Buying my first Ram. All advice welcomed

[Rick Gabler]

The only thing that scares me is what the guy said earlier about his 1500 Classic Limit. 16,000 miles and still rolling? No issues? It better not have issues! Is that surprising to anyone? Once you hit 100,000 miles that then would mean something.

 

[RAM08110719]

I would go gas. Diesel was good. Now with DEF you need to add. It is just a hassle. Welcome to the group. Lot of intelligent people here. I trust the answers I get. Hope you have many happy miles.

 

[Tracy in IL]

I have a '17 ecodiesel. It's not built for running around town, but for highway and light/medium towing. Make sure all the recalls are up to date, especially the EGR cooler. The oil changs are twice the price of a normal change (full syntheic, 11 quarts, and an expesive filter). I love mine ,and get 30mpg plus on the highway.

 

[michaelm_ski]

Welcome to the group , I have owned three different pickup brands and can honestly say the Ram is all I will go with now till my days on earth is done . I drive under 40 a day and with my 5.7 hemi I still have no complaints and my neighbor across the street was a true fan of Cadillac and Chevy but her vehicle broke down last year and asked if I could take her to pick up her truck at the dealer and after we came back she said she was selling and getting a Ram , And sure enough she got rid of her Cadillac and is happy every time she sees me she waves and smiles .

 

[Digitty]

I like my crew cab better than my quad cab. My buddy has the eco diesel and loves it. He gets really good gas mileage which might be good for you. I have the Hemi and it’s a great truck but it sucks down the gas, especially since it’s lifted. I wanted the eco diesel but none were available when I was looking. Of course as soon as I bought my truck I found them everywhere. I say go for the diesel!

 

[todster]

I bought my 2016 1500 hemi 5.7 without even test driving. I hated dodges. Chevy man at heart. I wanted a truck. Looked at 1 year old fords. They were scaled heavy on the frames and lots of galvanic action at the cab mounts. Looked like a 5 year old upstate ny vehicle. Only had small motor with turbos. Salesman said it would pull 10k. Yea, once.
Chevies were about the same. Very disappointed. Went to ram dealer on a whim. Showed me a few. Told him have the blue ready in an hour and here's what I would pay with my trade in. Hem.3d and hawed but it was ready 2 hours later. 100k and going strong, 0 rust, 3 set of tires ( Goodyear are just that... good for a year). Replaced rotted out front rotors at 60k and replaced right exhaust man studs and gaskets. Easy. Just mig weld nuts to the studs. Other than that, this truck is awesome. I'll buy another and not think 2x about it.

 

[ArmyGrunt66]

Going on 12 years, no issues that I had to pay for, usual recall stuff that was minor, no rust either. I went to Ford first and they wouldn’t take anything off MSRP, acted arrogant too, went to Dodge while the bailout thing was going on, real nice and knocked off $12400 as well, GM just doesn’t do it for me.

Kevin.

 

[Jim Bowker]

The V6 isn't going to be a powerhouse. That engine is great in the Grand Cherokee, but in a full size pickup with 3.21's it's not going to light up your world. However, with a long commute with a good number of highway miles, I'd pay a little more attention to mpg than some other folks would. For that, the V6 Pentastar with the higher rear axle ratio will be a good bet for the best mix of fuel economy and reliability.

Also if you have the LSD, any time you take off spiritedly, you'll easily spin the inside wheel if there's any rain or snow. I have a 2017 that still has the stock SRA's, so not the best tires, but I'm not going to throw them away and buy new ones until they are worn out. They only have 30k on them at this point.

 

[scott lass 18]

well the way stealers don't want to fix things I d stay away from any 2019 check out soooo many recalls on it and problems 2018 or younger and if u can see what a 3 year protection on all the truck cost ask who they have no problems in getting paid for work ok ! mine is the last of lifetime drivetrain but now they had to work on it now problems seems in roseville ca. they cant hear the ticking ! another bad exhaust pipe ? don't know why at a stop it stalls they said ? and don't see it ! really worse service ever told me just drive it hope engine doesn't go ! bad lifters and came on older ones out there !

 

[Quyonmob]

never borrow a travel trailer

I do.

 

[Ram Vendetta]

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for a new truck after an expensive three years with a 2008 Tacoma and I’m strongly leaning towards a Ram. I have a test drive scheduled with a 2019 classic V6 with less than 10k on it but I just came across a 2018 ecodiesel with less than 30k for nearly the same price. My question to the group is this: Would it be worth my while to consider the diesel? My understanding is that it’s expensive to maintain. Is that true? I’ll bullet point my situation below. Thank you for your time and consideration!

My daily commute is 50 miles round trip including 36 at highway speeds in Massachusetts.

I’m a home owner and my truck is the designated dump runner and/or leaf hauler for the family.

I’m not towing anything at the moment (the hitch on my Tacoma was unusable) but I do have a double axle cargo trailer and I’d like to have the flexibility to borrow a friend’s travel trailer from time to time.

Reliability is huge to me. This would be my only means of transportation.

The first photo is the 2019 and the other is the eco diesel. Thank you again!

View attachment 229475

View attachment 229476

 

[Ram Vendetta]

My advice, do your homework. I know several people that owned Ram Eco Diesels in the 2014-2015 yrs and blew the motors. The motors for those years were made by FIAT don’t know if they still are. One also shredded the differential case apart sling with blowing a tranny. Research the year your interested in thoroughly. Another piece of advice for what it’s worth is I always walk to the service dept of the dealership I’m thinking of purchasing from and start talking to the techs. There’s always one or two outside burning a cigarette. I puck their brains on what, what not to buy. Good luck!

 

[NotSoFast]

I had a 2019 ecodiesel and got 10K miles on it. I loved it, especially the fuel consumption. You may pay a little more for oil changes, but you will save lots on fuel. The ecodiesel doesn't use very much DEF, so that doesn't really come into play. It took a while for RAM to get the replacement EGR body, but then it was installed quickly. Mopar is not good on parts availability these days. I did a fair bit of towing with a travel trailer or construction tools trailer, and the truck was always stable. It was no speed demon, but I never felt that the lack of power was terribly significant. The engine is made by Motoroni (Italian outfit) and was bought by RAM when they started using their engines.

The best part about that truck was the tranni. It never got hot, even pulling up a grade in hot weather, and always seemed to shift perfectly, regardless of the load. It has an All-Wheel-Drive mode that is wonderful in snow: the tranni isn't locked up, so if you have a dry patch of pavement it won't strain the box. Then the full 4WD and low range for when you need it.

The truck threw a rod at 10,300 miles. Seems like it was unusual, but there you go. The dealer couldn't find a replacement engine, but they were willing to give me a trade-in value as though it was running perfectly. I picked up a new 2500 diesel, which has much more power and better engine braking. But it guzzles fuel and DEF.

 

[Senzapaura]

Thank you all for your advice! It was more helpful than you know. I just signed the papers on the Gas 2019 classic.

 

[Senzapaura]

Here’s the original sticker (via car fax). I didn’t get as good of a deal as I was hoping because I misunderstood the dealership’s incentives. Essentially, they wanted me to finance through them when I was adamant that I was going to go through my bank (their best was nowhere near the 1.99% over 65 my bank gave me).

 

[TheCouveAbides]

As someone who took a bath on an Ecodiesel I recommend running away from them as fast as possible. I just dumped that thing for the identical truck with a HEMI and will never look back. All the tuning you have to do with the Ecodiesels just to get them to run halfway decent is a pain because the US government won't let you get tunes from inside the country. i had nothing but recall after recall with it, and everyone of them didn't have a solution when they released the recall. On top of that every recall could have resulted in a deadly fire or crash with the vehicle. The motors are Italian made. can you say FIAT?

 

[Senzapaura]

Fix it again, Tony.

 

[RLJ10X]

3.21 rear end.........

 

[Svon89]

Just do yourself a favor and if you are offered the friends and family discount, don’t sign anything that locks you into binding arbitration. It really sucks when you get a lemon and Chrysler customer retention tells you nothing you can do.

 

[Addicted2fishing]

I'd be leary of both these.Pretty low mileage on both to already be traded in.I'd be thinking they both has some issue the previous owner was sick of dealing with already.

In this climate it could be job loss too. Or boredom. Someone may have wanted the Hemi [emoji2369]


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