Wednesday, June 16, 2004
John M. Galloway / Special to The Detroit News
The Dodge Ram Power Wagon, left, is a heavy-duty version of the current Ram pickup, built for off-roading, while the Ram SRT-10 Quad Cab is a four-door offshoot of the fast SRT-10 truck introduced last year.
2 new Dodge Ram pickups feed need for speed, power Quad Cab, Power Wagon in fall lineup
By Brett Clanton / The Detroit News
John M. Galloway / Special to The Detroit News
Chrysler President and CEO Dieter Zetsche said the two new trucks are "for enthusiasts."
CHELSEA — Two new Dodge Ram pickup trucks will join the Chrysler Group’s vehicle lineup late this fall as America’s No. 3 automaker continues feeding a steady U.S. appetite for big, fuel-thirsty trucks despite high gasoline prices.
The Dodge Ram Power Wagon is a heavy-duty version of the current Ram pickup, built for off-roading, while the Ram SRT-10 Quad Cab is a four-door offshoot of the lightening fast SRT-10 pickup introduced last year.
Neither truck is expected to be a big seller for the Auburn Hills automaker, a unit of
DaimlerChrysler AG. But Chrysler hopes they will add sizzle to the Dodge Ram brand, the company’s most popular vehicle line, as foreign automakers try to capture a chunk of the the competitive full-size truck segment.
“(The trucks) are obviously not mainstream,” Chrysler CEO Dieter Zetsche said Tuesday. “They’re for enthusiasts.”
The new trucks come as gas prices nationwide are hovering around $2 per gallon, and recent surveys suggest that consumer preferences are shifting away from gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles and pickups.
Yet U.S. sales of SUVs are up 9.3 percent through May, while demand for full-size trucks is up 8.4 percent, according to Autodata Corp.
“So far, we haven’t seen any measurable impact on the structure of our sales, nor on the total volume (due to rising gas prices),” Zetsche said.
In fact, sales of Chrysler vehicles equipped with the automaker’s biggest engine — the V-8 Hemi — have been so strong that the company has increased production by 10 percent at a Saltillo, Mexico, factory, Zetsche told reporters at the automaker’s proving grounds in Chelsea.
Maximum output of the 5.7-liter Hemi had been roughly 500,000 units a year in Saltillo. The engine is an option on the Ram pickup, Chrysler 300 sedan, Dodge Magnum wagon and the redesigned Jeep Grand Cherokee, which debuts this fall.
Next year, Chrysler is expected to introduce a 6.1-liter Hemi engine even larger than the current 345-horsepower power plant.
“Essentially, manufacturers are going to go ahead with their plans with the idea that rising gas prices are just temporary,” said George Magliano, an analyst with research firm Global Insight in New York.
That appears to be the case with the two new Ram pickup trucks.
The Dodge Ram Power Wagon, based on the Dodge Ram 2500 pickup, comes standard with a V-8 Hemi engine and features a 12,000-lb. winch mounted under the front bumper.
“It’s nothing less than a model monument to Dodge Ram capability in off-road environments,” Zetsche said.
The Dodge Ram SRT-10 Quad Cab is a four-door version of the original SRT-10 pickup, which was launched in December 2003. The truck has the same 500-horsepower V-10 engine as the Dodge Viper sports car, making it the fastest factory-produced pickup in the world.
But that speed comes at a price. The hot rod truck gets 10 miles to the gallon in town and 14 on the highway.
Sales of the two-door Ram SRT-10 have reached nearly 2,000 units this year. But Chrysler expects the addition of a four-door model to help improve sales to 5,000 units by year end.
Annual sales of the Ram Power Wagon are expected to be between 5,000 and 6,000 units a year.
While that’s just a fraction of the 450,000 Ram pickups sold in the United States last year, it is respectable for a low-volume specialty vehicle, Zetsche said.
Late this year, Chrysler will add one more Ram pickup to the current lineup. The Dodge Ram HEV will be a heavy-duty pickup with a gas-electric engine and will be the company’s first hybrid in the United States.
You can reach Brett Clanton at (313) 222-2612 or bclanton@detnews.com.
John M. Galloway / Special to The Detroit News
The SRT-10 Quad Cab is the fastest factory-built pickup in the world.
DetNews: 2005 Dodge PowerWagon and SRT-10 Quad
Linear Mode
