2020 Ram 3500 Laramie Longhorn on 2040-cars

Auto blog

China's Great Wall confirms its interest — in Jeep, or all of FCA

HONG KONG/SHANGHAI — Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor reiterated its interest in Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV on Tuesday, but said it had not held talks or signed a deal with executives at the Italian-American automaker. China's largest sport utility vehicle manufacturer made a direct overture to Fiat Chrysler on Monday, with an official saying the company was interested in all or part of FCA, owner of the Jeep and Ram truck brands. Automotive News first reported the news, quoting Great Wall Motor President Wang Fengying as saying she planned to contact FCA to discuss acquiring the Jeep brand specifically. Those comments sent FCA shares higher but also raised questions over the ability of China's seventh-largest automaker by sales to buy larger Western rival FCA, or even Jeep, which some analysts value at as much as one-and-a-half times FCA. Great Wall sought to dampen speculation on Tuesday. It confirmed it had studied Fiat Chrysler, but said there was "no concrete progress so far" and "substantial uncertainty" over whether it would eventually bid. "The company has not built any relationship with the directors of FCA nor has the company entered into any discussion or signed any agreements with any officer of FCA so far," the company said in an English-language stock exchange filing. It did not give further detail. Fiat Chrysler stock dipped on the statement on Tuesday. Great Wall said trading in its Shanghai-listed shares would resume on Wednesday after having been suspended. Fiat Chrysler declined to comment on Great Wall's statement. On Monday, it said it had not been approached and was fully committed to implementing its current business plan. FLUSHING OUT RIVALS? Great Wall Motor, which was early to spot China's love of SUVs, had revenue of $14.8 billion last year and sold 1.07 million vehicles - but that compares with FCA's 2016 revenue of 111 billion euros ($130.6 billion). Analysts said Great Wall would need to raise both debt and equity to complete any deal, meaning its chairman Wei Jianjun could lose majority control. One possible scenario, according to analysts at Jefferies, would see Wei keeping a roughly 30 percent stake, while Great Wall would raise $10-$14 billion in debt and $10 billion in equity - hefty for a group currently worth just $16 billion. Ultimately, politics could be the clincher.

Ram boosts Heavy Duty truck claims for 2015 [w/video]

The heavy-duty truck segment boasts some of the tightest competition of any automotive niche in the US. Being able to tout just one best-in-class figure can be a marketing advantage over competitors, and Ram Trucks is adding one more accolade to its tally with a powertrain update for the 2015 Ram 2500 and 3500 Heavy Duty pickups. Ram now claims best-in-class ratings for torque, towing and payload, depending on configuration.
The major change comes for the 3500 HD with a boost in torque for its Cummins 6.7-liter, inline-six diesel engine. It now produces a meaty 865 pound-feet of twist, a boost of 15 lb-ft, which is the best figure in its segment, according to the company. To eek out the extra power, the mill has more aggressive fuel delivery, and the turbo has been recalibrated. Of course, more grunt would be meaningless if drivers couldn't do anything with it, and the tweaks help allow payload to grow to 7,390 pounds, up from a rating of 7,320 pounds last year. The max towing rating remains unchanged at 30,000 pounds, though.
The rest of the powertrain lineup carries over from last year. The base HD mill is the gasoline-fed 5.7-liter V8 with 383 hp and 400 lb-ft and a six-speed automatic. The next step up is a 6.4-liter V8 with 410 hp and 429 lb-ft. There are also three trims of the 6.7-liter Cummins diesel starting with 350 hp and 660 lb-ft with a six-speed manual gearbox. If buyers opt for a the 68RFE six-speed auto, they get 370 hp and 800 lb-ft. Finally, there's the updated, top-rung version with 385 hp and 865 lb-ft with an Aisin six-speed automatic transmission.

2019 Ram 1500: Everything we know

We're not too far away from the sheet being pulled off the 2019 Ram 1500. But over and over, we've had spy shots come in revealing much of the truck before hand. The latest ones have given us a very clear look at the truck's new grille, which boldly does away with the signature crosshair grille. The main iteration we've seen is the one above with the "RAM" logo in the center flanked by split chrome bars. Chrome is used extensively elsewhere, too. The traditional Ram logo has also probably been binned, at least on the exterior, in favor of the broad Ram script currently seen on the Ram Rebel, Laramie Longhorn and Limited trims. Indeed, it seems like a change that the brand has subtly been trying to get its customers ready for, as a quick trip to the company website will show a greater reliance on those trim levels to visually represent each Ram model (including the heavy-duty 2500 and 3500). View 3 Photos Now, there will likely continue to be multiple grille options available as there is today to at least differentiate luxury and off-road models. In the renderings above, we show a version of the grille without those chrome bars. The rest of the truck in the rendering is based on what we saw when some gusty weather unofficially revealed the Ram 1500 to a spy photographer, as seen in the gallery below. View 18 Photos As for everything else we know about the 2019 Ram 1500 ... The Interior View 8 Photos We got pretty good shots of the new Ram interior a few weeks ago. There will be a huge, vertically oriented touchscreen available, possibly with updated UConnect interface software, flanked by hard buttons for the climate control system. A volume knob and redundant multi-purpose control knob will remain, as will the rotary transmission selector. New toggle switches below will be dedicated to various vehicle controls, and we would assume would remain in place throughout the trim level range. Smaller touchscreens will almost certainly be found on lower trims with a traditional array of climate controls between them and the toggles. It'll be steel View 5 Photos An intrepid magnet-wielding spy photographer back in August examined a 2019 Ram test mule's body panels and discovered the majority of them are steel. The hood and tailgate are aluminum, however. There will be a split tailgate option View 18 Photos Speaking of that tailgate, spy photos have shown that it will be available with a split, barn-door-style tailgate option.