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2019 Ram 1500 prices released: What pickup will cost, by trim

One of the final pieces of information about the 2019 Ram 1500, and one of the most important, is finally here: the price. A base model Ram Tradesman, which nets a V6, the smaller four-door cab, a 6-foot 4-inch bed and two-wheel drive, starts at $33,340 with destination charge. That's a a bit over $1,000 more than the cost of the same outgoing Ram 1500 Tradesman. But you'll also get new features such as the eTorque mild-hybrid system and a touch-screen infotainment system with Uconnect. At the other end of the spectrum, the top-rung Ram 1500 Limited Crew Cab 4X4 V8 now starts at $59,035, an increase of almost $4,400 over the old model. Although the base price of the most basic and the most opulent Ram 1500s have gone up, some other things have become cheaper. You won't have to pay as much to upgrade to a V8, for instance. The plain 5.7-liter V8 with its 395 horsepower is $255 cheaper now, costing $1,195. To get that engine with the eTorque system costs more at $1,995. The RamBox bed-side storage bins are $300 cheaper now at $995. The Rebel trim has a better entry-level price, too. The base version with the smaller cab, four-wheel drive (the only drivetrain available with the small cab) and V6 with eTorque starts at $46,340. That just slips under the $46,690 price of the outgoing base Rebel with two-wheel-drive, and is over $2,000 less than the old Rebel with four-wheel drive that started at $48,790. Of course, the outgoing model was only available with the larger "Crew Cab" four-door body. Adding that larger body to the new Rebel will probably offset the cost savings. Here's the entire 2019 Ram sheet of base prices by trim/configuration: Related Video:

Ram 2500HD, 3500HD Kentucky Derby edition gives a leg up to horse owners

This year will be the 145th running of the Kentucky Derby horse race at Churchill Downs, an event and a track Ram has sponsored for the past 10 years. To celebrate the milestones, Ram's unveiled a Kentucky Derby Limited Edition of the recently introduced 2500 HD and 3500 HD. The truck maker specced equipment meant to give breeders and their crews confidence when hauling multi-million-dollar, 3-year-old Thoroughbreds. That means trailering technology like the 360-degree surround-view camera with trailer-reverse guidance, fifth-wheel/gooseneck prep, and air suspension with bed lowering. There's also Forward Collision Warning-Plus with trailer braking, and a bed step. Starting with the Limited trim, those features come as part of the Limited Level 1 Equipment Group, Towing Technology Group, and 5th Wheel/Gooseneck Towing Group. That bundle throws in the Uconnect 12-inch touchscreen radio with Sirius XM 360L and navigation, power-retracting running boards and blind-spot monitoring, too. The combined price of those packages alone is $3,885. Ram has priced the Kentucky Derby trucks at $66,890 for the 2500 HD, $68,240 for the 3500, plus a $1,695 destination fee for both. That's $2,250 more than the base price of the 2500 Limited, and just $625 more than the entry-level 3500 Limited. The extra-cost equipment doesn't end there, though. A billet-appearance grille sets the tone up front, body-colored bumpers are fitted front and rear, and a DOT safety kit gets stashed in a cubby. The interior's been dressed in black and saddle brown leather with greystone stitching and piping. Ram has capped production at 1,000 units, available in almost every configuration possible on the 2500 and 3500: Cummins 6.7-liter Turbo Diesel I-6 in standard or 1,000 foot-pound trim, 6.4-liter Hemi V8, 4x2 or 4x4, Mega Cab or Crew Cab, single rear wheel or dual rear wheel, 6-foot-4 or 8-foot bed lengths. The only exclusion appears to be that you can't order the truck in Billet Silver Metallic, one hue in the eight-strong exterior palette. If you're OK with that, then giddy up.

Will Nissan's Cummins deal upset Ram's marketing mojo? [w/poll]

Ram has used Cummins engines in its heavy duty trucks since 1989, and it is the only pickup truck brand to use products from the Indiana-based engine maker. With the announcement that the next Nissan Titan will also use a Cummins powerplant, and a Nissan spokesman having already said "We will definitely leverage the Cummins brand name," a piece in Automotive News wonders whether the deal will affect the way Ram markets its tie-up with Cummins.
The question really is, how intense is this competition? While it is the first time that trucks from two different brands have used Cummins engines, they'll be two different engines in two different kinds of trucks; Nissan is going to put a 5.0-liter turbodiesel in a non-heavy-duty Titan, Ram only uses its 6.7-liter, inline six-cylinder turbodiesel in heavy-duty offerings. The diesel that Ram will offer in its light-duty, half-ton 1500 is a 3.0-liter V6 EcoDiesel with 240 horsepower and 420 pound-feet of torque - compared to about 300 hp and 550 lb-ft expected from the Titan's Cummins - and its marketing so far has focused on the fuel economy gains.
If Nissan was going to prove its commitment to the segment, it had to do something compelling. If we're talking about sales competition between Ram and Nissan, Ram has sold 201,633 trucks as of July this year, up 24.2 percent, 31,314 of those sales coming last month; Nissan has sold 10,020 Titans through the end of July, down 21.1 percent, and just 1,168 in July itself. Nissan's new truck boss - who hopped there from Ram - said that buyers have asked for a powerful turbodiesel in something other than a heavy duty pickup, and from what we've read on various comment boards, the pickup truck crowd is excited about Nissan's move.