It’s been 15 years since there’s been a Dodge Ram, but they still insist

It has been 15 years since the separation between the Dodge brand and the Ram pickup truck line. Today as two independent manufacturers, but belonging to the Stellantis group, Ram and Dodge operate in completely separate markets and with different global strategies. For example, only the pickup truck brand sells cars in Brazil. But why do so many people still insist on calling pickup trucks Dodge Rams?

2010 was the last year of the Dodge Ram

The past decade has been extremely tortuous for the North American side of Stellantis. In financial crisis to the point of filing for bankruptcy, the Chrysler group had part of its shares acquired by Fiat in 2009. The plan was to form the FCA group. At the time, even before the creation of FCA, Sergio Marchionne was appointed CEO of the Chrysler group. The creation, in fact, of the Fiat Chrysler Automobiles group only came in 2014.

With everything in order, it was time to restructure the brands, now thinking about operations beyond the USA. Jeep was the most important and only truly global company. Chrysler sold more sophisticated cars, but was starting to decline. The strong volume came from simple Dodge cars, especially Ram trucks.

How did Ram come about?

Launched in 1980, the Dodge Ram quickly became Dodge’s most important car. But in terms of sales, it was still far from the Ford F-150 and Chevrolet Silverado. In 2010, Sergio Marchionne determined the separation of Dodge from the Ram pickup truck line. The idea was also to transform Ram into a commercial vehicle brand to operate in several markets.

According to the group at the time, the idea was to transform Ram into “a real pickup truck brand, no longer a brand where people bought pickup trucks for their image or style.” Meanwhile, Dodge would no longer be the cheap side of the Chrysler group to focus on what it does well: muscle cars and very American performance vehicles.

From a car to a brand

In 2010, the last Dodge Ram was produced, but was promptly replaced by the Ram 1500. The goat logo, previously used by Dodge, became the trucks’ trademark. Because the word ram in English means ram. And it is precisely this animal that appears on the front of the pickup trucks. That’s why it makes more sense at Ram than at Dodge.

As there was also a focus on commercial vehicles, the model line now consists not only of 1500, 2500 and 3500 pickup trucks, but also vans. The Dodge Caravan gained a van version, being sold as the C/V Tradesman. It was accompanied by the line of Fiat commercials sold in the USA as Ram.

The first Fiat car that became a Ram was the Ducato, which arrived there as the Ram ProMaster in 2014. A year later, the Fiat Doblò started to run in the USA as the Ram ProMaster City. Furthermore, in some Latin American markets, Ram replaced Fiat in the sale of Fiorino, Strada and Tor. With the change of logo, the name changed, respectively, to ProMaster Rapid, 700 and 1000.

Even the Fiat Titano and Peugeot Landtrek got a Ram variant before the Dakota. which is sold as 1200 in some markets. In other words, Ram became the Stellantis group’s pickup truck and commercial vehicle brand, selling not only original vehicles, but also Fiat and Peugeot cars.

Why do many people still say Dodge Ram?

But is there still a reason for so many people to call the Ram 1500 and its sisters the Dodge Ram? Yes. Even though 15 years have passed since this model no longer exists, in Brazil we had the truck with the original name being sold from 1995 to 2009. And there is also the fact that Brazilians are attached to names.

Furthermore, the fact that Ram uses the same logo that was once Dodge’s means that many people still think that the goat’s brand is Dodge. However, it is worth remembering that Dodge has not sold any cars in Brazil since 2018, when the Journey was no longer offered here.

Do you still say Dodge Ram or have you switched to the name you used 14 years ago? Tell us in the comments.