2021 Ram 2500 Limited Longhorn 4x4 on 2040-cars

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Chrysler launches new Ram ads and gears up for Super Bowl XLV [w/videos]

Perhaps no car company has made bigger splashes in the last two years at the Super Bowl than Chrysler, and the automaker's marketing chief, Olivier Francois, said today that he plans to be all over the big game again in February.
Last year, the company made an ad featuring Hollywood icon Clint Eastwood. The spot achieved viral status quickly when pundits charged that Eastwood's lines were politically motivated; meant to appeal to progressive voters/viewers favoring a second term for President Obama. In 2011, agency Wieden & Kennedy burst into the game with a now famous commercial featuring Eminem. Both ads have supported Chrysler's "Imported from Detroit" marketing platform.
Francois briefed reporters Monday at the Detroit Opera House while he also debuted a new series of ads for the Ram brand.

Ram says its customers are more excited about V8-powered trucks than EVs

As its rivals invest billions of dollars into electric pickups, Ram made headlines by dropping a supercharged, 702-horsepower V8 engine between the 1500's fenders. While critics will inevitably argue there's nothing forward-thinking about the Hellcat engine, the company explained its customers are more interested in V8s than in EVs. Speaking with Muscle Car & Trucks, 1500 brand manager Carl Lally explained the company is open to the idea of exploring electric powertrains. His comments echo the ones made recently by Mike Manley, the head of Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles (FCA). Ram will begin developing a battery-powered pickup if customers demand one, but it sounds like its market research finds there's not a tremendous amount of interest in a gasoline-free model.  The market research must say otherwise over at Jeep, which is bringing the plug-in electric hybrid Wrangler 4xe to market. "It's fundamental to us that it's not about chasing the [EV] trend, but about chasing what the customer really wants and providing it to them. That changes over time, but today it's a supercharged, 6.2-liter V8 that has them most excited," said Lally, referring to the 1500 TRX introduced as an alternative to the Ford F-150 Raptor. Adding credibility to Lally's statement is the fact that the 702 available units of the TRX Launch Edition model sold out in a couple of hours in spite of a base price of approximately $90,000. Ram is not limiting production of the regular-production TRX, which starts at $71,690, so time will tell if its bet on V8s pays off in the long run. Market leader Ford wants to plant its stake in both segments. We know it's developing an electric variant of the 14th-generation F-150, and an earlier report claims the next Raptor will receive the Mustang GT500's 700-plus-horsepower V8. As for General Motors, it's planning on launching a battery-powered Chevrolet Silverado sooner or later, but it has chosen to watch the horsepower war from the sidelines — for the time being, at least. Related Video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.    

2019 Ram Heavy Duty gets new face, 1,000 lb-ft Cummins and the towing crown

We've seen uncovered images before in spy shots, but here are the official images and word on the 2019 Ram Heavy Duty pickups. Ram dropped so much verbiage on new features that we'd need the truck's 7,680-pound max payload rating to haul the press releases, so dig in. We'll start with that max payload rating, and the 35,100-pound tow rating. Gimlet-eyed truck watchers will note the Ram HD's max tow rating is exactly 100 pounds more than that available on a Ford Super Duty, meaning the Auburn Hills clan takes the "best-in-class" mantle for a few months. The other big number: 1,000 pound-feet of torque from the high-output version of the 6.7-liter Cummins inline-six turbodiesel, a 70-lb-ft increase over the 2018 Ram 3500 HD. Completing the specs at the top, that HO motor produces all that torque at 1,800 rpm, and makes 400 horsepower at 2,800 rpm. One step down, the standard-output 6.7-liter Cummins puts out 370 hp and 850 lb-ft. Thanks to developments like a compacted graphite iron block, lighter pistons, hollow camshaft, and new forged connecting rods and bearings, the Cummins engine has lost more than 60 pounds. The entry-level motor is a 6.4-liter Hemi gas-powered V8 with an unchanged 410 hp and 429 lb-ft. 2019 Ram Heavy Duty View 12 Photos The HO Cummins pairs to an Aisin AS69RC six-speed transmission, with upgraded hardware and programming for better shifting and oversight of the gravity-warping torque. The regular Cummins mates to a "significantly upgraded " version of the in-house 68RFE six-speed automatic. The 6.4-liter Hemi works with the well-known TorqueFlite 8HP75 eight-speed automatic, bolstered for heavy duty obligations, the first time the eight-speed makes an appearance in a Ram HD. A column-mounted shifter works the gearsets on the Cummins-equipped rigs, a rotary dial on the center stack controls the shift-by-wire eight-speed. The Cummins motors come with two 220-amp alternators. The Hemi V8 gets a 220-amp and a 160-amp alternator, which Ram says is the "first gas-driven application of its kind in either class." There will be six trims available: Tradesman, Bighorn/Lonestar, Power Wagon, Laramie, Laramie Longhorn, and Limited. The HD trucks don't share any exterior sheetmetal with the light-duty 1500, and each trim is known by different grilles, bumpers and wheels.