2011 Dodge Ram 1500 on 2040-cars

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Junkyard Gem: 1987 Dodge Ram 50

Chrysler began selling Dodge-badged Mitsubishis way back in the 1971 model year, when the Mitsubishi Colt Galant became known here as the Dodge Colt. Later in the decade, a Plymouth Arrow-badged version of the Mitsubishi Triton small pickup appeared here, along with a Dodge version known as the D-50 and — a few years later — the Ram 50. Once Mitsubishi began selling the same trucks here as Mighty Maxes, starting in the 1983 model year, the Ram 50 didn't seem quite so specialÂ… and then the Dakota made its debut for the 1987 model year. Still, when the Triton went to its second generation that same year, Chrysler continued selling it as the Ram 50. Here's one of those second-generation trucks, found in a Denver-area self-service yard last month. At this point, GM had long since stopped selling Isuzu Fasters with Chevrolet LUV emblems, as had Ford with the Courier-badged Mazda Proceed (after developing the all-American S-10 and Ranger, respectively). The decision-makers at Chrysler, however, calculated that the Ram 50 could grab some sales from Dodge truck shoppers who felt that the Dakota was too big for their needs; as a result, the Ram 50 stayed on sale here through 1994. The last Mighty Maxes rolled out of American Mitsubishi showrooms in 1996. The 6G72 V6 engine became available in four-wheel-drive Ram 50s a few years after this truck was built, but in 1987 all Ram 50s came with either the 2.0-liter 4G63 Sirius or 2.6-liter Astron four-banger. This truck has the base Sirius, rated at 92 horsepower. Remember when new trucks came with double-digit horsepower ratings? Most American-market small pickups still had manual transmissions during the middle 1980s, though that would change in a hurry with the dawn of the 1990s and the drop in slushbox prices. This one has the base five-speed. Just barely 100,000 miles on the clock, very unusual for a junkyard pickup of this age (especially one with a thick coat of brush-applied white house paint on the tailgate). Maybe the speedometer cable broke 25 years ago. You don't see many rear-wheel-drive pickups with roll bars. You'll find one in every car. You'll see. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings. Dodge Ram 50 Commercial 1987 Those other Japanese imports hallucinated the Ram 50 in alarming ways. This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

2015 Dodge Charger Pursuit prepares to keep Hellcats in line

Earlier today, Dodge pulled the wraps off its 2015 Charger SRT Hellcat - a 707-horsepower sedan capable of sprinting to 60 miles per hour in 3.7 seconds and reaching a top speed of 204 mph. Naturally, the car debuted in a bright shade of pull-me-over red, so it was fitting, then, that Dodge also brought its newly updated 2015 Charger Pursuit to keep everything under control.
No, cops won't be able to spec their Charger cruisers with the 707-hp Hellcat engine (oh man, imagine the chase scenes...), but law enforcement officials will be able to choose from either a 3.6-liter V6 or 5.7-liter Hemi V8, producing 292 hp and 370 hp, respectively. V8 models can be ordered with all-wheel drive, and Dodge estimates that with either engine, the Charger Pursuit can achieve up to 26 miles per gallon on the highway (thanks to the V8's four-cylinder mode).
Other updates for 2015 include improved braking power, a seven-inch display in the instrument cluster, a five-inch display in the center stack, and a new vehicle systems interface that could make it easier for police squads to install computer and radio equipment.

8 things you learn while driving a cop car [w/videos]

Let me start off with the obvious: it is absolutely illegal to impersonate a police officer. And now that that's out of the way, I'd just like to say that driving a cop car is really, really cool. Here's the background to this story: Dodge unveiled its redesigned 2015 Charger Pursuit police cruiser, and kindly allowed Autoblog to test it. That meant fellow senior editor Seyth Miersma and I would spend a week with the cop car, and the goal here was to see just how different the behind-the-wheel experience is, from a civilian's point of view. After all, it's not technically a police car – it isn't affiliated with any city, it doesn't say "police" anywhere on it, and it's been fitted with buzzkill-worthy "NOT IN SERVICE" magnets (easily removed for photos, of course). But that meant nothing. As Seyth and I found out after our week of testing, most people can't tell the difference, and the Charger Pursuit commands all the same reactions as any normal cop car would on the road. Here are a few things we noticed during our time as wannabe cops. 1. You Drive In A Bubble On The Highway Forget for a moment that our cruiser was liveried with Dodge markings instead of those of the highway patrol. Ignore the large "NOT IN SERVICE" signs adhered around the car. Something in the lizard brain of just about every licensed driver tells them to hold back when they see any hint of a cop car, or just the silhouette of a light bar on a marked sedan. Hence, when driving on the highway, and especially when one already has some distance from cars forward and aft, a sort of bubble of fear starts to open up around you. Cars just ahead seem very reluctant to pass one another or change lanes much, while those behind wait to move up on you until there's a full herd movement to do so. The effect isn't perfect – which is probably ascribable to the aforementioned giveaways that I'm not really a cop – but it did occur on several occasions during commutes from the office. 2. You Drive In A Pack In The City My commute home from the Autoblog office normally takes anywhere from 25 to 30 minutes, and it's a straight shot down Woodward Avenue from Detroit's north suburbs into the city, where I live. Traffic usually moves at a steady pace, the Michigan-spec "five-over" speed.