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Ram Laramie Longhorn's interior is a crass cacophony of cowboy cues

When we think of quality luxurious interiors, some of the first brands that come to mind are Audi and Volvo. They have elegant, simple interiors constructed from high-quality materials that are beautiful to see and to touch, and that's what makes them feel special and genuinely premium. The 2017 Ram 2500 Laramie Longhorn in our short-term fleet didn't get that message. What the Laramie Longhorn does is yell at you. It yells at you at that it's LUXURIOUS, and it's WESTERN. Open the door, and you're confronted with loads of saddle tan leather with contrasting black leather on the doors, armrest, and seat piping. This is reasonably modest, but if you pick a different color scheme than our Ram, that leather will have tooled filigree patterns, raising the volume of the interior's message. Right on the center console and on the seat backs there are huge brown embossed logos stitched into them proclaiming the trim level of the truck. It's all meant to evoke high-quality leather goods like saddles. But it's the same thin leather you've found in almost every other automobile on the market. The cushy cowboy theme continues on the dash. The satin-finish wood trim would normally be a nice touch, but it's overshadowed by the glitzy and chintzy rose-gold colored fake metal accents all over the dashboard, and even the instrument cluster. Perhaps it's meant to be more warm and down-to-earth than the cold aluminum-look panels usually in cars, but it's an odd color, and it looks more fake than faux-aluminum. It gets even worse when you discover that Ram stuck leather tooling design stickers all over that rose-gold plastic trim. And then you see them on the chrome plastic rings surrounding the gauges. Not only that, but those rings have some sort of stud shape molded into them. Is this Western enough yet? No! Of course not! Hop in the back seat, and you'll discover that the map pockets aren't just simple slots. They have a full flap with metal belt buckles like saddlebags (though the flap actually closes with magnets). And naturally, those buckles have fancy filigree designs in them. Then take a look at the floor, and the rubber floor mats have barbed-wire fence designs molded into them. Get it? Because there are barbed-wire fences on ranches out West where cowboys work! Yet, for all our complaining about cheap materials and a complete lack of subtlety, we're sure this sort of thing appeals to many truck buyers.

2022 Ram 1500, HD lineup and ProMaster all updated with Uconnect 5 infotainment

Uconnect 5 is making its way through the Stellantis portfolio, and today it’s RamÂ’s turn to get the redesigned infotainment system. ItÂ’s coming to all 2022 Ram products, including the Ram 1500, Ram HD lineup and even the ProMaster. The most important of the above products getting Uconnect 5 is the 2022 Ram 1500, though. Ram has adapted its system to run on the vertical 12-inch touchscreen that debuted in that truck. WeÂ’ve enjoyed using the previous version of Uconnect with that screen layout, and given our pleasant experiences with Uconnect 5 already, we have a feeling this update will only make things better. You can check out some of the systemÂ’s nitty gritty details in our Uconnect 5 reveal post, but Ram also spelled out some of the important — and even truck-specific — details for us with its announcement today. For one, the Ram version of Uconnect 5 allows specific customization of the home screen to display a bevy of powertrain gauges during heavy towing scenarios. It also features RamÂ’s “Off-Road Pages” (similar to SRTÂ’s Performance Pages) to give you detailed off-road data for your truck. Fleets should enjoy newly-available telematics data, which is one reason Ram added this new system to the ProMaster (shown just above). Uconnect 5 allows third-party companies to collect data on vehiclesÂ’ status through the cloud in order to better monitor them. Ram suggests this will increase efficiency when it comes to reporting accidents, getting vehicles in for maintenance and making decisions about routes and vehicle appropriation. Of course, added efficiencies ultimately mean less money out of pocket for the folks running the fleet. Just like other Stellantis models with Uconnect 5, the Rams will enjoy wireless Apple CarPlay and wireless Android Auto (now capable of going full screen on the 12-inch display), an updated navigation system with more capabilities, Amazon Alexa integration for voice services and the ability to be updated via over-the-air updates. Ram did not specify when Uconnect 5 would start appearing in 2022 models, but we suspect itÂ’ll be soon for all of them. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Most American Cars | Honda Makes the Top 10 List

The car built with the most American/Canadian parts content is the 2021 Ford Mustang GT – with the manual transmission, specifically, no less – giving Ford a second consecutive year atop the American University Kogod Business School annual "Made in America Auto Index. We already knew that it doesn't get much more American than a V8 pony car, but now we've got the numbers to prove it.  Ford's iconic coupe takes the number one slot pretty convincingly this year, with 88.5% of its components coming from U.S. or Canadian sources. Appropriately, though perhaps confusingly, 21 models made the top 10 list in 2021. As you may have surmised, this is the result of multiple ties. Note also that many models appear more than once to account for variants built with parts from different sources. The top-ranked Mustang is a perfect example; The automatic drops into into a tie for 10th, right next to the EcoBoost model and Ram's 1500 Classic with the 3.6L V6.  The "America" theme runs pretty strongly through the top "10," with the Chevrolet Corvette sitting pretty in second place, followed by all three variants of Tesla's Model 3 electric car. Honda also makes several appearances thanks to its rather significant U.S. manufacturing footprint. Here are the 21 vehicles that make up the top 10 this year – don't worry, it feels just as weird to type as it does to read. Last year's winner, the midsize Ford Ranger pickup, cratered to 16th place, dropping from 70% American parts content to just 45%. Keep in mind, however, that the pandemic has forced automakers to source parts outside of their normal supply chains, and such drops should be taken with a grain of salt. Kogod noted that the overall proportions of content between manufacturers remained relatively unchanged despite what appear to be significant shake-ups such as this one.  "While the trend TDC for cars assembled in the US is consistent over time, both Daimler and Subaru saw significant drops in their average US content," the summary said. "This may be the result of US shortages of parts and components as the impacts of the covid pandemic created significant disruptions in automotive supply chains." Watch Ford Build a Bronco: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.