Getting to Know the New Ram 1500

FCA has become experts at offering us a look and a glimpse at what they will bring to the market for several weeks before the actual reveal of the new model. Last year we saw the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon in a variety of different teaser videos before its final reveal. The same can be said about the new Jeep Wrangler that we talked about extensively over the past twelve months. Now, the most recent and soon to be revealed FCA model is the Ram 1500 that will be shown off at the Detroit Auto Show.

What do we know about the new Ram 1500?

New Grill – This new truck is ready to wear a new face to give us the look we want and offer us a new way to have a bold design that will impress us. This new grill will offer split chrome bars with the Ram logo in the center. There is an extensive use of chrome on the grill, which likely makes its way across much the exterior of this impressive new truck.

Interior – This area of the truck will offer us a massive touchscreen to have the updated Uconnect interface for connectivity desired. There are some hard buttons for the climate controls to make it more intuitive for your use while driving. This center area of the truck interior allows us to have the controls desired for the drive on the road.

Steel Body – Even though there is a movement toward aluminum for the body build in many trucks, the Ram 1500 will have mostly steel panels in the body. The hood and the tailgate are made of aluminum to make it a bit lighter, but you’ll be able to have the benefit of the toughness of a material you’re used to for the drive in this new truck.

Tailgate – There is a split tailgate option that will make it possible to have a barn-style door to open the tailgate and allow an easy access to the items that you want to get to in the bed of the truck. This isn’t the first time that FCA has offered this style for the tailgate and it should give us something impressively interesting for this truck on the road.

Coil Springs – We will see this truck ride on coil springs, which is exactly what we’ve had in the past. This continued feature of this new truck delivers a superior ride comfort along with improved handling and stability when towing. It makes sense to have this be the setup that will continue in this truck making it one of the most useful features that we can have for the drive.

Possibly a Mega Cab – We’ve seen some views of what appears to be a longer crew cab that could be a new Mega Cab model that might be used in the Heavy-Duty models of the 2500 and 3500 models for the drive. This would give rear occupants more room for their legs and bodies as you take this truck out to the job site to get things done.

Engines – We expect to see the 5.7-liter HEMI V8 engine and 3.6-liter V6 engine make their return to this truck. The eight-speed automatic transmission should also be part of what’s offered for our drive. The question here is whether or not this truck will be the next recipient of the Hellcat engine that FCA is so fond of stuffing into any engine bay they can.

Advanced Safety Tech – The current model of the Ram 1500 dates back to 2009, which by automotive standards is a long time. This new truck will be offered with many of the systems we currently have for the drive we make on a regular basis. This could include an updated rearview camera system and items such as blind spot monitoring and rear traffic detection.