Really good friends never fail to lend you their pickup trucks. For most folks, owning a pickup is like owning a Ditch Witch: It's a little too big and a little too single-purpose to keep around between jobs. Better to borrow.
A year ago in January, our good friends at DaimlerChrysler lent us a red 2002 Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab 4x4 SLT Plus Sport for a few days. We matched it against a Chevy Silverado, a Ford F-150, and a Toyota Tundra in a comparison test ("American Iron," April 2002). At the end, enough editors were singing psalms in praise of the Ram's larger cabin and four full doors that it was awarded the long-stems.
Shortly after that, our good friends at DaimlerChrysler dropped off a virtually identical Dodge Ram 1500 Quad Cab. "Keep it a little longer," they said. "How's 40,000 miles sound?"
Suddenly, the Ram we were so fond of borrowing was ours, at least for a year or so. Uh-oh. What do you do with a pickup if you don't chop wood for a living or tow a boat with enough metal flake in the gel coat to divert incoming Scuds? After a few days, the psalm singing tailed off, and some earnest brow furrowing began.
More on that in a minute.
Here's what the Ram ran up in options costs. A Customer Preferred package that bundled precisely 29 separate items engorged the $27,450 base price for the Quad Cab 4x4 SLT Plus Sport by $6535. The goodies included leather power seats with heaters, anti-lock brakes, power windows and locks, overhead and folding center consoles, and a single-CD player. Choosing the Sport version added $1185 to the base price, which added gleaming 20-inch aluminum alloy wheels, 275/60SR-20 Goodyear Wrangler HPs, a limited-slip 3.92:1 rear diff, and a body-color grille and rear bumper. The engine option with the biggest bores available, the 245-hp, 5.9-liter V-8 (and you must accept the four-speed automatic that comes attached to it), added another $1570. We also got a trailer-towing package for $465. Finally, for $100 we substituted the CD player for a nicer one paired with a cassette slot. The result: a Texas-size truck at a Switzerland-size price of $36,120.
Over 40,000 miles, the Ram pitted five times for scheduled oil changes and maintenance and twice for surprises that were covered under warranty. The cost for each oil run was just under $30, except for the 30,000-mile service. It ran up $149 in receipts, thanks to an extra air cleaner, new spark plugs, and inspection fettling.
All in all, it cost a frugal $266 to keep the Ram lubed and tuned over the long haul here, the least of any full-size pickup we've sampled in the past six years. An '01 GMC Sierra C3 AWD (June 2002) required another $117, a '99 Chevy Silverado LT K1500 (July 2000) needed $44 more, and a '97 Ford F-150 XLT 4x4 (September 1997) added an additional $161 to the dealer's service gross.
We feverishly dreamed up tasks to keep the Ram rambling. Engineers bobbed the new Ram's tail by three precious inches to make the cabin larger, but the bed was still big enough to handle most assignments. At different times, wood chips, a Ford flathead V-8, a rowboat, and several motorcycles rode on the Ram's back porch.
It's always satisfying to see happy customers drive off the lot in their new Locklear Dodge, Chrysler or Jeep automobile. But the memory of the customer I helped last week reminds me that cars and trucks are a lot more than cars and trucks.
