RAM 1500 vs Kgm Musso

What's the difference?

As with all current-generation Ram 1500s, the Rebel remains one of our favourite full-sized American utes on the Australian market.

Yes, it is not cheap, and a few items standard on the Laramie Sport have been deleted for better or worse, but the Rebel offers better off-road capability without losing any of the regular 1500’s driver enjoyment, comfort, refinement and overall class.

An upsized Ranger Wildtrak with more civility than its redneck reputation suggests.

The KGM Musso Advance is a large 4WD ute offering a decent amount of appeal for the price and it makes a lot of sense in XLV form.

It’s generally nice to drive, it’s comfortable and capable for a ute and – as with the Rexton – the Musso is another clear sign that KGM continues to improve its vehicles, albeit incrementally in some cases, in terms of quality and functionality.

Essentially, the 1500 Rebel is a Laramie Sport with a few changes to make it look a little more athletic.

Changes include an extra power bulge in the bonnet, a restyled grille treatment, black powder-coated steel bumpers, daytime running spot lights, 18-inch rather than 20-inch off-road alloy wheels and the aforementioned one-inch (26mm-ish) suspension lift – partly as a result of the knobblier tyres, Bilstein off-road dampers and revised springs, all for better clearances.

Speaking of which, that’s why the retractable side steps have been deleted. The approach/departure/breakover angles are rated at 20.9, 22.2 and 19.2 degrees respectively.

That the Rebel loses the RamBox does mean a bit more tub width, but at the cost of 210 litres of hidden storage.

What’s left are mostly visual changes, including a two-tone colour scheme with black paint on the lower sections, extra blacked-out trim, Rebel badges and decals and three grade-specific hues: 'Bright White', 'Flame Red' and 'Hydro Blue'.

Dimensionally, the 1500 is definitely in the next-league up compared to a Ranger or HiLux, with length at 5916mm, width at 2057mm (excluding mirrors – that balloons out to 2747mm with them) and height at 2006mm. Wheelbase is set at 3672mm. Which does wonders for interior space.

Inside, a red and black look pervades, resulting in Rebel upholstery and material applications, but the seats and dash remain pure Laramie Sport – and that’s no bad thing, as the DT series remains the most car-like and refined interior of all the big US utes.

Let’s dive in.

The Musso is based on its SUV stablemate, the Rexton. It’s a body-on-frame 4WD ute, available only as a dual-cab, and its appearance is inoffensively pleasant.

Styling changes to the Advance include a black grille, black 18-inch alloy wheels, HID headlights (on short and XLV grades), and rear privacy tint.

It also has a black leather-look interior with black leather-look seats.

The Musso’s interior offers plenty of space for the driver and passengers and is neat and well laid out.

Build quality and fit and finish are impressive with a mix of durable plastic and soft-touch surfaces throughout including a leather steering wheel and leather-look seats in the Advance.

This is as much an interior review as anything else, because the Walkinshaw Automotive Group’s engineers have created nearly 50 unique dashboard parts in the 1500’s transition from LHD to RHD.

These join the hundreds of other items that have been modified throughout the big ute.

Haul yourself up and inside, and what you’re met with is essentially a Laramie Sport, but with a more-athletic vibe due to the red-and-black Rebel trim upholstery. In this evaluation example, the presentation, fit and finishes were exemplary.

Everything seems to be in Cinemascope. The sheer girth of the cabin; the excellent vision afforded by lofty seating as well as the deep windscreen and side windows; the abundance of light showering in from the dual-pane sunroof; wide yet cosy front seats that ensconce you like a bear hug – are there comfier ones out there in the world of utes? We doubt it; and heaps of space for your head, shoulders, arms and legs.

Most people should be able to sleep crossways on the back seat floor.

Back up front, the vast multi-layered dash is conventionally designed, with a 12-inch instrument display ahead of the driver and a long, portrait-oriented 14.4-inch touchscreen (containing a superb premium audio system).

But, unusually, there’s also a 10.25-inch multimedia screen for the front passenger, which isn’t visible to the driver for road-safety reasons.

Drilling into the details, there’s a satisfying attention to design to the instrument dials that you’d expect from an Italian brand – Ram owner Stellantis is partly consisted of Alfa Romeo, Fiat and Lancia, after all, as well as Citroen and Peugeot.

It’s also in the feel and quality of the presentation, as well as the general ergonomics, where most of the controls and switchgear are within reach, readily understood and easily operable – after a few moments taken to learn what’s what.

Confidence and swagger, without being too brash or ostentatious. An F-150, in contrast, seems cheap and hard inside.

Weirdly, given all the room around you, there’s also a sense of being a bit hemmed-in, thanks to the ultra-wide centre console. It houses an attic’s worth of storage capability, and is nicely integrated within the overall dash architecture.

It’s a pity, then, that Ram doesn’t offer a three-person bench seat up front – or, at least, a two-person love seat for the passengers right beside the driver’s bucket. There’s certainly enough space for that.

A half-day with the Rebel failed to showcase too many faults or irritations. There’s too much wind noise coming in at speed due to those elephantine exterior mirrors, there’s no digital radio and not everybody will like the red trim inserts. In this regard the vibe is more garish Germanic than restrained Italianate.

Remember, too, the Laramie Sport’s sliding centre console and reclining rear backrests aren’t fitted to the Rebel.

Not that you’d necessarily miss the latter, since the bench is nicely angled and seems comfortable enough. Obviously, there are acres of space to move and lounge about in, and pretty much all the usual amenities are present.

These include USB ports of both varieties, heated outboard seats, face-level ventilation, cupholders, map pockets overhead lighting, a coat hook, and the glorious sunroof that allows so much light to flood in.

There’s extra storage beneath the cushions as well as in the door panels, while a small portion of the back glass slides open. Apparently, that’s handy for hearing and giving instructions when working with the ute. Clever.

And, of course, so is the massive tub out back, complete with a full-sized spare wheel.

For now, Australia only receives the five-foot/seven-inch – or 1.7m long – tub, rather than the longer 6' 1" option offered in earlier 1500s. The Rebel’s payload jumps 30kg, and still maintains its 4.5-tonne towing capacity.

Note that, with the deletion of the RamBox cargo storage units, load-area width increases, but only by 15mm, and you lose 210 litres of hidden tub storage.

For the record, the tub dimensions are around 1700mm (length), 1295mm (width) and 543mm (height). The upshot is about 1500 litres of cargo capacity.

And, of course, there’s the maximum braked towing capacity of 4500kg (with a 70mm ball), 750kg unbraked, 7771kg for Gross Combined Mass (GCM), 3505kg for Gross Vehicle Mass (GVM) and an 893kg payload maximum.

Finally, a heavy-duty tow bar, 12-pin wiring harness and trailer brake controller are standard equipment.

There is the expected array of storage spots (glove box, door pockets etc), cupholders (two to the rear of the auto shifter) and charge points (two USB-C ports and a 12-volt plug point for driver and front passenger).

The seats are comfortable and supportive and, in general, KGM has maximised space in the cabin, yielding plenty of shoulder and legroom for driver and passengers.

The 12.3-inch touchscreen multimedia system works reasonably well although you do have to cycle through numerous menus and sub-menus to change some settings and I did have to try several times to pair my phone to it, so overall functionality is clunky.

Rear-seat passengers have access to directional air vents, but there are smart-device charge points.

The tub size is as follows: 1600mm long in the XLV (1300mm in the standard Musso), 1570mm wide (1100mm between wheel-arches) and 570mm deep. The tub has a plastic tub liner and four tie-down points.

For a direct comparison of dimensions: the standard Musso is 5095mm long with a 3100mm wheelbase while the XLV is 5405mm with a 3210mm wheelbase; the standard Musso is 1950mm wide and 1870mm high (the XLV is 1885mm). For reference, the Ford Ranger XLT dual-cab ute is 5406mm long (including rear bumper and tow bar receiver) with a 3270mm wheelbase.

The difference in dimensions between a standard Musso and the XLV version also means a difference in off-road angles so approach is 22.8° / 25° (XLV), departure is 23.4° / 20° (XLV) and rampover is 23° / 20° (XLV).

Minimum ground clearance is 215mm in a standard Musso and 220mm in the XLV, so the Musso XLV does stand taller off the ground than its regular stablemate.

Kerb weight is listed as 2090kg for the standard Musso and 2100kg for the XLV. Turning circle is 11.8m for the standard Musso and 12.2m for the XLV.

The KGM Musso is available in three grades - ELX, Advance, and the Ultimate. All three can be optioned up with an XLV Pack, which adds a 300mm longer tub giving you an additional 251L rear tub capacity, along with a 110mm longer wheelbase. XLV also increases maximum torque from 400Nm to 420Nm.

At the time of writing, our test vehicle, the Advance, has drive-away price of $48,700.

Standard features in the Advance include 12.3-inch touchscreen multimedia system (with wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto), 12.3-inch digital LCD instrument cluster, leather-accented heated and ventilated front seats with electric adjustment, 18-inch black alloy wheels, HID headlights, LED daytime running lights, and a suite of driver-assist tech, but more on that in the Safety section below.

Exterior paint choices include Grand White (no extra charge), Amazonian Green (metallic paint), Marble Grey (metallic paint), Pearl White (metallic paint) and Space Black (metallic paint). Metallic paint is available for $700.

Underneath the power bulge bonnet is a 3.0-litre twin-turbo in-line six-cylinder petrol engine known as the 'Hurricane'.

Sharing just five per cent of its parts with Jeep’s version, the Rebel uses the Standard Output (SO) tune, meaning this Euro 5-rated direct-injection unit delivers a heady 313kW of power at 5200rpm and 635Nm of torque at 3500rpm.

The High Output (HO) in the Limited, on the other hand, ups the ante with 403kW and 707Nm.

Compared to the old 291kW/556Nm 5.7L Hemi V8, the Hurricane SO lacks its evocative exhaust burble and effortless low-down grunt, but the figures don’t fib: 7.6 per cent more power and 14.2 per cent more torque.

Tipping the scales at 2615kg, the Rebel returns an impressive 120kW/tonne (versus 109kW/tonne for the V8), resulting in a 0-100km/h sprint-time of just 6.0 seconds, according to Ram (HO: 5.3s). That the Hurricane weighs nearly 60kg less than the Hemi helps.

Torque is sent to either the rear wheels in 2WD mode or all four wheels in 4WD mode via an eight-speed torque-converter auto, that Ram evocatively calls ‘TorqueFlite’ – memories of old Aussie Chrysler Valiants here.

A full-time on-demand transfer case is fitted, offering '2WD High', '4WD Auto' and '4WD High/Low' along with a locking rear differential.

As with all 1500s, there are wishbones up front and the rear axle is a coil-sprung rather than leaf-spring set-up.

The KGM Musso Advance with the XLV Pack has a 2.2-litre four-cylinder turbo-diesel engine – producing 133kW at 4000rpm and 420Nm from at 1600-2600rpm – it gets an extra 20Nm over the shorter version's 400Nm from 1400 to 2800rpm.

It has a six-speed automatic transmission, part-time 4x4 with high and low range, and an auto-locking rear differential.

This is a sluggish combination producing a generally lacklustre performance and the powertrain is not particularly efficient but, having said that, the Aisin auto is a reliable, well-proven transmission and the Musso ultimately does reasonably well with what it has.

The 4WD mechanicals and driver-assist tech actually work better in this package than they do in the Musso’s stablemate, the Rexton.

Ram says the Rebel returns a combined average of 10.7L/100km, which translates to about 283 grams/km of carbon dioxide emissions. That’s a small improvement over the Hemi V8’s 12.2L/100km and 325g/km figures, aided by stop/start tech. But stirring performance, rather than outright economy are the priorities here, according to Ram.

Brimming the big 98-litre fuel tank with 91 RON standard unleaded petrol should see a theoretical average range between refills of 916km.

Official fuel consumption for the Musso Advance with the XLV treatment is 9.0L/100km.

On this test, I recorded 11L/100km, but on the test I spent a chunk of time in 4WD high and low range.

The Musso has a 75-litre fuel tank, so going by my on test fuel-consumption figures, from a full tank, you could reasonably expect a driving range of about 681km.

But it is worth noting that I didn't have a lot of weight on board during this test – it was just me and the vehicle recovery gear – and you will have a lot more weight on board: your family or your mates, pets, camping gear, surfboards, kayaks, the whole kit and caboodle.

If you’re a dyed-in-the-wool Hemi V8 lover and dread the notion that a mere ‘six’ has taken its place in the Ram 1500 – and particularly in the sporty off-road Rebel we have here – then a rethink may be in order.

That’s because, in the spirit of iconic sixes of the past, including Ford Australia’s legendary Barra in the Falcon and Territory, the Ram’s Hurricane should blow any scepticism clear away.

And it’s all in the delivery.

Smooth and sophisticated, the 3.0-litre twin-turbo straight-six idles with a muted rumble at start-up, but then roars off the line with an unexpected and prolonged burst of hungry acceleration.

And the power piles on effortlessly as the revs rise, with the auto seamlessly shifting through each ratio without putting a foot wrong.

Reflecting the interior design’s overall cohesiveness, the powertrain possesses a sophistication that’s far beyond what a big American truck ought to have.

That’s in 'Normal' mode. Choosing 'Sport' ups the stakes, as it also seems to stymie the stability/traction control intervention. Throttle response is noticeably sharper and more urgent, but other than the opportunity to more-easily break traction whilst getting to licence-losing speeds slightly quicker, there seemed little sense in staying in Sport.

This is a very fast ute as it is, and also an enjoyable one to drive, with a level of nuance at odds with its excessive proportions.

Even on wet and windy back roads the Rebel feels connected and controlled at speed.

The steering is appropriately weighted, with a sufficient amount of response for the driver to push on with confidence when taking corners quickly.

Remember, this is a 2.6-tonne-plus full-sized ute on off-road-biased tyres, yet getting into a rhythm and flow with the road is easy. Yes, you feel the mass, but the 1500 also feels taut and secure. And you’re not constantly harangued by over-zealous driver-assist systems going off all the time.

The wishbone front/coil-sprung rear suspension set-up must take much of the credit here, smothering bumps and tracing the groove of the road without jolting or stepping out of line.

Comfortable and quiet, there is a sense of isolation from the outside world that, incongruously perhaps, is in league with better premium SUVs. Again, this is a big American pick-up, remember.

On a few downhill twisty bits, the driver of course feels the shift in mass, but deft handling, adequate grip (great for off-road tyres) and effective brakes mean the Rebel doesn't break a sweat, even through puddles blanketing the bitumen.

Downsides? Well, it's still a large, lumbering truck to drive and park, with an inevitably massive turning circle to make heavy work of manoeuvring this beast around. Regular car park spots are almost always too small.

There's some wind noise rustling around the large exterior mirrors. And a bit of road noise coming through over certain coarser surfaces.

Overall, though, the Rebel behaves way-better than expected – and you don’t often get a chance to say that about a ute. Rapid, refined and engaging from behind the wheel, it is the best-driving full-sized US pick-up by some margin.

What V8!

That’s on road. We also had a brief off-road stint in the Rebel at the ex-Holden proving ground at Lang Lang, and we were pretty impressed with the ability and ease demonstrated over some short but demanding rough-track sections.

We doubt – at nearly $150K – that most buyers will go bush-bashing in this, but it’s good to know the hardware is there underneath to get you through.

On-road, the longer-wheelbase Musso is composed and comfortable with well-subdued NVH (noise, vibration and harshness) levels adding to an impressive overall sense of low-key refinement.

The engine and auto work reasonably well together, but as mentioned earlier this is a sluggish unit and it takes some urging to get it going. Pronounced lag from stand-still can be disconcerting, especially when you need plenty of zip to punch you into the traffic flow.

This ute’s suspension – double-wishbone, coil springs and stabiliser bar at the front, multi-link with coil springs at the rear – is firm, mostly controlled, but the Musso becomes jittery on irregular surfaces, such as lumpy back-roads bitumen and mildly corrugated dirt tracks.

One noteworthy annoyance: the Musso does not have adaptive cruise control.

Despite that, the Musso is actually quite reasonable for general driving duties.

As a 4WD, the Musso actually performs pretty well. It is a long wheelbase ute, so you have to drive it with consideration because you have to take into account its shallow off-road angles – approach, departure and ramp over – and it has quite a large overhang of tub behind the rear axle.

It has an auto locking rear diff, which is clunky in operation and I’d prefer a switchable diff-lock, which you could select whenever you want to, but otherwise it's effective in a workman-like kind of fashion.

Steering is not too shabby, it has a nice weight to it in all situations, whether you are on the bitumen or a dirt track. Turning circle on this long-wheelbase ute is 12.2m, but it feels nimble to steer around on the tracks.

The Musso has part-time four-wheel drive and high and low range 4WD gearing. It doesn't have a lot of power and torque in terms of the contemporary dual-cab ute market, but it does fine with what it does have; 420Nm in the XLV Musso gives it that little bit of extra punch over the standard Musso (400Nm) and that torque is available across a decent spread of revs.

If you intend to use your Musso as an off-road adventure vehicle or a weekend holiday machine, then it's handy to know that it's unbraked towing capacity is 750kg and its braked towing capacity is 3500kg and that's on par with the dual-cab ute market.

In terms of tyres, it’s the same story here as with most standard 4WDs – the Musso’s Nexen NPriz RH7 (255/60R18 108H) are not well-suited to anything other than light off-roading. The easy fix? Replace those tyres with some decent all-terrain tyres.

Payload is a listed 880kg (790kg in the standard Advance), GVM is 2980kg and GCM is 6480kg.

The Musso does not have an ANCAP rating because it has not been officially tested.

As standard, the XLV Advance has six airbags, auto emergency braking (AEB), lane departure warning, trailer sway control, blind-spot monitoring, rear cross-traffic alert, front/rear parking sensors plus reversing cameras and more.

Adaptive cruise control is not offered on Mussos in Australia, only old school cruise control.

Ram drops the ball when it comes to warranty.

That’s because, like GMSV’s Silverado range, it only offers a three-year, 100,000km warranty with roadside assistance, which falls short of the rival Ford F-150 and Toyota Tundra’s five-year/unlimited kilometre coverage.

In an era where Chinese rivals are rolling out utes with seven-year schemes, Ram's (and GMSV's) warranty is severely lacking.

Service intervals are at every 12 months or 12,000km, and there is currently no capped-price servicing on offer.

The MY26 Musso range is covered by a seven-year/unlimited kilometre new-vehicle warranty, and five years of roadside assistance.

A service is required every 12 months or 15,000km, whichever occurs soonest with cost per service either $418 or $522.

Note, KGM considers off-roading as an example of a “severe driving condition” and so your Musso may require more frequent servicing.

KGM Australia has more than 50 dealerships across the country with a decent spread across metro and regional areas. Rextons can be serviced at those dealers or at approved workshops.