Should you buy a Ford F-150, a Chevy Silverado 1500, or a Ram 1500? This is the haunting question all truck shoppers face. These represent the Detroit Big Three and almost always find the top spot in the market when it comes to sales. In fact, if we tossed the GMC Sierra 1500 into the mix, the GM pair is barely on the heels of the Ford for sales most years. Ram still holds a strong position in the market and has gained a great deal of traction compared to the other models.
How Do We Answer this Question?
Which truck should you buy? We can look across the lineup of each one and find various benefits that would make them easy to enjoy. If you want a diesel engine, you’ll have to go with the Chevy or Ram because Ford doesn’t offer a diesel engine in the half-ton class. Of course, most truck owners don’t opt for diesel power, which puts the question back into play. Unless you’ve got some serious brand loyalty, you might find difficulty in selecting one of these trucks; let’s see if we can help.
Does the F-150 Offer Better Value than the Silverado?
We’ll begin with the basics, and that comes into the value part of the market. Both the Ford F-150 and Chevrolet Silverado 1500 come in various trims, cab configurations, and different bed lengths and sizes. There are various powertrains for both trucks. The Chevy might have the Duramax diesel, but the Ford PowerBoost Hybrid V6 is the powertrain that delivers the fuel mileage desired and plenty of power. With this hybrid powertrain, the Pro Power Onboard feature turns your truck into a mobile power generator.
Both trucks deliver at least one off-road-focused version. The Chevy Silverado ZR2 is impressive and compared well to the Ford Tremor, but nothing quite challenges the Raptor in the Chevy lineup. Also, Ford already has its electric version out and about. We have to wait a couple more years before the Silverado EV appears. During that time, the F-150 Lightning could dominate the landscape. Overall, the F-150 brings more value with most of the connected services included at no additional charge. The Wi-Fi hotspot gives you three months to see if you want to keep it, which could be a game-changer when you use this truck for work every day.
Does the F-150 Offer Better Value than the Ram 1500?
The Ram 1500 could almost be swapped out for the Chevy in the previous paragraphs. This truck also delivers excellent power, various configurations, several trims, and some impressive features. The Ram 1500 is often considered the half-ton truck with the best cabin in the class, which could make a difference in your driving pleasure. One thing you’ll find in the Ram lineup that you don’t see in the Ford F-150 is the 12-inch vertically-oriented touchscreen for the infotainment system, but that might not be enough to sway you toward the Ram.
When it comes to the off-road prowess, Ram does a much better job of challenging Ford than Chevy did. The Ram 1500 TRX is an exciting truck filled with power, performance, and prestige. This truck delivers more than 700 horsepower and can seriously challenge the F-150 Raptor for off-road supremacy. We will see a new V8-power Raptor R, but it’s not scheduled to arrive until the fall of 2022.
Overall, the F-150 delivers the goods to be the better value option when compared to the Ram 1500. Somehow, Ford just does things better than its chief competitors, which might be why the Ford half-ton truck is the most popular vehicle in America year after year.
Does the Silverado Tow and Carry More than the F-150?
Comparing capability numbers truly gets us down to what a truck is made to do. For this comparison, we have to toss out the specialty off-road versions because they aren’t any good at towing. The Chevrolet Silverado 1500 with either the 6.2-liter V8 engine or the Duramax diesel engine can tow up to 13,200 pounds. This truck also carries up to 2,100 pounds in the bed, giving you a strong truck with a lot to offer.
But this strong truck with a lot to offer reaches its limits before the Ford F-150. That’s right; Ford delivers a tow rating of 14,000 pounds when this truck has the 3.5-liter EcoBoost V6 engine under the hood. If you want to enjoy the venerable 5.0-liter V8 engine, the tow rating drops to 13,000 pounds. That’s right; the V6-powered Ford tows the most. Payload number switch places for these two engines. The V6 gives you 2,100 pounds of carrying power, while the V8 delivers 2,900 pounds. This could be a tough decision, but you can see how the Ford has the advantage over the Chevywhen comparing capability numbers.
How Does the Ram 1500 Stack Up?
The disappointment in this truck comparison comes when you look at the numbers for the Ram 1500. You might think with the Hemi name on the V8 engines or the impressive performance of the diesel engine that the Ram would be a strong competitor, but it’s not. The Ram 1500 tows the most when equipped with the 5.7-liter V8 engine, which can pull up to 11,520 pounds. That’s not terrible, but it doesn’t touch the Chevy or Ford. Payload numbers for the Ram don’t eclipse 2,000 pounds, which leads to a little more disappointment for this truck.
The Ford F-150 is a Clear Winner; Was There Any Doubt?
Sometimes, the most popular vehicle in a class is popular for many reasons. That’s certainly the case for the Ford F-150. This truck has a proven history of performance, quality, technology, value, and strength. Even though we only covered a few topics today, you can easily see where digging deeper will go. Sure, the Chevy and Ram could have a few top marks in some categories, but when you want the overall best half-ton truck in the market, you’ll want to head over to your local Ford dealer and take a test drive in the F-150.
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