I’ve owned several crew cab pickups and my benchmark for roominess has always been how well my kids fit in the back seat. As they’ve grown so has the amount of “knee-in-the-back” intrusion. The fact that one son is six feet eight inches tall, 250 pounds of solid muscle and has very broad shoulders places us beyond the median crew cab family (at 5’ 10” my wife is our short stack).

I was amazed to see how well Brent fit in the new Dodge Ram 2500 Mega Cab. I could have stretch-out front seat and he still fit fine in the back seat. He also fits comfortably in the front seat, which is something very few vehicles afford him. The Dodge Ram Mega Cab is the limo of crew cabs.

All this talk about space doesn’t mean that Dodge has forsaken average height customers. The power front seats have excellent travel and power adjustable pedals are standard equipment. The leather trimmed front seats in our loaded Laramie edition were heated and had manually adjustable lumbar support.

The Dodge Ram 2500 Mega Cab is a fine truck on many levels, but the interior is such a highlight it deserves further examination. Not only is the Mega Cab ultra spacious, it’s very functional. Storage areas and options abound. This Dodge is ideal for people who use their truck as a mobile office. Both the center console and front door bins are huge, two-part affairs. The rear door bins are also oversized.

As spacious as the rear seat is, there’s still cargo space behind it. The split rear seat reclines, which is nice for long trips. The seats fold flat for an impressive amount of protected cargo space. There are shopping bag hooks and flip-up “T” hooks behind the rear seat to help secure items. The whole rear seat area is highly flexible in terms of passenger/cargo capabilities. The standard power sliding rear window is a handy feature.

Besides space, another prime reason people buy the Dodge 2500/3500-series trucks is their powerful engines. Our Ram 2500 had the optional $5,555 Cummins Turbo Diesel engine. That’s a hefty surcharge over the standard 5.7L Hemi V-8. The vaunted Hemi puts out an impressive 345 hp and 375 lb-ft of torque.

That’s more horsepower than the 5.9L HO diesel’s 325 hp, but nowhere near the Cummins prodigious 610 lb-ft of load-hauling, trailer-towing torque. Evidently, torque is important to Ram 2500/3500 customers as over 80 percent of these trucks are ordered with the Cummins diesel engine. A full 70 percent of the trucks are equipped with four-wheel-drive.

As smooth and impressive as the current 5.9L diesel is, it will soon be replaced by an even more powerful engine. A 6.7L Cummins Turbo Diesel that produces 350 hp and 650 lb-ft of torque will replace the 5.9L, starting in January 2007. It will be backed by a 6-speed automatic transmission.

Whines: The Cummins Turbo is far quieter than earlier versions. It starts quickly and is a pleasure to drive. If they could just eliminate the smelly, slimy pump gas station nozzles it would be preferable to any gasoline truck engine.

Bottom Line: The 2007 Dodge Ram 2500 Laramie Mega Cab Diesel is a super truck. It has all the hard-working traditional truck toughness combined with a luxurious, ultra-spacious interior. And, it looks great. You can’t beat that.