Fiat Chrysler is hunting affluent truck buyers with its new Ram Tungsten Limited Edition truck.
Consider it a bright idea: the folks at Ram hope to light up their sales numbers – and bottom line – by adding a new Tungsten Edition to their pickup truck line-up.
The Fiat Chrysler Automobiles truck brand is the latest to try to target extremely affluent motorists who keep demanding more and more upscale features on their SUVs and pickups. The new version of the Ram 1500 will start at $55,120.
It’s no surprise that Ram is offering what brand boss Mike Manley notes is “the highest trim level” the brand has ever offered. A quick check of the U.S. sales stats reveals that Detroit’s Big Three actually outsell more traditional brands like Mercedes-Benz, BMW and Lexus when pushing into luxury pricing territory. It just happens that most of those high-line domestic products are trucks.
Chevrolet, GMC and Ford have discovered the same phenomenon, Doug Scott, head of marketing at Ford, telling TheDetroitBureau.com that “every time we offer a more upscale market, buyers tell us they want something even more lavishly equipped.
(Mercedes may enter U.S. pickup market after all. To get the story, Click Here.)
Ram officials say that they're being told that customers want more lavishly outfitted pickups.
While, silver, gold and platinum have been used as upscale model designators, why opt for the name of an element most familiar as the filament in a light bulb?
“Tungsten is considered a rare metal and known as one of the toughest things found in nature. The dense, heavy metal has the highest melting point of all the elements and is harder than steel,” the Ram release explained.
(Click Here for the latest with the 2018 Ford F-150.)
Whatever the logic, the maker hopes to win buyers over with a variety of high-end features that include:
- And air suspension;
- Heated seats and steering wheel, as well as ventilated front seats;
- An 8.4-inch Uconnect touchscreen featuring navigation, Apple CarPlay, Android Auto and SiriusXM Guardian;
- A suede headliner and “ultra-premium leather throughout the cabin;
- Real wood interior details.
Looking for leather in their trucks, Ram executives claim buyers say, and more electronics too.
From the outside, the Ram Limited Tungsten Edition will get a Tungsten-toned chrome grille with large R-A-M lettering, body-colored bumpers, mirrors, door handles and running boards. Special badging and other body tweaks.
“Premium truck buyers will recognize the attention to detail, surrounded by quality materials,” said Manley.
(To see more about EV maker Tesla adding a pickup to its line-up, Click Here.)
The Ram Limited Tungsten Edition will go on sale during the third quarter of this year and it will be offered on various versions of the half-ton Ram 1500, as well as heavier-duty 2500 and 3500 models.