This compact pickup was Dodge’s imported small-truck answer during the mini-truck boom of the late 1970s and 1980s. It began life in North America as the D-50, then adopted the Ram 50 name for the 1981 model year as Dodge aligned its truck lineup around the Ram badge. Built by Mitsubishi and sold through Dodge dealers, it shared its basic engineering with Mitsubishi’s own compact pickup and, in earlier years, with the Plymouth Arrow Truck. That makes it an important example of Chrysler’s captive-import strategy: a practical, efficiently packaged light-duty truck that filled the gap below Dodge’s full-size pickups before the Dakota arrived.
The Ram 50 went through two broad eras. Early trucks retained the original compact Mitsubishi-based format, while the 1987 redesign gave the model a more modern look and updated mechanicals, helping extend its life well into the 1990s. Over the years it was offered in rear-wheel-drive and four-wheel-drive forms and became known for being simple, durable, and easy to modify. Enthusiasts often remember it as one of the more distinctive Japanese-built trucks sold under an American badge.
Production ended after the 1993 model year, with the nameplate bowing out as Dodge’s own Dakota and the full-size Ram line took over more of the brand’s truck identity. The Ram 50 remains a cult-favorite compact Dodge pickup, especially among fans of rebadged imports and late-20th-century mini trucks.