Judging how a vehicle interior will work in the long term is difficult based on a short test drive. Some things like the placement of a control might seem odd the first time, but will quickly become familiar. Other issues like seat comfort might not be immediately apparent without logging some hours behind the wheel.
I have sampled several variations of the 2009 Dodge Ram 1500, which has been recognized for its stylish and user-friendly interior, but a recent opportunity to take a 600-mile road trip in a Ram gave me a chance to really appreciate it. To get some insight into the design and development process of the Ram interior, I talked to Klaus Busse, who was the manager of truck interiors for DaimlerChrysler when the new Ram was developed, and is now director of Chrysler, Dodge and Jeep interiors.
“We did customer research to an extent we never did before,” Busse said. “It was especially enlightening to see what [our customers] use trucks for.” Busse, who was fresh from Germany and 10 years at Mercedes-Benz, admits it took spending time with truck owners in Texas to really understand the pickup truck phenomenon in America.
“It blew us away to realize people really live in it,” he said. “Some are even on the road for a year or half a year.”
Perhaps the biggest hurdle was that the existing interiors at that time “weren’t good enough,” Busse said. “Maybe they were OK for the market back then, but interiors are the new battleground. It’s where it’s happening these days. Anybody can do a good exterior.”
There were some positives about the outgoing Ram, but the team decided to start over.
“Honestly, it was a clean sheet of paper,” he explained. “But we looked back to see what customers liked and disliked, like materials and fit and finish. Functionality and capability were always good.”
Three themes made it to the full-size clay model stage, which three stylists worked on with about a half-dozen engineers. This ramped up to dozens when the final design was chosen. That decision was made rather quickly, according to Busse.
“We realized we needed to focus on one model,” he recalled, “and not split the team into three.”
The Ram heavy duty for 2010 was also being developed at the same time as the Ram 1500 so as not to further divide up funding and engineering resources.
“We spent more time on details by focusing on one interior,” Busse said.
Dodge has been emphasizing the Ram’s appeal for the personal-use owner.
“More and more people use trucks for private uses like taking the family out to dinner,” Busse said. “We wanted to make it something they would be proud of valet parking.”
But what about the work truck customer, especially for the heavy duty? Were any compromises made in the design? He said, “Not really.”
Knowing that the base-level ST buyers don’t need the “living room on wheels,” they still get the same high level of style and quality of materials as the higher trim choices, with certain aspects tweaked for the working driver. The ST instrument panel is a rugged hard plastic, and the upper glove box has no door, following the thinking that a large, easily accessible space would be more useful in a work application. All the higher trim levels have a door on the upper glove box.
The double glove box is quite handy, as are the numerous storage areas throughout the interior, but two things really stood out on my trip: the seats and the gauges. The seats were supportive in all the right places, and I never fidgeted for a new position or had to readjust the seat during three- to four-hour stints. Busse said he thinks they are “the most comfortable seats in the whole company.”
The gauge graphics are an easy-to-read white on black, with crisp LED backlighting. Busse said this reflects “honesty and the simple-to-use design” of Dodge interiors in general.
“People use their trucks as a tool,” he said. “You want to see the gauges with a quick glance.”
I contrasted it with a competitive product with less-easy-to-see silver gauge faces, and Busse explained that in a dusk or dawn situation, the silver paint swallows the green LEDs.
“I think we found a successful aesthetic recipe,” Busse said of the Ram truck interiors. “I see us developing that in future trucks, definitely looking back at what we’ve done.”
