RAM RAIDER
One of the catchier motor advertising campaigns in recent times features a RAM 1500 V8 towing a boat and pulling up alongside a thinly disguised Toyota HiLux. The voiceover urges the viewer to “imagine yourself behind the wheel of a real truck” as the envious HiLux driver furtively glances at the towering Yank Tank, before the RAM accelerates effortlessly away, boat in tow, leaving the Toyota in the dust.
It’s a simple but effective bit of communication that suggests it’s time for Aussies to rethink their attachment to the predominantly Japanese-designed, Thai-built dual cabs and take a good, hard look at some American iron.
It seems to be working, with Melbourne-based Ram Trucks Australia (RTA) claiming to have moved some 3300 V8 petrol and V6 diesel RAMs during 2019. Car manufacturer Fiat Chrysler Automobiles doesn’t make the RAM for right-hand drive markets, so the trucks arrive here in left-hand drive from Sterling Heights, Michigan, before being reengineered to right-hand drive specification.
RTA claims to be “the only factory authorized remanufacturer of right-hand drive RAM trucks in the world” and is no backyard affair, boasting 150 staff and
