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Declining oil prices are said to hit Canada much harder than the United States, and one sign of that is new vehicle sales.
- Canadian new vehicle sales were up 3.6 percent last month, on top of a record year in 2014. But Alberta, the nation’s oil production hub, saw new vehicle sales fall by 0.2 percent. If you’re out west and looking for a truck, you’re in a good spot.
- Toyota’s electric three-wheeler will start trials in Tokyo later this year.
- Expansion is underway at Volkswagen’s Chattanooga factory.
- Uber is now delivering food in Barcelona.
- McLaren’s got a newer, lighter, faster supercar that you can’t afford.
11 Comments on “While You Were Sleeping: February 25th, 2015...”
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My father, (being a RAM trucks fan for a long time) upon seeing the new bed boxes had the instant response of “I bet those will rattle really bad.”
I think the same of the lower bed containers on the Titan, though at least that’s closer to the tires, so maybe you wouldn’t hear it from the inside. Either way, the boxes look idiotic and gimmicky.
Gimmicky, for sure.
Given that the majority of crew cabs haul families around, that is basically all you get for a locking trunk unless you want stuff visible/sliding around the back seat.
Has anyone else tried the Ridgeline’s trunk in the bed floor? Probably not good for loading cinderblocks on, but otherwise useful for a family car.
I’m much more in favor of an in-bed concealed box, where nobody on the outside knows it’s there. Keeping anything valuable tool-wise in these exposed boxes would be foolish as well.
It’s no different than a trunk of a car. No one really knows if it’s empty or full of junky stuff. A thief would have to know you leave expensive tools, rod, rifles, etc, in there. But if that’s the case, it’s better to have them in the locked side-boxes than just hidden from view inside the cab. A thief can get inside your truck in 2 seconds. That said, I’ve never looked at the slab sides of a pickup and thought I need to store things in there. I’m sure I’d find very good uses for them, but yeah it’s gimmicky. I certainly wouldn’t spend $1,500 or whatever on them. As far as “rattles” go, I’m sure they’ve got thick rubber door gaskets, same as any other door.
If someone wanted more secure storage space, they could get a hard locking tonneau cover. The tailgate locks with the central locking system, so the bed essentially becomes a trunk.
CoreyDL – –
I have a 1996 Ram, and would have appreciated having a locking, secure, weather-proof space on my truck from time to time. That volume in the rear quarter panels is mostly wasted space anyway, so why not put compartments there to store guns, purses, cameras, fishing tackle?, — even a nice picnic lunch, if you throw a couple bags of ice inside them too. When I get my next Ram (if this one ever breaks down), I will get these boxes, and don’t consider that $1295 is too much as a % of a ~$60K vehicle (2.2%). I doubt that they will “rattle”, since I checked them out: there’s plenty of rubber molding and gaskets all around.
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I totally agree with the storage in bed aspect, just not the execution of visible boxes up top for everyone to see. If the boxes had a slide-open lid on the top and were not visible to viewers at the side of the vehicle, that would be fine with me.
I’ll take your word on it that they won’t rattle, though I was more concerned about contents inside them rattling around on the road.
PS. All those 96 Rams here have just rusted away! You very rarely see them, and when you do they’re in awful condition.
The Ram box equipped trucks I’ve driven didn’t rattle. When they had contents in them, I didn’t notice any noise from the contents shifting, I might have if I really paid attention to them. Probably no worse than junk bouncing around in the trunk of a car when going over bumps.
They compromise a bit of bed space in the areas around where the wheel wells are, but that space isn’t really usable for large objects anyway. If someone wanted max bed space, they wouldn’t opt for the Ram Box. For someone who uses their truck like a car, the Ram Box makes sense. My wife liked them for putting groceries in. They fit well and don’t slide around, fairly convenient to load/unload.
Well imagine that, VW has finally started on construction to build their badly needed SUV (which will probably cost a fortune and be pointless in the end). A more accessible article is at http://www.chattanoogan.com/2015/2/24/294784/Volkswagen-Chattanoogas-Plant.aspx
More McVW…
The whole purpose in my mind of purchasing a VW would have been for German Engineering but now they have lost their “German-ness” the quest for volume.
CoreyDL, whatever lamenting agenda you have against the Ram is frankly moot. Have another coffee and tell us even more.