2021 Ram TRX "Brodozer" Gets Driven Hard on and off Road, Receives Mixed Ratings

The format of the show, which is called Rated, is a simple yet interesting one. Two people get to review the same vehicle. The first one is Kevin Madsen, who is a motoring journalist. Then, Robb Holland comes in, and so we get the race car driver's perspective as well. This is a pretty well-balanced format, and we get to hear two different perspectives, coming from two people who are considerably experienced when it comes to anything automotive.

Kevin is visibly excited from the very first moment he's behind the wheel, and he points out an interesting detail which you might not have noticed so far. If you pop the hood of the TRX and lift the engine cover, you'll see a T-Rex eating a Raptor, which is a clear reference to the fact that Ram aims to be superior to its Ford arch-rival. This kind of reminds us of the old Hayabusa trick, related to Suzuki's rivalry with Honda at the time.

We find out that Kevin owns a Mazda Miata as he states that "The supercharger in this truck is around 2.4-liters, displaces more air than my Miata, it's insane!". He then continues to praise the Bilstein adaptive suspension as he floors the truck on the race track. Interestingly enough, he acknowledges that the TRX was designed to go off-road, and he sharply steers right to prove his point. He stops the truck and engages Baja mode.

It's here where the TRX truly shines, and the footage of it going wide-open throttle, lifting huge clouds of dust is nothing short of impressive. Robb gets behind the wheel and opens up by stating that "this is the ultimate manufacturer Brodozer, with a warranty". He seems just as excited as Kevin, but he quickly comes to realize the inherent flaws displayed by the TRX when being driven hard on the racetrack.

Shortly after, he goes off-road and continues to praise the truck for its impressive capabilities. "This was designed to be able to put on some racing tires and take it over to Baja and do some preruns with it, as is. That's a pretty impressive claim for any manufacturer to make. But, after beating it up through here, I'm starting to believe that it can do that".

After all the fun is over, the two reviewers present their conclusions by rating the truck. While Kevin rates the handling and feel with a 9, Robb gives it a 5. Robb supports his conclusion by saying that "Off-road the thing was an absolute beast. Onroad it had no handling whatsoever, so you average a 10 and a 0 and you get a 5". That sounds like some pretty harsh judging, but we haven't driven the TRX yet, so we'll hold back on any scoring for now.

When it comes to approachability, Kevin rates the TRX with a 5, and Robb settles for a 1. It seems like the only thing both reviewers agree on is the sound, as they rate it a 10 and a 9 respectively. For Interior&Tech, Kevin rates the TRX with an 8, while Robb is not as enthusiastic about the quality of the materials, and gives it a 3. The TRX scores a perfect 10 in terms of Lookback in Kevin's book, but Robb once again didn't like it and gave it a 3.

The final rating is in regards to Timelessness, and once again, we see different opinions, with one reviewer granting the truck 9 points and the other just 1 point. At the end of the day, the TRX scores 51 out of a total of 60 points with Kevin, but just 22 out of 60 with Robb. While we do feel that Robb might have been slightly harsh with his ratings, we'll still hold back from any comments until Ram invites us for a test drive as well.