There was a link on Allpar to this breaking story of press photos of the 2015 Peugeot Boxer, which with the exception of badging should be the same as the 2015 FIAT Ducato.
The google translation: Here are the first exclusive pictures of the new Peugeot Boxer . After the first spy photos published on CarPassion.it few days ago, today we publish the official photos of the commercial vehicle Peugeot. The importance of this model is the fact that the various versions will be marketed branded Citroen (Jumper), Fiat (Ducato) and RAM (ProMaster) with slight cosmetic changes to differentiate the various models. The restyling has allowed us to make more ilnuovo Peugeot Boxer modeno lines and content to keep pace with the times. The front is more aggressive thanks to new headlights design sharp and aggressive look also equipped with LED daytime running lights at the bottom of the headlights. The bezel is wider and it will change it creeps into the bumper plowed by larger air intakes. The interior has subitop slight but meanings change with regard to the allocation with the new infotainment system, new materials and coatings.
Here are the direct links to the hi-res photos so you don't have to click through the pages:
Question is, will RAM refresh the front end for MY 2015? I can't see why not, as they probably will be making the headlights in one factory.
Lets hope this is the case, and RAM has heard the criticisms on the big complaints, like the non-tilt steering, leg room etc.
I'd think that the nose would need to be replaced on the current versions to make it look like this. Need, fenders due to the headlight redesign, hood, headlights, and bumpers.
Wondering what the cost would be to do this.
I also am not a big fan of the plastic fender arches on the current PM. Has anyone removed them to see if there are any holes on the face of the sheet metal? I'd think at the very least, some of the gray cladding around the wheel arches can be removed.
Either way, I do not think Ram will do a redesign so soon in the cycle. Perhaps they might as a 2016-17 refresh. There are alot of parts made on the existing tooling to use up for the N/A market.
Oh, the center cup holders as handy as they might be, are a detriment to the dual passenger seating arrangement. Those simply gotta go if you have a center passenger. The door pockets should be redesigned to hold a standard 32oz cup.
One of the things that I have been thinking about on the front plastic is why not use a 3d printer to make your own plastic front. They are getting big enough to mold out something like that. The 3 section designs you could come up with are endless. Since the front bumper sections do not have anything other than the fog lights in them. I dont see any prolems modding this any way you want. Cost wise I cant see it being more than the regular replacement sections.
I really hope RAM jumps on this face-lift right away. This is a huge improvement over the current front end. They'll have to eat the cost of tooling up for new headlights since North American lights are not the same as European ones, but that's probably the greatest expense of this change. It's not too hard to envision a cross-hairs grille in place of the Boxer grill; the tooling for that part shouldn't cost too much. Maybe they'll even get bold and make the front-end styling more distinctive for the ProMaster (the Citroen Jumper and Peugeot Boxer front grills look significantly different with the face-lift.)
With how fancy they went with those headlights it surprises me that they didn't both to include projector's, even if it just had a halogen bulb behind it.
Put a cross-hair grill on that, and I think it will look really nice. Of course looks are subjective, but to me, this is a great improvement over the current headlights & grill. I hope Ram doesn't make us wait long for this.
I would think that if they were changing for 2015, there would already be an announcement and a reveal.
I think either they will lag the Europeans a year or two to recoup initial tooling at the new plant, or they will keep the North American van behind 1 cycle to keep the product distinctive from the Euro vans - that would mean 3 or 4 years.
That, of course depends on if Chrysler is doing OK on sales. If sales tank when the Transit ships in big numbers, then anything goes. They'd make whatever changes they think would boost sales - that is if cutting prices doesn't do it.
Didn't someone say that no sheet metal is stamped in Mexico? If Mexico is basically just an assembly plant, then the argument that they would want to recoup tooling costs is diminished. They would only have to make some changes to the body clamping fixtures and reprogram the welding robots. Headlights are always made by a supplier, so other than paying for the tooling costs for a North-American version, that wouldn't affect the operations of the assembly plant
If all the sheet metal is stamped in one location, that might be an argument in favor of converting the ProMaster to the new front end for MY2015. It would probably be a burden to continue to make both sets of sheet metal. After building a supply of the old parts for service inventory, Fiat would probably want to stop using the old tools.
An argument for NOT changing the front end any time soon is that, since the vehicle is new to this market as of MY2014, we might not know or care about this basically cosmetic change. It also might be confusing to make such a significant appearance change on a new vehicle, if RAM is concerned with building a strongly recognizable product. However, I think they'd be foolish to turn a blind eye to the power of automotive journalists and forums like this to disseminate information on the existence of the new front end. North American buyers could be turned off if we perceive that we are not getting the latest upgrades that the rest of the world gets.
In any event, until we hear from someone who knows for sure, this is just speculation. I assume Ram has assigned some marketing person(s) to monitor this forum, so, if you're listening, I'm gonna wait for the new front end, because it looks so much better.
Part of the frustration is the way Chrysler does business in the USA, relative to how FIAT does business in Europe.
FIAT didn't even wait for the new MY to bring the new front end out. Ducato's with the new front end are what we in the USA would call a 2014-1/2 vehicle.
Chrysler has delayed, or permanently postponed options that are freely available in Europe.
Items include, rear seating, cargo area interior paneling and insulation, new headlights, rear air suspension, rear heat and rear a/c.
The best rationale I can figure out is that many items would need certifications, and Chrysler just isn't offering them; instead of doing the certifying and passing the lower cost and benefit of a factory installed option onto the purchaser. Their response to the issue is that 'upfitters' will handle those demands. Why would I go through the trouble of an upfitter if Mercedes can give me something from the factory at an equivalent cost.
Many of us got vans to take us to pretty places, where we could then take pictures of the van. I thought it might be fun to share some pictures of your van in the wild. I'm afraid my initial contribution will be of my former Transit, but hopefully I can add some Promaster pictures in the next...
2020 Promaster 2500 High Roof.
Still working on it but I'm really happy with the way it's coming out. I wanted to keep it modular so I'm keeping permanent fixtures to a minimum. I just received my 2500w inverter, so I'll be installing that here shortly.
