why are new trucks so boxy and ugly

The raptors do look good but they dont have that engine available yet. And, its a standard cab truck for the price of a nice extended cab hemi truck with 390 hp. Dont count the pentastar out just yet.

 

That 6.2 is going to walk all over the HEMI. Plus, I've never really liked the appearance of Dodge trucks, of any year.

My grandpa's '05 has the 5.4, and it's done everything we've ever needed it to with ease. I've towed cars thousands of miles with it and you can hardly tell they're back there. Plus it gets 22 mpg with the cruise set on 70 on the interstate, and on a 650 mile round trip, I once got an average of 17 mpg pulling a Maverick on a car dolly.

 

Not saying a ford wont do it.. Just that i like my ram better. I have worked for both brands at one time or another and i probably wont ever buy another ford truck unless i just cant get a ram. The new rams with hemi's run 13's stock! If the 6.2 ever makes it to production we'll see how that baby performs.

 

i dont like just about any new cars out there...

they'll never make trucks like this again but i sure wish they would

 

i don't like the new trucks at all, imo the raptor is the best looking out of all the new ones with gmc in second, i love all the older trucks though, like the 86 and older.

 

After thinking it over, I think why I don't like the newer trucks is the slab sided styling. With the right wheels and stance they look good, but stock they're too plain looking. BTW, that Raptor looks pretty tough.

 

Hmm I dont like the round in too many cases though I dont like the new toyota tundra at all it reminds me of something the stay puff marshmallow man would drive.....or a better way to phrase it is its kind of like my mother inlaw its got a fat bottom

 

We have the Hemi as long as we build it. It has nothing to do with Daimlers products. The only products we will lose are the Mercedes products. Namely the diesel engines and thats fine with me. The Sprinter is gone in 2011 if I remember right but Fiat is replacing it with a line of cargo vans. Also Fiat is possibly the largest engine builder in the world so we get some of the Fiat engine line up as well. All of our V6 engines will be replaced by a single Fiat engine family in multiple displacements. They are a really smart company and are using the best from Chrysler and Fiat to build top notch vehicles with common components across the lines.
As far as trucks go the new 09 Ram is an absolute dream to drive over the 08 and down. It still suffers from horrible fuel mileage with the Hemi though. The early Hemis wont make the garage of any of our techs as they have a bad habit of dropping valves(broken springs), busting cam pins, blowing up intakes and being really expensive to replace. The newer ones from about 05 and up seem to have gotten rid of the early blow up bugs. Since I'm our driveability tech I can tell you that the Hemi trucks average around 13-15 MPG and if driven hard dont even get 10. And yes the new trucks appear boxy to me but the body lines are very sharp that exagerates the look.

 

I love my ram. Not been to bad as of yet. Fixed a few things but nothing major. Definetly not like the lightning i had.

 

Here's my ram....

 

We had a Ram for a couple of years. The non-hemi motor. What a dog. We used to have a 22 foot cargo trailer that the thing would hardly pull. I ended up selling the trailer because of this. For some reason I had to use my little 1996 F150 (175,000 mi, no major svc) with 302 and 5 speed to haul it to the shop where I was displaying it. I was suprised. The little old 302 pulled it better (probably gearing/wheels). After I sold the 22 foot, I bought a small 16 foot trailer and the Ram did not do much better. I just pulled it with the F150 (standard cab) when I was by myself. We later got a used 02 F250 with 7.3 and 140,000 miles. No problem pulling, doesn't even know the trailers there. About 15-18mpg pulling the trailer, 19 without. The Ram would get about 8mpg with the trailer and 12-13 without.

Yeah, yeah I know we should have gotten a diesel or 460 to tow, but at the time I couldn't talk Kim into a big truck as she has to drive it most of the time. She loves driving that big friggin Diesel land yaht now though (even though she can't park it). She hates driving my truck or jeep because they are standards and don't have many frills.

I think a lot of the Ram's problems with pulling where those great big wheels. It sounded pretty mean though. Great exhaust note. I think that their diesel should be a good truck.

My vote for appearance is for the 92-96 fords and second for the pre 2004 fords. I liked the Dodges rounded look when they first came out but that look just kinda burned me out after awhile. I did like the blocky look of some of the 80's Chevy's.


btw
I was always interested in the sprinter, but I will never be able to afford one. What kind of problems did they have?

 

My uncle has like 409,000 on his 2001 F150 Sport, 4.2 v6/5 speed. Other then the normal maintenance stuff, he's been through 2 alternators, a water pump, and had to put a transmission and clutch (first ever) in it at 395,000. Engine has never been touched, and dosen't burn any oil. Emissions testing time rolled around this past year, and for the first time ever it didn't pass. He took it to a Ford dealership and they went through the emissions stuff and got it all back in order. The dealership reported the truck and mileage to Ford and when he picked it up, they told him bring it back when it hits 500,000, and they'll make him an awesome deal on a brand new truck. Should get there sometime towards the end of 2011. He lives in Murphy, NC and works in Chamblee, GA, 230 mile a day round trip commute..

 

So the biggest question I have is what makes a "hemi" a hemi? The phrase "hemi" originated from the combustion chamber design, it is a Hemisherically balanced cylinder. This chamber is 2+ valve setup meaning it can have 3 or 4 valves and they are on opposite sides of the head, whereas a standard configuration like a 302 or a 350 utilize a side by side head configuration. The hemispherical design promotes a straight intake path and a straight exhaust path, and it usually incorporates a centrally located spark plug, or two. This promotes a less restrictive path for the Air/Fuel mixture and also allows for both bigger intake and exhaust valves in turn this creates more power. This is a good example, the new Chrystler 5.7L configuration the standard 2 valve pentroof design with 2 plugs

here is a nice cutaway shot of a hemispherical combustion chamber

Now here are some more configurations

now lets look at these two 4 valve configurations, they are both pentroof design, balanced combustion chamber direct intake and exhaust runners... but one is not technically a "hemi"


can you tell me which one is not the hemi?


Now all of you are wondering where this is all going it is simple the "Hemi" name is a trademark from Chrystler(Fiat). Infact out of all of the pictures I have posted of the Hemi configuration only one of them has a Chryster brand name on it.

The first one it is a 5.7L Chrystler "Hemi"
The cutaway picture is a SHOC 427 ford
Ardun Head for Flathead
M/T Heads for FE
Ford SOHC Heads for FE
Ford 3V Head for Calliope
Ford "Semi Hemi" Head for Boss 429
Ford Racing Hemi Head
Aston Martin 5.3L
and finally........
5.4L DOHC Triton V8..... Its a Triton not a "Hemi"

"Hemi" does not mean that much anymore, it is a brand name and it is marketed as such. There are many companies that use Hemishperical combustion chambers, Chrystler, Ford, Porsche, Jaguar, Lotus, Mitsubishi, and Alfa Romeo are a few of them, but only one of them has the copyrighted name available for use.
But that means if you were going off of combustion chamber profile and fuel delivery characteristics and noted it as such you could say all of the current Ford V8 vehicles (including both the Mustang and the trucks) have hemi's in them too.

So like I said hopefully the current Chrystler hemi does not go away, because the winds of change are already showing in chrystler and Sergio Marchionne has already voiced his dislike in the 5.7L and even the upcoming 6.2L(http://www.challengerblog.com/blog/1021140_ceo-of-fiat-marchionne-says-hemi-v-8s-are-not-needed ) I guess we will see if the 2011 refresh of the challenger gets ugly or not. Oh and the name brand may have stayed with Chrystler but the technology went with Dalhmer, just like all of the powertrain technologies too, and lets just hope that this isnt the only thing in Chrystler show rooms in the next 5 years