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Alert readers will recall your humble author’s fleet currently includes a bright red, eight-year-old Ram 1500 Sport 4×4. There is nothing wrong with this truck. It has an acceptable level of technology, hauls our 8,600lb RV trailer without complaint, has never once left me stranded, and is mechanically similar to a new Ram 1500. Plus, despite such luxuries as heated and ventilated leather seats, it is agricultural enough to be fixed with a hammer.
So why does the never-ending parade of Ram special editions make me want to head to my local dealer and investigate financing options? Because FCA knows their customers, that’s why — and with this Hydro Blue Sport, it proves they know them well.
Ram owners are generally not a bunch of wallflowers (that goes for most truck owners, I think). One does not sign the note on a machine purposefully styled to look like a Freightliner if they intend to blend into the crowd. Ram knows this.
With the new Ram 1500 still a couple of months from dropping its camouflage at the Detroit show in January, and Ford’s turbocharged aluminium wonder dominating the sales charts, FCA knows it needs to keep fans interested in the current model. Slathering its most aggro models with high-impact paint colors is a cheap way to do the trick.
You’ll probably remember the Sublime Ram from a few months ago, along with the Copper Sport and Ignition Orange specials. The Hydro Blue Sport shown here sings from the same hymnbook: bold paint, gonzo rims, color-matched interior frippery. There is one new verse this time around, in the form of a new grille snatched from the high-lux Rams and covered with the outrageous blue paint. I think this detail is fabulous.
See what I mean? They hooked me again. Ram knows there are plenty of customers out there just like me – someone who’s enjoying their existing truck and kinda-sorta-maybe interested in a new one but not wanting to pull the trigger on a machine that’s fundamentally identical to the one they already have. Then, BAM, a buzz model appears with a bright color and a unique grille and suddenly we find ourselves unable to wait for the upcoming 2019 model.
It’s a smart play. It’s also a smart play to keep the machine churning after the new-style Ram debuts in January. If the spy shots are any indication, more than a few existing owners will pick up a new copy of the old one before it is gone for good, although I do think Ram will pull in some conquest buyers after it flosses the Freightliner out of its teeth.
As for this special edition, standard features on the Hydro Blue Sport include a black-decaled Sport performance hood, new-for-2018 body-colored Sport grille with black billet inserts and black R-A-M letter badge, as well as flat black exterior body-side and tailgate badging. Black bezel projector headlamps and LED tail lights complement look.
Like most other buzz models, the Hydro Blue Sport trim will be available on Ram trucks in a crew cab, short-bed body style equipped with the 5.7-liter HEMI V8. Both two- and four-wheel-drive versions are offered. The two-by gets huge 22-inch rims, while the four-wheeler settles for a set of 20-inch dubs.
The whole package is limited to 2,000 trucks in the American market and will go on sale sometime this month. In the meantime, I’m setting the lead image on this story as my laptop wallpaper.
Go ahead and make fun of Fiat Chrysler for all these special editions if you want, but you can’t argue that Ram knows what its customers want.
[Images: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles]
Nice looking truck, but I’m still not sold on that pig-snout grill.
Yeah same here. I don’t like the nostrils. Also the headlights look like aftermarket ones sold at a Pep Boys or something.
Cross hair grill for life.
Agree.
I agree, I like almost all the truck but the grille and emphasizing that grille is no bueno.
I agree,why fix what’s not broken. It’s like putting granny pants on a hot stripper.
You’re right. Ram does know what it’s customers want: $10,000 cash on the hood and 0% financing for 84 months. Granted, this desire is not unique to Ram customers, but it is how Ram sells trucks.
Say dealer-botched Focus RS goes SUV. I think there was a Prius Sentra SER? Meh maybe darker metallic.
Something the Blue Genie would drive I am sure.
(With apologize to “This is Spinal Tap”)
There’s something about this that’s so blue, it’s like how much more blue could this be? And the answer is none. None more blue.
First off,I’m not the demographic for this truck. The color is bold and interesting, but the rest isn’t. The vent inserts in the interior look like something from the “dude/bro” aisle at the parts store or Ebay (though the door panels aren’t bad) and the pig nostril grille is ugly.
Others have said it. Cash and free money financing moves these trucks, as does people amused by having the biggest shiniest object. I wouldn’t mind a simpler RAM with the Ecodiesel motor, but these special editions do nothing for me.
Can you get Mopar(TM) blue truck nuts for it?
You really need to tell the world you have blue balls?
Matt, watched your video…Wow, the rust on that thing! There can’t be a better torture test anywhere than to drive a vehicle for a while in the land of snow and salt.
Oh, goodie.
Still don’t know why I would ever choose 4 doors over a regular cab long bed. If I didn’t need the freaking bed, I’d buy a [email protected]#$ing car.
Because trucks are ONLY good at hauling things in their beds? Not towing, not going off-road, NOTHING but hauling cargo in the bed?
I still dislike the pig nostrils.
I love the pic of the guy looking at the girl, I have the same issue with cars myself…
I’ll go against the grain here and state that I would buy one, if I were in the market for such a beast. Sadly, for FCA, I’m not.
Really pig snouts. I’m impressed with your visual imaginations. The Subaru vagina I could see but not the pig snout and I’ve seen a few. Nobody has mentioned Smurfs. That’s what I see, blue Smurfs. Still, I like it.
Smurf truck! And the sales go down the tubes.
Ugh :-(
I don’t know what “an acceptable level of technology” is anymore. Is it electric power steering, direct fuel injection, and seventeen airbags? Or is it a touch screen blue tooth radio with i-Phone sinking automatic navigation that orders your groceries on Amazon and has a snarky personality?