WaPo's Warren Brown: New Dodge Ram Too Thirsty
Dodge has a new full-size Ram pickup on the streets. Well, at the dealership. Anyway, the fact that it’s a gas hog– albeit a slightly more efficient gas hog– won’t come as much of a surprise to anyone familiar with the breed. Of course, a Washington Post staffer is hardly likely to be a member of the genre’s core clientele– or at least admit as much to his chardonnay swilling compatriots. And yet the WaPo’s nominal car critic Warren Brown feels compelled– compelled I tell you– to devote virtually his entire Ram review to the behemoth’s fuel economy, or lack thereof. “Our 2009-model test truck came with the short cargo bed — five feet and seven inches long. Had we gotten one with the long cargo bed, eight feet, we could have distributed our cargo over a longer surface, thereby reducing its height. We would have gotten better mileage that way… It usually takes more energy to drive four wheels than it does to drive two, especially if much of that driving will be uphill, which was the case on the New York end of our trip. The upshot is that we burned regular gasoline at the disappointing rate of 15 miles per gallon on the highway, an egregious consumption accompanied by a total $225 fuel bill for a round trip of nearly 700 miles.” On the positive side, “Chrysler is whacking as much as 40 percent off Rams’ list price.” Uh, that’s LAST YEAR’S Ram, Warren. Well, for now.
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frame front = flame front
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Yep I know all that except I missed the fact that it is a diesel. Thanks for setting me straight. Yes, was in the Navy. We had six very large diesels on board our ship. Two for generating electricity (were "mine" as an electrician and four for racing submarines.