Posted June 30 2009 07:22 AM by Jeffrey Jablansky
Filed under: Car Ramblings & Reviews
Automobile Blog
Everyone seemed a little shocked when I, the office’s token transplanted New Yorker, expressed interest in driving the two largest vehicles currently in our fleet, the Dodge Ram and Ford F-150.
“Have you ever driven anything that big before?” someone asked.
“Does anyone even drive pickups this size out East?” asked another. The story was even pitched to me as, “New York city boy comes to the Midwest, experiences big manly trucks in their native setting.”
Guys, come on. (I don’t look like that much of a “city boy.” Right?)
How hard could it be? I’ve used a previous-generation Toyota Land Cruiser and a Series-II Land Rover Discovery before that as daily drivers. If I can squeeze them into parking spaces in the Big Apple, I should definitely be able to wheel a pickup truck around the block in Ann Arbor.
Earlier in the week, I walked out to the parking garage to have a look at our test vehicles. There, parked with their noses extending into the flow of traffic, obscuring the path of dueling subcompacts fighting for spaces, sat the largest, longest, and highest-end versions of the Ram and F-150. In the garage, sandwiched among Civics and Camrys, the trucks finally revealed their maxed-out scale. With a healthy grin, I set out two days later with associate editor Eric Tingwall and photography intern Andrew Trahan to test the mettle of these luxurious yet brutish trucks in the supposedly rugged Midwest.
“Have you ever driven anything that big before?” someone asked.
“Does anyone even drive pickups this size out East?” asked another. The story was even pitched to me as, “New York city boy comes to the Midwest, experiences big manly trucks in their native setting.”
Guys, come on. (I don’t look like that much of a “city boy.” Right?)
How hard could it be? I’ve used a previous-generation Toyota Land Cruiser and a Series-II Land Rover Discovery before that as daily drivers. If I can squeeze them into parking spaces in the Big Apple, I should definitely be able to wheel a pickup truck around the block in Ann Arbor.
Earlier in the week, I walked out to the parking garage to have a look at our test vehicles. There, parked with their noses extending into the flow of traffic, obscuring the path of dueling subcompacts fighting for spaces, sat the largest, longest, and highest-end versions of the Ram and F-150. In the garage, sandwiched among Civics and Camrys, the trucks finally revealed their maxed-out scale. With a healthy grin, I set out two days later with associate editor Eric Tingwall and photography intern Andrew Trahan to test the mettle of these luxurious yet brutish trucks in the supposedly rugged Midwest.
See the rest of the story here: http://bit.ly/EW93x
Just saying what we knew at Dodge all along… Enjoy the article!
Tunkhannock Auto Mart www.TunkAutoMart.com