The 2009 Dodge Ram 1500
What’s the biggest difference between the Dodge Challenger and the Dodge Ram? More than 200,000 units of production volume. While the Challenger has captured the lion’s share of attention from car enthusiasts and automotive journalists, it’s the workhorse Ram that pays the bills and puts food on the table at Chrysler.
The Germans knew not to mess with the success of Chrysler’s big Dodge pickups when they owned the company. It was DaimlerChrysler chairman Dieter Zetsche who opened the corporate purse strings wide in 2004 to fund the Ram’s latest redesign.
But neither Daimler nor the hometown team in Auburn Hills, Mich., could have forecast how quickly the American full-size truck market would abandon in the face of soaring fuel prices and a shaky economy. Ram sales are off 30 percent year-to-date through July 2008.
That makes launching this new Ram even more risky; design decisions made four years ago are going to have to be lived with for a long time to come. The biggest risk? The truck team’s decision to emphasize everyday usability over top-end capability.
