Tungsten Takes Ram 1500 to Award-Winning Level

Yes, you can have your mulch-hauler monster or trailer-towing beast and a luxury-level sedan interior as well.

That’s what we discovered in the 2025 Ram 1500 Tungsten, the latest addition to the ranks of uber-luxury light-duty pickups and winner of a 2024 Wards 10 Best Interiors & UX trophy.

Stellantis designers are known for creating excellent interiors and groundbreaking UX, but,  the top-grade Tungsten trim takes the Ram to a new level of comfort and convenience. It starts with materials that get a major upgrade in the Tungsten’s Indigo-Sea Salt interior, with stitched leather seats and armrests complemented by platinum-patina metallic accents and speaker grilles.

Handsome patterns proliferate inside the Ram, including V-shaped stitching on the generously proportioned center console armrest as well as on seats and the upper IP, plus a raised, mesh-style texture on some metallic trim. But perhaps our patterns are the driver-selected wallpapers, or themes, for the touchscreen, with designs that mimic leather and weathered wood. Indeed, this vehicle takes the notion of a mid-cycle change to a whole new level.

We reveled in settling into the massaging, heated and ventilated seats, taking control of the premium environment via a capable 14.5-in. (36.8-cm) center touchscreen, surrounded by a bevy of switchgear for the most-used functions. Driver information arrives via a 12.3-in. (31.2-cm) digital cluster providing all manner of menus.

We appreciate the Ram’s easy access to controls, whether via touchscreen, voice or physical knobs. As in the Jeep Grand Wagoneer we lauded with a 2023 10 Best Interiors & UX award, the Ram gets a 10.25-in. (26-cm) passenger-side screen as well.

Behind the scenes, Uconnect 5 and a new electronic architecture called Atlantis produce blazing-fast operating speeds and near-instant touchscreen responses.

Equally impressive is the vehicle’s Hands-free Driving Assist Level 2+ automated driving capability to take the tedium out of long-distance interstate travel by allowing hands-free travel on mapped interstates. When the route heads off the freeway, Active Driving Assist provides comfortable hands-on, eyes-on lane keeping and full-range speed control. The system merely requires a light touch on the capacitive steering wheel to continue functioning, rather than steering input as a hands-on measure.

It’s quiet inside, thanks to plenty of sound-deadening insulation but also due to the new, relatively silent-spinning twin-turbo I-6 under the hood. No more Hemi V-8 roar. For premium truck buyers who double as audiophiles, we can’t say enough about the Tungsten’s 1,228-watt, 23-speaker Klipsch audio system. The Klipsch system may be the pinnacle of automotive audio – and we can attest that it produces enough concert-level decibels to set off an Apple Watch “Loud Environment” alert. You have been warned.

“It may sound incongruous, but I actually felt pampered at the wheel of a truck more than 19 feet long and weighing 7,100 pounds,” says judge Jim Irwin. “That’s how seriously comfortable the Ram Tungsten 1500 felt.”

Yes, it’s a pickup, but a highly pampering one that rightfully takes its place on our 2024 winners list.