2014 Ram 1500 Laramie: The Gentleperson Farmer's Limousine

We are living in the glory days of full-size pickups, a statement fully supported by the 2014 Ram 1500 Laramie. While you can still grab a low-spec, regular cab work truck from the segment's leading luminaries (which also include Chevrolet/GMC and Ford), most truck buyers opt for at least four doors and the kind of creature comforts that wouldn't feel out of place in a premium sedan.

The 2014 Ram 1500 Laramie is one such model, a spacious - no, make that enormous - pickup that provides a host of features that straddle the space from task-focused workhorse to boulevard-cruising commuter.  Striking road presence and technological innovation have helped to pull Ram even with perennial champion Ford in the full-size race, and although a new F-150 is due later this year, for the moment it's impossible to ignore what the 1500 Laramie has to offer.

• Also: 2014 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel: A Big, Efficient Winner For Pickup Fans
• Also: 2013 RAM 1500: An evolutionary year

You Get What You Pay For

It must be said that luxury rarely comes cheap, and that's as true in the truck world as it is anywhere else.  While you can snag a base Ram 1500 ST regular cab for the very affordable price of $19,995, the crew cab Ram 1500 Laramie that I drove stickered at $60,940.  Although far from the most expensive Ram you can park in your driveway, I have to admit that you get a lot of return on your dollar, starting with a cabin that has been decked out with heated and cooled leather seats, a very useful fold-up rear bench with concealed storage, Chrysler's top-shelf Uconnect 8.4 touchscreen interface, and automatic climate control.

The glamour isn't limited to the passenger compartment, either, as my Laramie tester also featured an optional air suspension with four-stage ride height control, a towing package with integrated trailer braking, a 5.7-liter Hemi V8 engine, and an eight-speed automatic transmission.  Riding out back was a five-foot, seven-inch cargo box with a factory bed liner.

A Farmer In The Fields, A Knight In The Streets

The two-tone black paint and off-white trim of the 2014 Ram 1500 Laramie that I drove cut an attractive figure on the streets of Montreal, and I could sense all eyes on me - especially when parking the behemoth on the street and making sure not to scratch its 20-inch rims, a task made easier by the vehicle's rear-view camera and active parking sonar.  I also appreciated the truck's multi-stage ride height control, as it featured an ultra-low setting designed to make it easier to load the pickup.  I had the truck kneeling in order to fill the Ram with gravel and then empty it in my driveway, a 500-kilogram moving task that the truck's 395 horsepower engine had absolutely no trouble dealing with.

With 410 lb-ft of torque on-hand, it’s no surprise that the Ram was able to shrug off its workload.  Power delivery from the Hemi engine is immediate and satisfying, and you can win more than a few drag races from one stoplight to another despite the truck's hefty curb weight.  If you want to pay a little more money, the Laramie can also be equipped with Chrysler's new 3.0-liter EcoDiesel V6, a turbocharged unit that is good for 240 horses and 420 lb-ft of torque, and which provides comparable highway performance (although it's slower off of the line).  One other thing the EcoDiesel Ram gives you is improved fuel efficiency: I saw over 20 l/100 km during my time with the pickup, on an exclusively city-oriented drive route.  The diesel will easily better that figure.

Jack Of All Trades

Full-size pickups like the 2014 Ram 1500 Laramie catch a lot of heat from drivers of smaller vehicles who simply don't understand why someone would pay a fuel and parking penalty to peddle something so huge around town.  This kind of attitude clearly illustrates a lack of experience with trucks in general: the Ram is so incredibly useful, in such a wide variety of ways, that spending even a week behind the wheel can have you seriously considering adding one to your personal fleet.

Need to haul yourself and four friends somewhere in absolute comfort?  The Laramie can do that.  Want to transport that accumulated junk in your basement to the town dump?  The Ram has you covered.  Need to tow a utility trailer / boat / your neighbour's house out into the country / lake / somewhere you can't hear their nine year-old son drumming all afternoon?  This is the truck for you.

Adding so many amenities to the options list of modern pickups has had the effect of extending their reach off of the jobsite and into the every day lives of anyone who can afford their increasingly-higher price tag.  The Ram 1500 Laramie would make an excellent addition to almost any driveway, and it wouldn't take long before it earned its keep.