Now that the 2019 Ram 1500 has been shown
At the North American International Autoshow and been seen driving on city streets, one question that keeps coming up is where is the 2019 Ram regular cab? Here’s the deal.
A tale of 3 production plants
The 4th Generation Ram 1500 Crew and Quad Cabs “DS” are built at Warren Truck, which has been building trucks since 1938 with production for the all new Ram 1500 moving to another plant, just down the road.
The 2019 Ram 1500 Crew and Quad Cabs “DT” recently started production at the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant (SHAP). The plant was recently overhauled to build the 2015 Chrysler 200. After production of the Chrysler 200 ended SHAP went through a $1.48 billion re-tooling to build the all new 2019 Ram 1500. This also added 700 Jobs in the process. SHAP is a much more modern plant than Warren Truck and is also capable of building more trucks than Warren Truck which has been running at max capacity.
So, what does all of this have to do with the 2019 Ram regular cab?
As I mentioned above the 4th Generation Quad and Crew Cab 1500’s are built at the Warren Truck plant. Regular cabs and HD trucks are built in Saltillo, Mexico. Warren Truck is going to continue to build the 4th Generation Ram 1500 Crew and Quad Cabs which will be labeled as the Ram Classic, until production at SHAP gets going full steam to fill Crew and Quad Cab inventory. At that time Warren Truck will shut down for 6 to 8 months and undergo a $1 billion update as it is currently the oldest and most outdated FCA plant. As all of this is going on Saltillo Truck will continue to build the HD trucks as well as the Ram “DS” regular cab. For 2020 the all new Ram 1500 regular cab will debut on the 5th Generation “DT” platform, these trucks will also be built at SHAP as they should have capacity by then.
What happens next?
After the Warren Truck renovation is complete they will start building the “DT” Ram 1500 based Jeep Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer for model year 2020. After Wagoneer and Grand Wagoneer production gets underway Ram HD production in Saltillo, Mexico will shut down and Warren Truck will start building the 5th Generation Ram HD’s for model year 2021. That will complete the plant shuffling, have all variations of the 5th Generation Ram on the road and bring all Ram 1500 and HD production into the United States. As for the Saltillo plant, Sergio Marchionne mentioned a metric ton (read midsize) pickup but that is not yet confirmed or even known if it would come to the United States and Canada even if a midsize was built.
At least we know it’s coming. I really don’t like or need a 4-door pickup and have been shopping recently. A simple 2-door with an 8-foot bed will be fine…
I have purchased ram 1500 Sport reg. cab 4X4 trucks for my last 6 trucks and I’m beside myself because it is time for me to buy another new Sport and guess what they don’t make them for 2019. How Ram can decide to stop building the best looking truck on the road is disappointing. I consider myself to be a loyal Ram 1500 customer and I can’t believe I’m the only one that feels this way.
I own an F150 RSB and agree that the Ram RC looks the best of the three and even the previous Chevy looks better in that configuration than my F150 (but now the latter builds only LB in the new design). My decision was based more on the total package of a truck back in 2015 and mine looks alot better than a Pontiac Aztec and Nissan Cube (thank god for poor styling of some vehicles).
Ford let me choose a small twin turbo with 375 ft-lb torque and 26 mpg estimate on the highway in the least-priced truck for only $800 above base price. I’d previously owned a turbo diesel car and was hooked on the benefits of turbo charging but discouraged with state of diesel tech in the U.S. I added chrome package and first convenience package for power glass, doors and cruise (would have preferred Sport or plain black but too good a deal on a chrome package already on a dealer lot) and got off the lot under $28K. Due to the fact, that I chose a small RCSB with 3.31 gearing and regular wheels, I’m also able to achieve much better than expected mpg from a gas turbo engine in a full size truck where most owners average only around 18 according to fuelly website data. I took a chance on that; was hoping I’d average at least 21 due to how everyone stated mpg was overrated but knew my 4200 pound light-weight truck would have to help some. I’ve gotten 24.1 mpg lifetime with an estimate of 19/26/22, and it can be a rocket ship when I need it too; much better versus the estimate than any full size I’ve owned since a 1989 F150 with the straight 6 and manual 5.
But I admit the Ram makes a sweet looking RC, and in the new design, it’ll have all the new refinement enhancements, and if they don’t go super cheap/ugly on regular cab grills and such. Hope they bring a 3.0 I6 turbo by then as is rumored as a base engine. It’d be the best pickup choice on the market especially if that new I6 is the base engine at a base price connected to the 8-speed.
The Ram Classic is still being built and can probably be had very cheaply if you can live with an old design; but does not have the eTorque for either engine, either standard or as an option I don’t think. Not sure if it can be had in Sport. You’ve probably looked at that though. My son and a co-worker have a 2013 and a 2018, respectively; both all black, RCSB. They look exactly the same, but the 2018 is a Penstar and the 2013, a Hemi. We just got a long bed at work that’s a 2019. It’s got the “classic” as part of the badging, but the 2018 does not. Even the 2019 does not have eTorque. We got a “classic” because we ordered RC. We got it for around $18K in fleet sales. That’s unreal. We paid almost that much for a UTV with a 70″ bed. The new Ram is a long bed; it’s even got power windows and blue tooth and sprayed on liner for less than $19K.
I’m also looking to replace my 2011 regular cab with a new Ram, but will just have to wait I guess until there are back in production.
At least we know it is coming, which is great.
WHY THE “DODGE” NAME SHOULDN’T HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM RAM TRUCKS
https://news.pickuptrucks.com/2009/11/5-reasons-why-its-wrong-to-divorce-ram-from-dodge.html
Now that a truck is a fashion item (or whatever all of your friends bought after they turned 30 and gave up on rice burners), the market has been completely ruined by, what I call the ‘maroon quad cad midlevel lease payer’, and it’s all dealers want.
I looked at a 2019 silverado at a dealer, just to see what it had to offer. The salesman who approached me, tried to talk me out of asking about an 8ft bed, because I obviously don’t need a 1500 longbed….
Dlr: “There’s still plenty of room in the bed! You can get everything in there you need for a weekend camping”.
Me: “I have a class b, I don’t go camping in a truck.”
Dlr: “The backseat is even bigger than before”
Me: “I have 3 cars, let me know when the reg cab longbed is out”.
Hopefully the new Ram rclb will be available before 2020.
I guess that’s good new that the Ram Classic won’t be the last RC Ram 1500 as it looked like would be the case; that is if this report is correct. I wonder though if the Gen 5 will include both cab-bed configurations; GM twins do not have standard bed any longer. If Ram had abandoned regular cabs beyond Gen 4, and with Chevy manufacturing only the 8′ bed version (no RCSB) and only in their lowest of 8 trim levels (W/T), we would have had a situation where only one manufacturer was going to continue production of the most iconic and most sold vehicle type in the history of U.S. auto sales; the RCSB full size pickup truck. It is especially concerning that Chevrolet, out of all manufacturers, the manufacturer of the most show-displayed vehicle in history except maybe the ’57 Chevy, the Chevy full-size RCSB, has abandoned an American classic without even mentioning it to the public or the media. It’s just one of the many things they try hiding from the public. They’ve become such a deceptive and low morals company. An example is how they are today talking about how their new turbo 4 cylinder that’s in Silverado and Sierra; an engine that’s the standard power train on LT trim and RST trim but is no available in any other trim. They are calling it a base engine. They are telling the media that it should be compared to Ram and Ford’s base V6 NA engines even though Ram and Ford’s optional engines can be had in less expensive trucks than their lowest priced turbo 4 powered truck. Unlike Ram and Ford who actually consider a base engine an engine in a base truck, they don’t. Instead, they put carryover engines from the previous generation; they achieve 2 and 3 mpg worse in the combined estimate than those same engines did in the previous generation, 5.3L V8 Ecotec3 AFM, and 4.3L V6 Ecotec3 AFM; both mated to the same 6-speed, respectively. They are about 5 mpg lower than Ram and Ford base engine on those lower trims and with no improvement in performance or refinement; and no lower price. They claim it allows them to keep them low price, but yet everyone knows that they’ll all be about the same price due to competition; they have to be. The media goes along with their deception and excuses. They close down American plants while making a profit; not because they need to, putting the people out of work that allowed them to be who they are today. They stated they’d quit reporting monthly truck sales suddenly because they knew they were getting beat by Ram and losing ground to both Ram and Ford; only quarterly reports; finally the quarterly came out. Ram kicked their butt as we knew would happen. They say it’s because they did not have the new regular and double cabs in production, but just like Ram, they had them in the previous generation in production just like Ram. I don’t know why a single person buys a GM product today. You can’t trust what they say. How can anyone trust what they build? They build a brick wall for a new truck despite great power train engineering. They abandon lower end customers by giving them old V6s and V8s with 16 mpg. They can and probably will stop the market share bleeding, but they’ll have to discount heavily to get people to take their crap. Pitiful.
I know this is an old article, but is there any update you can give us ?
Thank God it’s on the way. I was some worried the single cab was canned. For the life of me I dong why we do not have an option for the 392
.