2014 Ram 1500 Tradesman/express on 2040-cars

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2013 Ram 1500 Black Express is midnight in the garden of good and evil

Building off of the solid base of its 1500 pickup, Ram has announced a dark horse in its stable, the Ram Black Express, which comes equipped with a bevy of features to distinguish it from the regular Express model. (Just don't call it a black sheep.)
The Black Express sets itself apart visually from other 1500s with black 20-inch aluminum wheels, black bumpers, a black grille and front fascia with fog lamps, black Ram's head badges front and rear but no side badges for a clean, shaved look. The premium bi-function halogen projector headlamps with LED running lights, which aren't even an option on the regular Express, come standard on the Black edition.
The 5.7-liter Hemi V8 is unchanged, making 395 horsepower and 410 pound-feet of torque. Paired with the standard eight-speed automatic transmission, the truck can tow 6,500 pounds. It's on sale starting this month, and the base Black Express can be had for $26,955, just $1,105 more than the base Express 4X2 regular cab. Feel free to peruse the press release below and check out the image gallery below.

Macron and Le Pen decry 'shocking' Stellantis CEO pay

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron and his far-right challenger in the French presidential vote, Marine Le Pen, on Friday both decried as “shocking” the multimillion euro payout to the CEO of carmaker Stellantis. Stellantis CEO Carlos TavaresÂ’ remuneration package of 19.15 million euros just a year after the company was formed became an issue as Macron and Le Pen campaigned ahead of the April 24 runoff vote. Polls show purchasing power and inflation are a top voter concern. Stellantis was formed last year through the merger of PSA Peugeot and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Centrist President Emmanuel Macron, perceived by many voters as being too pro-business, called the pay package “astronomical” and pushed for a Europe-wide effort to set ceilings on “abusive” executive pay. “ItÂ’s shocking, itÂ’s excessive,” he said Friday on broadcaster France-Info. “People canÂ’t have problems with purchasing power, difficulties, the anguish theyÂ’re living with, and see these sums. Otherwise, society will explode.” Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who enjoys support from many working-class voters, called for bringing in more workers as shareholders. “Of course itÂ’s shocking, and itÂ’s even more shocking when it is the CEOs who have pushed their society into difficulty,” she said Friday on BFM television. “One of the ways to diminish this pay, which is often out of proportion with economic life, is perhaps to allow workers in as shareholders.” Stellantis continued to back the package despite a 52.1% to 47.9% vote rejecting it at an annual shareholders' meeting chaired from the Netherlands, where the company is legally based, on Wednesday. The company, citing Dutch civil code, noted that the vote is advisory and not binding. The company later said in a statement that it took note of the vote, and will explain in an upcoming 2022 remuneration report “how this vote has been taken into account.” In the 2021 report, the company identified peer group companies that it used as a salary benchmark, including U.S. companies like Boeing, Exxon Mobile, General Electric as well as carmakers Ford and General Motors. Stellantis, whose brands include Peugeot, Fiat, Jeep, Opel and Maserati, reported net profits last year had tripled to 13.4 billion euros ($15.2 billion). The French government is the third-largest shareholder in Stellantis, with a 6.15% stake through the Bpifrance Participations S.A. French public investment bank.

2023 Ram 1500 gets tech upgrades, Limited Elite special edition

The 2023 Ram light-duty and heavy-duty lineups gain a suite of minor upgrades and a revamped special edition. Starting with the 1500, all trims gain Rear-seat Reminder Alert and an LED hitch lamp in the tailgate handle. Models above the two Tradesman trims will have access to an optional 12-inch frameless digital gauge cluster. The gauges can be displayed in digital or analogue form, further customization in the form of five configurable tiles and nearly 24 menus, and cluster configurations able to be saved to a particular user profile. Every 1500 trim that gets the 12-inch Uconnect 5 system will also get Stellantis' Emergency Vehicle Alert system, a boon for distracted drivers who might not realize there's an emergency vehicle approaching. The Ram 1500 Rebel will come with Selec-Speed Control standard. Swiped from Jeep and the TRX pickup, Selec-Speed Control is effectively off-road cruise control. Using buttons on the steering wheel, the driver can set the speed between 0.6 to 5 miles per hour when the transfer case is in 4WD Low. The feature will join the optional Back Country Package that can be optioned on the Big Horn and Lone Star trims, and the Off-Road Group available to the Big Horn, Lone Star, Laramie, Limited Longhorn and Limited trims. That Off-Road Group unlocks another goodie for 2023, being 22-inch all-terrain tires, but only for the Laramie, Limited Longhorn and Limited models. One special edition continues and another swings in. The Ram RED Edition carries on into 2023 for the Limited Crew Cab. It gets red RAM lettering in the grille and on the doors outside, the same again on the center console lid. For next year, it comes with a UV-C light in the glove box. Place an item in the glovebox and press a button a button on the center console, that light turns on for three minutes to kill pathogens like bacteria, viruses, mold and fungus. The RED model is part of Stellantis' pledge to help the Global Fund fight health emergencies in partnership with the 16-year-old non-profit RED. The new special trim is the 2023 Ram 1500 Limited Elite Edition. This is Ram's continued swapping of names for special editions on the Limited, which has seen the 10th Anniversary and Southfork names in recent years. The $2,145 10th Anniversary Package rolls on into the new model year.