For the past 15 years, fans of smaller-than-half-ton trucks haven’t had any options at their local Mopar dealerships. That’s about to change quickly. After years of hushed whispers, Ram has revealed on an investor call that it’s bringing both a compact and a midsize truck back to America in the next four years, and they’ll both wear names that ring a bell: Rampage and Dakota.
Let’s start with the Ram Rampage, Mopar’s much-anticipated Ford Maverick rival named after the gloriously strange Dodge Rampage ute of the ’80s. The current Rampage was joint-engineered between Stellantis Brazil and Stellantis USA and entered South American production in 2023. Riding on the same platform as the current Jeep Compass, the Rampage is 1.7-inches shorter yet 1.7 inches wider than Ford’s popular compact truck, and it comes with a powertrain already homologated in other U.S.-market models.
I’m talking about the GME T4 two-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine found in the Dodge Hornet, Alfa Romeo Tonale, Jeep Compass, Jeep Wrangler, the list goes on. The current Rampage’s peak power figure of 268 horsepower is identical to the Hornet, and it even uses the familiar licensed-from-ZF 948TE nine-speed automatic transaxle.
It’s no surprise then, that Ram has confirmed that the Rampage we’ll be getting is pretty much identical to the South American model. So what’s taken so long? Well, the Chicken Tax and production capacity are both likely to blame. Back in 1965, America levied a 25 percent tariff on imported light trucks, and when you’re looking to play in a price-sensitive segment like the compact pickup truck market, adding 25 percent to the sticker price can put a model out of contention. The solution would be to build it in North America, although with the future of the USMCA agreement in doubt, building in the United States is probably the safest bet. Either way, tooling up takes time, and with plant diversions like shifting next-generation Jeep Compass production from Brampton, Canada to Belvidere, Ill., it seems like Mopar has been busy getting its ducks in a row.
The Rampage isn’t the only new addition coming to the Ram lineup. On a similar note of poorly-kept secrets, the Dakota is making a comeback. For roughly a quarter of the century, the Dakota was Mopar’s direct competitor for trucks smaller than a half-ton, and it spawned some awesome variants. The Shelby Dakota, the R/T with the 5.9-liter V8, a smaller take on the iconic Li’l Red Express. It turns out, the latest Dakota will follow in those footsteps because Ram has already announced that an SRT variant is coming.
We haven’t had a proper midsize muscle truck in donkey’s years. The last thing to fit that bill was the Chevrolet Colorado V8, and that was launched a whopping 17 years ago. Ram has the potential to do something properly awesome here, but there is one potential cause for trepidation: The company’s announced that Rampage and the Dakota will share a platform. It’s possible this is the platform called STLA ONE, and this could have some interesting ramifications.
Firstly, there’s the possibility that Ram’s midsize truck will be unibody like a Honda Ridgeline. Considering the Chevrolet Colorado, Ford Ranger, GMC Canyon, Nissan Frontier, and Toyota Tacoma are all body-on-frame, unibody construction would be a bold move. Also, with an SRT variant of the Dakota planned, what would that even look like in a unibody form factor? Stellantis’ most potent U.S.-market transverse powertrain is the Pentastar V6 and nine-speed automatic combination, and that doesn’t seem very SRT.
However, there’s also the possibility that STLA ONE is simply a bunch of platforms in a trench coat. I mean, just look at STLA Large, which allegedly underpins both the longitudinal Dodge Charger and the transverse Jeep Cherokee. Hmm. In that case, the Ram Dakota could very well feature a north-south engine layout and possibly even body-on-frame construction. It also could have commonality with a new Ramcharger midsize SUV, but more on that later.
Either way, we’ll know a whole lot more over the next few years, given how Ram plans to have both of these trucks in American dealerships by 2030. Provided they live up to expectations, a compact truck with a potent engine and a midsize truck with a high-performance SRT variant both sound like an absolute blast, and late is almost always better than never.
Top graphic image: Ram, Dodge
Rampage isn’t a Charger ute, my disappointment cannot be expressed.
short windows – high beltline? No like
2 Door, normal cab, and a long bed.
Seriously, entire auto world, is that too much to ask for these days?
We don’t all have families requiring 4 doors, and some of us would rather give up the useless back seats for more cargo room in the bed, please.
A. Yes, it is too much to ask.
B. Why? People don’t buy enough regular cabs to bother with the development and tooling
This. I just need something that will fit my long torso 6’4 frame with room for a duffel bag behind the seat. Like a Miata with a 6’6 or 7’ bed. At this point I don’t even need it to be body on frame.
But still give me a stickshift option without autostopstart.
If you are dreaming you might as well include a manual.
Stirling Archer and I endorse the name Rampage.
They could have had a rampage to beat the to market maverick. They were told a vehicle like that would sell well by multiple respected people and consultants. But were too busy drinking and chain smoking claiming they knew what Americans want because they were Italians or something. Nice to see the guy without the fog of cigarette smoke who might have a clue bring vehicles out that might actually be wanted. But they might been too deep in the ashtray to recover now. Plus their pricing still seems unhinged then you look at the dealer discounts and say ok. But it would be like a dealer to not honor their pricing. They need to radically lower their MSRPs.
The fun thing about these big Stellantis reveals is you get a new one every couple years with tantalizing but mysterious future vehicles you may or not ever see make it to production! The mystery!!!
Wait, is that a Viper under the cover in the Dodge section?
Assuming it is, engine choice will be interesting to watch. I can’t see them developing a brand new V10. However, the Hellcat would probably be enough to satisfy all but the most ardent of V10 aficionados. Personally, I’d like to see them put the most highly tuned Hurricane under that seemingly long-enough hood to keep weight down and handling up. But the Dodge bros aren’t know for wanting an elegant approach, so they would probably revolt at such a suggestion.
Believe thats the copperhead concept
Color me intrigued. The Rampage is a nice looking little truck and due to the unibody/front wheel drive construction it has more rear legroom than any midsized and small trucks currently sold in Yee Haw land. It’s also only 198 inches long, making it a full FOOT shorter than any of the body on frame compact trucks.
Mid sized and compact trucks are cool and are what probably 90% of the people buying half tons really need, but manufacturers have intentionally nerfed them to upsell folks to full sized trucks they don’t need and will never use the capability of. I’ve been screaming into the void for years that if a Colorado, Ranger, Taco, etc. had usable back seats and was reasonably efficient they’d make great family cars.
Alas, none of them are. Can this be? Stellantis just developed a new hybrid powertrain for the Cherokee that’s apparently pretty damn good and more well sorted than most initial Stellantis offerings…not to mention it has mechanical all wheel drive. Hmmmm.
Dare to dream!
So, what’s with the Dodge GLH listed on the graphic? A real hot hatch, or another small crossover?
About god damn time. The midsize truck market has been HOT for years; tacomas are basically unobtanium on the used market, people are paying upwards of 15k for used examples with 200k miles, the Colorado was also a huge success with a variety of interesting engine choices… and CRICKETS from Mopar, and I have no idea why!
The 1st gen Dakota was a HUGE success, offering midsize proportions with fullsize v8 power; they sold ~1 million of these trucks!!! It was not a full size truck, it wasn’t gigantic, but it wasn’t penalty-box small like the Ranger or S10, either. The bed length on these models was 6 or 8’! It had 4, 6, and 8 cylinder powerplants, it was nicely put together, towed more than its competitors, and it tended to be extremely reliable. It’s pretty common to see them for sale with well over 200k. In terms of major issues, it’s common for the fuel gauge to quit working, and due to depreciation, it seems like a lot of people would not do basic maintenance/change the transmission fluid, so there seems to be a perception that these things have glass transmissions. They’re wrong. It’s literally a Chrysler 727 with an overdrive, the same transmission Chrysler used in the 60s/70s on musclecars. If you’re reading this and you have an automatic, change your fluid every 60-70k. Just drain and fill it. It’s not hard to do and takes maybe 5 extra minutes. If you want to get fancy change the trans filter as well.
The 2nd gen was an EVEN BIGGER success, fantastic styling that still looks pretty good today, and even more options than the previous gen. You could get standard cab, extended cabs, and club cabs. In terms of powerplants, they offered the same magnum V6s and V8s as the first gen, but also had a 5.9 liter available in the Dakota R/T, a street oriented performance truck. While offering great performance and great looks, this generation suffered because it just wasn’t built well. It’s common to see these with HUGE GAPING HOLES of rust in the fenders, box, bumpers, just everywhere. I’m not sure what happened as the previous generation trucks hold up a lot better. The interior also took a hit; instead of quality materials like the 1st gen, it moved to more of a fischer price plastic everywhere approach, similar to a dodge neon. However, the truck was still a huge success, and sold over 1 million of these as well! Worth noting that although the 5.9 was available, the regular 318 was still a great engine that outtowed the Tacoma easily.
Then the third gen came along, I don’t know how or who approved it, but it was absolute dogshit, and looked perpetually surprised and terrible. Sales tanked because it was so fugly, here is a chart. This design was so fucking bad that it killed the Dakota imho.
I don’t get why there wasn’t a Dakota 10 years ago, the 3rd gen should have been aborted during the development process, and Chrysler would have made millions and millions of dollars during this time period.
Reading this gives me so…much…pain. The worst vehicle I’ve ever owned, by far, was a brand new 2001 Club Cab Dakota. V6, MT, and it looked fantastic in their metallic green. And then I took delivery. I agree with all your comments and I desperately wanted to love this truck. And then…
The transmission would throw itself out of 1st gear intermittently under power. Not launching from a light, just under normal acceleration. Just because Dodge, I guess. I took it in to the dealer multiple times (insert CDJR dealership joke here) and even with a tech in the car to observe they wouldn’t replace the trans or lemon law it. All kinds of other “fixes” were tried, and none worked. That was the last time I owned any CDJR product. Purchased a 2004 Tundra after selling the Dodge and that was the best truck I’ve ever owned. It was the one vehicle I regret getting rid of.
How many miles were on it? I have a sneaking suspicion most people who complain about chrysler transmissions were the same people who did not follow suggested maintenance and change the fluid/filter regularly. Did you?
When I took delivery, perhaps seven? I bought it brand new from the factory and it started having issues less than a month later.
C’mon baby!! Daddy needs a new Dakota convertible!!
Holy rap that belt/bed line is terrible. In the Dakota pictured just below, the bed rail is even with the bottom of the window which is parallel with the ground. In the stupid Rampage, the windows angle up away from the ground so the tailgate is even with halfway up the front windows! The designers need to go look at a Maverick again to understand the assignment better.
I assume we’ll be hearing about the GLH and the Viper-looking things under the Dodge banner shortly?
The Dakota had better be a F******* body on frame or the world will burn!
https://i.makeagif.com/media/4-28-2015/azQTv4.gif
I don’t think it matters as long as it’s strong AF and outtows the tacoma. If it can do fullsize truck stuff, idgaf how it’s constructed.
Amen! People clinging to BOF must secretly be Chiropractors. Being able to drive over a speed bump without getting tossed around isn’t a bad thing people.
What about that third owner who lives in the rust belt and has to try and jack this biotch up in the middle of February and the jack points have more rust holes in it than a piece of Sargentos Swiss cheese?
The classic BOF is a life saver!
Don’t live in the rust belt or get your states to stop purposely destroying your cars, roads, and bridges.
Everyone doesn’t need to suffer because some states want dump millions of pounds of salt on their roads.
It’s a conspiracy between the big three and big salt (big chlorine) to make more money.
Collusion man!
You can’t help where you’re born and you can’t leave until you can afford to.
One can’t help where they are born – that is true. One can leave for greener pastures. I left Michigan at 22 two weeks after getting married with about $1,000 to my name. It turned out OK.
That said – after moving West it became very clear that salt is not required to deal with snow.
You miss the point.
A solid frame will last longer and take more abuse than a unibody will. You don’t have to worry about where you live as much as you would owning a unibody.
Plus Tim said he wants to go after Tacoma. You can’t do that with a Ram Ridgeline.
Unibody is fine – they will more than last the life of the vehicle just as they have been doing for decades. Unibodies from the 80’s still alive and kicking around here.
As to needed BOF – people said the Maverick would fail because it is unibody. Instead Ford had to expand production capacity 3 times to keep up with demand.
Sometimes doing something different pays off.
I for one, am not surprised based solely on the fact I saw one parked on the street in Detroit back in January.
How did it look?
Exactly like in the pictures above. Dimensionally, I would slot it between the Maverick and the Ranger. Not as truck-like as the Ranger, but not as car-based as the Maverick. Honestly, I think it could do well here.
That does sound like a winner.
The betting man in me would put money on the Hurricane4 EVO being bolted up to the 948TE as the new most potent variant to debut here in the new “GLH”, as I’m under the impression (or, really, just guessing) that the Hornet GLH was supposed to get that variant.
Now, for the Dakota? That same betting man would say the Dakota will be a Charger on the Cherokee platform truck, which means hey, even if it’s unibody, they could throw the Hemi in it, though the Hurricane would be 10 trillion times cooler.
Pampage!!!
Oh wait, you said Rampage?
There goes my interest.
sploosh
2030? Come on, Dodge. By then if you’re bringing out an old Brazilian truck it will be up against the 2nd gen Maverick at that point.
something tells me they will merge the North American introduction with a heavy refresh or 2nd gen of the current truck. But they can’t come soon enough.Wasn’t the Dakota going to come around 2027 last time it was announced?
Wait I thought the EV truck was going to be the RAM charger and that got cancelled? Or are they calling something else a Ramcharger now? From the picture it looks like it will be a 4dr SUV now. So maybe it is just going to be a RAM version of the Wagoneer or Recon?
I didn’t realize it was so close in size to a Maverick. The high belt line makes it appear much larger. Not a fan of how tiny the windows seem to be either. Topspeed.com has a side-by-side comparison, not sure if they’re scaled exactly right, but it’s closer to the Maverick than I pictured: https://static0.topspeedimages.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/ram-rampage-vs-ford-maverick.jpg
It’s somehow both more bloated than the Mav while also having a smaller bed.
Yeah the proportions are a bit screwey. They really raked the windshield back, forcing the rest of the cab rearward and taking up some of the bed space. At least that’s the impression I get.
The Maverick is also not a terribly small vehicle in the scheme of things, since its about the same size as a Chrysler 300
They went hard on the “big angry” look.
Are the Arrow and Arrow cross just low quality versions of toyotas or hondas that people who buy patriotism over quality going to buy because the Journey and Caliber are not around?
For when you need something that’s on the lot but the RAV4 has been sold out for months.
They need to go back and brand these new trucks as DODGE and not RAM. Like the Great Flying Spaghetti Monster intended.
Seriously, if they call it the RAM Rampage, that is just dumb. A real low-IQ move.
The RAM brand is a failed experiment for Stellantis and they need to acknowledge that.
They should just call it the Ram Page for simplicity.
Or Pampage https://youtu.be/vgSI8-r37O0?si=8s5s8wMZZyYi9lY4
At this point, it’s just Spampage.
“Introducing the 2030 RAM Hampage and RAM Hamcharger!
Complete w/ ham bumpers, ham memory storage, and HAM radio!”
Agreed the RAM brand is so dumb. Because technically the trucks are even RAM Ram 1500 (or what ever x500 you get) now you are going to have a RAM rampage and RAM Ramcharger
It appeals to people who are stuck in a middle school mindset.
Former Secretary of the United Nations Boutros Boutros-Ghali has entered the chat.
David Letterman used to sneak that guy’s name into his show occasionally for gits and shiggles when Boutros-Ghali was holding that office.
Everyone says this but no one has data showing the name change was a negative, just their opinion that it was bad. The name change happened in 2009; if you look at annual sales data for RAM, from 2010-2019 sales increased YOY every single year. That’s pretty strong evidence it didn’t matter much if at all.
I’m not entirely sure but I assume it was done to game CAFE standards somehow.
But you can’t look at just Ram. You need to look at FCA and eventually Stellantis as a whole. Because those Ram sales may have increased every year, what was the cost to Dodge? Plus, what was the cost in the branding change, and what is the cost in continuing to advertise with Dodge, but having far less sales to spread it out over?
I’m not saying it’s a massive drastic failure/cost. But it should be obvious that they created a new name, had to do some work for it, Dodge suffered as a result, and overall, everything else is pretty much the same. Which, if it’s the same, why not just avoid the hassle.
I still call them Dodge Rams just like I still call the Mazda MX-5 a Miata.
Exactly. It’s also the same reason why everyone still calls that pastry shop “Dunkin’ Donuts” despite having axed half of their name officially.
It was done because as you may recall 2009 Chrysler was not exactly a financial powerhouse and there was real fear that they would need to spin off/save the profitable parts and jettison or close the underperformers. Separating profitable Ram from laggard Dodge was done for primarily that reason.
They’ve already greenlighted Ram Ramcharger, the high point of dumb naming ideas, so they’re not going to see a problem with Ram Rampage.
I’m more interested in the proposed GLH.
I’m wondering if it’s just the Hornet GLH McAlear announced last year with the Grand Cherokee’s new 326hp 4 banger (that I’m also figuring was actually supposed to debut in said Hornet GLH)?
On the pic “Our modular strategy” did somebody yell “WE NEED AI”. So they added it to the left.
It’s all just so incredibly lazy.
It looked like corporate nonsense with no real info on it to me, so I completely skipped over that image.
Turns out I was right.
And yes, in the review of the slide deck before the call, some executive looked up from ChatGPT long enough to go, “But can’t we integrate AI throughout this process to capitalize our improvement metrics across a new paradigm of growth and mindset shifting disruption?”
And some low level employee said, “sure, fuck it. I don’t care.” And slapped that arrow on there.
Yeah yeah, small trucks, whatever, the real question is WTF is that unnamed “SRT Variant” in the bottom left of the Dodge section?
Dodge Viper Redeye Hellcat Thunder Tiger Rumble Bee Extreme + AI
I think a modification to incorporate some more heritage:
Dodge Viper Redeye Hellcat Demon Scat Pack Rumble Bee GLH +AI Pro
Plus, lets talk about the other models showing “SRT Variant Planned”:
Nice…
1500 was unveiled yesterday, but the Jeeps have my attention too.
I was wondering if the Rumble
ButtBee was it. Also just noticed Dakota has it too.