In Bob Lutz’s book, he discussed the revolutionary styling of the ‘94 Ram. Whereas the general rule for evaluating new designs was to show them to focus groups and go with what was liked by the largest % of the people in the groups, when they did the new Ram they went a different route by looking for a design that got the biggest reaction and for one that people actually either loved or hated, not just liked. The thought was that a design that a certain number of people loved would strongly motivate them to buy, and with Dodge then being a distant 3rd in the pickup truck market, that was what was needed to get their brand out of the cellar by gaining increased sales.
It was a bold and ingenious concept as it put Dodge in the spotlight and resulted in their truck sales getting up there with GM and Ford, which continues to this day over 25 years later. Who knows if Dodge/Ram trucks would even still be on the market today if they’d gone with more conventional styling instead back in ‘94?
I loved the design myself and decided I would buy one, a ‘95 1500 I bought used in ‘97. I’m in the market now and can live with the new styling, but much prefer the previous look. I’d rather buy a used 2018 if the used market wasn’t so inflated currently.
An engineer colleague of mine said that although not publicized, GM’s final design for the new truck was chosen by a special needs kid as a Make a Wish event. If true, that’s nice and charitable of them but no way to sell trucks!