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Ram confirms Fiat Ducato vans to form new Promaster series for US

Chrysler has officially confirmed that Ram will develop an all-new large van for the US market based on the Fiat Ducato. The commercial rig will go on sale in the third quarter of next year, joining the Ram C/V on the company's professional van line. Expect to see the Promaster face off against the Ford Transit and revised Chevrolet Express.
Chrysler is pretty skimpy on details when it comes to the Promaster, but it has said the vehicle will make use of "familiar Ram Truck styling cues." The van will reportedly also bow with powertrains targeted specifically at the North American market.
Chrysler and Ram made the announcement ahead of the LA Auto Show alongside news that the company will launch a new Ram commercial truck division.

Ram shows its trucks are for work and play

There are no shortage of pickup trucks at this year's SEMA Show. The popular platform has been ripe for customization for years, so it should come as no shock that Ford, General Motors and Ram are all showing a fair few trucks in Las Vegas. From the Ram camp, we have two offerings - the Ram Sun Chaser and the Ram Dually Case Work Truck.
The Sun Chaser opts for a beach theme, similar to the Fiat 500 Thalassa. Based on the Ram 1500, the Sun Chaser wears Vibrance Orange Blast and Brilliant Black paint, and sports a Mopar roof rack, while the Ram Box system features a water tank and a shower head allowing beach-goers to rinse off before getting back in the truck. A flip-up, seat-back tailgate makes sitting on the back of the truck a bit more comfortable, and it's the kind of cool feature we can see becoming an optional item in the future.
The Sun Chaser mods are rounded out by 17-inch deadlocked wheels, a two-inch lift kit and a Mopar exhaust for the 5.7-liter Hemi V8. The cabin, meanwhile, sports Katzkin leather seats and even more Vibrance Orange Paint.

Pickup prices rising at 2x industry average

We've said it before, but bears repeating: Pickup trucks are the financial engines of America's automakers. Good thing, then, that the segment is in rude health - in fact, Automotive News is suggesting that pickup truck sales are arguably healthier than they were pre-recession, even though the segment's volume is still significantly down from where it was before the bottom fell out of the US economy. That's because per-unit profits on full-size trucks are skyrocketing, outpacing the industry's average price increases by more than double since 2005. According to data from Edmunds, the average transaction price of a full-size pickup is now $39,915 - a heady increase over the $31,059 average price in 2005 - a gain of over 8 percent after inflation is factored in.
Just how important are trucks to automakers' bottom lines? Automotive News quotes a Morgan Stanley analyst as saying the Ford F-Series is responsible for 90 percent of the company's 2012 profits, and General Motors isn't far behind, with the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra twins chipping in about two-thirds of the automaker's earnings.
Automotive News points out that Detroit's automakers now have the money to invest in modernizing their full-size truck offerings, in part because they don't have the same overhead and legacy costs that pushed General Motors and Chrysler into bankruptcy. Certainly, the pickup segment has seen a lot of innovations as of late, including turbocharged V6s, coil-spring rear suspensions and active aero. Those improvements in important areas like fuel economy and ride comfort have given existing pickup buyers new reasons to upgrade. In addition, automakers are piling on the tech and luxury goodies, creating more and more high-content, high-profit models like the Ford F-150 King Ranch, Ram 1500 Laramie Longhorn and Chevrolet Silverado High Country (shown).