2022 Ram 1500 Laramie on 2040-cars

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Who sold the most heavy-duty pickups in 2012? PickupTrucks.com investigates

Domestic manufacturers enjoyed a good year for heavy-duty pickup sales in 2012. PickupTrucks.com has taken a close look at exactly how those sales broke down between each manufacturer and between three-quarter and one-ton pickups. Ford sold some 67,786 F-250 Super Duty models last year with the Chevrolet Silverado 2500 HD falling just behind at 56,359 units. The Ram 2500 HD came in third at 41,918, while the GMC Sierra 2500 HD earned itself fourth place with 27,616 deliveries. While Ford held onto the top spot in the one-ton market, Ram easily nailed down second place by selling more 3500 HD models last year than General Motors sold Silverado 3500 HD and Sierra 3500 HD trucks combined.
So, did GM manage to sell more trucks than Ford with its two brands? Very nearly. Ford sold a total of 119,338 heavy-duty pickups to GM's 111,555. Ram, meanwhile, moved a distant 77,583. But perhaps more interesting is the diesel take rate in this segment. PickupTrucks.com says 80 percent of all domestic one-ton trucks roll from the dealer lot with a turbo-diesel under the hood. Head over to the site for a closer look at the breakdown.

Chrysler uses Super Bowl spots to honor troops, farmers

How do you follow up such revered and successful ads as Chrysler's last two Super Bowl commercials? Imported from Detroit and Halftime in America should be given credit for giving the automaker's public perception a complete overhaul after its rescue from the brink with taxpayer money. What next, then?
We just found out during Super Bowl XLVII. This year Chrysler went with two commercials, one for Jeep and the other Ram. The two-minute-long Jeep commercial, called Whole Again, is narrated by Oprah Winfrey and presented as an open letter to the service men and women of America, simply expressing admiration for what they do - poignant message coming from a company whose history is so entwined with that of the military's.
The Ram commercial, called Farmer, honors the agricultural backbone of this country. Its soundtrack is a speech entitled "So God Made a Farmer" given by the famous radio broadcaster Paul Harvey, which plays over a slideshow of original photography commissioned by Ram. The images, of course, focus on farming and the people who do it for a living, and there's a few Ram trucks in there, as well.

Ram debuts Rumble Bee redux at Woodward [w/video]

Ten years ago, when the Ram truck still wore a Dodge badge, a special yellow-and-black model called the Rumble Bee launched, paying homage to the Super Bee muscle car of the 1960s. Now, we have the Charger Super Bee, wearing the same buzzworthy paint job. But for the 2013 Woodward Dream Cruise, Ram has created a modern version of that Rumble Bee pickup based on the current 2013 Ram 1500, though unlike the last go-around, this one is purely a concept. For now, anyway.
This concept truck uses the 1500's lightest configuration - a single cab, two-wheel-drive model. From there, it has been painted in Drone Yellow with a matte finish, and a Mopar ground effects kit gives the truck a more aggressive stance on the road. The large, 22-inch wheels certainly help that, as well, painted in black to match the other dark accents found around the pickup's body.
Inside, to no one's surprise, the black and yellow theme carries on, with leather upholstery and sport mesh seats. That Rumble Bee logo adorns the chairs and floor mats, but the coolest (or weirdest) touch is the actual amber-encased bee found within the rotary shift knob. Seriously.