4x4 Laramie Navigation Rearcam Hemi Htd Ac Seats Alpine 2011 Dodge Ram 2500 22k on 2040-cars

Auto blog

Ram HD Pickup Lineup First Drive Review | The torque king cometh

LAS VEGAS — Ram is thriving. The truck brand is coming off its best sales year ever, and its all-new 2019 Ram 1500 has won just about every truck award there is to win, including North American Truck of the Year. Now Ram is launching the world's torquiest pickup truck ever, the new 2019 Ram Heavy Duty. The burliest version packs 1,000 pound-feet of twist, but there's a lot more to this truck than its obscene amount of low-end grunt. It's also the quietest, most comfortable, and most refined heavy-duty pickup Ram has ever made. Most power, payload and towing The 2019 Ram Heavy Duty isn't exactly all-new. It's more of a major refresh, the HD's first since 2014 and the second since this generation debuted in 2010. The truck is now infused with much of the styling, technology and much of the interior of its light-duty little brother, the Ram 1500. Only the HD's cab, doors and bedsides are essentially unchanged, along with its 6.4-liter Hemi V8, which is now standard on all 2500 and 3500 models. The unpopular 5.7-liter Hemi is no longer available. Ram continues to offer two versions of its Cummins inline six-cylinder diesel power on all models except the 2500 Power Wagon. The 6.7-liter Cummins Turbo Diesel, which costs an extra $9,100, and the High-Output version have both been reengineered for more power, more durability and significantly less noise. The Cummins still pumps out 370 horsepower at 2,800 rpm, but its torque output has jumped from 800 to 850 pound-feet at 1,700 rpm. The HO version, which is only available on the 3500, gets a 15 hp bump to 400 hp at 2,800 rpm, and its torque climbs from 930 to that magical 1,000 lb-ft at 1,800 rpm. Redline remains at just 3,250 rpm, and a column-shifted six-speed automatic still backs both engines. Hemi models, including the Power Wagon, have been upgraded to an 8HP75R eight-speed from ZF and a dash-mounted rotary shifter. The Hemi's power ratings are unchanged at 410 hp and 429 lb-ft of torque, but the V8 now has a more advanced cylinder deactivation system for improved fuel economy and smoother operation when only four of its cylinders are firing. The eight-speed's gearing also betters the Power Wagon's crawl index from 35:1 to 51:1 for improved low-speed off-roading. Most Ram HD buyers spring for the diesel. The most popular model is the 2500 4x4 Crew Cab Laramie with the Cummins, but trucks with the 6.4-liter and the new eight-speed feel considerably quicker on the road. Even the big boy 3500s.

YouTube tallies votes for this year's top five Super Bowl spots [w/video]

When we asked you to tell us which of this year's 16 car-themed Super Bowl commercials you liked best, you chose the Farmer commercial from Chrysler Group, advertising the Ram trucks, over Audi's Prom commercial in second place. Turns out the voters in YouTube's Ad Blitz poll agreed, voting the same commercial to the number one spot from among the field commercials in every category.
From there, however, they went in a totally different direction. Budweiser's The Clydesdales spot came second, Samsung's The Next Big Thing took third. The Jeep Whole Again ad scored fourth in the YouTube poll, fifth in our poll of auto commercials, and the Hyundai Team spot got fifth from the YouTubers, but ninth in our poll.
The voting results don't match up with the viewing numbers, though - while Farmer has more than 13 million views, The Next Big Thing is well beyond 21 million. You can read the press release below and see all five spots, lined up for you, one more time.

China own a Detroit automaker? Would the U.S. let that happen?

The news that several Chinese automakers want to buy Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, and that one has even made an offer, elicits some mixed feelings. On one hand, as some have pointed out, it could be a win-win both for China and for FCA's American workers, ensuring the company's survival and opening new markets. On the other hand, this is China, whose trade relationship with the U.S. is the source of considerable scrutiny from the Trump administration — and whose not-a-friend, not-an-enemy status is particularly difficult to gauge right now during heightened tensions with its client state North Korea. So would such a deal pass regulatory muster? One reason that springs to mind for blocking any sale has to do with national security. Chrysler's role as a military supplier dates back to Dodge trucks used by Gen. Blackjack Pershing to chase Pancho Villa in Mexico, and shortly thereafter by American forces in World War I. The Detroit Three automakers were, of course, mainstays of the Arsenal of Democracy of World War II. Even before U.S. entry into the war in December 1941, America's industrial machinery went into overdrive, and Chrysler was one of the biggest cogs. It engineered and built the M3, Sherman and Pershing tanks and trucks for Gen. George Patton's Redball Express. It helped develop a radar-guided antiaircraft gun that knocked German bombers and V1 rockets out of the sky — on one day, shooting down 97 of 101 V1s headed for London. On D-Day, the radar system helped thwart Luftwaffe counterattacks on the beaches of Normandy, and it later helped Allied forces break out at the Battle of the Bulge. Chrysler redesigned the Wright Cyclone engines used by the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, the plane that firebombed Tokyo and dropped the atomic bombs that ended the war. Chrysler even played a secret role refining uranium in Oak Ridge, Tenn., that was used in the Hiroshima bomb and in the ensuing Cold War arms race. It worked on military missiles and was NASA's prime contractor for the Saturn V rocket that put men on the moon. More recently, Chrysler produced the M1 Abrams tank. And of course Chrysler is the keeper of the flame for Jeep, a 75-plus-years military legacy handed down from Bantam and Willys to Kaiser to AMC to Chrysler. The point of this history lesson is to note that in times of war or national emergency, America's industrial might has been called to serve, and may well be called on again.