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So here's the story, so you have an idea of what's going on. I apologize it's a bit of a long post.
, but my experience with DoA was amazing.
So here's the story, so you have an idea of what's going on. I apologize it's a bit of a long post.
The truck has 42k on it, and it's seemed to have nothing but intermittent, hard to diagnose problems, with a sprinkling of other things that shouldn't break but have.
I had to get our passenger side window switch done at 36.5k, and the dealer didn't want to even remotely work with me on it, they just went straight to "This is gunna be $330, $30 part and $300 labor, because you're outside of warranty."
Okay, I get that I'm 500 miles out of warranty, but cut me some slack, a 3 year old truck shouldn't have a window switch out, and while I should've brought it in when it was under 36k, I just couldn't make it work...but they told me they didn't care, and that I should call Dodge of America, but wished me "good luck with that"...
Luckily (glad they wished me luck lol) I called Dodge of America customer care, and the lady on the phone was extremely unhappy that the dealer was so unwilling to work with me, and she called and made sure they helped me out, which was awesome. Service adviser seemed like he got chewed out when I got there to pick the truck up, didn't want to talk to me at all
Now the shifter isn't working, and I'm certain that it's not a powertrain item, though it certainly shouldn't be something that breaks under 40k miles either (it's been happening since just after the window switch was replaced).
On top of that, I've had the truck in multiple times for the clunky/hard shifting in the transmission as well (at least 3-4 times), each time getting the "We reset your TCU software", to which it would then work for 100ish miles before turning back to ****. I stopped going because I knew I was just going to keep getting pushed off every time I went back, however, the clunky shifting can be borderline dangerous at times...it just doesn't happen every time unfortunately, so they look at it for a couple hours and then send us home with it again. There have been times when my wife goes to take off, and the truck free-revs, before loudly clunking into gear (despite already being in drive, she was just stopped at a light) and then moving forward. Other times you punch it, and the truck is so slow to accelerate that my Oldsmobile Alero 4 banger would probably give it a run for it's money...
This is her second Ram, she bought a used '06 with 60k on the ODO, and had nothing but problems with it (leaking under the dash, over heating, leaking from the rear window, etc.), however she absolutely loved the truck "Because it has a hemi". This Ram is the first new car/truck she has ever bought, you can't imagine how excited she was when she first got it, she was beside herself. Now it's just another vehicle to get around in, and she's been looking every day now at other trucks trying to convince herself that she can settle for something other than a Ram with a Hemi, just so she doesn't have to continue having issues just driving her low mileage, still under warranty, truck.
To put her issues in perspective, I have a VW GTI that I bought brand new in 2013, 2 days after she got her truck, that now has nearly twice her miles (82k), is tuned/modded so heavily that it nearly has as much horsepower as her truck, and has had almost 0 issues (the only one I did have, was a water pump, which is incredibly common for this generation, and has been replaced twice, under warranty, despite my mods).
Really, all I want is her to be happy with her truck, and I'm sure that's all she wants too. We even still convinced my parents to just buy a Ram 2500 Hemi within the last couple weeks because, despite the issues, we still think the trucks can be great.
If there is anything you can do to help us get the transmission and gear shifter issues sorted without causing me a small fortune, that's ultimately all we want. I'm trying to keep her in a Dodge, because I know that's what she wants, but I know she's about ready to throw in the towel.
