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Cutting room floor: The 2009 Dodge Ram that could've been

Submitted: 20.07.08

Filed under: Trucks/Pickups, Commercial Trucks, Chrysler, LLC., DodgeClick above to view more high-res sketches of rejected RamsChrysler is in the battle of its life to regain its competitiveness here in North America, and there is perhaps no vehicle more important to becoming profitable again than the 2009 Dodge Ram. The Pentastar put in a lot of elbow grease to get this truck just right, and the end result is improved power and efficiency, more storage, and a more refined look than the current truck. We like the design of the new Ram, but the production truck unveiled in Detroit was just one of many designs sketched by Chrysler artists.Friend of Autoblog Mike Levine at Pickuptruck.com got his hands on many of the designs that led to the Ram we'll see in showrooms this fall, and the sketches range from interesting to bizarre. If you take the photo above, for instance, you can see where Dodge was trying to conceptualize nifty storage solutions. The forward-leaning cross-hair grille and integrated bumper had already taken shape, too. Check out our gallery below that includes some exclusive pictures of rejected Rams, and visit PIckuptruck.com to see even more. Gallery: Rejected Dodge Rams[Source: Pickuptruck] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Detroit Preview: Nissan NV2500 Concept previews commercial vehicle for U.S.

- posted: 15.11.08
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/11/10/detroit-preview-nissan-nv2500-concept-previews-companys-first/ Filed under: Concept Cars, Detroit Auto Show, Minivans/MPVs, Commercial Trucks Click above to for high-res version Nissan unveiled the NV2500 Concept today, which will debut in the metal at this year's 2009 Detroit Auto Show in January. No, it's not a high-performance sports car, but rather a multipurpose utility vehicle, a.k.a. panel van, that' previews what the Japanese automaker will soon bring to the commercial vehicle market here in the U.S. You may recall Nissan announced back in April that it was developing three new commercial vehicles for U.S. customers, and the NV2500 hints at the first one. It looks like a bit bigger than a Ford Transit Connect and much smaller than a Dodge Sprinter, which may be "just right" for many companies shopping in the segment. Nissan has already told us this first commercial vehicle is a clean-sheet design developed just for the U.S., and that it will be built at its Canton, Mississippi facility.[Source: Nissan]Continue reading Detroit Preview: Nissan NV2500 Concept previews commercial vehicle for U.S.Detroit Preview: Nissan NV2500 Concept previews commercial vehicle for U.S. originally appeared on Autoblog on Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:58:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink | Email this | Comments

Fiat owner gets revenge for unreliable van

- posted: 22.10.08
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/10/14/fiat-owner-gets-revenge-for-unreliable-van/ Filed under: Euro, Commercial Trucks, FIAT, Carsumer AdvocacyBen Terrett, a graphic designer in London saw this FIAT Doblo and snapped a photo. We thank him for his expert eye and quick reflexes. While at first glance this might seem to be a commercial van covered with advertising for the driver's company, it is in fact a van covered with angst. The sides and rear spell out a laundry list of complaints the owner has with it: "This FIAT is very unreliable, 2 new clutches, 2 new flywheels, 2 new master cylinders, 2 new servos, Since new, Nothing but aggro." Apparently this guy isn't too happy with his little FIAT and hasn't gotten any satisfaction from his dealer. As Terrett points out, it looks like a pretty effective way to take revenge. Thanks for the tip, James![Source: Noisy Decent Graphics]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

VIDEO: Big truck... go fast... up hill

- posted: 15.10.08
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/10/11/video-big-truck-go-fast-up-hill/ Filed under: Motorsports, Videos, Commercial Trucks Click above to view video after the jump For as clean and green and Earth-loving as the Europeans are, they sure do some dirty things... like throw a sooty-exhaust-belching racing semi around hairpin turns with loads of opposite lock - up an impossibly green mountain - just for a hillclimb. But hey, trucks and racing aren't illegal yet, so we say flog 'em while ya got 'em. Check out the video of Markus Boesiger, 2007's Truck Racing Champion, and his dashing diesel after the jump.[Source: StreetFire]Continue reading VIDEO: Big truck... go fast... up hillRead | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Isuzu not interested in GM's medium-duty truck operations

- posted: 29.09.08
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/09/24/isuzu-not-interested-in-gms-medium-duty-truck-operations/ Filed under: Trucks/Pickups, Commercial Trucks, GM, GMC, IsuzuIt must be pretty hard to unload an unwanted truck business these days. Just ask General Motors, which has attempted to sell its medium-duty truck operations first to Navistar and then Isuzu. Both heavy-duty diesel makers have passed on the offer. Isuzu had been rumored as a possible buyer for the unit after Navistar let the non-binding agreement pass by unsigned. Now, Isuzu President Susumu Hosoi tells Reuters, "There will be no such acquisition happening" from his company either, suggesting that the market for heavy-duty trucks has not yet hit the bottom.GM and Isuzu still have dealings together as the two companies jointly develop and build the Duramax engines that power the General's most powerful full-size trucks, SUVs and vans. This cooperation is expected to continue on as it has with neither Isuzu or GM buying out the other to gain full control of the operations.[Source: Reuters]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

International kills the CXT, MXT and RXT

- posted: 29.09.08
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/09/26/international-kills-the-cxt-mxt-and-rxt/ Filed under: Trucks/Pickups, Commercial Trucks, MilitaryAnother one bites the dust, and this time its International, that's decided to drop its line of non-commercial big rigs. Considering the tough times that automakers have been having moving traditional pickups off dealer lots and into driveways, you can imagine the problems that International must be having with its CXT, MXT and RXT consumer-grade semis. Current fuel prices alone may have been enough to bring the Internationals to a grinding halt, but the faltering economy, which has made luxury toy purchases much harder to justify, may have been the final nail in the XT's coffin. In any case, this isn't a death-blow to International, as the company didn't sell too many of these leviathans anyway, and their demise will allow the company to focus its attention back on the heavy-duty hauler segment that is its bread-and-butter, along with the military segment, which surely is more profitable than the others.[Source: Kicking Tires]Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Nissan to take on domestics with commercial truck in 2010

- posted: 29.08.08
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/08/27/nissan-to-take-on-domestics-with-commercial-truck-in-2010/ Filed under: Detroit Auto Show, Japan, Plants/Manufacturing, Commercial Trucks, NissanSensing the ripe market opportunity, Nissan will start producing various light-commercial and medium-duty trucks in 2010. The targeted segment is currently dominated by Ford and GM, where the miscellaneous cabs and frames are used to produce such vehicles as dump trucks, tow trucks, and school buses. Now, Nissan wants a piece of the pie. Larry Dominique, Nissan's VP of product planning, wouldn't disclose details right now, but he did say that a handful of new products will be needed to satisfy the new commercial truck dealers - and Nissan is more than willing to oblige. Joe Castelli, the former director of Ford's commercial trucks (and now a VP of commercial trucks at Nissan), said the Japanese automaker will be pulling from their global stable of commercial components (branded Atlas and Atleon in other markets) to quickly adapt them for the U.S. market. Nissan's official commercial truck plans will be announced in January at the Detroit Auto Show, and we'll be there to judge reactions. [Source: Automotive News, subs. req'd]  Permalink | Email this | Comments

Ford slashing F-150 customization by 90 percent

- posted: 22.08.08
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/08/18/ford-slashing-f-150-customization-by-90-percent/ Filed under: Car Buying, Economy, Sedans/Saloons, Trucks/Pickups, Plants/Manufacturing, Commercial Trucks, Hatchbacks, Ford, LincolnClick on the pic above for our high-res 2009 Ford F-150 galleryAs staggering as it may seem, the 2008 Ford F-150 pickup can be ordered in billions of different combinations. That's all going to change for 2009. In an effort to reduce complexity and cut spiraling costs in the process, Ford will be slashing the number of possible F-150 configurations by 90 percent. The automaker isn't leaving the rest of the lineup alone either. The Ford Expedition goes from 250,000 combos down to fewer than 10,000. The 2009 Lincoln MKS debuts with about 300 combinations, and the 2010 Ford Focus will offer only about 150, which is 95 percent fewer than the current model. Are you in the market for a 2009 Ford F-150 and worried that you won't be able to get it exactly the way you want? Don't fret, Ford will still offer more than 9 million combinations for next year's model, including a brown one we presume. Gallery: 2009 Ford F-150[Source: Automotive News, subs. req'd]  Permalink | Email this | Comments

Navistar not going to buy GM's medium duty truck business

- posted: 22.08.08
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/08/20/navistar-i-not-i-going-to-buy-gms-medium-duty-truck-business/ Filed under: Trucks/Pickups, Etc., Commercial Trucks, Chevrolet, GM, GMCIt's an epic poem that could have been written by Byron: you suffered a nasty breakup and met a new girl, you dated for a while, things were looking outstanding, you proposed... and then the bottom dropped out of the medium-duty truck business. We've seen it all before. And now that it's happened, Navistar has backed away from it's non-binding commitment to purchase GM's medium-duty truck operations.GM and Navistar only had a memorandum of understanding, so there appears to be no harm, no foul in Navistar getting icy feet. The brief announcement of the dissolution presents it as a mutual affair: "Due to significant marketplace and economic changes, GM and Navistar have decided not to renew the memorandum of understanding to purchase GM's medium duty truck business," but we imagine GM standing at the altar, watching its Navistar groom bolt from the church and hop in a taxi.>GM is still talking to Navistar and looking at other ways to dump find a good home for its medium duty truck business. A shame, because they make some fine vehicles.[Source: GM] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

AM General to produce wheelchair-accessible transit vehicle

- posted: 15.08.08
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/08/14/am-general-to-produce-wheelchair-accessible-transit-vehicle/ Filed under: Commercial Trucks, HUMMER, Police/Emergency, Military While General Motors looks over a stack of offers for its HUMMER brand, the fate of AM General hangs in the balance. The military contractor developed and built the original Humvee until the rights to the HUMMER name were bought by GM, who then contracted AM General to continue building the H1 (until it was discontinued) and then the Chevy Tahoe-based H2. (The Chevy Colorado-based H3, meanwhile, is built entirely by GM at its Shreveport, Louisiana plant.) With the future of its General Motors contracts uncertain, AM General has announced a new deal of another kind. Starting in 2010, the Indiana-based company will begin producing a new series of wheelchair-accessible transit vehicles for the Vehicle Production Group, LLC. Although, as VPG points out, the usual development gestation period for such vehicles is two to three years, VPG and AM General intend to get the ramp-equipped para-transit vehicle to market in less than 24 months. Over 3,500 units have already been ordered, leading VPG to project that annual production will well exceed that number, while AM General intends to use the same workforce it currently employs for the new project. As for what the para-transit vehicle will look like, no one knows, but there was word of AM General developing a new version of the Standard Taxi (see above) with a low ride height and large doors that appears as if it could easily accommodate wheel chairs. [Source: Detroit News] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments

Titan Tire ships world's first 63-inch tire

- posted: 01.08.08
http://www.autoblog.com/2008/07/31/titan-tire-ships-worlds-first-63-inch-tire/ Filed under: Etc., Tech, Commercial TrucksRemember in the first Crocodile Dundee movie when he gets mugged in New York City and Sue says "He's got a knife," and Dundee says, "That's not a knife, this is a knife," and then he pulls out a beast-killing monstrosity of a blade? Well, that's what the folks at Titan Tire are saying right now about every other -- smaller -- tire in the world. Titan has made a 63-inch rubber behemoth for use on trucks in Canada's oil sands. The stats on these rubber donuts is impressive: the 59/80R63 is the biggest production tire in the world, standing over fourteen feet tall and weighing 12,500 pounds with a load rating of 101 metric tons. It makes Titan a very appropriate name for the company, as we learned from another movie, Remember the Titans, that in Greek mythology the Titans were greater even than the gods. Now we can only hope this development will make the price of oil drop another ten dollars...[Source: Titan via Gizmag] Read | Permalink | Email this | Comments