2024 Ram 3500 Tradesman (fleet Sale Only) 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

2019 Ram 1500: Everything we know

We're not too far away from the sheet being pulled off the 2019 Ram 1500. But over and over, we've had spy shots come in revealing much of the truck before hand. The latest ones have given us a very clear look at the truck's new grille, which boldly does away with the signature crosshair grille. The main iteration we've seen is the one above with the "RAM" logo in the center flanked by split chrome bars. Chrome is used extensively elsewhere, too. The traditional Ram logo has also probably been binned, at least on the exterior, in favor of the broad Ram script currently seen on the Ram Rebel, Laramie Longhorn and Limited trims. Indeed, it seems like a change that the brand has subtly been trying to get its customers ready for, as a quick trip to the company website will show a greater reliance on those trim levels to visually represent each Ram model (including the heavy-duty 2500 and 3500). View 3 Photos Now, there will likely continue to be multiple grille options available as there is today to at least differentiate luxury and off-road models. In the renderings above, we show a version of the grille without those chrome bars. The rest of the truck in the rendering is based on what we saw when some gusty weather unofficially revealed the Ram 1500 to a spy photographer, as seen in the gallery below. View 18 Photos As for everything else we know about the 2019 Ram 1500 ... The Interior View 8 Photos We got pretty good shots of the new Ram interior a few weeks ago. There will be a huge, vertically oriented touchscreen available, possibly with updated UConnect interface software, flanked by hard buttons for the climate control system. A volume knob and redundant multi-purpose control knob will remain, as will the rotary transmission selector. New toggle switches below will be dedicated to various vehicle controls, and we would assume would remain in place throughout the trim level range. Smaller touchscreens will almost certainly be found on lower trims with a traditional array of climate controls between them and the toggles. It'll be steel View 5 Photos An intrepid magnet-wielding spy photographer back in August examined a 2019 Ram test mule's body panels and discovered the majority of them are steel. The hood and tailgate are aluminum, however. There will be a split tailgate option View 18 Photos Speaking of that tailgate, spy photos have shown that it will be available with a split, barn-door-style tailgate option.

2021 Ram 1500 adds Limited Longhorn 10th Anniversary Edition, new tech

The Ram 1500 is getting a handful of updates for 2021, including handy new tech, updated convenience features, and a new Limited Longhorn 10th Anniversary Edition with unique trim elements. We heard hints about the Limited Longhorn earlier in August, when it was reported that it might replace the Laramie Longhorn model in the Ram 1500 lineup. Now we know that it's an equipment package that bundles unique door bolsters, seat insert, trim bezels, center stack surround, speaker grilles, berber carpet and a metal pedal kit with Longhorn 10th Anniversary Edition badges inside and out.  On the tech front, the Ram 1500 gets two pretty swanky new options. The first is a new HUD, which is a first for the 1500. As with the rest of the truck, Ram's engineers decided to go big rather than go home, delivering a full-color display that can display five unique elements and be customized via the in-dash Uconnect infotainment center. Drivers can choose between lane departure and lane keeping indicators, adaptive cruise control status, navigation directions, current speed, current gear and posted speed limits.  The second new piece of solid tech is a digital rearview mirror with a 9.2-inch LCD display. Similar to that found in GM's current half-ton lineup, it can be switched off in favor of an old-fashioned mirror if drivers prefer that perspective to the rear-mounted camera feed.  Ram is also shuffling some options around between trim levels, adding and updating some safety tech, and offering some other new features for the first time, like reverse steering control for the Trailer package. A new snow plow prep option with a 220-amp alternator is also available.  Related Video: