I was playing on thier website on noticed the following:

1. Gone is the 3.55 axle ratio...now they have a 3.21. Why? So they can charge everyone the $50 for the 3.92 on the SLT. 3.92 is std on Sport. But the 3.55 is std on the TRX.
2. The cheapest radio upgrade is $950. The Infinity system wasn't worth the 6something I payed for it in the bundle option in 2004.
3. Now the aluminum wheels are standard instead of the chrome clad steel 17 inchers. I wouldn't pay the extra for steel when I can have aluminum. However, they are only showing a 20" aluminum as opposed to the Chrome clad wheels of last year on the SLT. The Sport has the 20" chrome clad std.
4. SLT and TRX models offer cloth seats only. Options on the Sport models, except Laramie which is standard of course.
5. Still charging us for 4 wheel ABS?

I guess it all comes down to marketing and what not.

Sorry guys, been really bored lately now that school is out for 2 weeks. Already detailed my truck and finished all the honey do's.

 

(Cutting standard options + charging for putting them back on + a price increase) - (more money in their pocket / me buying a Chevy next time x D/C realizing they messed up and lost a lot of customers by going the way of cheaping out) = oh ****, we screwed up and should have actually listened to our customer base!

I think I got the math right..........

 

Add to that the quiet decline in warranty lengths masked by the "oh, we will give you $2397 max to cover free gas for 2 years", as if that would ever cover it...

Israel

 

Some serious mathematics, but I do believe your right. I guess you guys kind of summed up what I was thinking, but I just couldn't put it into (the right) words. I guess they decided they lost too much money when they had the $5500 in rebates and employee pricing; which meant a lot of the trucks were selling 8K-12K less than sticker.

I can just here the VP saying "Damn guys, we could have made even more money by charging for every stupid thing and charging more for it. We don't want to lay off our employees like GM and Ford; we've got shareholders to think about."[:@]

 

There is one cosmetic thing that really bothers me about the 06, along with the rather large price increase, that being the gate protector/ugly black wing thing. GM had these in 05 and I made fun of my dad when he picked up is 05 Z71. They are ugly as sin. And it is standard, so you can not get one without ordering and deleting. If you take it off you will have holes in your gate.

 

I am not sure what you are referring to this gate protector. Anyone have a picture they can spare? .... I also didn't like the new gigantic headlights at first, but they are beginning to grow on me.

 

apparently it evens out airflow over the truck producing noticible mileage gains of the sort that MDS does not because our trucks are two heavy to ever run in cylinder dectivated mode. (Hemi/2)= 172.5 HP.

 

How do you figure? The 4.7 has a max around 240, v6 even less, and non of the gas engines run at/near max HP or torque below 2000rpm. This is absolutely a guess, but taking a stab at driveline losses and 1/2 max HP at 2000 rpm, thats only about 100hp on tap at 2k. I'm sure someone has a dyno sheet that would give more reliable info.

I agree with you in that I don't like the tailgate lip.

I have always wondered about how the MDS works. Its not like you can just stop fuel/spark from the other cylinders without creating a huge loss -- still have to spin the cylinders through the 4-stroke process unless they have some sort of supplimental valve actuators. Anybody have the scoop?

Israel

 

Yes..........look at this link Isreal. If you work down the web page, you will come to some well put togeather information about the MDS system.
Hope this helps?
http://www.allpar.com/mopar/new-mopar-hemi.html
Al

 

The link explains what I was looking for -- how they controlled the valves. But I don't quite grasp the concept of "The system deactivates the valve lifters. This keeps the valves in four cylinders closed, and there is no combustion. In addition to stopping combustion, energy is not lost by pumping air through these cylinders."

If you close the valves, the combustion chamber is then a fairly sealed enclosure. You can't move air in and out as the piston travels through its cycle, so by default, you are going to create compression and vacuum as the piston peaks at top and bottom.

Wouldn't this tend to create or increase blow-by at the rings? It might not create a load from pushing/pulling dead air through the valves, but it does have some added loading of the compression/vacuum strokes. I know D/C did extensive testing, just curious to know how it all works.

Israel