i'm mark williams for pickup trucks dot com and welcome to our 2013 light-duty
challenge we made the call to the manufacturers and we gave them four
criteria to meet how to be four door had to be four wheel drive had to be able to
280 500 pounds and the cost total cost had to be 45 thousand dollars which
includes destination
we took these trucks we had six of them and put them through a battery of
half-ton pickup truck tests that included fuel economy towing max payload
and just driving out in the real world are six competitors are the 2014 chevy
silverado 1500 the 2013 ford f150 the 2014 GMC sierra 1500 the 2013
nissan titan the 2013 ram 1500 and the 2013
toyota tundra let's take a look at the top three finishers in third place in
its very first head-to-head segment competition
the 2014 GMC sierra 1500 when two of our quantitative test events outright and
came in a close second in for others the Sierra gave us an amazing 23.1 miles per
gallon when empty during our 180 mile drive loops which technically is five
percent better than its EPA highway rating
granted we weren't breaking any of the local speed limits but we weren't
babying the trucks either the other competitive test the Sierra one was our
60 20 brake test while loaded with 1,200 pounds of rubber mats strapped into the
bed
yes there was plenty of groaning and shuttering but in the end the Sierra
stopped several feet shorter than most of the other half times
to its credit the Sierra not only finished second in fully loaded
meaning with an 80 500 pound trailer and tow fuel economy but also 60 20 breaking
when empty and the empty autocross runs and for having one of the best payload
capacities of the group in the end the new GMC sierra 1500 impressed
each of the test drivers and judges in second place and in its first pickup
trucks . com four-door halftone competition
the 2013 ram 1500 came to us with plenty of style and plenty of options with our
favorite being the segment's only four corner airbag suspension the ram 15
separate quantitative events outright and 12 other categories and the
qualitative portion of our test
additionally it placed second in three separate categories the ram 1500 Big
Horn with its 395 horse a me and eight-speed transmission did very well
in all the performance testing recording the fastest flat track 0 to 60 time when
empty it also recorded the best times during our seven point two percent
hillclimb test when both empty and with the loaded 8500 pound trailer strapped
to the back as well as winning the autocross timed runs when both empty and
with a thousand pounds in the pickup bit in our qualitative categories are judges
from pickup trucks , and Popular Mechanics really like the ram 1500
interior giving it the highest scores of the group
additionally our judges felt the ram 1500 offer the best overall value as
well
in the end the new ram finish just eight points behind the winner and that's an
incredibly small margin in our opinion
it won't be difficult at all for ram fans to imagine a better outcome with
just one quicker shift here or an extra point there
that brings us to the winner of our 2013 light-duty challenge the ford f-150 ford
opted to send us the only be six in our tests i'll be at the powerful 3.5 liter
ecoboost v6
but that proved to be a very smart strategy when combined with the optional
maxx tow package there simply is no way to describe the f-150 s performance in
this test without using the word dominating
by the time each of the quantitative events were finished the Ford led by
more than 50 points over the second place challenger
however in the name of full disclosure when headed into the more subjective
areas where p.m. and pu t see experts awarded points regarding interior and
exterior quality layout and features as well as a simple bang for your buck
overall value
ford f150 did not dominate its rivals in fact in these categories that never
finished better than third place but in the end the Ford held onto its lead to
become our 2013 light-duty challenge champion
we congratulate forward and thank all the truck makers for participating in
this test
so there you have it after a punishing week of testing we say congratulations
to the winner
and if you want more details and data go to pick up trucks . com
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