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Pretty boy is no slacker; Dodge Chromed Ram performs well for a show vehicle

By Mike Levine, Pickuptrucks.com, Source: Cars.com

Show trucks are built to draw attention, and the 2010 Mopar Chromed Ram 2500 Crew Cab 4x4 doesn't fail to attract legions of curious onlookers and gushing admirers, even when slightly out of its element.

Built to promote the Ram's upscale Laramie trim level and to hype a wide variety of Chrysler's aftermarket accessories, the Chromed Ram looked like a champion and blended in perfectly with glitzy Las Vegas when it debuted at the 2009 SEMA Show. With a 2-inch lift kit and 35-inch tires, the Chromed Ram has the stance and presence of a show truck, but with the humble roots of a production vehicle. Excessive, perhaps, but not gaudy. Practical? Well, let's see about that.

I took the Ram away from its comfortable showroom surrounding and put it squarely in the middle of a harsh, muddy desert. The mission: travel to the off-roading insanity known as the King of the Hammers race and shuttle around the 135-mile course.

Once again, the Chromed Ram drew more than its share of groupies. Every time I pulled in the middle of HammerTown, the Dodge faithful arrived to check out the custom interior, peek at the Cummins diesel under the hood and give the color-keyed hard tonneau a playful rubdown.

The Chromed Ram wasn't a pretty-boy slacker. It was heartless in attacking the undulating terrain, complete with all the head jerking, kidney busting and belly flopping associated with a near-empty pickup on top of a suspension strong enough to support almost 2,400 pounds of payload. But that's expected. As heavy-duty truck enthusiasts, we know the tradeoffs of capability and comfort, of power and fuel economy, of performance and price. Could an all-wheel-drive crossover SUV get to some of the locations we traveled? Most likely. To all of them? No. Were there any spots we couldn't reach? Yeah, but we would have to drive a Ram Power Wagon -- which doesn't look good in chrome -- to traverse those trails.

Bopping around California's Mojave Desert isn't really the Chromed Ram's comfort zone. Hitch up a 36-foot Eliminator Daytona, pack the bed with coolers and skis and program the nav for the Colorado River, and now you've drawn a bead on the target audience. A muddied-up Chromed Ram plowing through 6 inches of silt isn't nearly as appealing as a shiny Chromed Ram rolling up to the valet at the yacht club.

The Chromed Ram is based on a four-wheel-drive 2500 Laramie crew cab. Starting MSRP is $42,450, and that includes most of the premium convenience and comfort features Dodge offers in its trucks, including an Alpine audio system. (Ours had the $800 touch-screen navigation upgrade.) This is a top-notch sound unit with nine speakers and a subwoofer, Sirius satellite radio, 30-gigabyte hard drive for music storage and auxiliary jack for a portable music player. I used the jack to run the race scanner audio through the sound system. Especially convenient for me was the 115-volt auxiliary power outlet so I could recharge camera batteries, and the $200 rearview camera was quite handy when positioning the truck on hills for a photo shoot.

There was also a $1,625 rear-seat entertainment system featuring 7-inch monitors on the back of the front-seat headrests. With many of today's kids watching movies and TV shows on their iPods, I would have spent that money on bucket seats and a moonroof in this truck. One nice option, however, was the $1,199 Katzkin leather seating. It came in dark slate blue with blue accents that complement the $225 optional Deep Water Blue Pearl exterior paint. Add the matching $1,290 hard tonneau, and this combination made for a strikingly handsome vehicle, even without the bling.

Speaking of chrome, here's the Mopar shiny accessories shopping list: $614 5-inch oval side tube steps, $178 doorsill guards, $39 tailgate bezel, $119 bright B-pillar trim, $132 fuel door and $99 exhaust tip.

Everything is power-operated with the Laramie trim, including the NV273 transfer case with a 2.72 low-range ratio. Combined with 3.231 first gear in the six-speed automatic transmission and the 3.73 axle ratio, the crawl ratio is a conventional 32.78. With the optional 4.10 axles, the crawl ratio jumps to a more respectable 36.03. For those who truly need to pull stumps, go with the six-speed manual and its 5.94 granny gear. Now you've got 66.24.

The Chromed Ram could run the desert trails, but it was punishing at times. The ride could also be on the concrete gut-buster known as the California freeway system. The crew cab sits on a 149-inch wheelbase, which on the right set of expansion joints at the right speed will result in cab shake, bed bounce ... call it what you will. It happens to all full-size pickups with an empty bed. It's just a matter of location and speed matching the particular harmonics of that vehicle setup. The solution is to simply slow down until the road smoothes out and ends its practical joke. Tires can make a difference, and the Chromed Ram had a humming set of 35x12.50R17LT Toyo Open Country M/T meats wrapped around 17x8 chromed alloy wheels.

When it's not caught up in a freeway rumba, the Chromed Ram had a pleasant manner while cruising. Engaging the tow/haul mode or operating the Electronic Range Select managed the downhill speed comfortably coming off the 4,200-foot Cajon Pass. To handle really heavy loads, the Ram diesel trucks provide an exhaust brake.

Usually there's never a complaint with the 350-horsepower, 650 pounds-feet of torque monster known as the 6.7-liter inline-six Cummins turbo-diesel ($7,615 option). It was responsive in passing situations and well-matched with the six-speed automatic, but fuel economy was disappointing, considering the light load of coolers, luggage and camera gear. I traveled 624 miles during race week with a variety of freeway, 55 mph two-lane roads and plenty of dirt trails. The Ram drank 50.6 gallons of fuel for 12.33 mpg. Perhaps I was spoiled about 10 years ago when I drove a two-wheel-drive Ram 2500 with the 5.9-liter High Output Cummins and recorded close to 20 mpg in a weeklong stretch.

To sum up, the Chromed Cab pretty much blows away any argument that there's no market for pickups costing more than $50,000. The Laramie with factory options hit $53,170 (including destination charge). Add nearly $5,300 in Mopar accessories and two or thee grand for the tires and any dealer installation charges, and you're looking past 60 large. For some truck owners, it's all about style, and the new Ram's aggressive appearance and full slate of options will boost any owner's image and still look great in the desert.

© 2010, Cars.com