Hello!
I have a question for which I have tried a search on this forum, but to no avail. I am sure that has probably been asked a hundred times already, so please go easy on me:

What is (was) the true reason Dodge discontinued their (true) Crew Cab model in their light duty pick-up line?

I had heard rumor that it had something to do with Ford owning a portion of Cummins, and that Dodge couldn't offer a (true) Crew Cab model until the contract to supply the Cummins power plant had expired.

Can somebody please set the record straight?

P.S.
F-250 SD owner and loving it!

 

I don't know exactly why Dodge discontinued their Crew Cab except it was way a head of it's time and lack of sales.

As far as it having anything to do with the cummins or ford is rediculas. First of all any rumors that includes Ford owning Cummins can be rejected as being invalid. That rumor should have been dead long ago.

Dodge discontinued the Crew Cab way before Cummins. From my understanding this was in the late 60 or very early 70's.

 

Lets keep this in the spirt of this fourm to make intelligent comparisons of other makes against ford.

 

Dodge had a crew cab until 1994. An ext. cab was not offered in the newer body style until 1995. There are a few pre-1994 Dodge crew cabs around, a few even having the Cummins. I suppose that since the crew cab was not sold very often, Dodge decided not to build one. Really, the crew cab has only been popular for a few years, since more and more people use their pickup for a car. One reason that Ford crewcabs are more common is probably because the 1-ton 4X4s only came in single cab or crew cab configs until 1999.

I have heard once that Ford owned the Dodge body style and did not allow the crew cab. This, like the "Ford owns Cummins" story, can be dismissed as BS.

A bit off topic, the Dodge "mega-cab" will be available in 2006, i believe. I do not know too much yet on the subject, but it looks like it will be BIG. There are a few pictures of it under plastic wraps.

 

From what I understand, Dodge discontinued their crew cabs and club cabs after 1985. Then they reintroduced the club cab for 1990-1993 models, and then again for 1995 and up. 1994's were regular cabs only. I have seen one 1993 Dodge crew cab dually, but it had special badges on it. Something about a custom conversion. I'm sure if you knew someone and had the right amount of money, you could get whatever you wanted. Ironically, Dodge was the first to offer a crew cab pickup, sometime in the sixties. I don't remeber exactly what year.

 

You could be right about that, although I think that the 90-93 was available in a crew cab version. It is very very rare.

 

Let me set the record straight.............I own Cummins. I bought it from Ford a couple of years ago, it's been mine ever since. Don't let anyone tell you different, it's all mine. I'm getting tired of all these rumors.

 

Well its about time Dodge got a desent crewcab. Pratically every superduty nowdays is a crewcab. A huge lost marketing oppertunity. Then they make another mistake and come out with an extended cab with a door. Another joke. Maybe this time they will get it right. I wonder whose in charge off Dodge trucks. I could do better then that.

 

Thanks everyone for your response, and thank you Tim Lamkin for keeping a close eye.

I am still not entirely convinced however that the rumor is false. From a marketing standpoint it does not make sense for Dodge to ignore this model niche. Especialy given the fact that over the past 4 years sales for the Crew Cab have soared with both Ford and GM. At the very least, it is marketing nescience. I also find it odd that Dodge did not produce a version with their latest body style release, a perfect timing opportunity. Hmmm.

 

Ford sold all their Cummmins Stock. Check the Cummins web page.

 

Dodges mega-cab is suppose to be a crew cab built on the long wheel base(4 door/ 8'box) chassis with a short box 6 3/4'), the extra length to be in the cab, maybe now an adult could sit in the back seat without feeling like a sardine.

 

F250Wildman,
You are correct.

Ford did own approximately 10% of Cummins in the 1990's. Myth "Busted". Their (Cummins) website will say they do not, but they are commenting on current status.

FRECSF,
You can read about it here:
http://dodgeram.org/tech/dsl/faq/diesel_faq.htm

My thoughts on this....
I am an investor myself. Owning 10% of the shares in a company the size of Cummins is policy making power. Back in the early 1990's nobody cared about a crew cab pick-up truck, but maybe that forward thinking CEO at Ford did.

 

The Dodge mistake you are referencing bascially allowed a longer bed. Try to stick a 6' post in the back of a Ford Super Crew and close the tailgate. It was a give and take for Dodge. Longer Bed (more truck like) or smaller cabin space. After all, the buzz on this forum is that we should be able to use our trucks as trucks. Having a 5' something bed is not going to do it when it comes to actually hauling a load that exceeds the bed limit.

 

Why I can get a 8ft bed and a SD Crew Cab.

 

People would rather have more room in there crewcab instead off being cramped. Get the longer bed if you want more room.