Price Range: $19,740 and up

Engine: 3.9-liter 175-horsepower V6 or 5.2 liter 230 horsepower V8 or 5.9-liter 245 horsepower V8 Front Engine Rear drive

Transmission: V8 has electronically-controlled 4-speed automatic; V6 has 3-speed automatic

Fuel Economy: 15 mpg city/17 mpg highway (V6 prior to modification)

Safety Features: Driver and passenger side airbags. Passive Rear ABS Standard - Active Rear ABS ABS are optional

Bandera, Texas -- At a lunch here in the rambling hill country, the Chrysler execs were enjoying their joke at our journalistic expense. After promising us a 'big product' unveiling, and teasing us with a covered car that looked suspiciously like a Viper coupe with extra bulges, we were on the edges of our picnic benches after a superlative build-up. At the climactic moment, with a flourish of fanfare, in roared -- the new RAM Van!!

Amid the high-profile product introductions that have dominated the past few years at Chrysler, it would be rather easy to ignore the re-styling of the 1998 Dodge Ram Van and Wagon. But with a market for full-sized vans that numbers almost 350,000 units annually, and with almost one-quarter of those sales in the Dodge camp, the Ram Van and Wagon are a very important part of the market.

"Even inside the company, we jokingly refer to the Ram Van and Wagon as the 'Rodney Dangerfield' of our product line," said Tony Richards, General Product Manager, Jeep and Truck Operations.

The Dodge Ram Van can be whatever a customer wants it to be. It can be equipped with any choice of features installed by a Dodge-approved conversion company -- specialists who have agreed to comply with Dodge's strict guidelines on quality. Dodge Unibody construction is stronger and lighter than body-and-frame arrangements in many critically important design facets, ranging from better long-term door fit to more payload capacity per pound.