With the new truck losing its Hemi, it was only a matter of time before the Ram 1500 Classic left us.
Even when Ram first introduced the current “DT” generation half-ton back in 2019 — yep, it’s already been five years — you could actually still buy the old truck in the Ram 1500 Classic. Not only was it a little less expensive, but it offered up an option for folks who just liked the old-school truck, and that’s not something you can typically do when manufacturers roll out a new generation. That said, we all knew the Classic would eventually bow out, and that’s now been confirmed as Ram intends to drop the “DS” truck from the lineup in 2025.
“The Ram 1500 Classic has been a great entry-point pickup for Ram and the Tradesman model has certainly represented the needs of our commercial truck customers,” a company spokesperson said to The Drive in a statement. “With the introduction of the Tradesman on the new Ram 1500…we bid farewell to the previous generation and remind customers that the Hemi-powered Ram 1500 Classic will sell into 2025.” A side note: For reference, the Tradesman trim has been a part of the fifth-gen Ram 1500 since 2019, but the Classic always came in a couple thousand dollars cheaper, depending on your configuration.
Another report from Automotive News cites layoffs for 63 employees at a Ram supplier, Michigan-based Bridgewater Interiors, connected to Stellantis’ decision to ax the Ram 1500 Classic from its lineup. That suggests the automaker has already built all the DS-generation trucks it planned to produce, and that inventory will carry dealers through the rest of the 2024 selling year and into 2025.
With the Classic’s demise, the most affordable 2025 Ram 1500 Tradesman you’ll be able to configure starts at $42,270. That’s for a two-wheel drive model with a Quad Cab configuration and 6-foot-4 bed. While you could previously build the Ram 1500 Classic as a Regular Cab model, you aren’t able to do that for 2024-2025. Apples to apples, then, the price difference between the old-style truck and the current DT-generation is $3,565, going off 2024 model year pricing for the Classic.
Like the new truck, this news means the 5.7-liter Hemi V8 is also officially dead. The new-style 2025 Ram 1500 Tradesman starts off with the 3.6-liter Pentastar V6 (as it also does in the Classic), but the upgrade path swaps that out for a 3.0-liter twin-turbocharged “Hurricane” inline-six with 420 horsepower and 469 lb-ft of torque, for a $2,695 premium over the base engine.
We recently had a 2022 Ram 1500 Classic (affectionately named ‘Stubby’, thanks to the two-door configuration), which you can check out below:
