The Ram Quad Cab is about cavernous space. It offers buyers a roomy interior with conventional front doors and rear-hinged rear doors. The absence of a B-pillar makes it much easier to get in or out of the rear seat; it also makes it much easier to stick something behind the front seats. The door handles for the rear doors are integrated into the front interior face of the door, providing a more secure dual locking system for all four doors when the rear door is locked.
The Dodge Ram's big, wide instrument panel has a more modern layout than the original design. This includes a new steering wheel design, a big storage compartment, an extra power point, and new cupholders designed to handle any commercially available drink container. For 1999, the Ram comes with reduced-force air bags with a lockout for the passenger side.
In the wide-open Quad Cab doorway, the designers have integrated the front seat belts into the seats themselves. Among other things, this gets rid of a lot of messy hanging belts. The console has also been redesigned. Other interior features for 1999 include heated power mirrors, illuminated power door locks and window switches, and an optional security alarm system.
The front seat in all Rams is divided 40/20/40, with a huge fold-down center section that doubles as armrest and writing table. The cloth-covered seats in our test truck were nicely upholstered, plush, supportive and comfortable. When no one is sitting in it, the center position provides a large storage box, with divided spaces for coins, cassettes, maps or a laptop computer.
The Quad Cab rear seat is the same one used in other extended cab versions. It's handy for children, pets and petite adults, but it is not comfortable for adults on long trips. The rear seat is fitted with two shoulder belts and one lap belt. The bench portion of the seat flips up out of the way effortlessly from either side for hauling tools or cargo.
For 1999, the power window option comes with an express-down switch on the driver's side. Steering wheel mounted radio controls are optional. There are two new overhead console designs, one with and one without trip computer. On all models, a new rotary headlamp switch replaces the former pull switch design on the left side of the dash. The instrument pod features a new vacuum-fluorescent odometer and trip odometer that are tamperproof, and there are new driver-programmable keyless entry key fobs.
Our Ram 2500 was fitted with the 5.9-liter V8 and a 5-speed manual transmission. This engine has a ton of torque and a broad power band, which makes it a great deal of fun to drive. This is a great engine for heavy-duty use. It's the best choice if you need to pull a trailer, but don't want the diesel or the fuel bills generated by the V10.
A 5-speed V8 pickup truck may not be ideal for commuting, but it's great fun for cruising. Passing is effortless; a quick downshift and you're by. The manual adds flexibility in off-road situations. The low-end torque of the engine and the low gearing in first and second gears make it easy to get around in all dirt and rock driving situations, especially negotiating downhill gullies.
Front suspension on a Ram 4X4 is a coil spring setup with four leading arms, a track bar and a stabilizer bar to keep the front axle assembly located fore and aft and side to side. Rear suspension is a conventional live axle with leaf springs designed to carry heavy loads. The suspension in our 2500 model was smooth and quiet on the street, aided by big Goodyear RT/S tires.
But the body is so high off the ground that some passengers -- particularly females -- had a great deal of entry and exit difficulty even with a grab bar on the A-pillar. The high ground clearance also makes loading and unloading cargo more difficult. For these reasons, we would consider the two-wheel-drive models unless we thought we would really need four-wheel drive.
A new steering gear design along with new steering geometry make steering much more precise than earlier models. Steering in the earlier Rams was light and quick, but had a lot of dead space on-center and seemed to require constant left-right adjustments.
Braking, with discs in front, drums in rear, was exemplary. The Ram stops quickly with superb straight-line stability.
The other thing that may have improved is the build quality. Our truck was free of squeaks, rattles and shudders, and everything about it seemed a bit tighter, a bit smoother, a bit more high-quality than previous models we've driven.