The Mexican market is something that we in the USA sometimes forget about. Especially on the Chrysler side of things! Ford built a "Suburban-type" vehicle down there long before any such vehicle was built for USA consumption, for example. I recall seeing some early '80s Chevy pickups with 1972-style skinny tail lights and external tailgate locks/chains. Being in TX, we'd see some of those things every so often, back then.
I once saw a Mexican Ram medium-duty truck on I-35W. It looked pretty much like a normal D300, but had a leaf spring going between the bottom of the lower control arms on the front suspension. Had medium-duty size wheels and side boards to extend its load capacity upward. Obviously heading north to auto salvage yards.
One Dodge Ram which never did make it up here was the Ramcharger. It was built down there to compete with the Chevy Tahoe in Mexico. Seems that once Chrysler discontinued the square-body Ramcharger, it left them with no similar product down there. Result was that Chevy sales skyrocketed and Chrysler HAD to do something to counter that. So the round-body Ramcharger was configured, using some minivan parts for the rear hatch, plus some other things. When it was discovered up here, as I recall, Chrysler got many letters wanting one, but Chrysler said "Not for USA sales", which probably meant that it would not meet USA safety standards, I suspect. But I believe a few managed to get to Canada or into the USA into private hands? Even some of our group?
One of the neat things I found on a Mexican TV network was a cops/robbers show. They were chasing the crooks out into the countryside. Behind the main chase vehicle was about 40 white Dodge K-car sedans. All with naked, black 7" wide wheels and wide tires on them. Looked like little bulldogs. They were handling the dirt roads as well as you'd expect a Chrysler Police Vehicle to do, which was impressive. Of course, the crooks were caught and taken to justice in one of those Dodges.
Enjoy!
CBODY67
