You know, it had me realizing. Chrysler being first to the market is more beneficial to Chrysler than Ford or GM being first to the market would have been for Ford or GM..
I believe that because of the general discussion of brand loyalty and what not. While it will be a modest number, this could easily encourage certain buyers to jump ship and come to the Ram brand. And given the (Dodge) Ram 1500 is such a darn decent truck, they may retain those customers..
My feeling is, the Ram is, at this point - the best truck on the vast majority of any given metrics. Anything they can do to get buyers to take a closer look helps them. And since this market tends to see so many repeat buyers, it's harder to steal customers, if even through marketing. But if you do manage to get more people in the door, even if GM and Ford provide diesels a year or 2 later, Chrysler will have already done the proverbial damage.