Ram Ladles New Options and Packages on Its 1500 and HD Pickups

Matthew Guy
by Matthew Guy

If there’s one thing the lads at Ram enjoy more than making torque, it’s making new trim variants for its various lines of pickup trucks. The old Ram 1500 Classic has enjoyed countless special trims during its long life, including a few colors which your extroverted author found to be quite fetching (Ignition Orange and Sublime, anyone?).

Now, the marketing arm of the company is applying similar treatments to the new Ram 1500. In addition to a Night Edition, which slathers the grille and other addenda in inky paint, the off-road focused Rebel gets a fresh trim as well.

Look and laugh at these paint-and-wallpaper editions all you want, but the simple fact is that the company wouldn’t be creating them if they didn’t make bank. Massive bank, actually. Truck owners are always looking for a way to either stand out from — or one-up — their neighbors; packages like these are an easy way for Ram (or any manufacturer) to juice sales. This helps explain why Ram has overtaken Chevy for the number two spot in American pickup volume.

If you’re looking for specifics, the Ram 1500 Night Edition, available on Big Horn and Laramie models, will have its grille, badges, and wheels all dipped in black paint. Its headlamps and taillights feature dark bezels. A similar Black Appearance Group shows up on the Rebel with similar styling supplements.

Rebel also gets new standard kit for 2020 including the likes of a power tailgate, wireless charging, and heated rear seats. An optional Safety Group, not previously available on Rebel, adds adaptive cruise control, forward collision warning, and lane departure klaxons.

Not to be left out, the beefcake Ram Heavy Duty also gets a yaffle of new items for 2020. Lane keeping and adaptive steering is now available across the board, much to the delight of fleet buyers across the nation. Blind-spot monitoring now covers the trailer and, speaking of hauling, Ram will now offer trailer tire pressure monitoring on all trims. In a response to GM’s camera-fest on its trucks, Ram HD’s auxiliary cam system now supports two different units. Crew Cab models with an 8-foot bed will also now have a huge 50-gallon fuel tank, providing a theoretical bladder-busting cruising range of over 1,000 miles.

Ram also stirred the paint pot, now listing a tasty Hydro Blue and Olive Green on both light- and heavy-duty models. RV Match Walnut Brown will also show up on 1500-grade trucks, an option at which — again — most will chuckle. What those scofflaws fail to realize is that most RV owners are flush with cash and would like nothing more than their truck to match their trailer.

Look for all these options, save for the Olive Green, sooner rather than later at your Ram store.

[Images: 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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  • Kkop Kkop on Sep 04, 2019

    The cool colors only come out near the end of a model run. I personally loved the lime green/black and orange/black paint on the 'Classic'. - if those came on the current model I'd be tempted to trade.

  • 427Cobra 427Cobra on Sep 04, 2019

    Are they going to offer a factory-available urinal to go with those 50 gallon tanks? Never knew so many people were averse to gas stations. I can see if you're in a remote location on a ranch or something, but typically, they'd have their own fueling systems anyways. As for the current trend of color-matched bumpers/grills... whatever. I'll stick with chrome... it's FAR more durable. Generational thang, I guess... like black wheels. Reminds me of high school, when we'd pop the hubcaps off & paint the rims black to look "tough"... what comes around goes around!

    • See 1 previous
    • Jack4x Jack4x on Sep 04, 2019

      The big gas tanks come in real handy when towing heavy and single digit MPG are not out of the question. The only downside is I've rediscovered the joy of $100 credit card limits at the pump that I remember so fondly from 2008 and 2011. At least this time I'm getting 40 gallons or so for my trouble.

  • 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.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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