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Some Ram truck buyer is about to get the 3 millionth Cummins diesel engine

Dodge made a Cummins-built turbodiesel engine available in one of its trucks for the first time during the 1989 model year. Over three decades and a name change later, the company announced it ordered the 3 millionth engine from Cummins, and it's about to drop it in a truck. The 3 millionth engine is patiently waiting on a pallet until it's needed on the assembly line. Ram noted the oil-burning six will be installed in a 2019 3500 Longhorn Crew Cab Dually, a model built for both towing and cruising. While the firm knows who ordered the truck, it chose not to release the owner's name to maintain an element of surprise. The dealership that sold it is planning to host a celebration, so the buyer will only find out that he or she purchased a piece of Ram and Cummins history when arriving to pick it up. The Longhorn isn't the kind of truck you're likely to see on a construction site. Priced in the vicinity of $60,000, it's an upmarket variant of Ram's tow-it-all Heavy Duty pickup decked out with leather upholstery, an eight-way power-adjustable driver's seat, two rows of heated seats, and an 8.4-inch touchscreen for the infotainment system. The high-output Cummins 6.7-liter six adds $11,795 to its base price, meaning the truck receiving the 3 millionth engine costs around $75,000.  Cummins has made several different engines for Dodge- and Ram-branded trucks since 1988. It crossed the 200-horsepower mark for the first time in 1996, and built its first engine with over 500 pound-feet of torque in 2001. The current Cummins, the variant going into the milestone truck, is a mighty, 6.7-liter straight-six that serves 400 horsepower and 1,000 pound-feet of torque.  

Ram 1500 wins Consumer Reports fullsize truck test

Vehicles that perform well in road tests by some of the most popular automotive publications, such as Car and Driver, Motor Trend and Automobile, don't always score well in in Consumer Reports' more regimented, practical test procedures, so the Ram 1500's climb to the top of CR's scoreboard is a boon for the well-received pickup truck, which CR also put on its "recommended" list.
To start off with, the freshened 2013 Ram 1500 has a lighter, stiffer chassis than before, and the four-wheel-drive Crew Cab that CR bought and tested performed flawlessly and achieved class-leading fuel economy (15 miles per gallon) with the 5.7-liter Hemi V8 - the most popular engine choice for the 1500 - and the new eight-speed automatic transmission. The unique-in-its-class rear coil spring setup endowed the truck with "one of the best rides of any pickup," CR reports. That helped it earn its class-leading road-test score of 78, well ahead of the nearest competition still in production, the Toyota Tundra (69) and the Ford F-150 (68). It's worth noting, however, that the Chevrolet Avalanche outscores the 1500 by two points (80), but production of that vehicle ends after the current 2013 model year.
About the only things the publication could find wrong with the truck were a heavy tailgate and a high step up into the cabin. Get ready for the next round later this summer when CR is finished testing the 2014 Chevrolet Silverado, which is doing well so far in the publication's tests.

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.