Things have been pretty unsettling of late for those who enjoy the Chrysler product. First, I honestly have no idea who owns the company at the moment. Oh sure, I should know, as it’s kind of a part of my job, but I am vexed and confused by the whole Cerebus, sorry, Cerberus acquisition. Then there’s the influx of government money, and how that all works. It gets even more interesting when it comes to Dodge trucks, for, apparently, there are no more Dodge trucks.
Much in the same way “There is no Dana, only Zuul,” in the original Ghostbusters ™, now “there is no Dodge RAM, only RAM.” I still don’t get exactly why Chrysler decided to separate the RAM from the Dodge, other than may to save money. Save money, you say? Well, think of all the chrome they saved by not having to print DODGE on all their pickups, just RAM. And, there are no doubt astounding savings in printing costs for the owner’s manuals. See, I told you I didn’t get it. Here’s a weird thing, though. As of today, you can still get to the RAM website via the Dodge site, or just go to ramtrucks.com. They haven’t moved completely out of the house just yet, in other words.
But no matter. The new RAMs are, more than anything else, on the same plane quality-wise as the machines they compete against. All modern full-size pickups are remarkably refined, capable, and impressively solid. In terms of the big three, it’s a shame they don’t spend more time engineering their cars with the clear attention to detail that they do with their trucks, but after all they all sell more pickups than cars. Why is this? Well, like so many things delightfully American, tons of males like to drive a full-size truck even though they don’t really need one. The whole rest of the world, even all the tradesmen, construction workers, you name it, get by just fine as a group with far smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles. Go figure.
I got to sample a really interesting brace of pickups, sort of the smallest and largest of the RAM line. On the “small” side I had a 1500 SLT regular cab 4X4 short bed, and on the other side of the spectrum I had a 2500 Laramie Crew Cab 4X4 with the long 8’ bed. The 1500 had the 5.7 HEMI V8 (390 HP, 407 lb-ft of torque), and the 2500 was armed with a 6.7-liter Cummins Inline Six turbodiesel (350 HP, 650 lb-ft). The little guy has the only coil-spring rear suspension presently offered on a conventional pickup (the Honda Ridgeline and Chevy Avalanche are in a different category in my view), and ride quality is pretty decent overall. The 2500 HD is basically as agile as a supertanker, and you have to call the Pilot Boat when it’s time to moor the beast. That said, the turning radius is tighter than you might expect, and the stopping distances on the 2500 HD were actually slightly shorter than the 1500 even though it weighs over a ton more. The interiors of both trucks are as good as anything out there; high on comfort, utility and good build quality (both trucks are built in Saltillo, Mexico, BTW).
The Cummins Turbodiesel with its 6-speed automatic tranny (a 6-speed manual is also available) added about $8K to the price of the truck, got around 14 MPG with no load and requires 12 quarts of oil when you change it every 7,500 miles or sooner. Diesel ran about $3.20 a gallon here when I fueled it up (30 cents a gallon more than unleaded), so suffice it to say this is not a cheap truck to operate. But for someone who has to tow a small shopping center or haul a gross of solid gold paperweights, it’s up to the job.

As for the Littler Ram, it’s a nice truck but I must confess I’ve never understood the whole regular cab/short bed thing. For a little more money, you can get bigger, more useful bed. The cab can squeeze in only three occupants (two with buckets), despite the fact that this is a very large vehicle even though it’s the smallest RAM there is. There’s a reason the regular cab configuration is getting relatively rare, because its so impractical compared to extended cab models that dramatically increase the versatility of the truck. But, whatever. Some people clearly like the Regular Shorty, probably because they like the looks.

As a person who’s had long and happy relationships with more than one Toyota 4Runner, I have been quite interested in the latest iteration which is pretty much new from the ground up. As fresh as it is, though, it reminds me more of my old ’97 than the previous generation as it seems to be going back to its serious off-road roots (and the form factor is quite familiar). My thought here as to why Toyota went this rugged route (although all 4Runners have always had a stout body-on-frame truck chassis) is the global nature of the new platform. This ute will likely be part of the Land Cruiser family in many markets around the world, and have some serious, manual transmission/diesel variants for work in very primitive applications. In the U.S. we get all the luxurious electronics and bells and whistles, including on the 4Runner Trail I tested some truly mind-boggling off-road electronic gadgets (that can ultimate let the beast handle power and braking during rock-crawling while you just steer). I challenged some really nasty snow and mud-covered farm trails, where the high ground clearance and excellent suspension articulation made easy work of the teflon soup I was sliding around in. Steering is super quick; superb off road but a bit too light for my tastes on the road. That said, where pavement rules the brakes are excellent, and I managed 19.4 MPG which ain’t bad for this badass boulder basher. The dogs loved it, but then again from the ample space with the rear seat folded and the power window in the hatchback they probably thought they were in my rusty ol’ thing. Oh, waterproof seats rock, BTW.

The proliferation of rear-view backup cameras has been a good thing, and like a lot of technology started exclusively on high-end autos and is now trickling down to more affordable cars. Time was this feature was only found on rides with navigation systems, as the camera needed a screen to do its thing and the Nav screen was a perfect interface. Now small back-up camera screens are popping up in rearview mirrors and on the dash, and while some of these are almost too small to be of any real use (especially when backing up to a trailer) they are still good at alerting to you to both inert and nert items that may be in harm’s way as you back up.
Now the next step is . . . Surround Vision. Or, in Infiniti’s case, Around View. It honestly freaked my out the first time I backed up, because I wasn’t expecting this visual wonder. Now, I know it’s been on the market for a couple of years but this was my first exposure to it, and what we have instead of one backup camera there’s a total of four of the little wide-angle buggers located at the rear, front and in the base of the side mirrors. This gives you a view around the entire vehicle (in this case, an EX35 AWD), which is pretty wild tech juju when you think of it. The question is, will we soon get to the point where we never look out of the dad gum windows anymore?