With the somewhat recent debut of the Ford F-150 SVT Raptor off-roader, it’s tempting to draw parallels between it and the Ram Power Wagon. But for all their similarities, these are beasts of a different breed.

First offered as part of the 2005 (Dodge) Ram Heavy Duty lineup, the Power Wagon is just as much a hard-core off-road machine as the Raptor, but the target audiences share only their distaste for pavement. For the Raptor, home turf is the low-lying deserts, places where it can flex its suspension at 100 mph over sand washes and scrub. The Power Wagon, though, answers a higher calling and makes its home climbing mountains and patrolling the back roads of our highest altitudes, not our lowest.

2010 Ram Power Wagon Rear Three Quarter View Snow

For everything the Power Wagon offers, though, there are a few options we’re left pining for. The redesigned-for-2010 package can only be ordered with the Crew Cab four-door body and 6.4-ft. bed, making the truck simultaneously too long for the most serious off-roading while handicapping customers who need the load space of the 8.2-ft. box. The Power Wagon also is only offered with the 5.7L 383-hp Hemi gasoline V-8 engine and its 400 lb.-ft. of torque and the five-speed automatic. The combination is more than enough to pull the rig through most any situation, but we can’t help but wish the legendary Cummins turbodiesel were available, and maybe a stick shift.

2010 Ram Power Wagon Front Three Quarter View High Mud

The recipe to build a Power Wagon is rather simple. Start with a $39,430 Ram 2500 SLT Crew Cab 4×4 and mark the $6,350 option box innocuously titled “Customer Preferred Package 26P.” For a base price of $45,780, you walk out the door with an old-school manual transfer case on the floor, lockable front and rear axles, a remote-disconnecting front stabilizer bar, skid plates on the fuel tank and transfer case, a Warn winch up front and a high-output alternator to run it, Bilstein shocks, a trailer brake controller and tow hitch, 17-in. wheels wrapped in 32-in. all-terrain tires, a 2-inch lift, and a 4.56 rear axle ratio.

Today’s TOTD deals with your hypothetical automotive bucket list. If you happened to know when you were going to “kick the bucket,” what one car would you drive on your last day?

By now, you’ve hopefully browsed over to check out our “Six Decades of Supercars” feature for a few good ideas.

A sleeker, more “urban-friendly” all-new Kia Sportage will make its debut at next month’s Geneva Motor Show, the automaker revealed today.

Its “bold, athletic, and sporty” design wears the brand’s new nose that’s complimented by more pronounced front shoulders and rear haunches. Swept back headlights flank the prominent Kia-badged grille up front. Deep character lines can be seen along the lower passenger doors, as well as across the rear hatch.

As a whole, the Sportage is longer, wider, and lower than the outgoing edition and promises more cargo and passenger space inside. Ride quality is said to be vastly improved thanks to the longer wheelbase.

Powertrains have yet to be announced, but as it stands, both diesel and gas mills are slated for production once sales start later this year.

Check back for more straight from Geneva in the coming weeks.

Source: Kia