It has now been 2 and a half months since the 2019 Ram 1500 has debuted and one thing is for sure, there are a lot of differing opinions on the design. Designers have said that they took a lot of design inspiration from the 1994 (BR) Ram trucks while modernizing them for todays market. One element taken from the 1994 Ram is the 3 sided wheel wells.
These design boards were used for inspiration while designing the 2019 Ram 1500, you can see they were taking inspiration from a lot of past Ram trucks as well as the TRX concept.
Ram had a lot of history to draw on as they have been making trucks for over 100 years. If you look at the top right corner you will see ’18 DT. DT is the internal designation for the all new Ram 1500 and 18 denotes the model year. The all new truck was actually going to be released for the 2018 model year but the move to the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant and work required on the plant to get ready for the all new Ram pushed that date back a bit. This also explains why Ram was ready to go with the 2019 Ram 1500 as quickly as they were, the truck was ready they were just waiting for the plant to be ready for the truck.
A couple forum members have mentioned quite a few times about the new Rams similarities to the second generation Dakota. This photo really illustrates that point. The way the hood meets up with the front fenders, the way the front fender flares into the front door as well as the sculpting along the lower 1/3 of the body side are all very similar. Also similar are the shape of the wheel wells, the way the box side flares over the rear wheel wells and the uptick at the rear of the door glass. The 2019 Ram 1500 also now has 6 lug wheels as the second generation Dakota did.
A common complaint from people that don’t like the 2019 Ram 1500’s design has to do with the headlight positioning on the body. It is important to note that this is due to new crash test standards designers have to move the headlights up higher on the body. Headlight performance will now be part of the crash test ratings and moving the lights up higher helps to improve illumination on the road.
Overall the new Ram 1500 has a very clean look, that really must be seen in person to get an idea of how imposing it really is. As with any new design there are people that will love it right away and people that will hate it right away. We feel that the design will grow on a lot of the detractors as they start to see more of these trucks on the road, it has happened with every other vehicle launch and it will happen again with this one.
Stay tuned to 5thGenRams for all the latest information on the all new Ram 1500 as well as the upcoming HD’s. Make sure you check out our forums section and join in on the discussion.
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