2025 Ram 1500 Warlock Review: It's Not The V8 You'll Miss

Growing up, I always saw Ram trucks as dependable, hard working, and possessing a slightly goofier side than Fords or Chevys (peaking with silliness like the new 1500 RHO). Embodying that goofiness is the 2025 Ram 1500 Warlock that I was tasked with testing for the week.

To give you a peak behind the curtain, I wasn't actually planning on reviewing a Ram truck at all. Instead, it was a last-minute swap, when a much much smaller car succumbed to Pennsylvania roads and popped a tire. It headed back to the dealership, and the only potential replacement was a 2025 Ram 1500 Warlock. Well, the word "Warlock" must have tripped a breaker in my brain, because I replied "I'll take it" before my brain could fully process what was happening. Something about naming a truck after an evil wizard makes me smile.

The "Warlock" moniker is not a new thing for Ram trucks. In the late 1970s, Ram debuted the Warlock along with other iconic trucks like the "Lil' Red Express." Those trucks had an upgraded suspension, a huge and inefficient V8, and all the 1970s pinstriping and graphics you could ever want.

The Warlock of 2025 is noticeably more subtle, with only a decal on the bed indicating its skill in the dark arts. Beyond the magic, the Warlock package consists of a lift kit, skid plates, upgraded shocks, some interior infotainment updates, and a locking rear differential. It's a competitor to the Silverado Trail Boss line of trucks and not so much a full-on Toyota TRD treatment. It's still a truck for the street and essentially a Ram 1500 Tradesman at heart. It's a work truck that spent a summer in Isengard getting lessons from Saruman.

The engine that powered this Warlock, however, did not bring the eight cylinders of old. As sad as it is, the Chrysler HEMI V8 engine is going the way of the dinosaurs. Now, the Dodge Durango and a select few Ram trucks have the privilege of seeing the engine off to the pearly gates. To replace it, Stellantis debuted a twin-turbocharged inline-six cylinder engine dubbed the "Hurricane." First, it was shown off in the engine bay of the Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer; now it's made its way into the Ram truck ecosystem.

Alex Hevesy/SlashGear

An optional upgrade on the Warlock, the 3.0-liter Hurricane makes 420 horsepower and 469 pound-feet of torque. Those among us who are perpetually 12 years old when it comes to our sense of humor will find those numbers amusing. That engine is connected to an 8-speed automatic transmission. That all translates to a some serious muscle and speed for the Warlock. It's a fast truck, big mud tires and all.

As I discovered during a particularly brisk drive to emergency dental surgery two days before Christmas, the Warlock has a lot of room under the pedal. While I did my best to arrive safely and abide by any all traffic laws, I will say that I have a new personal best time to get to the dentist.

While I wasn't dealing with tooth pain, the Warlock was actually a dream to drive. It's not as much of a hassle as other off-road trucks tend to be, and while I wish it had running boards to assist climbing into the cabin, there was a surprising lack of road noise coming from the tires. They refused to balk at snowy weather, and I felt the truck was confident enough (and powerful enough) to handle adverse conditions with aplomb. Given that it's by nature a huge truck, parking in crowded parking lots could be a pain, and it has the turn radius of a planet. That, sadly, just comes with the territory. 

Powertrain wise, I have exactly zero complaints. HEMI diehards may bemoan the new six-cylinder, but I found the power delivery to be extremely smooth (as is the case with many inline-six engines), and there was absolutely enough power on tap. I didn't find it lacking in any particular way, as opposed to some of the HEMI V8s I have driven.

That praise is punctuated with a few complaints about the Warlock's interior. It's about as austere as you can get: manually-adjusted, non-heated cloth seats; no media buttons on the steering wheel to speak of; a very barebones sound system; and a very basic climate control system. That might be selling point to a few people as it's "less stuff to break," but in a nearly $60,000 truck, I'd expect a few more creature comforts. All that said, I didn't find the Warlock uncomfortable to drive, and the interior was entirely adequate, I just needed to calibrate my muscle memory to behave as if I was in a truck from 2005 and not 2025.

You'd think that dropping a pair of cylinders and using forced induction would benefit fuel economy, and it does, but only slightly. The Warlock's engine has an insatiable hunger for gasoline at an estimated combined 19 miles per gallon, and while that seems fairly good for a full-size truck, good luck actually getting that number because you will want to thrash the Warlock at any given opportunity. I depleted the fuel tank twice over the six days that I was under the Warlock's spell.

For some dark magic in the form of a 2025 Ram 1500 Warlock, there is a price to pay (your soul's price may vary). The Ram 1500 Tradesman starts at $46,875. That gets you, you know, the truck. The Warlock package, referred to by the much less catchy name of the $4,690 "Customer Preferred Package 21B" adds your beefy off-road tires, 18-inch wheels, the aforementioned rear locking differential and skid plates over every conceivable surface, a power sliding rear window, tow hooks, rubber floor mats, and off course, the Warlock decal.

The Hurricane engine is a $2,695 option. Additionally, this truck had a spray in bedliner and a few external niceties like a bed step for $945. The "Forged Metallic Blue" paint is $295. The 3.92 rear axle is $195 (bumping the tow rating in this CrewCab 4x4 version from 8,240 pounds to 11,340 pounds), joining the $550 tonneau cover for the 5'7 bed. All that and the $1,995 destination charge gets you to a $58,240 dark wizard of a truck.

Comparatively, $60,000 for an off-road ready truck isn't terrible, especially considering the fact that trucks can easily spiral toward six-figure pricing at the drop of a hat these days. I just wish that more time was spent on the interior, making it a slightly nicer place to be when you're raiding Hogwarts or Gondor. 

Ram will supply extra interior amenities, naturally, in return for making the price go higher. That might be a tradeoff you're willing to make, if you value interior comfort over thriftiness. Then again, simply buying a truck with a huge "WARLOCK" decal on the bed arguably indicates that making prudent financial decisions aren't at the top of your priority list. Otherwise, you would just buy a Prius.

I liked the Warlock. It's a fun truck to drive and it's a riot under the right conditions. The real wizardry at play is its combination of a stout engine, an off-road package that doesn't sacrifice street-usability in favor of bouncy nonsense, and a price that isn't outrageous. I just wish the warlocks over at Stellantis hadn't cast a disappearing spell on all the interior gadgets and all the fuel in the gas tank.