2024 Ram 3500 Ram 3500 Tradesman Crew Cab 4x4 8' Box on 2040-cars

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New auto loans could soon extend out to 84 months

Cars and trucks are more expensive than ever before. In order to boost sales and help consumers afford new vehicles, automakers are offering longer and longer terms for auto loans. This past week, Bloomberg reported that FCA's Ram Trucks division is currently offering the longest loans. Some stretch to 73 months. Jeep, Fiat and Chevy aren't far behind. More noteworthy is that we'll likely soon see lenders moving from 73-month to 84-month loans. That's seven years worth of interest. More than two-thirds of US auto sales come from light trucks like the Ford F-150, Chevy Silverado and Ram 1500. The average transaction price of a new vehicle is well over $30,000. It's not difficult to spec out a heavily-optioned truck up to $60,000. Vehicles depreciate from the moment they roll off a dealer lot, and these six or seven-year loans could hurt consumers and lenders both in the long run. The U.S. Senate voted last week to kill rules that would prevent discriminatory auto lending. These Obama-era guidelines were meant to curtail lenders who offered higher loans based on race, religion, sex or national origin. Related Video: News Source: Bloomberg Chevrolet Fiat RAM Car Buying car loan car values

Truckmakers squabbling over who can sell Jimmy Fallon a pickup

Snagging a celebrity endorsement is a big deal for automakers, as evidenced by the recent efforts of the Detroit Three to try and woo The Tonight Show's newest host, Jimmy Fallon, into one of their trucks.
After announcing during Wednesday night's show that he was in the market for a pickup truck, Fallon set off a firestorm of efforts on Twitter, with both Ford and Chevrolet petitioning the funnyman to test out a truck. According to Ad Age, Ford recommended the King Ranch edition of its next-generation F-150 while the show was still airing. Chevy, meanwhile, waited until the next morning to pitch a Silverado to Fallon.
The winner of this social media feeding frenzy, though, was Ram. Promoting a variation of its "Guts, Glory, Ram" tagline, the Auburn Hills-based manufacturer created the hashtag #GUTSGLORYFallon. It even went so far as to park a Ram 1500 outside 30 Rockefeller Center in New York, where The Tonight Show is filmed. On the back of the Ram sat a sign, reading "Big enough, Jimmy? Test it out," referencing a joke from the Wednesday show.

2022 Ram 1500 gets reworked options to maintain production

Ram was in the mood to giveth at this year's Chicago Auto Show, unveiling three new special edition trucks for the 2022 model year. Mopar Insiders reports Ram is lately in the mood to taketh away, removing or reworking options and features on nearly every trim with the aim of keeping pickup truck production lines running. The biggest blow to the bank account comes from Ram eliminating the Quad Cab on all but the two base trims, Tradesman and Big Horn (called the "Lone Star" in Texas). Seems most buyers on the Laramie and above go with the larger Crew Cab and aren't worried about spending a couple thousand dollars more; the Crew Cab on the Laramie, for instance, is $2,150 more than the Quad Cab. Truck shoppers watching pennies can forget about saving money up front in order to add certain luxuries, too. Come 2022, the smaller cab style can't be ordered with any kind of sunroof, air suspension, Technology Group, or Power Running Boards. When it comes to trims, starting at the bottom, the 2022 Tradesman won't offer an air suspension with any cab style, nor Ram Box storage, nor the multifunction Tailgate. If there's an EcoDiesel under the hood it will only be the HFE version, the standard EcoDiesel nixed on the Tradesman. The HFE variant makes one more mile per gallon in the city and on the highway than the standard EcoDiesel. The Big Horn/Lone Star loses its multifunction tailgate, and the colors Mountain Brown and Frost Beige. To get the rear underseat storage requires ordering either the Level 1 or Level 2 Equipment Groups, the storage can't be had an a standalone option. One step up, the Ram Rebel drops the luxury Rebel 12A package that added a 12-inch Uconnect screen with navigation, nine-speaker audio, and leather-trimmed bucket seats. The trimmed buckets seats will migrate to the Rebel Night Edition package that now costs $525, but can be expected to increase. And the cloth and vinyl bucket seats that now come in black with either red or silver accent stitching will come only in black and red. The Laramie, Limited Longhorn and Limited all shed the Protection Group that added underbody skid plates on the 4x4 models. The Laramie and Limited Longhorn will go almost entirely without any two-tone paint option, the exception being Ivory White and Walnut Brown solely for the Limited Longhorn. On the Laramie, as on the Tradesman, the rear underseat storage goes from being an individual option to part of a group, in this case the Level 1 Equipment Group.