This struck me last weekend when I was at a Dodge dealer. Progressively, Dodge is changing the lines on the trucks and SUV's to more of an angular look. Case in point - the Dakota. It resembles the previous generation, but the lines are angular, the headlights are slanted farther back, and the rear fender is rigid instead of rounded. Then, I saw a commercial with the Dodge Nitro - same thing, definitely has Dodge styling, but the lines are more crisp, headlights angled back, angular grille. Then, I see the 06 Rams, still have rounded body lines, but angular grille and headlights.

My fear, is the 4th Gen Ram - say in or 08 or 09 is that it will resemble a current Dakota (probably with less angles though on the fenders). But still, you can see how Dodge is slowly removing the rounded edges from it's models, and replacing them with sharp, crisp lines. Now, I'm not going to rag on what the next Ram will look like. But, if their current models are starting to show case this, I think Dodge is just "shelling the beach" so to speak. Meaning, they are trying to get us used to this look, so when they come out with a choppy looking 4th Gen Ram, we all don't start screaming.

 

They might be testing the public with the dakota. Meaning that they want to see how people react to the new styling and if sales will go up or down. Now I don't know if they have already began designing the 4th gen rams, but it seems that this kind of "testing" would be a good idea to see what to do in the future. Sure, the 4th gen. rams are going to be redesigned a little, but I would hate to see something as drastic as what they did with the dakota or what Chevy did in 05(i think) with the silverado.