My gen3 vs trx comparison

[04Ram2500Hemi]

Yeah but…..doesn’t change that it’s a Raptor wannabe.

Personally my takeaway w/ it was such (& last time I was truck shopping it was essentially w/ no limit had a $70k ins check after my 2018 Rappy was totaled) - like the hellcat whine, the interior is great/comfy nice materials- the amount of electronics & electric motors powering the power everything (as I type this my buddy has his 2019 Ram @ dealer getting a 1 of 2 sunroof motors replaced under warranty) made me a lil nervous. It is immediately noticeably heavier & feels a good bit bigger even though it really isn’t. I felt the ride was not as comfy as the Raptor over rough pavement, & I imagine that’s only exacerbated now w/ the gen3. It basically felt like a square peg constantly trying to fit itself into a round hole.

In summary my biggest takeaway was “I’d like a hellcatified something, but this sure as sh*t ain’t it, give me another Raptor” - if I was gonna get a dodge w/ this drivetrain give me a challenger hellcat widebody w/ a stick shift. If it has to have a back seat & an auto give me a Charger widebody hellcat, & if I need 4wd give me a Trackhawk (even tho I’ve heard the Durango version is fastest of all) - the Durango & TRX are silliness. TRX isn’t a true offroad truck cuz it’s too heavy, doesn’t have real 4wd, & the shocks aren’t up to task. It’ll also never go around a track like a Trackhawk or Explorer ST or X5M….or even a Raptor for that matter I’m guessing. Its….a square peg shoved in a round hole for guys who don’t know what they wanna be when they grow up.

If I had unlimited funds- sure, sign me up.

I think you could argue that any brand has its issues (Cam Phaser threads are everywhere). There is no hiding the weight of the TRX, but it’s indeed a real 4wd truck.

What I would like to see is something like a Baja Raptor Run where they have 6 Raptors and 6 TRX’s running at the same time. Do a true comparison between the two and see how things shake out.

 

[MDJAK]

I would agree with you generally. I have never personally paid above msrp and don’t settle for deals just because I gotta have one. I have gotten 30k off Audi s6 and 40k off new f type Rs and 10k off trx just as an example. Howerer the raptor market has always been msrp or above even in normal times ( yes you could get 10 percent off back in 2019 from out of state but never here. With that said, the 10k mark up is somewhat more reasonable given the times we live in. For one, you are instantly 5k better that what carmax would offer to buy and would somewhat be on par with gen2 used prices. 2020 fully loaded gen 2 is going to run around 75k Or so below 15k miles, I don’t think it is reasonable to think the 21 gen3 should sell for 79k in the same market. It is just a crazyness we live in that has spread to every corner of the economy lately. Just look at the housing market over the past 2 years. When I was in the market to buy a house last year I was beyond frustrated to see sharp rise in prices and constant overbidding as I kept comparing the current market to Precovid. Why would i pay 300k for a house that was only 800k 2 years ago. Who are these idiots that are paying these prices. So I decided to suck it up and get the best deal I could get relative to the market and now looking back a year I have another 25 percent equity in a deal that I would consider bad 3 years ago.
Kia vans are going for 7k over sticker. Honda CR-V are about 5k over. I can’t believe I’m saying this but even at 10k over a raptor that has always been a msrp and over truck does-not look too terrible at 10k above off the lot granted you are not planning on holding on to it for long. But when it comes to order and the 6-12 months expected wait, I wouldn’t settle for anything but msrp. I supposedly have an order with no vin and have no expectation of getting it this year. I would be willing to pay 5k over right now to drive it as the agony of the wait grows on you as it did on the trx order .

I hear ya. And you know I was mostly joking. I appreciated your review as I await my Gen3. Wish you gave the ride higher praise but I'll withhold judgment on that when I get it. I ordered mine in October, got VIN shortly thereafter, an it's supposedly being built this week. I hope to have it within a month or so.

On another note, I recently bought my daughter and her husband a 2022 Highlander and a 2022 Ram Laramie. Both were at sticker. I went to get my wife a 2022 MDX Type S. Test drove it, she liked it. Told the salesman I'm ready to buy. He said, oh, btw, it's 5k over sticker. I thanked him for totally wasting my time and walked out.

As for what you say Carmax is offering or charging, I must be the most unlucky person there is when it comes to them. I just went outside in the dark to my driveway with a flashlight and took pic of my vin. I put that and all options into carmax an it came back with an estimate in excellent condition for my Gen2 with 25k miles of 50k. Every time I've tried them they've been at least 10k below any dealer offer. I think they suck.

 

[Badgertits]

I hear ya. And you know I was mostly joking. I appreciated your review as I await my Gen3. Wish you gave the ride higher praise but I'll withhold judgment on that when I get it. I ordered mine in October, got VIN shortly thereafter, an it's supposedly being built this week. I hope to have it within a month or so.

On another note, I recently bought my daughter and her husband a 2022 Highlander and a 2022 Ram Laramie. Both were at sticker. I went to get my wife a 2022 MDX Type S. Test drove it, she liked it. Told the salesman I'm ready to buy. He said, oh, btw, it's 5k over sticker. I thanked him for totally wasting my time and walked out.

As for what you say Carmax is offering or charging, I must be the most unlucky person there is when it comes to them. I just went outside in the dark to my driveway with a flashlight and took pic of my vin. I put that and all options into carmax an it came back with an estimate in excellent condition for my Gen2 with 25k miles of 50k. Every time I've tried them they've been at least 10k below any dealer offer. I think they suck.

My wife wants that MDX type-S when it’s time to replace her current 2019 MDX, hope the prides cool off by then but you’re not the first person I’ve heard say they are asking over MSRP for it….it’s also a big upcharge over a standard MDX to begin w/….but I’m sure the engines a gem

 

[Dudebrodude]

Yeah but…..doesn’t change that it’s a Raptor wannabe.

Personally my takeaway w/ it was such (& last time I was truck shopping it was essentially w/ no limit had a $70k ins check after my 2018 Rappy was totaled) - like the hellcat whine, the interior is great/comfy nice materials- the amount of electronics & electric motors powering the power everything (as I type this my buddy has his 2019 Ram @ dealer getting a 1 of 2 sunroof motors replaced under warranty) made me a lil nervous. It is immediately noticeably heavier & feels a good bit bigger even though it really isn’t. I felt the ride was not as comfy as the Raptor over rough pavement, & I imagine that’s only exacerbated now w/ the gen3. It basically felt like a square peg constantly trying to fit itself into a round hole.

In summary my biggest takeaway was “I’d like a hellcatified something, but this sure as sh*t ain’t it, give me another Raptor” - if I was gonna get a dodge w/ this drivetrain give me a challenger hellcat widebody w/ a stick shift. If it has to have a back seat & an auto give me a Charger widebody hellcat, & if I need 4wd give me a Trackhawk (even tho I’ve heard the Durango version is fastest of all) - the Durango & TRX are silliness. TRX isn’t a true offroad truck cuz it’s too heavy, doesn’t have real 4wd, & the shocks aren’t up to task. It’ll also never go around a track like a Trackhawk or Explorer ST or X5M….or even a Raptor for that matter I’m guessing. Its….a square peg shoved in a round hole for guys who don’t know what they wanna be when they grow up.

If I had unlimited funds- sure, sign me up.

Have you been in a TRX offroad? Based on what you're saying, sounds like you may have taken a test drive and that's it.

I've been in my share of offroad race vehicles, g2 raptors, utvs, ETC and have quite a few offroad miles on my TRX and can vouch for its capability. Is it a long travel race vehicle? Far from it. Whether you like the Raptor or the TRX, both trucks are plenty capable out of the box and the people that want to use it for serious offroading will modify them accordingly.

 

[Badgertits]

Have you been in a TRX offroad? Based on what you're saying, sounds like you may have taken a test drive and that's it.

I've been in my share of offroad race vehicles, g2 raptors, utvs, ETC and have quite a few offroad miles on my TRX and can vouch for its capability. Is it a long travel race vehicle? Far from it. Whether you like the Raptor or the TRX, both trucks are plenty capable out of the box and the people that want to use it for serious offroading will modify them accordingly.

I only did 2 test drives & not really offroad, 1 the sales guy came w/ & the other didn’t really have the best spot nor time to try it offroad but took it through some open hilly fields @ decent speed (actually defunct landfills lol)

I’ll agree to that- certainly it’s a better than your avg suv/truck offroad vehicle, in real life is it actual better than say….either of its “siblings” the Powerwagon or Wrangler? I wouldn’t be too sure about that, but it def beats a grand Cherokee, a Rebel, an AT4, a TRD pro, etc

All that being said, come to think of it….if I were to pick which “overpowered” off-roader out there aside from a Raptor it wouldn’t be a TRX, it’d be the Wrangler 392….I’d wager that’s a better overall off-roader than the TRX

 

[Jakenbake]

There are different types of off roading though, jeep trails are quite different than trails out west that pre runner guys like.

Not that you can’t rock crawl with a raptor/TRX and not that you can’t take a jeep to baja. I’m not sure you can give a title of better off roader to any vehicle. Better is relative and the more specialized one vehicle become at a certain task it loses more and more of the “Jack of all trades” parts.

Is the bronco (pick the trim) or the f150 (pick the trim) a better off-roader?

 

[Trailmaker]

I only did 2 test drives & not really offroad, 1 the sales guy came w/ & the other didn’t really have the best spot nor time to try it offroad but took it through some open hilly fields @ decent speed (actually defunct landfills lol)

I’ll agree to that- certainly it’s a better than your avg suv/truck offroad vehicle, in real life is it actual better than say….either of its “siblings” the Powerwagon or Wrangler? I wouldn’t be too sure about that, but it def beats a grand Cherokee, a Rebel, an AT4, a TRD pro, etc

All that being said, come to think of it….if I were to pick which “overpowered” off-roader out there aside from a Raptor it wouldn’t be a TRX, it’d be the Wrangler 392….I’d wager that’s a better overall off-roader than the TRX

Being the owner of a power wagon, jeep and a raptor, I know that all 3 are excellent choices for off-road but definitely different capabilities. There is a few videos with the power wagon and the raptor being tested side-by-side but it’s not a fair video for either truck as the terrain would pick the winner. The jeep is not it in the same class as a full size truck. With the new rear suspension on the raptor mimicking the TRX, is the GEN 3 Raptor a wannabe TRX?? Every automaker somewhere copies each other, for example look at headlights and tail lights on all new vehicles that are all very similar with the LED technology and so forth.
This will be an Apple vs Samsun debate that will come down to preference don’t you think??

I for one love that we are having this discussion… if the TRX never came to the market we would never see the Raptor R and possibly we would never see the new rear suspension that we got in the GEN 3. Competition is always better for the consumer.

 

[MDJAK]

We may still never see a Raptor R. They can't even build and deliver the regular Raptor. And unless one is willing to pay 25 to closer to 50k over sticker, one will never own it.

 

[Dudebrodude]

I only did 2 test drives & not really offroad, 1 the sales guy came w/ & the other didn’t really have the best spot nor time to try it offroad but took it through some open hilly fields @ decent speed (actually defunct landfills lol)

I’ll agree to that- certainly it’s a better than your avg suv/truck offroad vehicle, in real life is it actual better than say….either of its “siblings” the Powerwagon or Wrangler? I wouldn’t be too sure about that, but it def beats a grand Cherokee, a Rebel, an AT4, a TRD pro, etc

All that being said, come to think of it….if I were to pick which “overpowered” off-roader out there aside from a Raptor it wouldn’t be a TRX, it’d be the Wrangler 392….I’d wager that’s a better overall off-roader than the TRX

It's definitely not better than the Powerwagon or Wrangler at crawling. I found myself on a section on the King of Hammers course where the TRX really showed its width. At speed though, I was very surprised at how well it worked.

Can't go wrong with the Raptor or TRX at the end of the day. They're both more capable than a stock vehicle should be.

Just hard to justify a Raptor to me when the interiors are a wash, exterior is a personal preference, and the Raptor may be <5% more capable offroad but have to settle with way less power, sound like crap, and cost the same if not more in the current market.

 

[Dudebrodude]

Being the owner of a power wagon, jeep and a raptor, I know that all 3 are excellent choices for off-road but definitely different capabilities. There is a few videos with the power wagon and the raptor being tested side-by-side but it’s not a fair video for either truck as the terrain would pick the winner. The jeep is not it in the same class as a full size truck. With the new rear suspension on the raptor mimicking the TRX, is the GEN 3 Raptor a wannabe TRX?? Every automaker somewhere copies each other, for example look at headlights and tail lights on all new vehicles that are all very similar with the LED technology and so forth.
This will be an Apple vs Samsun debate that will come down to preference don’t you think??

I for one love that we are having this discussion… if the TRX never came to the market we would never see the Raptor R and possibly we would never see the new rear suspension that we got in the GEN 3. Competition is always better for the consumer.

Love this. Competition breeds innovation. I hope the Raptor R is insanely capable so that Ram has to step up to something else and then we can keep going back and forth.

I also hope this competition leads us to trucks with 1500hp, 30" of travel, and 39" tires while getting 20+mpg in the next decade. Oh and all for the low low price of $100k + 50k ADM