Here is what happened after 139,000 miles.

Here is the truth about owning a 2013 Ram 1500 for over eight years. TFLtruck viewer Charlie W. purchased this Ram truck brand new over 8 years ago. He diligently tracked every dollar spent on this truck over the last 139,000+ miles. This includes the purchase, fuel cost, mpg, maintenance & repair costs, and much more!

The truck is a 2013 Ram 1500 Big Horn crew cab 4×4 short bed with a 5.7L V8, 8-speed automatic transmission, and a 3.92 rear differential for maximum towing capability.

Huge thanks to Charlie W. for sharing all of this information with us. It helps us learn more about the pickup truck ownership experience.

Here is what Charlie writes:

“I consider myself an automotive enthusiast, but I’m also a (just a little) bit of nerd.  I have been maintaining a personal record of ownership costs for my vehicle ever since I purchased it in 2013.  Considering you can still buy pretty much my exact truck brand new, I thought someone on your team might be interested in the data I’ve collected over the years as a true “long term review”.  It occurred to me that the relevance of this information to your followers may be at its peak right now should you decide to share it in any way.

Please feel free to explore the attached excel workbook.  It contains various tabs for fuel, maintenance, etc. with a summary that gives a high-level picture of what ownership cost really boils down to.  I also attached the window sticker as a reference.  It’s amazing to me given today’s market the purchase discounts that were offered in those times.

Oh, in case you’re wondering, the truck has been fantastic to own.  Still going strong!  Thanks to Roman for helping me pick it out during the summer of 2013.“

Here are some of the key pieces of information from the data that Charlie shared. The truck cost him $37,819.67 to buy, $24,497.54 to fuel, $9,036.37 to maintain – for an overall total of $84,143.89 over eight and a half years. His average overall fuel economy was 16.2 MPG.

In the end, it has been “fantastic” as Charlie says. In my experience, the average maintenance & repair cost of $1,000 per year is common for a relatively reliable vehicle. The cost to maintain a turbo-diesel truck over the same time is likely higher. I ended up paying more than $1,000 per year to maintain my 2022 Chevy Silverado HD 2500 Duramax truck.

Let us know your truck ownership experiences, especially high-miles trucks at ask@tfltruck.com

Here is one of our recent Ram vs Ford towing tests – the Ike Gauntlet™: the world’s toughest towing test.