Bigger is better -- thinking big pays off for the 2006 Dodge Ram Mega Cab pickup truck.
You only need look around to understand that "Bigger Is Better" has become the underlying theme for the times in which we live. From warehouse stores that sell toilet paper in pallet-size bundles to restaurants that serve plates of food big enough to stand on, American society seems to have taken the notion of "if a little is good, a lot must be better" to heart.
While the wisdom of this world view is open to debate, our recent experience behind the wheel of the brand-new 2006 Dodge Ram Mega Cab has us thinking that some good may come out of the super-sizing trend, after all.
People-Oriented Pickup
Sales of full-size four-door pickups have tripled in the last five years, thanks to a new breed of buyers, folks who are more likely to use their trucks to haul kids than construction materials.
With this personal-pickup market niche in mind, Dodge designers and engineers set about massaging the cab-to-bed proportions of the existing longbed Ram 2500. To keep things simple, they retained its 160-inch wheelbase and 247.7-inch overall length, but ditched the eight-foot box in favor of a shorter six-foot, three-inch version.
That change opened up a 20-inch gap between the bed and cab, which designers then filled with a stretched passenger cabin. The result is a truck with the largest interior of any full-size four-door pickup on the market--more than a foot longer than the Mega Cab's closest competitor--and the hands-down class winner in terms of comfort and practicality.