S3, E74 - Have You Heard? Truck News!

Have you heard?

It's truck news!

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Have you heard?

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Have you heard?

No, no, no.

Actually, before we get into it, I've got an interstitial that I just really like.

And normally, I play these between the news stories, and they're just engine sounds or

exhaust notes that people have sent me, or vehicles I've tested, or just cool sounding

things that I've run across in my travels.

So I'm going to play this one for this episode.

And I bet you'll never guess what it is.

It's so cool that when I heard it, and this is probably not even the best clip, it was

just a good Rev clip, which are the ones I like to use.

Actually, let me play the entire clip, and then you can hear it.

And while you're thinking about it, see if you can guess what vehicle or engine or whatever

this is.

All right, so I love the way that sounded.

I'm not going to tell you what it is right now.

It's just kind of cool.

I'll save it for the end of the episode, and then you'll have time to think about it

after you hear it a few times.

All right, sound fair?

All right, so let's get into the show.

Have you heard?

No, no, no.

All right, so here's a good one for you guys, and that's that the new Ram Dakota was recently

revealed to Ram dealers at the National Automobile Dealer Association show in Las Vegas.

And I talked to some people who were there and read some stuff online.

Some tidbits are trickling out, and it sounds like the dealers are super excited.

So if you remember the last time the Dakota name was used, it was the Dodge Dakota back

in 2011, and it basically had ended a 25-year production run.

And then since then, you've got the midsize segment dying out, and then the reemergence

of the midsize segment with everybody having a new product in the last few years, which

has been pretty amazing.

And the only manufacturer who makes a large truck that isn't playing in that space is

Ram.

And so dealers have been waiting, waiting, waiting, and we do know it'll be body on frame.

Sounds like it'll probably be Crew Cab only at least to launch, but not 100% on that.

And they didn't talk about the powertrain, but there's a few whispers, whether it's

E-Torque or maybe even the Hurricane 2-Liter or 3-Liter, is it going to be the 4 or the

6?

Don't know, but could you imagine the Hurricane Straight 6 in that truck?

Oh, man.

Even the standard output would be, I mean, it would blow the doors off of just about anything

in that segment.

But even the 2-Liter Hurricane, I think, would be up to the task considering a lot of other

rivals are 4-cylinder only now, but if you could put the Straight 6 in there, you might

have something.

Anyway, so while there weren't a lot of details as far as powertrain specs and things like

this, dealers say this truck looks awesome.

It is the right product, even though it's a little bit of a ways out, but it's a reset,

right?

Because this is going to give Ram a chance to compete in that $40,000 price range where

the half tons can no longer compete, right?

Because the classic DS series has gone and the 1500 DT is more expensive, right?

It's up in the $50,000 range.

This gives Ram an entry-level truck.

It's something that is sorely needed.

So it's going to start production in 2028 in the north part of the Toledo assembly complex.

So that's where the Jeep Wrangler and the Gladiator are built.

And there's 400 million that Stellantis has invested in this project.

And they say 900 jobs in Toledo and that they are targeting annual sales of more than 100,000

units.

So that means that this isn't just going to be a lash in the pan.

Ram is going to be serious.

And everything I've heard so far says that this truck has the looks and at least the

promise of capability to do it.

And according to the drive, there were a couple quotes that came out of there.

This one I liked, Adrian Gonzalez, general manager of Paine, Edinburgh, Chrysler, Dodge,

Jeep, Ram and Texas said, it really did look nice.

Toledo better be careful.

We're going to start competing with them when it comes to the Tacoma.

That says a lot.

So coming from a bunch of angry dealership guys who feel like they've been kind of host

for a while is pretty big for them to see the product and get turned around.

So I'm super excited about this.

It's definitely a truck I consider.

If it comes with all the things that Ram is known for, especially the really high end

quality interior, the quiet ride, all that kind of good stuff.

And then just one more thing to point out, just because it's going to be built at Toledo

does not mean it's going to be a solid axle.

So there's no expectation of this being a full steel gladiator chassis, full steel

body on it.

This will be an IFS truck.

So in case anybody was reading into that quote, oh, it's going to be a gladiator with a normal

body on it without the convertible and removable doors and all that.

No, that's not what I'm saying.

And I don't think there's any expectation that this will be an IFS truck with a solid

axle and rear body on frame, midsize, anyway, we'll see.

Looks promising.

I just wish we didn't have to wait so long.

So in a story that sent cheers through the automotive aftermarket, especially on the

truck side with the heavy duties and diesels, the Department of Justice, Environment and

Natural Resources Division put out a post on X at the end of January.

Today, the Justice Department is exercising its enforcement discretion to no longer pursue

criminal charges under the Clean Air Act based on allegations of tampering with onboard

diagnostic devices in motor vehicles.

And it followed up with DOJ as committed to sound enforcement principles, efficient

use of government resources and avoiding over-criminalization of federal environmental

laws.

In partnership with the EPA, DOJ will still pursue civil enforcement for these violations

when appropriate.

So this is not a carte blanche to go start making tunes and all that kind of stuff, but

it does sound like the criminal portion of it is going to be paused and they will still

come after you for civil liability.

Now, that being said, this specifically mentioned the Clean Air Act and tampering with onboard

diagnostic devices.

So that tells me that's the computer and not necessarily DPFs and DEFs or EGRs and things

like this.

So, SEMA's president and CEO Mike Spagnola wanted to get out ahead of this and this is

what he says, quote unquote, this is a welcome end to overly harsh penalties for violations

that are otherwise addressed through civil enforcement.

SEMA believes in following the law and federal law is clear with regard to tampering of

emission systems or profiting from the sales of products that enable such behavior.

SEMA remains committed to working with federal regulators at the U.S. Environmental Protection

Agency to ensure our industry has a voice in the development of policies impacting

compliance with federal and state laws with regard to emissions and safety and creating

a path for our industry to continue its innovation.

So, it'll be interesting to see what happens with deletes and things like that.

So, you've probably heard in the news also that the current EPA administrator, Lee Zeldin,

wanted to make deregulation a big part of his tenure and they also are working on things

to eliminate the start-stop that everybody hates in vehicles but also to wipe out limp

mode from modern diesels when you run out of DEF so it doesn't leave you stranded and

in a separate story but I'll go ahead and cover it here.

Here's what's going on with the limp mode.

So, on February 3rd, Administrator Zeldin put out a press release on the EPA website

and it's entitled, Administrator Zeldin takes additional measures to address diesel exhaust

fluid issues for American farmers and truckers and he basically says, today U.S. Environmental

Protection Agency, Administrator Zeldin took another step to further the Trump EPA's work

to address widespread concerns about farmers, truckers, motor coach operators and other

diesel equipment operators regarding diesel exhaust fluid system failures as a follow-up

to the new guidance in August of 25, reversing deratements that were harming farmers and

truckers, the EPA is pursuing rulemaking opportunities to provide further relief for

Americans to strengthen the agency's ongoing efforts, EPA is demanding information from

major diesel engine manufacturers on critical data from DEF system failures.

The data collected will allow the EPA to independently evaluate ongoing system failures

and help inform next steps the agency will take in 2026 pertaining to DEF and Administrator

Zeldin has a quote in that and he says, as I traveled to all 50 states during my first

year as EPA Administrator, I heard from truck drivers, farmers and many others rightly complaining

about DEF and pleading for a fix.

EPA understands that this is a massive issue, which is why we've already established common

sense guidance for manufacturers to update DEF systems.

Today, we're furthering that work in demanding detailed data to hold manufacturers accountable

for the continued system failures, the Trump EPA is committed to ending unnecessary frustrations

and days lost on the road and in the field for American farmers and truckers.

And I think, you know, basically what's going on, right, is you get your DEF is coming

low, your diesel exhaust fluid, so the emissions go up if you run out.

And so under the previous administration or rules, what would happen is you start going

into limp mode, either you'd be capped on speed or shut down, you could leave you stranded

all because you ran out of a fluid, even though the vehicle is perfectly capable of running.

Those are tractors and combines that can't finish farming before you can go get it, you

know, gallons upon gallons of DEF out there that somebody driving cross country in their

truck that, you know, and we've seen it on the truck side.

I can't tell you how many friends I've had with failures of that system on the truck

where they have to pay thousands of dollars to keep it in compliance.

And there's a friend of mine who had a truck where that system, it was one of the earlier

ones was almost as expensive as what the truck was worth.

And then what do you do?

So they mandate the system and it basically can leave you with a vehicle that's worthless

and inoperable.

And that's not right.

Yes, we should care about emissions.

Yes, we should care about doing the right thing.

But at the same time, we need to make sure we're not doing it at the expense of people's

safety and livelihood either.

There's a balance in there.

And I think this is going toward that.

So good news coming out of the EPA this past few weeks, which is pretty neat.

And then a couple of extra points to note.

Going back to the August 2025 order, the EPA at that time said, on-road heavy duty trucks

should receive a warning light for 650 miles or 10 hours after a DEF fault is detected.

And then after that, the engine will only mildly derate, allowing you to operate normally

without speed limits for 4,200 miles, which equates to about two work weeks in a big truck.

Then after four weeks, the trucks would be governed to 25 miles per hour until the repairs

were made.

Non-road diesel would see no impacts from running out of DEF or mechanical failure of

the DEF system for the first 36 hours.

And then after that, the equipment would give a torque reduction.

And then we'll see if they actually get to a point where model year 2027 and later has

no powered loss from running out of DEF.

The other thing that is important to note is there's also another piece of rulemaking

policy coming through right now, and that's the right to repair.

And so the EPA noted Americans have the right to repair their farm and other non-road diesel

equipment under the Clean Air Act, but there's also SEMA's right to repair to ensure that

consumers have the tools and that the OEs aren't able to lock all that away and make

money off of repairs and things like that.

So there's a lot of different things happening right now, and they're kind of converging,

and there's a lot of awareness around things like right to race, right to repair, DEF,

emissions, all of those things that have made modern vehicle ownership difficult at best

are being looked at again.

So I'm excited.

Hopefully model 2027 and forward isn't impacted too much by something else like ADOS, but

it sounds like, you know, there's a lot of things happening that are in the enthusiast

favor right now.

And well, you got to love that.

So here's a story that I absolutely love.

It came out at the end of last year, and it's just been on the list of, you know, news

items, it's got buried by other more important things.

But you guys know, I was part of a Motor Trend Initiative with Rivian several years ago,

I've been five years ago now, to do the entire Transamerica Trail in the Rivian R1T and prove

that it could be an adventure vehicle off-road, all that kind of stuff.

So we've talked a little bit about what the Transamerica Trail or the TAT is, and it's

one of the most scenic, most amazing routes, and probably the only one that's mostly dirt

that spans the entire country.

So it's a continuous network of unpaved roads that connect coast to coast.

And it's about 5,900 miles long.

And it is in some of the most remote areas of the country as well.

There's no official signs, at least not along its entirety.

You got to know what's up.

So this is really interesting because Ford and Google Maps got together and they did

something that had never been done before, and they put the entire Transamerica Trail

basically on Street View.

So you can go to Google Maps right now, find the Transamerica Trail, and you can go and see

the entire length of it, which is super rad.

You remember, Mercedes and Andy Lilienthal came on not too long ago, talking about their

trip on the Transamerica Trail in Subaru.

So if you're curious, like, what did they do?

Well, this is it.

So back in August, they took three off-road capable Ford vehicles, and there's a small team.

They're equipped with Google Maps new Street View cameras.

It was a Ford Bronco Badlands that got all the imagery.

There was a Ranger, Lariat, and Expedition Tremor that carried the rest of the crew and all the

gear that was needed.

And the Ford Convoy tracked from Oregon all the way to North Carolina.

They went over all the terrain, obstacles, everything, took them 32 days, and they were

able to capture the entire trail for Street View.

And they camped, they stayed in motels, they cooked meals on the side of the road, and it's

now totally captured on the internet.

And you can drive virtually on the Transamerica Trail, and you can see all sorts of cool things

like cows in the road and all sorts of stuff like that.

And you can see some of the great obstacles and some of the weather and all of that.

So of course, the Bronco Badlands had the Sasquatch package, so 35s and shocks and all the

off-roading bits on there.

Ford has like a newsletter site called fromtheroad.ford.com.

So if you check that out, they go through their days, right?

So day one in Oregon, and they talked about how five hours in, they hit their first road block,

and that was lack of the road.

And they saw that the road was completely washed out, and there's a huge hole in the

forest floor.

So they rerouted, got on track, and next obstacle was a herd of cows.

And, you know, they go into day eight in Utah where there was just nothing, you know, some

amazing landscape out there.

And it's just, it's a fun read.

There's some amazing scenery, and the fact that it's street viewed is pretty awesome.

So you can go to Google Maps and check it out.

But that one was near and dear to my heart.

I wish they would have said something about going on that.

I would have, that would have been a great trip to go and document.

But the Ford team did it, and they've got a bunch of photos online, again, from

theroad.ford.com, or head over to your Google Maps to Street View and find the

trans-American trail and go get sucked down that rabbit hole for a while and just

see what 5,900 continuous miles looks like on an off-road trail.

So AEV's been in the news lately, and here's another one.

I know the last time we talked about them was the new FXL Ford Super Duty based truck.

But Chevy, they have a bunch of like fleet-only colors, right?

And you can only get them if you're a fleet person.

Well, AEV apparently got their hands on being able to do the 2026 Chevy Silverado

HDZR2 in Tangier Orange, which is, if you go back to the old show truck days, it's

kind of like a tangelo, some like metallic tangerine.

It's a cool color.

And you can go to AEV's online configurator.

It adds $350 to the cost of the AEV package.

It's the color code 9W4.

But since it's fleet-only, I'm guessing that AEV is able to order it as a fleet

thing and then build up a customer's truck, which is pretty cool.

So by selecting this option, AEV will factory build you a Tangier Orange Silverado

HDZR2 Bison as the ultra-limited special order upgrade.

And it'll come with the factory suspension, but 37-inch BFG all-terrain

KO3 tires.

It'll have AEV wheels on it.

It'll get the standard AEV package for the Silverado HDZR2 Bison.

So that's the AEV Salta wheels, come-up solo of 12.5 RS winch, AEV Rear Bumper,

auxiliary lighting kit, and then, of course, the AEV styling package and their

AEV branding and the serialized build plaque to show that it's a factory build.

And then you can also get a bunch of optional stuff and just keep clicking boxes

that includes the snorkel, bronze finish for the wheels, AEV differential cover,

vertical or horizontal spare tire mounts, color-matched leader truck cap,

Go Fast Camper's V2 Pro Camper, or Kuat Bed Rack.

And AEV's got some pictures on their website and you can also find it online,

but it's a great-looking truck.

In fact, I like the way that truck looks so much.

I may just steal it for the tile on this episode.

At the same dealer meeting where Ram unveiled the Dakota, well, guess what?

Some Nissan stuff got shown and it sounds pretty awesome.

The XTERRA, which was shown to the dealership crowd, is said to be arriving in the second half of 2028.

Yep. Uh-huh.

Yeah, body and frame XTERRA in yellow.

But there's more.

You guys gotta stop cheering for a sec.

There's more.

So the XTERRA will spawn an Infinity variant, a body and frame Pathfinder, again, which is super rad,

a new frontier pickup and an Infinity QX60.

They're all going to share the body and frame platform and all be built in the U.S.

to avoid tariffs and lower costs.

You can bet that electrification is not just going to be in one of those models,

they'll be platform-wide.

We don't know if it's going to be a hybrid or range extender or what, but there'll be some sort.

Anyway, back in November, the drive reported that the XTERRA is going to cost less than $40,000

and will have a two-speed transfer case.

So four low has definitely been confirmed.

And then dealers were saying things like the new XTERRA is radical looking, that it's beefy,

that it's no frills, that it looks muscular, that it has the XTERRA DNA,

but there's an aggression to it.

There's a modern twist to it.

And it sounds like everybody who saw it, everything was positive.

And by the way, people just know how coveted the XTERRA is and they just price it.

The ones who have it don't want to let them go.

Great SUV and I'm stoked to see it coming back and that it's going to spawn some other vehicles.

And this news out of Nissan is the Nismo lineup is going to expand to at least 10 performance vehicles.

Sounds like not just the cars.

I think you saw that in the Nismo and Moda that we talked about.

So there's going to be some higher performance stuff on the way.

My guess Nismo Frontier pickup truck again.

I would be all about that.

Yeah, buddy.

All right.

So did you guys figure out what our interstitial was?

All right.

Well, not yet because we got to hit some recall news first.

All right.

So this one is for, can you guess?

No.

All right.

This one's for General Motors vehicles.

And this is kind of a weird one.

If you own a modern General Motors vehicle, the Colorado, the Canyon,

the Traverse, the Acadia, the Enclave, the Equinox, the Terrain,

then technical bulletin PIT 6458 may be for you.

And this is for owners who have experienced a no crank or no start condition

requiring a tow or a jump start to the dealer.

And the diagnosis is typically an excessive battery draw,

but then nobody can figure out why there's a battery draw.

Nothing is showing up.

So GM has found the culprit.

It's your spare change.

That ain't true.

That's not true.

So get your facts straight.

Nope, it's true.

A newly issued GM service bulletin says that loose change or a coin lodged

in the driver's door switch panel is the source of a parasitic battery drain

in many recent model SUVs and trucks.

So basically what's causing it is a coin can slip from your hand or your pocket

and they get wedged under one of the buttons on the master window switch assembly.

And when it lodges in there, it completes a circuit.

And that circuit allows current to flow continuously from the battery,

even if the vehicle is off draining it.

So GM engineers confirmed it and they said, oh, the design got this vulnerability,

quote unquote, the switch is rocker design can trap a coin just enough to bridge the contacts.

So the fix is no parts to just a little bit of labor.

They'll inspect the driver's window switch for any visible foreign objects.

And obviously they'll be able to see it.

If a coin is present, they'll remove it.

The bulletin also instructs service personnel to educate the customer

of this condition, encourage them that coins should be stored away from the window switch.

And GM authorizes 0.2 hours of labor for this.

So quote unquote, lodged coin removal under warranty to cover that.

Anyway, it's just interesting because it's one of those things that modern vehicles,

there's so many electronics, something as simple as some loose change can leave you stranded.

All right, back to our exhaust.

Have you figured it out?

Have you spent this episode thinking about it?

Do you want to hear the clip one more time?

Here we go.

And I assure you that this sounded even better in person.

If you haven't figured it out yet, I'm sure by now you've guessed old.

You would be right.

And you may have guessed that that's not a stock exhaust.

And you may have guessed I was just at Borla.

So maybe it's something I recorded there.

And maybe you guess it was an old Ford High Boy.

And on top of that, maybe you said that doesn't sound like a V8.

It must be a Ford Bumside High Boy four-wheel drive powered by the

venerable and potent 400 straight six.

So if you guessed that, you guessed right.

And you can take your Know Your Note knowledge to the bank.

All right, so I hadn't played that in a while.

And I just felt like this was a good time for it.

And I missed that jingle.

I miss guessing stuff with lightning and getting them wrong.

I don't know why I like that so much.

I guess I just missed a lot.

So anyway, on that note, it's just like a day of puns here in the pod shed.

You can hear yourself right here on the Truck Show Podcast.

Also, we got to thank our friends over at Ansoil, Kershaw Knives and OVR Magazine.

And don't forget to leave us a review.

There's no better way to support the show than by sharing it and patronizing our sponsors.

Some vehicles may have been harmed during the making of this podcast.

Are you feeling any good?

S3, E74 - Have You Heard? Truck News!

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