One glimpse of the massive horse-collar grille removes any doubt that the most powerful pickup design belongs to Dodge Ram. In 1994, the Dodge Ram redefined the pickup world with a tough, "big rig" look that took Dodge from an afterthought to a major player in the truck market almost overnight. The powerful overall design and instantly recognizable horse-collar grille of the 2002 Dodge Ram 1500 provided an excellent base for the 2003 Dodge Ram Heavy Duty, without the need to modify the overall shape and attitude.

"With the boldness of our 2002 Ram design, we didn't have to create a new image for the heavy-duty trucks," said Rick Aneiros, Vice President of Design and Ram Design Team Leader. "Tough, capable and powerful are the key elements of all Ram trucks.

"From the beginning of the design process, we knew that the power of the Dodge Ram design would lend itself extremely well to both the light-duty and heavy-duty Dodge Rams," Aneiros added. "The Ram grille, for instance, was designed to be large enough to incorporate the extra cooling needs necessitated by the heavy-duty powertrains, yet it still makes a powerful statement in either application. It says Ram."

The most evident change on both the Standard and Quad Cab designs is their dramatically sloping windshield. This feature gives the Ram cab a strong, powerful look. The deep compound curvature of the glass integrates into the full lines of the body panels. The large front doors are squared off at the bottom to fit with the new rear doors. The doors extend to the bottom of the sills, which helps give the truck a more robust look by eliminating the bottom cut line.

The doors on the all-new Dodge Ram 2500 and 3500 overlap the windshield pillars, and the windshield glass also overlaps the pillars, providing a smooth visual transition to the doors. Windshield water management, reduced wind noise and aerodynamic efficiencies are achieved in the windshield-to-door leading edge relationship, the exterior mirror forms and the body panel surfaces. Continuity of surface development is expressed in all the exterior panels. Fullness and crown are added to the hood surfaces, doors and fenders are amplified in the roof, cab back panel and rear window.

Similarly, the headlamp design is high-tech, precise and robust. Bubble-style lenses on each headlamp module are repeated in the bumper fascia, and perform far better than their predecessors while incorporating new construction and design technology. A dual-lamp system remains, but with the higher-valued look of a quad-lamp system. Likewise, brighter, jewel-like tail lamps are 30 percent larger.

The bumper, grille, upper fascia, and other elements of the front-end design expand out from the lamps. This front end retains all of the recognizable Dodge attributes-a crosshair grille, recognizable grille textures, strong surround collar-providing the same sense of strength, robustness and expressiveness expected from the brand. This Dodge face has become even more powerful with the 2003 Dodge Ram Heavy Duty.