2002 Dodge Ram 1500; 'Big-rig' look goes one better.(Chrysler's new pickup truck)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)

Folks say the all-new 2002 Dodge Ram 1500 looks a lot like the old one. And they're right, at least when it comes to Dodge's patented ``big-rig'' look-the bold crossbar grille and muscular truck-on-steroids haunches visible from a football field away.

Chrysler's truck builders redefined ``truck'' when they unleashed the totally redone Ram back in 1994. The Ram's styling punched sales from 70,000 units per year to more than 200,000 in its first year on the market. By the time sales crested at 439,000 in 1999, Ram had established itself as Chrysler's top-selling vehicle and one of the leaders in the burgeoning U.S. truck segment.

Since then, every light truck maker on the planet has been playing catch-up, at least on styling. So it's easy to see why Dodge would retain most of the Ram's distinctive design. Why mess with a look other manufacturers have spent the last eight years trying to emulate?

``We feel it's a very, very nasty-looking machine,'' says Dennis Myles, senior manager of the Dodge truck studio. That's nasty in a good sense.

With success comes familiarity, and the 2002 Dodge Ram 1500 is evidence Chrysler would rather write the next chapter of this story than start a whole new book. The 2002 Ram full-size pickup, which debuted at the Chicago auto show in February, pumps up the front end and fenders, and keeps little niceties like the massive center armrest/laptop computer desk. But that's where the similarities end.

Under all that gleaming sheetmetal and chrome, the '02 Ram offers two new engines, the first-ever rack-and-pinion steering on two-wheel-drive and four-wheel-drive models, and a new torsion-bar independent front suspension on 4wd models (vs. coil springs on 2wd versions). Inside, there's more than three inches of extra cab space and, for the first time for a full-size truck, side-curtain airbags. Supporting it all is a hydroformed frame Dodge says increases torsional rigidity by 400 percent.

Dodge carries over the 5.9-liter Magnum V8 for all models. At 245 hp, Ram's biggest engine offering is an even match with the 4.7-liter V8 in Toyota's Tundra, but comes in well below the 285-hp 5.3-liter V8 in General Motors' Silverado and Sierra, as well as the 260-hp 5.4-liter V8