Behind the Scenes: Long Hours Lead to Successful Ram Debut

By Russ Ruedisueli
Program Manager, 2009 Dodge Ram

DETROIT - When I woke up Sunday morning, I knew it would be a make-it-or-break-it kind of day. I’m sure most of you out there can relate to something like this…be it buying a house, a huge project at work or anything that takes up months or even years of your life. All that effort focused toward a single day or goal.

In the car and truck business, projects like the redesign of the Ram - a hugely popular and crucial product to our company - often come down to how the vehicle is received during its World Debut. For the 2009 Ram, that day had come.

It’s one thing to sit around with everyone at work and congratulate ourselves on how great we think the truck is while it’s in development. It’s quite another to see how the world (and the competition) judge your work in the broad light of day, with cameras firing and questions from the media flying. Within moments of our “cattle call” down the streets of Detroit, the Ram and its image and specs were worldwide on the Internet. These days, the success of the debut is felt almost immediately. Heck, my daughter watched the whole thing live on the Web from home with my wife. (Now they can see why dad’s been putting in so many hours these past few months.)

So it was with hearty anticipation that five of us from the Ram team sat down to breakfast on Sunday at a spot in Telegraph Road nearby, piling on the eggs and bacon (well, one guy ate oatmeal…but I won’t sell him out here) to steel ourselves for the day ahead. We had put everything into this project, pouring hours and millions of development dollars into this new, cutting edge design. We focused on the interior, trying to lead the pack in the touch and feel of materials and appearance. We upgraded the stereo. We broke with convention to deliver a better rear suspension system to this class of truck. We improved the fit and finish. Even the little things, like the air dam between the cab and the bed to improve wind resistance, are decisions we put a lot of thought into. And now, they’re subject to everyone’s opinions…with major debuts from our competition sitting just a couple hundred feet from this podium for comparison.

So now, I’m prowling the Internet looking for feedback…honest feedback from people who we hope to have blown away with this new Ram. I’m happy to say it’s been a great day thus far. In many ways, my expectations have been exceeded by the tremendous early response to our 2009 Ram. And it’s responses like that which make all the time and effort more than worth it.