I’ve been holding out on trading in my 2019 Gen 2, patiently waiting for the R to go on sale. I’m sure the initial markups will be bananas and I’m in no rush. What I would never trade my Raptor in for is The TRX. Everyone has their opinion on Manufacturers and I respect that; if you are a fan of Dodge that’s your daily not mine so have at it and enjoy. In my eyes Dodge has always followed the same principle… take a mediocre at best product, stuff a more powerful engine into it, and put it out for consumers to enjoy in the short term. From the Dodge Neon SRt4 to the Ram Srt10 and most recent hellcat versions of the charger and challenger…at the end of the day it’s still a Dodge. Notorious for interiors made from the cheapest of materials, faulty transmissions, engine brackets that break regularly across their entire line of vehicles. And I speak from first hand experience. Working in law enforcement I was assigned 5 chargers in total starting with the 6th Gen to the 7th Gen before the cost of repairs became so astronomical and frequent that the agency switched back to Ford. 3/5 were brand new. You name it it happened. From mechanical failures and snapped engine brackets to your dash and trim peeling…we even had several new chargers completely dying upon heavy acceleration in pursuits. we saw it all across the fleet. Were they fast? Absolutely. But in the private market what good is spending 70-90k on something fast that’ll last you a short period of time. I’m just not convinced that the TRX is any different from the usual specialty vehicle Dodge puts out. They set out to “beat” the Raptor. They took a Ram 1500, stuffed it with aftermarket parts, made sure the numbers were higher than the Raptor and slapped an 80k+ sticker price on it instead of developing something new that is actually capable of matching or beating the Raptor in its off road capabilities which was at the core of the Raptors development. Anyone here who has put their Raptors through the paces it was meant to out in places like Moab knows that a figure like 702hp is meaningless when it comes to off-road maneuvering and ascending/descending trails. Sure you wanna open her up and fly down the salt flats let your 702 hp rip. Just always remember that the rest of what you are driving is liable to leave you stranded sooner rather than later. If I was interested in a straight line truck there’s always the F150 Super Snake. My 2019 Gen 2 has 52k miles on it currently and it’s never once had me second guessing choosing a Raptor. But again… to each his own. That’s my rant lol hope you guys are well and safe and, if you went the TRX route, I hope I’m wrong and you enjoy it for a long time to come. See ya out there.
