Dodge offers first navigation system

[BMWDave]

Dodge offers first navigation system in domestic full size truck
GREG BOWENS | Automotive News
Posted Date: 9/2/05
DETROIT - A luxury car staple has made its way into Dodge pickups.

The Chrysler group will offer a full-screen navigation system on its 2006 Dodge Ram pickup models. The system is made by Alpine Electronics Inc. and will cost about $1,500 as an option.

Dodge is scheduled to release 2006 Ram vehicle and option pricing on Thursday, Sept. 1.

The move is a first for a domestic automaker and a rarity in the pickup market.

For Dodge, the new system represents the most dramatic example of options migrating from cars and SUVs into trucks.

"We all have the image of a truck buyer," says Joe Veltri, Dodge's director of truck marketing and product planning. "It's a person who is a contractor. It's a person who works construction or who hunts and fishes or tows boats.

"But the new truck buyers are the family-type people. Those people demand features like the ones found in vehicles they are coming out of in other segments."

Dodge reports that 18 percent of those who bought new full-sized trucks during the first six months of the year switched from a car or SUV.

Dodge moved features to pickups from those segments as well. The 2006 Dodge Ram Mega Cab has the staple of the sedan: a sunroof. DVD players, folding rear seats and tinted rear passenger windows were items lifted from the minivan. The Ram also has poached from the Durango the steering wheel that can control the radio and other controls as well as the front storage bin designed to hold fast food containers.

These options are housed in more carlike surroundings such as faux wood panels, light-color carpets and heated seats.

Dodge created a new model to house all of the options. The Ram Mega Cab is expected to have a sticker price around $33,000. Dodge cut the length of its cargo bed by 2 feet to stretch the passenger cab by 20 inches. Dodge says that by adding length to the cab the company is now the only one that can install a sunroof and roof-mounted DVD system on the same vehicle in the truck segment.

Industry watchers say Dodge's decision to offer a full-screen navigation system means the division is serious about capturing more of the market.

"It's a great thing," says Don Montroy, an analyst with CSM Worldwide in Farmington Hills, Mich. "What surprises me is that as they go into other segments they are not offering the cheaper turn-by-turn navigation systems but the more expensive full-screen ones."

[thewizard16]

I was going to say, the Tundra has had a DVD nav system since the Double Cab came out, and the Titan has one as well. (both of which are US produced, with I'm pretty sure, a majority of domestic content) To say Dodge is the first is silly, and the whole domestic argument always gets messy, but oh well. Interesting to see Dodge is trying to snag a few of the higher-end pickup buyers.

[ifcar]

Avalanche and Escalade EXT have navs. Are they not domestic full-size pickups?  

[mazda6er]

Avalanche and Escalade EXT have navs. Are they not domestic full-size pickups?

Clearly not.    

[ifcar]

I suppose for the purposes of Dodge's claim, they're SUVs. So the Ram is really the first, not the fifth.

[mazda6er]

There goes that "innovative mid-gate" biting GM in the ass again.

[ifcar]

It's not the midgate, it's the unibody setup (done for the midgate, but still) where Dodge no doubt found its asterisk.