2014 Ram 1500 Tradesman/express on 2040-cars

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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.

Ram 1500 Limited 10th Anniversary Edition celebrates a decade of truck luxury

Ram is releasing a special edition of its 1500 pickup for the 2022 model year to mark a decade of its range-topping Limited nameplate. The 2022 Ram 1500 Limited 10th Anniversary Edition is offered in a special exterior finish (Blue Shade) and adds a few popular options as an extra bonus. "The new 2022 Ram 1500 Limited 10th Anniversary Edition celebrates 10 years of luxury pickup truck leadership, featuring the ultimate combination of capability, luxury and refinement," said Mike Koval Jr., Ram brand chief executive officer. "Ram 1500 Limited buyers have enjoyed the highest quality materials for a decade now, and the Limited 10th Anniversary Edition is the latest example of how Ram delivers the most luxurious pickups in the industry." Given today's car market, it's probably not all that surprising that Ram isn't bundling a ton of extra equipment with this new offering, and it doesn't help that the Limited itself is already pretty loaded. Still, Ram throws in a multifunction tailgate, a Mopar center-mounted bed step and some adjustable cargo tie-down hooks for good measure.  The 2022 Ram 1500 Limited 10th Anniversary Edition will go on sale this fall. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Toy, hauler | 2017 Ram Power Wagon Video Review

When you're bouncing along in a 2017 Ram 2500 Power wagon over the washboard silt roads of the Valley of Fire, just outside of Las Vegas, it's a bit of a shock to realize how comfortable you are. We'd driven a convoy of brand new Ram Power Wagons out from a city improbably emerging from the scrub into a land of red rocks and sand. Inhospitable territory full of thrill-seekers in Jeeps and four-seat ATVs, flinging sand and bouncing their tall signal flags about. The varied terrain, transitioning from hard-packed silt to rocky paths to deep sand at any point, provided the perfect environment to see if the Power Wagon can live up to its billing – check out the video above to see how it handled the gnarly stuff. Back in 1945, the Power Wagon and comfort were not really thought of together. Like the Jeep, these thoroughly mil-spec trucks were heading home from overseas, where they'd served as weapon carriers and utility rigs. The all-business truck was a bit like a heavy-duty Willys Jeep with a bed, and instead of the convertible military cab, Dodge bolted on a pre-war civilian cab. They had more amenities than a tractor (windows! A roof!), but no one would call 'em coddling. The advertising of the day shows them digging ditches, plowing fields, erecting utility poles. You could use the rear power take-off to run a portable sawmill – pure denim and dust work. The brief has clearly evolved a bit – the PTOs disappeared as the truck evolved from a dedicated platform for serious work to more of a heavy-duty trim on Ram's conventional pickups, and then disappeared for a quarter-century until reemerging in 2005. To put it succinctly, the latest 2500 Power Wagon has off-road chops that pass the laugh test, and real working payload and towing capabilities, all in one package. We didn't tow or haul with the Power Wagon on this trip, but we really didn't have to. The Power Wagon is mostly standard 2500 fare: solid axles front and rear, taking power from the familiar truck-spec 6.4-liter Hemi V8. It'll haul up to 1,510 pounds in the bed, and tow up to 10,030 pounds. We know these trucks; they do this kind of work easily and without complaint. What's surprising is how well it does the work without much compromise. As you can see in the video above, the ride's as stiff as on a normal 2500 pickup, maybe a hair stiffer, but plenty tolerable for a long haul on the interstate.