We’re here just outside Nashville where we’re taking five of the best and newest half-ton pickup trucks for our latest competition: the 2018 Best of the Best Half-Ton Challenge.
In last place was the light-duty Nissan Titan, which just benefited from a thumping new Fender audio system and a few more safety features. Unfortunately, the interior is looking a bit dated next to the competition and the smaller V-8 just can’t compete with the bigger and more powerful players in the segment. Still, this rig has impressive stopping power.
Bringing up fourth place was the all-new Chevrolet Silverado 1500 High Country, which benefits from an impressive frame and chassis redesign and vastly improved powertrain lineup, however, did suffered from a rather underwhelming interior design, especially since it is supposed to be their top-of-the-line entry.
In third place is another all-new entry, the 2019 Ram 1500, which has literally hundreds of pounds weight-savings and added crash test technology, but far and away the most impressive aspect of this new half-ton is the quality and layout of the all-new interior.
In second place, and a bit of a surprise, the Ford F-150 Lariat was our classic decathlon athlete, performing strong and steady in all our competitive tests but never really getting out-distancing the competition in any one of them. The mid-level trim package on our test pickup offered a surprising amount technology and capability for a reasonable amount of money.
Finally, and some might argue interestingly, the all-new GMC Sierra 1500 SLT half-ton truck has done it again, with the benefit of a well-designed and integrated (and worth every penny) max trailering package and an exclusive MultiPro Tailgate problem solver piece of technology, the GMC pulled it out by a nose over the competition.