Trucks are wonderful vehicles in the right context, but some Americans don’t see context. To many Americans, there is no wrong context for a truck, which might explain the popularity of a vehicle like the Ford Maverick that manages to do some truck things without a lot of the negative externalities of truck ownership (it’s not that big, it’s highly efficient, it’s relatively pedestrian friendly).
So why is Kia showing off a truck by testing in America even though it’ll never actually come here? Here’s another question: People like the Ram 1500 so why is it such a pain for Stellantis to deliver them? At least Chevy, finally, is beginning to sell trucks as it navigates more union issues.
It’s a Friday Morning, so let’s end with some fun news: AMG is going to keep doing this whole GT racing thing via new company called Affalterbach Racing.
The Kia Tasman Is Not For Us
The Kia Tasman pickup truck, teased in the video above (or linked right here) is not testing in Australia, Qatar, South Africa, or any of the places it’s like to be sold. It’s being tested in Alabama Hills, California… a place it’ll likely never be sold.
If you don’t believe me, just check out the license plate. That is not an American shape.
This is kind of a bummer, obviously. We like Kia products around here, and America’s midsize trucks have slowly moved to global platforms, so it’s not like there isn’t a market for a vehicle that fits this profile. I tend to think that the full-sized market is getting oversaturated and a lot of the potential growth is in mid-sizers.
So why isn’t it coming here?
First, the most direct reason is the Chicken Tax. Yes, we’ve never dropped the 25% import duties due on foreign-built trucks. This means that Hyundai-Kia would have to find a place to make this truck here, which means that it would likely have to be built on an existing platform. Kia-Hyundai has spent its money on building out EV production in Georgia and is even making moves in Mexico to support an EV transition.
Second, Kia-Hyundai already has a truck here: The Hyundai Santa Cruz. While it’s been undercut on price by the Maverick, it’s still a modest success. If Kia wanted a truck it could just build something on the Santa Cruz/Tuscon platform and call it a day.
Third, as pointed out by S&P Global Mobility’s Stephanie Brimley in Automotive News this morning, even though American mid-sizers are starting to look more global, it doesn’t mean that what someone expects in Melbourne is what a buyer wants in Tallahassee:
International trucks are often used for work tools and are built for durability on uneven roads or where infrastructure is not as developed, she explained.
“Trucks in the U.S. must meet different on- and off-road performance expectation, and different materials are used in the suspension and seats for ride comfort, and the cabin is outfitted for sound deadening,” Brinley said.
If you want some good news, it’s that Kia is likely to bring an electric pickup truck to market, built in one of its US facilities.
Aaaaand I gotta go see my kid perform in a play today so here’s Thomas to ride us out to the weekend. – MH
Carlos Tavares Criticizes Stellantis’ American Entities, Especially Ram
Earlier this month, Matt wrote about how the Ram 1500 is being usurped by the Toyota Tundra. Evidently, the sales situation seems to be striking a chord within Stellantis, because CEO Carlos Tavares used Ram’s assembly plant as a prime example of how the firm’s American entities are underperforming. While the Automotive News article title hints at general U.S. plants, the body copy draws a target on the backs of Ram and the people who build those trucks in America. No, seriously, here’s a quote from Tavares:
“The direct run rate of some of our plants, starting with SHAP — Sterling Heights — is not good. And that is something that we need to fix with our plant management team.”
A few things to unpack here: Tavares defines “direct run rate” as vehicles “that get quality certified at the end of the line with no rework,” and also, Sterling Heights just makes the Ram, so it’s pretty obvious what’s going on here. The Ram 1500 is losing its long-time third-place sales status to the Toyota Tundra, and instead of slapping on five-figure truck season incentives that run from Truckgust, through Truckuary, and into Trarch, Tavares wants to solve the underlying problems.
Oh, and there’s another thing Tavares seems dissatisfied with — the trim mix of models that actually end up on dealer lots. Setting aside the issue of who actually oversees the team that oversees the team that oversees that (hint: it’s Carlos Tavares), let’s see what he told Automotive News, then poke it with a stick a bit:
“We have not always been able in the production planning to make a production mix that aligns with the sales mix,” Tavares said. “If we don’t do that, if you don’t align the production mix to the sales mix, at one point in time, your inventory is distorted against what the real demand is. … If it is distorted, some of the models and versions and trims, they stick in the dealer yard, and then you have an inventory problem.”
It’s also worth mentioning trimflation, which is bad for everyone involved. There’s no reason a Ram 1500 Classic, the same damn truck since 2009, should’ve seen a near-$10,000 median price increase between January 2019 and June 2023, but that’s what happened. Then add in the demise of the inefficient but trusted Hemi V8 and it’s not hard to imagine why Ram might be having trouble shifting units right now. Stellantis needs to figure out how to make its tariff-protected money printer print money again, and if it can’t do that, the jokes about it being Global Leyland would cut much harder.
GM’s Midsize Truck Plant Is Back Online After A Supplier Strike
Speaking of assembly news, let’s talk about Lear. No, not the guy behind the Learjet, the automotive seating supplier. You might not know it, but you’d probably planted your glutes into a seat made by Lear at some point in your life, as it’s a huge company, supplying, among others, General Motors. In fact, it’s so huge, that when UAW workers at a Lear plant in Missouri went on strike, GM had to reportedly stop the line at its Wentzville, Mo. plant, as per the Detroit Free Press.
GM was forced to idle its nearby Wentzville Assembly plant in Missouri on Monday because the workers at the Lear Wentzville facility, which supplies the seats for GM’s midsize pickups and vans, went on strike at midnight Sunday. That was when their contract expired and they had not reached a new tentative agreement with the company.
Strikes suck for everyone involved because nobody gets paid, but they’re also important last resorts in the collective bargaining process. Mercifully for both Lear and GM, a tenative agreement was reached this week between the UAW and Lear, which means that the Wentzville, Mo. assembly plant that builds the Chevrolet Colorado, GMC Canyon, Chevrolet Express, and GMC Savana, is now back online thanks to seats rolling in through the gates of the plant once again, as confirmed by the Detroit Free Press.
GM spokesman Kevin Kelly confirmed that Wentzville restarted operations Thursday morning.
“Our supplier has reached a tentative agreement, and our focus is to resume regular production as quickly as possible for the good of our customers,” Kelly said in a statement.
Lear spokesman Brian Corbett told the Free Press, “We are pleased to have reached a tentative agreement with the UAW at our Wentzville facility. We are focused on resuming normal operations.”
Granted, it wasn’t an easy process to get here. The UAW was primarily looking for safer working conditions, but that turned into a strike, which made GM alert Lear that the seat supplier had breached its duties. From there, the Free Press reports that Lear turned the letter around on the UAW as a “we’re gonna lose the shop” reality TV-type threat, which prompted the UAW to file a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board. Just because a tentative contract was reached doesn’t mean this situation’s out of the woods yet, but it does mean that UAW works at that Lear plant get a new contact, and customers get their cargo vans and midsize pickup trucks.
Mercedes-AMG Will Try To Make A Race Car Out Of A Two-Ton Coupe
Mercedes-AMG is expanding. Well, sort-of. See, Mercedes-AMG is spinning off its GT racing program under the name “Affalterbach Racing GmbH,” and it’s buying a stake in HWA AG, the tuning and racing company founded by AMG founder Hans Werner Aufrecht. That sounds mostly like reorganization as far as the Affalterbach Racing stuff goes, but leveraging a partnership is something, and Affalterbach Racing has a serious challenge ahead of it — getting what is basically a modern Mercedes-Benz SLC whipped into shape for GT3 racing.
The next “Made in Affalterbach” GT3 racing car is based on a derivative of the Mercedes‑AMG GT family. The second generation of the two-door AMG GT was presented in 2023 and the sports car family has been growing steadily ever since. The fifth member, the Mercedes‑AMG GT 63 PRO 4MATIC+[1],[2] recently celebrated its world premiere in Brooklands (England).
Gee, this is a bold strategy. The street version of the Mercedes-AMG GT 63 weighs 4,343 pounds, and while a GT3 version would ditch the all-wheel-drive system and be subject to Balance of Performance rules, getting a machine of this sort to be competitive with say, a Chevrolet Corvette C8.R or a Porsche 911 GT3 R, sounds like one hell of a task. Best get cracking, then.
What I’m Listening To While Finishing TMD
After somewhat of a low period, 2024 feels like a better year for rap. From a proper big-name beef to new stuff from the likes of Vince Staples, Denzel Curry, and Benny the Butcher, we’ve been treated to some fantastic tracks this year. Of course, I’m also a big ScHoolboy Q fan, so I’m still bumping Blue Lips because it’s excellent. Here’s Yeern 101.
The Big Question
How would you fix the mess Ram has found itself in? From assembly quality to days-to-turn, the brand’s in a tight spot right now, when it absolutely shouldn’t be.
(Photo credits: Kia, Ram, Thomas Hundal, Mercedes-AMG)
Translation: Other nations buy trucks to do truck things and possibly use them off-road, not to do car things like taking little Timmy to his recorder lessons and buying a carton of eggs and a loaf of bread from the supermarket 2 blocks away on the way home. Love the subtle diss there.
I would fire Jon Lovitz. The man has no experience building and creating stuff, just cutting pennies. He should stick to acting!
I had more to say, was just too slow to edit my earlier comment, so here:
Why this is not already in the U.S. market boggles my mind.
https://www.ram.com.br/picapes/rampage/versoes/rebel
It’s a Compass: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_Rampage
The Rampage is build in Brazil, so, Chicken Tax BUT WAIT.
USMCA exempts Mexico from Chicken Tax (Maverick is built at Hermosillo, for example).
Stellantis has a facility in Toluca which builds…..The Compass.
So the plant is already set up for the same platform, CUSW. And because CUSW exists in the States, they know how to federalize it for FMVSS compliance and crash standards.
If you’re gonna take a loss, at least make an investment so you’re going down swinging.
Not just the Rampage, but the complete lack of new CDJR product is befuddling. Look at how often Hyundai/Kia come out with new or refreshed product. It really makes one wonder just what is going on.
Why this is not already in the U.S. market boggles my mind.
https://www.ram.com.br/picapes/rampage/versoes/rebel
It’s a Compass: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ram_Rampage
Regarding the AMG GT car, a friend of mine is a race mechanic for a private team. He got to witness both a Ferrari whatever pista and a current AMG GT car run at the Nogaro race track.
The fat Merc was running circles around the Ferrari. Those GT are noting like their road going brethrens, they are stripped, carbon fiber and tubular chassis with amazing motors.
The GT3 rules are permissive enough for a GT3 Bentley, the SL/GT should be fine. Considering that they already let the Mustang change enough to make it competitive with a Huracan, they can just slam that 4.0 v8 back into the dash, switch to pushrod suspension, toss a diffuser and aero at it, and go.
It seems some of his complaint is about forecasting not meeting customer desires. Maybe they should push special orders more. I don’t know what their lead times are, but getting them down to 4-6 weeks could go a ways toward encouraging that. I don’t know enough about logistics to know what a good number is, but when I SO’d a ’12 Focus, it took about 11 weeks. No idea how that works when I ordered it—does the order go directly out immediately? To whom? If not, it should and it should go directly to the factory where it gets put in a priority cue for the next day. Most vehicles produced are fulfilling dealer orders according to forecasting, so instead of building 50 identical whateverthefuck specs the next day, maybe they build 40 and 10 customer orders (numbers just tossed out there for explanation not meant to reflect anything real). Yes, JIT delivery is a possible impediment here (especially with trucks that have more option packages than most), but as Toyota has moved away from that to great success, maybe it’s time that got reevaluated by Stellantis, too (if they haven’t). Of course, distribution is probably going to eat a few weeks, though I don’t really know anything about how they manage that. Again, prioritized loading for transit? With SOs going in different directions, that will still eat some time in sorting and distribution, but I would guess at their volumes, that they don’t currently prioritize SOs over inventory builds and doing so could possibly knock several weeks off a customer’s delivery. Going from, say, 12 weeks to 6 might pull a lot more SOs, reducing inventory build up and incentives. Then again, maybe they already build customer orders ASAP and the lead times are just what they are, IDK.
In theory all car companies should do this, they can then monitor the habits of buyers better, which would help them produce the correct spec. Say first 12 months or so a car is released, try get as much pre spec order as possible.
That said, I think the RAM problem here is, they can’t build the normal stuff right, SO would highly likely be stuffed, and cause them more issues.
“How would you fix the mess Ram has found itself in?”
I’d introduce a new model, a Hurricane powered MT6 RWD hoonable Ute called “Cactus”.
Oh wait, I’m supposed to FIX the mess?
Sorry, I got nothing.
“Cactus” belongs to Citroen.
The would confuse the French.
“Cactus” is a bit subdued for Dodge/Ram. Won’t work with their sophomoric, smooth brained customer base. It needs to be ultra-agressive like “Throat ripper” or some sort of firearm reference. Magnums been gone long-enough to regurgitate.
> truck season incentives that run from Truckgust, through Truckuary, and into Trarch
I loled.
Fix RAM? I dunno. Dodge/Chrysler/RAM had historically been a shitty manufacturer and their woes aren’t surprising. People always warn against complacency when you’re at the top, lest a new entrant should come and take the crown from you. Dodge has been complacent about being third. That’s pretty sad. Maybe they just need to die.
Maybe I’ll be proven wrong, but I think there will be further fallout from replacing the Hemi with the Hurricane. It will be in the form of the 1 – 3 first years of teething problems. While the Hurricane was in the Jeep side of the house for a year’ish before appearing in the RAM, I don’t think volume and use was enough to really see how reliable the Hurricane will be. From my understanding, the Hurricane has some ‘Gee Whiz’ German parts that some suppliers threw at Stellantis’ direction. Now all that new tech working in harmony might be just fine, but we are talking Stellantis here.
It would be cool if the Hurricane becomes an engine that is talked about with the same reverence as other I6 like the Slant 6 and Ford’s I6.
Interestingly, the ‘yota v6 seems worse so far.
I just saw a brand new (still had dealer stuff on it) Tundra today. Gawd is it ugly. It’s like Toyota took every oversized truck styling cliche, pasted them on and then beat the crap out of it with the Toyota Corporate Ugly Stick (TM).
Fortunately I saw a pristine Jag E-Type with it’s top down right after. Disinfectant for the eyes.
I think the Tundra may be the best designed, best quality (Toyota is replacing the some odd 100k engines without a class action lawsuit) truck wrapped in the ugliest skin on the market.
If I could afford one, I’d take a Tundra in a RAM skin. If I wanted to disappear into the background, a F150 skin.
I think it looks like a cheap knock off of the Nissan Titan.
And the Titan doesn’t look like a discount brand at all.
Get rid of Carlos.
Bring Jon Lovitz back.
Seriously though the RAM sure looks boned at this point.
Since people are floating car bans everywhere can we have a Federal ban on testing cars on public roads in the US that the manufacturer has no intent of selling in the US?
Make it at least like Group B FFS!
What have you got against capitalism?
Is it capitalism when they use our public roads and we (the public) get nothing out of it?
These companies use fuel for their testing which we get tax dollars on which help pay for our roads.
They purchase food and hotel rooms and air travel and phone/internet which pay for jobs and from which our government gets tax dollars on.
You know – like any other tourist.
They also ship the cars over from somewhere else and send them back – which also pay for jobs and taxes, etc.
I mean, I guess we could have them send that business to Mexico or Africa or wherever….
… for that matter – we could always tell regular tourists not to come to the US too.
Because who needs all those hotel, restaurant, air travel, etc. jobs?
Fuel taxes haven’t paid enough to offset the wear and tear one car does in a year with the fuel they burn in one year. So you’re wrong there.
They’re using our road and paying us pennies on the dollar in fuel tax in order to do so, to test a product they’ll never sell here.
It’s a net negative to the US citizens, not a positive. We’re subsidizing their testing of vehicles we’ll never see the benefits of.
Well then – we’d better outlaw tourism too.
Because we gotta preserve our roads for Americans.
The majority of the wear and tear that deteriorates our roads comes from semi trucks. St. Ronnie was the one who upped the federal weight limits so they could pound the crap out of the roadbeds for the last 45 years at the same time consolidation and effective monopoly destroyed the 150 year old (by that time) rail industry in the U.S.
So – worse rail, heavier trucks, a deep love of fossil fuels and no real desire to make any changes gets us…here. The call is coming from inside the house.
Industry testing passenger car product on our roads is not a problem.
This is a very strange take, for all the reasons Urban Runabout listed.
You want to fix the problem Ram has? Easy. Ask the line workers how to simplify the build for fewer problems and do what they say!
Also stop bitching about the suppliers, pay them their due, and then set higher standards for the upcoming part or just build the damn thing in house!
And bring back column shifters! Dump the damn dial!
Am I the only one who likes the dial?
In the past I’ve rented a 300 and a Ram with the dial. I liked it just fine.
Trust me. This is a big argument in the pickup forums and YouTube comments.
Definitely not but there are major arguments online about it and if you watch the movie Twisters, you’ll notice both Ram trucks have shifters and not dials.
I mean shifters do work way better if you’re dramatically changing direction in an action movie but I don’t normally do that.
You do you.
The dial is a brilliant space saver and dead simple to use. I like the one in mine.
I’m convinced that the next gen AMG GT3 car will be a mostly marketing excersize on the corporate level. Companies love to leverage their race cars for marketing to dude-bros who watched two seasons of Drive To Survive.
Extreme example: An ad for the new Camry side by side with the Nascar Cup Car and the tagline something like “Race Car DNA, evident in every Camry” which might be the biggest stretch in automotive history since Mercedes made the ’73 S600 Pullman 6-door
Bigger stretch than Grounded to the Ground?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AKRiCsZfx4k
I’ve had a friend with that exact generation Camry SE call it a sport edition too, and I genuinely have no clue where people get that from. She wasn’t happy when I told her it’s not the “Sport Edition” and the automatic 4-cylinder combo is in fact, not sporty. I get that’s what it technically means in Toyota lingo, and they claim the suspension is “sport tuned” but having driven them, I have zero clue why anyone would consider it sporty.
Because its grounded to the ground obviously.
On the AMG GT becoming an AMG GT3 car, well the GT3 cars don’t actually share thaaaaat much in common with the road cars they are based on. Like completely different suspension, front and rear subframes, engines, transmissions. I mean hell, Bentley made successful GT3 cars out of the Continentals.
How to Fix Ram:
Quality is such a big deal, and Chrysler…er…Fiat…er Stellantis is never incredibly good. Their only saving grace in the past few years was 1) Inventory 2) V8 noises 3) nice interiors
Now that everyone has inventory, and the V8’s are gone, they don’t have a lot else to offer. The competition has caught up in interior niceties. Ram is Boned.
Here’s what they need:
1) Invest in serious R&D to improve quality. They need Toyota quality. The fact that heater cores, rear windows, etc. are leaking on 1-2 year old trucks is a travesty.
2) Re-offer the hemi along-side the hurricane. Remove the E motor bologna that made the Hemi unreliable. Put a half decent header on it that won’t warp.
3) fix the lifter issues on the pentastar. And the cam wearing.
4) Move the Ram brand back under Dodge.
5) Offer a Dodge Dakota and Rampage that compete. Make them slightly more off-roady than the Toyota Tacoma and Maverick
6) Bring the Pacifica back under Dodge and call it the Caravan.
7) Why doesn’t the Powerwagon have a Cummins yet?
8) And since we are fixing Dodge now, can the Durango please be updated?
9) The Hornet is a sad thing at the price they are asking. They need to make it much better. Compact crossover people buy CRV’s for a reason… offer something sensible and reliable.
I could go on. Stellantis was essentially only saved by being fun and exciting due to stupid horsepower and V8 noises, and some Jeep stuff. Now, they need to reinvent themselves. When we think about brands, each one has a theme and a lineup to back up that theme. Toyotas and Hondas have the theme of reliable and sensible cars and they (for the most part) back that up. BMW has become a technology brand that appeals to influencers and they (unfortunately) back that up. Volvo is the comfy, safe brand. You get the idea. Stellantis doesn’t seem to have a theme. It is an odd hodge/podge of brands with no direction.
Dodge could also use a full size long wheelbase SUV to compete in the Suburban/Expedition Max territory. Redo the Durango to compete Tahoe, then build a bigger one to compete Suburban, Durango XL type idea, but with a better name. Dodge has failed to compete in that market forever. Maybe they should finally resolve that.
A big BOF SUV would cannibalize the Wagoneers sitting across the showroom with “$15,000 OFF!” scrawled across the windshield, though. Given the CDJR dealership structure, there has to be discernable identities within the brand grouping, but no one of those brands needs a full lineup
Which was a big mistake, because different brands targeted to different customers should have separate sales channels, putting it all under one roof was dumb (and they forced Chrysler/Jeep and Dodge/Ram into one showroom at the exact same time they pressured dealers to split Fiat off into its own dedicated spaces, the one brand that could never justify such a thing)
The GMC to Chevy similarities among platform mates still confuzzles me but it seems to be working(?)
On the Diesel Power Wagon, the reasoning I’ve heard from a trusted source is that it was too hard to tune the suspension and stuff kept breaking after adding 500 extra lbs over the gasser. AEV seems to have made it work, but I’ve also heard that the Prospector rides like garbage so “can be done” and “can be done well” may be two different things.
I wonder if there is enough KIA money to buy Nissan America and get the titan. I am not sure if the Hyundai v8’s are still a thing, but certainly the Telluride styling with Kia pricing and currently quality optics for the brand could in fact give KIA the option to get into half ton trucks in the US.
That’s an interesting idea. What would Kia-Nissan do with the other models, like the Rogue?
I don’t believe Nissan Makes anything except Titans at the truck plant I am thinking of, but the bigger question is what would happen to the Frontier I suppose.
The other reason we’re not getting the Tasman is because it uses a diesel engine. Thanks to a single state in this fine union, we don’t get to enjoy many diesel vehicles on our wide open, high speed freeways.
I guess I’m just salty because my ~110 mile roundtrip commute is 90% highway at speeds > 70mph and I’d really like a small diesel vehicle. Wishing we would just use the Euro NOx levels instead of CARB’s
Agreed.
I bought a Colorado diesel after it was confirmed the 3rd gen wouldn’t get that option. Figured it was the last chance to get a new diesel mid-sized truck.
How do you like it? My dad bought a GMC Canyon in the last generation and considered the diesel but ultimately chose the NA V6 (which I think is also gone).
Yeah, they’re only available with the turbo 4 now, which is a great engine. More torque than the diesel and more HP than the V6.
So far I’m loving it. It’s not fast, but neither am I. It’s a great road tripper, although mine being a ZR2, anything over 70-75 tanks the mileage. I’ve been averaging 23-25mpg overall and can get almost 30 cruising around 60mph. Non-ZR2s I’ve seen are about 3-5mpg higher. They handily beat the EPA ratings.
Like any modern diesel, there’s the potential emission systems issues. I’ve only had one, a NOx sensor at 16k miles, taken care of under warranty. Otherwise it’s been trouble free, I’m about to roll over 48k miles and it’s needed nothing other than fluid changes. Pre-2020(I think?) had a different injector design that liked to fail and put a hole in the piston. I’ll be keeping it stock until the powertrain and emissions warranty is expired.
Ram could do very well if they made a rebadged Jeep Gladiator dressed-up to look like a 1940s Power Wagon. It would give them a mid-size option and it would reinvigorate the Gladiator production lines that seem to be lacking in sales as of late.
Gladiator pricing as well the extremely bad departure angles kind of kill it for most. I feel like they have the low buck basic wranglers to sell to the tire kickers when they get Rubicon sticker shock, but the Gladiators are pretty bespoke even at the base price level.
Yeah the Gladiator mostly exists to keep Wrangler owners in the Jeep family when they go looking for a pickup.
Along with that, it was the easiest (and quickest) way for Stellantis (as a whole) to get a midsize truck to market.
Lots of cars sold here in the US can accommodate both license plate sizes. I’d love to see Kia bring another BOF vehicle to the US but don’t think there’d be much room unless they want to go for beating the Frontier in value.
I’m a fan of the Borrego but I’m not keen on playing their penny-pinching roulette again since I already lost once (immobilizer) combined with a partial loss. (Theta II)
I have no idea how Ram fixes its quality issues, but to fix the brand in general it needs a small truck that competes with the Maverick. I’m surprised no one else has managed to release something that truly challenges the Maverick. The Santa Cruz is close, but the lack of a hybrid drivetrain, smaller bed, and high price make it a non-starter. The upcoming Ram Rampage seems like it could be a nice truck, but it sounds like it will be even more expensive than the Santa Cruz. It won’t be popular.
A truck that competes with the Maverick may not be very profitable, but it would at least give buyers a reason to set foot in a Ram dealership. Some of these buyers might end up purchasing a more expensive (and profitable) truck now or at some point in the future.
Plus the upsells of a higher trim loaded with very profitable items as well as dealer ad ons which must be a big profit centre for both the dealer and manufacturer.
It’s strange to me that Ram has gotten by for so long with only full-sized pickups. Their intended strategy for a while was to direct buyers to the Ram Tradesman if they couldn’t afford a new model, but if you decide a full-sizer isn’t for you then there’s nothing keeping you on their lot.
it is a wave thing. Ford even went without the ranger in the US for a hot minute, but then Tacoma mania swept the mall crawlers and suddenly smallish trucks were in again.
I agree with the wave thing, but Ram has been holding out for the mid-size wave to die down and they’re only now realizing it’s here to stay.
That is the failure of the sales groups to be sure.
Just do like Ford. limit the low priced opportunities to Fleet orders mostly, but build enough to drive people to the lots to look, and then bait and switch the AWD Turbo Gasser .
The main thing is they’re looking at immediate margins rather than life of ownership margins. They think they need to because prevailing (dumbass) wisdom is to frontload all losses and gains to theoretically reduce management costs over time. Get out with the sure thing and take a smaller cut rather than put in the work to nurture a larger profit in the hopes that outside factors won’t damage it before it’s ready. That’s why they went all in on $100,000 Grand Cherokees but let it’s sister the Durango rot in fetid bile for two generations. It’s not even about them refusing to make a gamble, it’s them refusing to put in any work that isn’t already finished for them.
This literally happened for like…a month – and I guarantee it is due to a dip in sales of folks wanting to wait for the 2025s which are rolling out.
The talking heads on YouTube tell me there are tens of thousands of new 2023 RAM pickups on dealer lots, as the 2025 models are starting to fill the lots. The line is “dealers can’t sell these trucks”. Of course, they could if they wanted to, but they’d rather stick to their pricing AND add $4000 worth of add on crap. I hope they choke on those trucks.
They should’ve had a hybrid RAM yesterday. I think that’s one of the reasons why people are buying the Tundra instead. The iForce MAX powertrain is hardly an efficiency stalwart but by full sized truck/BOF SUV standards it’s pretty thrifty. Until the Ramcharger shows up they don’t have anything electrified other than a half assed mild hybrid option….and let’s be real here, we all know the Ramcharger is going to be an absolute disaster for the first 2-3 years because Stellantis.
They’ve had a hybrid Ram for a while now…
They’re mild hybrids. I’m asking for a full fat hybrid.