Pound-for-pound our new long-term Dodge Ram Laramie Crew Cab might have more chrome on it than any other vehicle currently on sale. That's not a dig. We like chrome. It looks good. We like shiny things. Some of us even like Las Vegas.
But recently my nearly 4-year-old daughter took a rare break from her tricycle laps around the back yard to demonstrate another use for the shiny stuff: coif checking. Once the hair-clip was returned to its rightful place, she hopped back aboard her red machine and continued the race.
Dodge has not yet figured out how to make customers pay extra for this dual-function chrome bumper.
Daniel Pund, Senior Editor, Detroit @ 664 miles
canadia says:
09:23 AM, 07/ 9/09
It seems that red is a preferred Pund family vehicle color.
On a side note, i was a proud owner/operator of that very same red trike growing up. I guess it's a pretty popular (and antiquated) design.
mrryte says:
09:38 AM, 07/ 9/09
The sight of small child behind this truck begs this question: does this vehicle have backup sensors?
ctsowner says:
09:40 AM, 07/ 9/09
Bling bling baby!
epbrown says:
10:06 AM, 07/ 9/09
@canadia: I was thinking the same thing about the trike. Surely in the past few decades someone's come up with a better design? BMW has made skateboards and bicycles - surely there's a $700 carbon fiber tricycle out there somewhere.
fuhteng says:
10:12 AM, 07/ 9/09
You sissys and your trikes! I had a Big Wheel! It was blue and yellow, not red.
I am sure there are stupidly expensive trikes out there, but that may well be Dan's from his childhood.
danielpund says:
10:27 AM, 07/ 9/09
True, the trike is an old design. But it's also essentially a perfect design...for a trike, anyway. The Radio Flyer wagon, also in the picture, is a totally new design that's just horrible. The tall-sided box is fine and the fold-up seat backs and seatbelts are nice. But the front wheels are now caster-like things that never seem to want to point in the same direction instead of the old design, where they turned in response to the handle/rudder. I suspect the company was trying to prevent kids from climbing in the box and launching themselves downhill while trying to steer with that handle, because that's dangerously stupid fun. I have the 30-year-old scars to prove it.
Ironically, the card-board box that this wagon came in had a silhouetted picture of a kid doing exactly that. Oh, and the Ram is good.
Daniel
Oh, and Mrryte, the Ram has both backup sensors and a rear-view camera mounted in the tailgate handle. Obviously, the truck was not running at the time of the photo.
canadia says:
11:00 AM, 07/ 9/09
@fuhteng:
Had a blue and yellow bigwheel too... that came after the trike. Fisher-price ftw.
We also used to take the wooden side panels off the radio flyer (they just slid right out back then) and try to 'skateboard' on the flat bed while steering with the handle. Those were some painfully cheap thrills.
brn says:
11:21 AM, 07/ 9/09
"You sissys and your trikes! I had a Big Wheel! "
The weight distribution is too far back for the FWD Big Wheel. I would constantly spin the front wheel when trying to go anywhere.
With a low center of gravity (and no traction from the plastic wheels), the Big Wheel was less likely to flip over though. A good vehicle for drifting.
felonious says:
11:35 AM, 07/ 9/09
Cute pic. :)
hondacura4 says:
02:37 PM, 07/ 9/09
"Once the hair-clip was returned to its rightful place, she hopped back aboard her red machine and continued the race."
Daniel, the next Danica Patrick perhaps?
"You sissys and your trikes! I had a Big Wheel! "
Fuhteng, I had a Gerneral Lee big wheel (with the hand brake!) and my sister had a Cabbage Patch big wheel. We ended up trading (I caught hell from my friends for piloting a girls big wheel) as my General Lee had an.....ahem.....altercation with a parked Astro van and the fact that the C-Patch big wheel was much faster than the G-Lee and all my friends big wheels. That thing would scoot!
fuhteng says:
07:11 AM, 07/10/09
Good to know that I wasn't the only one with a Big Wheel (:
brn, were you a little big for yours? I don't remember spinning the front wheel any, only sliding it when I tried to stop.
audisport says:
08:08 AM, 07/10/09
I went through several big wheels because I loved to "burn rubber" constantly.