ALL the sheetmetal is new for 2010. Its not just a face lift like the 06+ trucks were...same cab as the new 09 1500.

And yes, they will be debuted at the Chicago show next month..

I disagree with the statement that they shouldnt redesign trucks and should focus on hybrid/electric power. They arent gonna stop making trucks. It just aint gonna happen. There isnt going to be a big shift to little cars either. Id rather pay more to drive my truck than save some coin and be in one of those death-trap Smart cars. Until they come up with a good alternative, were stuck with what we have for fuel. Biodiesel is promising, but the roadblock is how to mass produce it. E85 is the biggest joke Ive seen in a long time. Lets take our food supply and turn it into ethanol and put that in our tanks. Sure our cars will run, but well all be starving so we really wont have to worry about it. Hybrids sound good, sure, but Im still not convinced. And theyve been working on electric cars for what like 30 years, and their range is still maybe 300 miles. Good luck with that...

Im 100% convinced diesel is the best route. All we need is a viable way to MASS produce it, and not affect our crops and whatnot,and well be golden...

 

Wow, ask what I thought was a simple question and get a bunch of theories of why trucks shouldn't be built. I figure to have a full size pickup until my license gets cancelled for old age or something. There is no way a little economy car is going to be able to pull a car trailer (which I would like to buy in the future - a 24 enclosed trailer that can carry a car and couple motorcycles). Everyone that is "piling on" the car companies for building big trucks need to realize the full size pickups have been at or near the top of sales. Even the Japenese car companies had brought out full size trucks. And like Strokethis said, we've been there before. I remember SS Chevelles, Road Runners, GTO's of the early 70's not being worth much more than scrap when the oil embago hit in 1974. I went through that ( sat in lines for hours to try to buy 5 or 10 gallons of gas ). I hope they build full size trucks for a long time.

 

Actually, my diesel pickup is more efficient than my friends toytoa corolla. He gets like 40 mpg and weighs 3000 lbs, I get 22 and weigh in at about 6800. He has 100 hp I have 500. My frontal area is huge compared to his, you do the math, my truck is MUCH more efficient, but he does get better mileage, becareful how you use a word. His is more economical.

 

To stay on topic, I too would like to see pictures of the next generation rams...

Sorry, I have to call you on this... The weight and frontal area do not come into consideration when calculating efficiency. Efficiency is inputs vs outputs. Don't confuse efficiency and productivity here. Our trucks are very productive but fairly inefficient when driving around unloaded.

And here is the math...

For an engine, efficiency can be defined as the ratio of work done to the amount of energy supplied to it. Consider the work needing to be done is hauling my lard butt 100 miles. That means that to move me 100 miles, that 40 mpg corolla needs 2.5 gallons of gas, and your 22mpg truck needs 4.54 gallons. Clearly the corolla is almost twice as efficient.

This all changes when the work to be done exceeds the capability of that corolla. Then the truck becomes more efficient.

 

No offense, but you live in Wyoming, our least populated state - of course a truck makes sense. Now, in downtown NY, your truck makes almost no sense. Considering we are becoming more and more of an urban nation, we need vehicles that make sense in urban environments. The big 3 largely ignored the market niche that Honda and Toyota started in by relying on big cars and trucks and now look what has happened.

I never said that trucks should no longer be produced, I just said that the big three need to meet the needs of their customers, because, as we can tell by sales volume and stock prices, without customer demand, you will cease to exist as a business. Unless, of course, the government intervenes.

 

The big 3 DID meet the needs of there customers... Everybody wanted trucks and SUV's soo.... that's what they made.... There always was cars that got good fuel economy and they barley sold.. Again, everybody wanted truck and suv's... At this point, fuel efficient cars aren't the answers to the problems... Did you sell your truck right away and buy something good on fuel? I guess not... I don't know why everybody thinks the big 3 were so bad for selling so many trucks. That's what we all drive. I don't care if they make a car that gets 200 mpg. I ain't driving it.. Let them make a diesel truck with 800 hp and 1500 lbs of torque. I'll buy 2 of them. A new one for me and one for the wife.

 

Urban Nation???? I don't think so and I feel for the USA to survive prosperously, it should become less urban (unless you were talking URBAN Meyer of the GATOR NATION! ). If people would be able to live and work in the same town and not commute for an hour or two (I did that years ago in the Detroit area) fuel would not be a big issue. It wouldn't matter much what you drive.
Detroit was meeting the wants of the general public by building what we wanted - big trucks and SUV's (if they didn't sell, Detroit would not have built them). Toyota and Nissan brought out big trucks to try to get a share of that market. Detroit has been building dependable, economical cars but for whatever resaon the general public and the journalists refuse to accept it and still feel Asian cars are the best thing since sliced bread.
Detroit will bring out more smaller cars to meet the media pressure (it doesn't happen overnight - development, tooling, assembly line setup, etc). And after a few years, they will again be "forced" to build the bigger stuff to meet demand after the panic subsides.

Anyway, a moderator might as well lock this as I would be seeing any pics of the new HD's for a while I guess.

 

WRONG....if you need to exclude the frontal area ok, but if my truck that weighs twice what a corolla weighs gets better than half, I am doing better, by a long shot. As you said CAN BE. No to mention I am driving a transfer case.

 

Do you have a clue how many millions upon millions the US governement has given toyota, and bmw, and nissan and hyndai to build plants in the USA, although they did not call it a bailout, it is the same thing!!!!