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No Need for Fake Wood - 2014 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel Long-Term Road Test

Edmunds.comEdmunds.com Member, Administrator, Moderator Posts: 10,315
edited December 2014 in Ram
imageNo Need for Fake Wood - 2014 Ram 1500 EcoDiesel Long-Term Road Test

Does wood trim belong in a pickup? Does it matter if it's fake? Our Ram 1500 answers the question.

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    bankerdannybankerdanny Member Posts: 1,021
    Wow, yeah, that's the bad kind of retro.
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    dubdluxdubdlux Member Posts: 6
    Looks like a K-car New Yorker door panel.
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    rshollandrsholland Member Posts: 19,788
    The "complexity" of some styling choices certainly increases costs. Is it worth it? I guess it is as long as customers are willing to pay for it. I'm not one however.
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    grijongrijon Member Posts: 147
    edited December 2014
    That is a seriously cool photo to go with this post; at first I didn't realize that you had *2* examples in the frame, LOL
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    jstrauch81jstrauch81 Member Posts: 64
    While I'm not much of a fan of fake plati-chrome, it would look much more cohesive if they had just used more chrome trim rather than the fake wood. It also could have been s single piece had they gone this route, eliminating the panel gap.
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    chol92594chol92594 Member Posts: 208
    I've seen some decent fake wood attempts and they've all been somewhat glossy. Doing plastic wood and not even bothering to give it any gloss or sheen just makes it look tacky. Even real matte wood can sometimes look fake, but a piece of plastic with a wood pattern printed on it is the absolute worst.

    I wouldn't mind fake wood in a car like this (or a Camry, Passat, etc.) as long as it looked halfway convincing. It's not an Audi or Lexus, so it doesn't have to be real, but Dodge should have at least tried to make it look a little more convincing.
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    emajoremajor Member Posts: 332
    edited December 2014
    Given the high MSRP and ridiculous profit margins even at actual transaction prices, why is it that every single manufacturer of full-size pickups cannot make the interior materials at least within spitting distance of an $18K Golf?

    I haven't spent time in the very newest crop of pickups, but every other one going 3 generations back has just been bad, bad, bad, with acres of cheaply grained plastics and rock hard touch points, even in high trim levels. Is it a macho thing, real trucks are for working? So, saddle leather seats with embroidered trim names is OK for a cowboy rig, but a door armrest that doesn't trigger tendonitis and a dashboard that doesn't look like a Rubbermaid bin is too city slicker? Is it a durability thing? If so, I'd like to know why all of our company's 2010 & newer Fords have drivers seats coming apart at the seams and dissolving polyurethane steering wheels.
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    speednetspeednet Member Posts: 52
    I own a 2014 Laramie, and the interior is absolutely the best in class. People can nitpick this or that in any car and find fault. Having tested and tried every major pickup before settling on the Ram, I can say unequivocally that the Ram Laramie's interior beats them all by a mile.
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    jstrauch81jstrauch81 Member Posts: 64
    speednet said:

    I own a 2014 Laramie, and the interior is absolutely the best in class. People can nitpick this or that in any car and find fault. Having tested and tried every major pickup before settling on the Ram, I can say unequivocally that the Ram Laramie's interior beats them all by a mile.

    Very debatable comment. I personally do not like the Ram's interior, although I will agree it is pretty nice.
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    tritoxintritoxin Member Posts: 2
    Isn't the wood Ram uses real? I thought I remember some advertising spiel about how they used European sourced wood from trees that grew wrapped in barbed wire? no?
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    tritoxintritoxin Member Posts: 2
    Found it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?x-yt-cl=84924572&x-yt-ts=1422411862&v=BEwTloLYxv0#t=178

    They say its real wood
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    mcheathmcheath Member Posts: 13
    Yeah it's real wood. I'm surprised that "Ed Hellwig, Executive Editor" doesn't know this, seems like he ought to. Also surprised that some of the commenters can't tell it's real either. And as far as using real wood and black leather and plastic on doors the big name German makers have been doing it for many years, must not be any big deal then.
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