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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:

Ram Laramie Longhorn's interior is a crass cacophony of cowboy cues

When we think of quality luxurious interiors, some of the first brands that come to mind are Audi and Volvo. They have elegant, simple interiors constructed from high-quality materials that are beautiful to see and to touch, and that's what makes them feel special and genuinely premium. The 2017 Ram 2500 Laramie Longhorn in our short-term fleet didn't get that message. What the Laramie Longhorn does is yell at you. It yells at you at that it's LUXURIOUS, and it's WESTERN. Open the door, and you're confronted with loads of saddle tan leather with contrasting black leather on the doors, armrest, and seat piping. This is reasonably modest, but if you pick a different color scheme than our Ram, that leather will have tooled filigree patterns, raising the volume of the interior's message. Right on the center console and on the seat backs there are huge brown embossed logos stitched into them proclaiming the trim level of the truck. It's all meant to evoke high-quality leather goods like saddles. But it's the same thin leather you've found in almost every other automobile on the market. The cushy cowboy theme continues on the dash. The satin-finish wood trim would normally be a nice touch, but it's overshadowed by the glitzy and chintzy rose-gold colored fake metal accents all over the dashboard, and even the instrument cluster. Perhaps it's meant to be more warm and down-to-earth than the cold aluminum-look panels usually in cars, but it's an odd color, and it looks more fake than faux-aluminum. It gets even worse when you discover that Ram stuck leather tooling design stickers all over that rose-gold plastic trim. And then you see them on the chrome plastic rings surrounding the gauges. Not only that, but those rings have some sort of stud shape molded into them. Is this Western enough yet? No! Of course not! Hop in the back seat, and you'll discover that the map pockets aren't just simple slots. They have a full flap with metal belt buckles like saddlebags (though the flap actually closes with magnets). And naturally, those buckles have fancy filigree designs in them. Then take a look at the floor, and the rubber floor mats have barbed-wire fence designs molded into them. Get it? Because there are barbed-wire fences on ranches out West where cowboys work! Yet, for all our complaining about cheap materials and a complete lack of subtlety, we're sure this sort of thing appeals to many truck buyers.

Ram helps power Chrysler to 11% gain in May

Increasing consumer demand for Ram pickup trucks and big SUVs has helped to boost May sales for Chrysler. Ram sales were up a total of 24 percent year-over-year for the month of May. In addition, Dodge sales increased by 23 percent in May, with the standout Durango clocking a 24-percent year-over-year improvement (with an updated 2014 model in the wings, incentives are thick on the ground for 2013 inventory). Fiat and Jeep were up only a modest one percent, however, and Chrysler brand sales were down by two percent against last year's figures.
Chrysler is quite pleased overall with brand performance, saying that this May marks the company's strongest in the past six years. It was also the 38th consecutive month showing year-over-year sales gains.
Eight of the automaker's vehicles set sales records for May, as well: Jeep Wrangler and Compass, Dodge Avenger and Challenger, Fiat 500, Chrysler 200 and Ram pickups. Scroll down to read more detail in Chrysler's press release.