Well, would you look at that — after a decade and a half of sitting on the sidelines, Ram has finally remembered it used to make a mid-size pickup. Yes, the Dakota — that charmingly brutish, V8-snorting little truck that went out of production in 2011 — is coming back. Sort of. In 2028.

Better late than never, right?

Ram’s parent company, Stellantis, has announced a $13 billion investment in the United States, and tucked among all the corporate optimism is confirmation that a new mid-size Ram pickup is coming. It’ll be built in Toledo, Ohio, the same plant that currently churns out Jeep Wranglers and Gladiators. That means one thing: body-on-frame toughness. No soft-road, latte-fetching unibody nonsense here. This thing’s coming for the Ford Ranger, Chevy Colorado, GMC Canyon, and Toyota Tacoma — the Mount Rushmore of proper trucks.

The original plan was to build it at Stellantis’s Belvidere, Illinois, plant, but that facility’s now being resurrected for a new Jeep Cherokee and Compass duo. Meanwhile, in Michigan, Stellantis will also roll out a big new SUV (somewhere between “internal combustion” and “range-extended EV,” whatever that marketing soup means), and Detroit’s getting a fresh Dodge Durango by 2029.

All this is part of CEO Antonio Filosa’s big “let’s fix Stellantis” initiative. He’s promising American jobs, expanded choices, and a grand return to giving customers what they actually want — which, translated from PR-ese, means “V8s, noise, and vehicles with a pulse.”

And to be fair, he’s off to a good start. Filosa’s undoing years of… shall we say, Tavares-ian minimalism. Under the previous boss, Stellantis went full monk — ditching V8s, fumbling the EV rollout, and trying to make Jeep posh. Spoiler: it didn’t work.

Now, the tide’s turning. The Ram 1500 V8 is back. Jeep’s getting its mojo again. Dodge still makes things that frighten small children and delight adults. The vibes are good.

But here’s the rub: 2028. That’s when this mysterious mid-size Ram finally shows up. Which means it’ll hit the market just in time to battle the next generation of Rangers, Colorados, and Tacomas — trucks that will have already evolved, maybe sprouted solar panels or learned to talk.

So yes, Ram’s back in the game. It’s just taking the scenic route — at 45 mph, with the blinker on.

Still, if the new Dakota (or whatever they call it) really is a tough, Wrangler-sibling bruiser with proper off-road cred and some American brawn under the hood, then maybe, just maybe, the wait will be worth it.

Until then, we’ll keep watching from the sidelines, polishing our old V8 Dakotas and muttering: “You could’ve been here years ago, mate.”

Source: Ram