The truck you see here looks like it was made for American buyers. It's the brand new Ram Rampage, and it just debuted for the Brazilian market. It borrows a lot from the excellent Ram 1500 only in a smaller but no less aggressive package. While Ford has the Ranger and the Maverick, Toyota has the Tacoma, and Chevy has the Colorado, Ram currently has no small pickup truck for the American market, so it only makes sense to bring it here.
The small truck market is definitely growing, and you can tell because carmakers who never even built a truck are making them. Even Honda and Hyundai have small pickup trucks, and they're not even traditional truck manufacturers. The timing is clearly right for Ram to bring us a smaller truck. The Rampage started production on June 6, and we take a closer look.
What is the Rampage?
Lest you think the new Rampage is based on the 1500 platform, it's quite a bit smaller. It rides on the same platform used by the Jeep Compass and Renegade, as well as the new Alfa Romeo Tonale crossover. The name might seem familiar to some of you because it was used by Dodge back in 1984, but that vehicle was a unibody "truck" that looked more like a small car with a truck bed than an actual pickup truck.
There are two engine offerings in the new Rampage: a base 2.0-liter Multijet diesel unit with 170 horsepower and 280 lb-ft of torque, available for the Rebel and Laramie trims. The second mill can be had in all three Rampage trims (including the R/T), and it's a 2.0-liter Hurricane turbo four good for 272 hp and 295 lb-ft of torque. That makes it the most powerful engine in a production truck in South America.
Both engines are mated with a nine-speed automatic transmission. Power gets routed to all four wheels in every trim level and powertrain configuration. 0-60 mph acceleration with the diesel mill is 7.1 and 6.9 seconds in the R/T version with the turbo four. That's still almost a second slower than the Chevy Colorado (6.1 seconds) but a bit quicker than the Toyota Tacoma (7.0 seconds)
Buyers can upgrade to the top trim R/T, and that model provides additional standard features such as stiffer springs and dampers, and a lower ride height by 10 millimeters. The R/T is made more for street use, and the improved handling makes it so. The off-road leaning Rebel trim gets model-specific 17-inch all-terrain tires. Every Rampage trim comes standard with ventilated disc brakes and an electronic parking brake with auto-hold. The payload for the diesel mill stands at up to 2,238 pounds, while the Hurrican 4 engine can manage 1,653 lbs.
We don't have details on the interior space, technology, and materials, but you can see photos of the top-spec R/T trim here. It looks like suede insert bucket seats with extra bolstering, and red stitching and piping. There's a large landscape-oriented touchscreen atop the center stack, a streamlined dashboard, a rotary shift knob, and what appears to be ample legroom in what looks like an extended cab version.
The 2024 Rampage will be sold in Brazil with a starting price of $50,108 USD for the Rebel with the diesel mill and up to $56,360 for the Rampage R/T with the Hurricane 4 engine. Nothing has been confirmed for the states, but with the critical acclaim the current 1500 has received, we're hoping Ram will bring the Rampage to the American market.
