Why Dodge and Ram Don’t Mind If You Still Call Them Dodge Rams
Dodge builds cars. Ram builds trucks. It's been that way for well over a decade, but old habits die hard, you know. The post Why Dodge and Ram Don’t Mind If You Still Call Them Dodge Rams appeared first on The Drive.
Dodge hasn’t built a new pickup since 2009. If you think I’m lying, you must not have taken to calling them Rams. Chrysler spun off its passenger truck division into the fully fledged Ram brand 16 years ago now, but a lot of folks still refer to ’em as Dodges today. Old habits die hard, though I’ve always wondered if that bothers the suits at either company. The answer, apparently, is “not really.”
My boss Kyle told me a little while back that he was getting lunch with Dodge CEO Matt McAlear. When he asked if I had any questions for the big wig, I suggested, half jokingly, that he should find out if they ever get tired of people calling Ram trucks Dodges. Kyle actually did find out, and McAlear met the question with a laugh: “The single biggest lead driving source for Ram is the Dodge website.”
It’s not just a me thing, then. I live in the middle of the United States—true truck country—and people still jabber on about Chevys, Fords, and Dodges. If they call the Big Horn badged pickups anything else, it’s “Hemi” or “Cummins,” but never a Ram. It’s not like they don’t know; more likely, they just don’t care.
If that’s the case, would it make sense for the two brands to merge back together? McAlear responded, “It’s funny. I don’t know what the right answer is. The value of Ram has gone through the roof since 2009 when we broke it off. It has a level of dedication that allows us to not even worry about that, [it] allows Dodge to be just kind of a crazy, ridiculous, off-the-wall brand where if we piss off 95% of the people out there, it doesn’t matter. We’re not trying to sell to everybody, and we’re just like them if we’re not ridiculous.
“I don’t know,” McAlear continued. “Could there be a benefit? There could be. Would there be negatives? Yeah. But right now, customers can call it what they want and they still know how to get to them.”
I guess that settles it. Whereas Jeep insisted on everybody treating the Wagoneer models as their own brand a few years back, the guys at Dodge and Ram just don’t care. “Even the insurance companies are still calling them Dodge Rams,” McAlear concluded.
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The post Why Dodge and Ram Don’t Mind If You Still Call Them Dodge Rams appeared first on The Drive.
