These Are the Cars That Most Surprised the Jalopnik Staff in 2022

Photo: Lalita Chemello

How much Ram is too much Ram? Well, it might just be the 9 mpg Ram TRX. But if you want to take that beastly setup down a notch, and also gain a few extra mpg, you go with the Ram Rebel. When I finally got behind the wheel of this thing, I suddenly felt like I had fully embraced my surroundings. Farm fields surrounding our small village, throw on a flannel and voila, I’m suddenly a real farm girl.

In all honesty, I have had a long-standing dislike of most things related to the Dodge and Ram brands. For me it came down to the personalities I felt it attracted, or the actions of drivers (but you know, that’s just the people driving around southeast Michigan). I missed out on those wasted years.

On a phone call with our EIC, I confessed (like we’re in some sort of holy car confessional), that I finally understood why people love this truck. The Dodges and Rams of my youth, were not made the same as they are now. This Ram was refined, but also way more practical than their counterparts made nowadays by GM and Ford. It’s more spacious so you can actually haul four full-grown American adults. It was also easy to drive down the road (or off-road, if the occasion called for it) My only two quips was a lack of a runner so my 5’4″ self didn’t have to climb a rock wall to get into it, and it’s a hell of a lot of truck to park.

Erik Shilling — Peugeot 2008

Photo: Peugeot

I needed a car for a vacation in Scotland earlier this year and the thing about renting a car in Europe is that the default is for it to be a manual of some kind. They initially told me it would be a Volkswagen Polo or something similar, which is a supermini that isn’t sold in America. Of course, when I showed up at the car rental place in Edinburgh, that is not what I got, because car rental places really only give you what they happen to have on hand at the moment. A manual Peugeot 2008 it would have to be, the man said, selling it as an upgrade over a VW Polo, because the 2008 is a subcompact crossover and not a supermini. I was a little disappointed to be getting the European equivalent of a Dodge Journey but I said sure. I was surprised how big this supposedly subcompact crossover was. I was also surprised by how much of the space I needed and used, and felt a little grateful to have a bit more car in the Scottish Highlands, where the roads can sometimes get a little dodgy. The rental guy was right that I would thank him later. I did.