2002 Dodge Ram

The Vehicle That Put The Truck Back Into Pickups
Is Cheaper And Better

By Bob Storck

Price Range: $17,600 - $29,000
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CONFIGURATION: 3.7 liter, 215 hp V6 or 4.7 liter, 235 hp V8 or 5.9 liter, 245 hp V8 Front Engine/Rear or 4-Wheel Drive

FUEL ECONOMY (city/hwy): 15/21

SAFETY FEATURES: Airbags: driver, passenger and optional head curtains Antilock Brakes: standard, rear

IMPRESSION: More features standard, thriftier engines with more power, and MORE and meaner RAM styling - All this with price points to undermine the competition

(Asheville, NC) This is the part of the country where often the family car is a pickup. Governors have been constantly defeated in their attempts to introduce legislation that would prohibit the dangerous practice of carrying folks in an open bed. Rural folks rise in mass to point out they can only afford one vehicle and that has to be a pickup. Well, Chrysler has a history of new ideas, and they were the leader in the real four door extended cabs, and thus can even supply a solution to this difficult sociological problem. And the expressive RAM takes the other advances offered by the competition and raises the ante once again.

Back in 1994 Dodge was for all intents out of the light truck market. They only were selling 70,000 trucks, and the vast majority of them were those with the powerful Cummins diesel. In fact the industry joke was that they were selling diesel engines and threw in the truck as a deal sweetener.

Then they took a chance with love it or hate it styling.

Most loved it and they sold 200K in the first year, growing to 400k in their best year when they had added the heavy-duty version. They had a creative lineup with options like the Indy Pace Truck and SST badged models, plus a variety of quad cab, sport and off road versions. But the market has become tougher and their sales have slipped. Ford and GM reworked their lineups, staying a bit more conservative in styling, but trumping the Chrysler product with better engines, more robust underpinnings and high luxury options. Then Toyota weighed in with the high quality Tundra, with Nissan and VW ready to follow with full size trucks of their own.

Nothing underlines the change in the market more than the Lincoln and Cadillac models, plus performance offerings from Ford SVT and GMC, not to mention the Harley Davidson/Ford collaboration. Dodge had to play catch-up again.