Ram’s Officially Bringing Back The Rampage And Dakota In A Bid For Smaller Truck Domination

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