5th Gen Ram --- What a mixed experience

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Rez Exelon

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So recently I started noticing that time had caught up to my 4th gen Ram and that it was time to replace it. Searched for a while before I settled on on at Seth Wadley down in Paul's Valley. What I hoped was going to be super smooth has so far had a few....well, points of stress.

Buying Experience: Overall not bad. I called, they confirmed it was there, I drove from Tulsa, test drove it, noted a few condition issues, decided to live with them. Got all the paper work done and then picked up a few days later.

First Impressions: So I opted for the super fancy every bells and whistles edition. So far I'm still finding features I didn't know about. Initial full drive back to Tulsa was about 20mpg, so not bad. Quiet, comfy ride. Coming from a Laramie Longhorn the quality of the ride was good, but noticeably quieter. Handling and all that was great. The LED headlights are awesome.

What did I choose to ignore at first: Out of the gate, I saw that the dash panel was messed up. There were hail marks on the hood, but none I noticed on the rest of the truck. The other one was that the wheels were the 22" fancy ones, which are a two tone metal and laminated finish and the front driver wheel was missing the laminate like it got messed up and so someone just peeled all the remaining laminate off. The tires themselves needed to be replaced. Dealer wouldn't budge on that. More on them later.

Why did I choose to ignore these? In retrospect, the dash should probably have been a bigger issue. But all electric systems and gadgets tested without issue, no warning lights, no major points of concern. Dash cost to replace is about 800 new or 500ish used if one is inclined to source it. The dents don't bother me in the least, and they're fairly minor. Honestly I attributed the dash to possible getting wet due to a windshield crack in a hailstorm. So it seemed like a one time issue. As the tires need to be replaced, I'm likely to just get a complete set of pull-offs with decent tread on the after market with the same rim type. Then sell my currents for the price of the rims. That should net me a matching set and be less than the cost of tires, even if it's a titch more work.

What have I discovered since then? Well, for starters the sun visor on the drivers side was broken. Apparently the way the new Rams hold them in sucks and a plastic bit breaks. Amazon had a pack of things to fix them for 30 bucks. The little bed step that folds out on the drivers side is cool, but something in the mechanism is funny because it kind of gets locked into place and requires assistance to get it to close again. This is under investigation. In the city, which is most of my driving as I'm relatively sedentary, I only get about 12-13 MPG. Definitely better than my last truck, but I had hopes for 15-16.

Anything else? Give me something juicy! Allright, sure I can do that. What's chaffing me the wrong way is that earlier tonight I discovered that when lifting up the seats there were two spots of untreated metal in the back passenger seat with rust on them. No where else in the cabin I can see but that got me looking. I discovered that the rear seat have a recline option (cool) and that I can fold them down too (also cool) but in the process of discovering these things, I noticed two cracks in the window frame and some dirt trails indicating water has gotten in before. This is really where my dealer grump comes from that I foreshadowed earlier. The way these cracks formed was on either side of the sliding window, and they are straight enough to pass for being a designed in thing, like they are different pieces of material. It wasn't until I had specifically looked things up and gone down the rabbit hole that I knew to look for these and past them to the frame of the window. I feel like the dealer on the other hand should have absolutely been aware of this and rectified it before offering it for sale as the leaks can cause many different issues. FCA apparently has tech bulletins on this, and they've had to replace a fair number of these, and there's efforts to get a class action suit on this.

So whatcha gonna do now?? There's three other possible points of failure and water entry --- the shark fin antenna on top, the third light, and possibly the cabin pressure relief vents on the back wall. I don't see anything to suggest that the vents are an issue. The truck is long out of warranty, and I didn't pay for the warranty when I bought used. So this means that next up is going to be me taking out the third light, and sealing it properly. Taking out the shark fin, and sealing it properly. And finally sealing the back glass as well. I figure if the car repair gods are smiling on me, this is going to be about a 4-5 hour process, although hopefully I can get out of it with my cost being a $10 tube of black exterior window sealing caulk.

Final thoughts: Overall the truck is definitely pretty cool and I dig the features. Pricing was around 2k less than similar alternatives, but I suppose I'm going to give some of that back in the time it takes to handle some of these ticky tack repairs. I doubt it's worth it to haul my happy butt 2 hours each way to Seth Wadley because I doubt they'd do anything about it, and the drive time is equal to the repair time, and gas would cost more than parts to be honest. I don't know that I can consider myself totally happy with the experience so far, although the truck is definitely running/driving/performing like I hoped it would. Boo boo is stoked about her backseat butt coolers, and the extra room this has in it. There's definitely a self-callout that I probably should have done more homework going into it, but considering the laundry list of issues on my current truck, I don't feel bad taking action when I did --- I just perhaps let my history with the old truck which was 9 years and very few issues give me some rose colored glasses for the brand.
 

Rez Exelon

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Holy sweet baby Christmas Jesus, reading up more and more on this is getting my blood pressure up.

So apparently FCA issued extended warranty protections on the back window and the third light (CHMSL). In doing so that apparently got the class action lawsuit that was in progress dropped, but now they are basically just denying claims for work and not replacing the back glass. Some stories say they are outright not replacing it, other stories are that they'll do a seal around the window that may or may not help. What the crap did I get myself into. /sigh/
 
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I bought my last new truck in summer of 2018. Now that I'm retired I'll never be able to afford to buy new again. So, used trucks for me.

My wife was in an accident that totaled our previous truck (hit from behind while stopped for a turn) so we just went thru the used truck buying experience in September. It sucks.

We finally settled on a 2016 F250 crew cab with 88K miles. So far, the truck's been great. But you can never see all the faults until you've lived with a vehicle for a while. And when you do start to find them, or they find you, it's pretty frustrating.
 
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I had a 1994 Dodge Ram with a 360 and it was a 3/4 ton which weighed in at 4,900 lbs.
2 wheel drive and in 1994 single cab was the only thing available.
10 MPG no matter how i drove it and even pulling heavy loads 10 MPG.

My 6000 lb 1984 E150 Van got 16.7 minimum city or highway 302 with a 2 barrel.
Not stock at all though and Not using any overdrive.

WTF is wrong today with fuel injected trucks or vans not getting at least that for MPG.

Maybe driving in town the RPM is too low and the air speed through the intake runners is too slow and not atomizing the fuel as well as it could.
Yea the injectors on most point at the back side of the valves but that intersecting air speed moving faster can help atomize it better and you are not lugging the engine.

I wonder if in town you could get better MPG if you kept revs on the gas engines around 2200-2600 rpm.
 


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