear or 2 in manual mode (2-3 or 2-4), and limp mode.Codes include: P2733 P2809 P183D P1871Ok that's really bad. So between this and the cat it suggests to me someone jacked up the car real good hooning it, because EVO, and since its not a Toyota it doesn't respond well to hard abuse over time.$20,000, what? Pesos? Zimbabwe Dollars?Try $2,000 USD pal. You're fracked dude, park it in da hood and leave the keys in it.BONUS: Comment in the ad: GLWS but I highly doubt you get any action on this car what so ever at that price with the SST on its way out. That trans can be $10k + to repair.
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