2wd 140.5" Slt New 4 Dr Automatic 3.6l V6 Cyl Engine Mineral Gray Met. Clear Coa on 2040-cars

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AEV Ram Prospector First Drive

Honestly, the trails that rise above Southern California's Rowher Flats aren't much of a challenge. You can still get yourself hurt if you do something stupid, but the trails are mostly hard-packed dirt with some rocks strewn about. No boulder crawling or river forging here. It's a place that's almost beneath the mighty abilities of the AEV Prospector Ram trucks I'm here to drive. American Expedition Vehicles (AEV) has long been in the business of building seriously capable Jeep Wranglers. Wranglers built for crossing Australia or crawling across the Moab. Wranglers converted into pickups and Wranglers done up in fancy Filson duds. They all have the kind of rugged good looks that project positive sunshine competence vibes about the people who drive one. That's no matter how big a dork the doofus behind the wheel actually is. And now AEV has moved on to modifying and producing parts and complete packages for Ram pickups. Because, why not? Actually AEV has been twisting on Rams since at least 2013 when it produced a Ram concept truck for that year's SEMA Show in Las Vegas. And what happened in Vegas hasn't stayed in Vegas. Sitting on the dust at one of the Rowher Flats assembly areas, AEV's two 2015 Ram "Prospectors" look as if they're making the horizon itself cower. It's not like we're going to be scuba diving today, but the snorkels that snake up each truck's right A-pillar are enough to make even the most jaded off-roader slobber in naked desire. These things don't just look great, they look epic – if Homer were around he'd put aside his Iliad to write up this drive. Reaching back into Dodge truck history – when Dodge trucks were Dodges – AEV has adopted the Prospector name for its modified Rams. Back in the late 1970s and through the 1980s Prospector had been used on various Dodge trim and equipment packages fitted to pickups, vans, and the Ramcharger large SUV. Yes, there were even Prospector packages for the Mitsubishi-made D50 small pickup and the Rampage pickup based on the front-drive Omni. The shovel and pick Prospector logo on the AEV vehicles comes straight from those old Dodges. The gray Ram 2500 crew cab is riding on 37-inch tall BFGoodrich Mud-Terrain T/As surrounding AEV's 17-inch Salta HD wheels and is powered by Ram's latest 6.4-liter Hemi V8. Rated at 410-horsepower by the factory, the gasoline-burning 6.4 Hemi is almost a throwback to the days before every three-quarter-ton and one-ton pickup owner became obsessed with turbodiesels.

Win a Ram TRX and a stunning $4.3 million Lake Tahoe dream home

Autoblog may receive a share from purchases made via links on this page. Pricing and availability are subject to change. No donation or payment necessary to enter or win this sweepstakes. See official rules on Omaze.   If you’re looking for an insanely capable off-road pickup, as well as a mountain lodge and lake house to store it, look no further, because with this one giveaway you can win a 5,200 sq-ft Lake Tahoe dream home and a Ram TRX.  Win This $4.3 Million Lake Tahoe Dream House and a Ram TRX - Enter at Omaze HereÂ’s what we said about the TRX when we last drove it: “The TRX hardware is firmly in the realm of absurdity, allowing it to attack just about any terrain or surface – assuming it can physically fit through. The 6.2-liter supercharged V8 supplies 650 pound-feet of torque to all four wheels that lets it power out of mud and muck by aggressively flinging it skyward as though it has a vendetta against both the sky above and Earth below. This sort of driving is best done in Mud/Sand mode, as it sets the four-wheel-drive system, throttle response, transmission, suspension and steering into their ideal settings to have the most fun in the slick stuff. It works as advertised. “Going 0-60 mph in 4.5 seconds in a truck so large is already a mind-altering experience, but having the traction and ability to properly launch off-road is where the TRX truly sets itself apart. Those 35-inch Goodyear Wrangler Territory all-terrain tires, developed specifically for the TRX, dig into the mud and dirt, shooting you forward with far less scrambling and scrapping for purchase than youÂ’d expect from such a sloppy surface. The Dana 60 solid rear axle, axle-hop damper and electronic limited-slip differential that Ram claims help those launches are all putting in the work that needs to be done. No matter the terrain, the TRX digs in, growls and shoots where you point it. If youÂ’d rather move sideways, a quick stab of the traction control button relaxes the truck's nannies to do just that. “The suspension is just as hardcore with the Bilstein Black Hawk e2 adaptive dampers and their remote reservoirs making this 6,396-pound lead weight of a truck more agile than it should be, yet forgiving at the same time. Its damping characteristics donÂ’t provide the same pillowy and graceful off-road ride as, say, the Multimatic dampers on the much lighter Colorado ZR2 do, but thatÂ’s comparing apples to oranges on the weight scale.

Best car infotainment systems of 2022

Declaring one infotainment system the best over any other is an inherently subjective matter. You can look at quantitative testing for things like input response time and various screen load times, but ask a room full of people that have tried them all what their favorite is, and you’re likely to get a lot of different responses. Some prefer systems that are exclusively touch-based with a simplistic user interface. Others may prefer a non-touch system that is navigable via a scroll wheel. You can compare it to the phone operating system wars. Just like some folks prefer Android phones over iPhones, we all have our own opinions for what makes up the best infotainment interface. All that said, our combined experience tells us that a number of infotainment systems are at least better than the rest. WeÂ’ve narrowed it down to five total systems in their own subcategories that stand out to us. Read on below to see our picks, and feel free to make your own arguments in the comments. Best overall: UConnect — Various Stellantis products If thereÂ’s one infotainment system that all of us agree is excellent, itÂ’s UConnect. Both UConnect 4 and the latest UConnect 5 software are included in this praise, too. It has numerous qualities that make it great, but above all else, UConnect is simple and straightforward to use. Ease of operation is one of the most (if not the single most) vital parts of any infotainment system interface. If youÂ’re expected to be able to tap away on a touchscreen while driving and still pay attention to the road, a complex infotainment system is going to remove your attention from the number one task at hand: driving. UConnect uses a simple interface that puts all of your key functions in a clearly-represented row on the bottom of the screen. Tap any of them, and it instantly pulls up that menu. We like the radio/media interface — itÂ’s super easy to swap stations or sources. The menu structure is easy to grasp, and of course both Apple CarPlay/Android Auto are available if you want them. UConnect 5 is a big visual improvement over UConnect 4, but thankfully it retains the same ease of use as the outgoing system. WeÂ’ll also point out that Stellantis is able to adapt UConnect to different screen shapes and sizes with great success — it works stunningly well in the vertical 12-inch screen of the Ram.