In With the Old: FCA Plans to Ram Its Way Through 2018

Matthew Guy
by Matthew Guy

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know Ram will drop a new half-ton pickup at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit in January. It’s a big gamble redesigning a cash cow, lest the truck faithful turn up their noses at the new styling.

In the past, manufacturers have hedged their bets by simultaneously producing both the new and old styles, such as when Ford offered both the F-150 and F-150 Heritage in 2004. Now, Ram appears poised to deploy the same strategy in 2018, according to bossman Sergio Marchionne.

During last week’s FCA third-quarter earnings call, Marchionne disclosed that the company will continue making the current Ram through the calendar year 2018. Ram will have the manufacturing capacity to do so thanks to a retooled Sterling Heights Assembly Plant.

Sterling Heights will churn out the new Ram 1500 while the current bodystyle soldiers on at nearby Warren Truck Assembly Plant. More trucks on the ground is rarely a bad thing, as dealers understandably enjoy selling the high-margin machines. Plus, the extra capacity could give Ram a chance to knock Chevrolet’s Silverado down to third place on the sales charts.

Year-to-date, the entire light truck market is up 5.2 percent, with the Ram selling 374,901 pickups and the Silverado line finding 418,590 homes. Even with a new Ram on the horizon, that sales number represents a 3.8 percent increase over the same timeframe last year.

“My expectation is that we’ll run the old installation — and at least for the whole of 2018,” Marchionne said during last week’s earnings call. “Production capacity is confirmed, so it’s up to us to decide how long we run it.”

This author remembers it working at a Ford store in 2004, when we had the option of selling customers either the new F-150 or the F-150 Heritage Edition. Shoppers who wanted the latest and greatest were eagerly plugged into the new-style pickup, while those looking for value were shown the older model. Truth be told, it worked really well. July 2004 was the best month in our store’s history.

In most cases, manufacturers are able to offer the older version at a cut-rate price because development and tooling costs have been recouped ages ago. In Ram’s case, this will likely result in FCA initially cranking out top-dollar trims of the new truck to pad their bottom line and maximize transaction prices. The old style will be able to capture the lower-priced end of the market by offering heavier incentives without damaging the market value of the new truck. It’s a shrewd strategy, if the manufacturing capacity exists (and for Ram, it does).

If I occupied the manager’s chair at a Ram dealer, I’d be making damn sure my sales staff were strongly suggesting to customers considering a Colorado or Canyon that they can get a much bigger truck for similar money if they buy an old-style Ram. This is in addition to capturing a few brand loyal customers who are not cottoning to the new bodywork.

[Image: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles]

Matthew Guy
Matthew Guy

Matthew buys, sells, fixes, & races cars. As a human index of auto & auction knowledge, he is fond of making money and offering loud opinions.

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  • Indi500fan Indi500fan on Oct 31, 2017

    I think most of this is so they don't have to re-tool the plants simultaneously, which makes a lot of sense. I hope on the new one they fix the rust problem on the bed (above the rear wheel openings). There are so many nice looking Rams around here with that part rusted out way before anywhere else on the body - and I'm not even in the true Great Lakes salt belt.

    • True_Blue True_Blue on Oct 31, 2017

      That seems to be the only place they rot... but wow, do they rot horrendously from that area. Like 4"-6" of steel missing.

  • True_Blue True_Blue on Oct 31, 2017

    I want to commend the author for making a great case to consider the newer Ram, with that selected photo. Lord above is that an awful looking example. Highlighter green with almost-black wheels... and are those headlights factory? They look like the Amazon specials for $200 and free shipping.

  • Wolfwagen Is it me or have auto shows just turned to meh? To me, there isn't much excitement anymore. it's like we have hit a second malaise era. Every new vehicle is some cookie-cutter CUV. No cutting-edge designs. No talk of any great powertrains, or technological achievements. It's sort of expected with the push to EVs but there is no news on that front either. No new battery tech, no new charging tech. Nothing.
  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
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