Shredfever
Junior Member
First post; coming here to see if anyone has had similar experiences because I'm at my wit's end with this situation and I'm hoping someone here may have successfully navigated similar issues, or might have general advice on what route to escalate the situation next. Many thanks in advance to anyone who reads or responds.
I'll try to make a long story as short as I can; but the TL;DR is
- Air suspension failed
- Truck still covered under warranty
- Truck at dealership for 3 months with no resolution in sight
- Service Manager says they can't fix without add'tl parts that FCA won't authorize
- Dealership trying to get me to trade in, whereby losing trade value due to remainder of current loan balance, loss of payment for current extended warranty, etc.
- FCA corporate seems to be utterly indifferent to the truck ever getting fixed, honoring their warranty, losing a customer, or just operating a business in the worst possible way.
- Customer has no truck, no ability to drive it off the lot to trade in elsewhere, and seemingly no options other than to be bent over a barrel by FCA/dealership and extorted into buying a new truck, under bad terms.
If you're still reading;
I own a 2016 Laramie ecodiesel 1500 purchased new in Nov 2016, now has 60k miles. Truck is still under 100k powertrain warranty, and also has the remainder of 8 year/125k miles MVP Maxcare warranty through 2024. Truck has been great, no real problems until February when I get the "service air suspension immediately" message.
Air suspension will not actuate correctly, front end is in entry/exit height and won't lift, rear end is in normal and raises to offroad 1, after which I stop pressing buttons and drive to nearest dealership.
Truck has been at the dealership since February, where they have (according to them) replaced the ENTIRE air suspension system, and simply cannot get the suspension to function correctly. I had to get FCA corporate (now something called "Stellantis" apparently?) involved after the one month mark in order to get back ordered parts expedited.
After continual effort by the dealership techs, with remote assistance from FCA's "Star Team" engineers, they are still unable to get the truck to function properly on its' own. They say they can get it to work while controlling it with their computer, but the truck will not stay inflated on its' own, nor will all 4 wheels actuate correctly.
I've now been without the truck for three months, and the service Manager is telling me that they have essentially done everything they can do, and that FCA is not approving their request to authorize additional parts because the truck is apparently not showing the specific error code that FCA needs it to show in order to authorize said parts.
The service manager seems to have basically given up, and tells me that he's never seen an issue like this, or had to deal with FCA on one vehicle so extensively. He also told me that he's not even certain that the additional requested parts will solve the problem, and that once the air suspension systems fail, they generally have problems in perpetuity.
The dealership has offered me decent trade in terms to trade me out of the truck so they can be rid of the issue, but I still have a not huge, but not trivial (to me) balance on my current loan.
I've asked my case rep at FCA to offer some kind of assistance toward the deal on the new truck, or to just get the parts they need. She says she has escalated the issue but heard nothing.
Meanwhile, I still have no truck and no resolution.
Anyone have any ideas, or know any avenues I might take to help get some resolution?
Thanks for reading.
I'll try to make a long story as short as I can; but the TL;DR is
- Air suspension failed
- Truck still covered under warranty
- Truck at dealership for 3 months with no resolution in sight
- Service Manager says they can't fix without add'tl parts that FCA won't authorize
- Dealership trying to get me to trade in, whereby losing trade value due to remainder of current loan balance, loss of payment for current extended warranty, etc.
- FCA corporate seems to be utterly indifferent to the truck ever getting fixed, honoring their warranty, losing a customer, or just operating a business in the worst possible way.
- Customer has no truck, no ability to drive it off the lot to trade in elsewhere, and seemingly no options other than to be bent over a barrel by FCA/dealership and extorted into buying a new truck, under bad terms.
If you're still reading;
I own a 2016 Laramie ecodiesel 1500 purchased new in Nov 2016, now has 60k miles. Truck is still under 100k powertrain warranty, and also has the remainder of 8 year/125k miles MVP Maxcare warranty through 2024. Truck has been great, no real problems until February when I get the "service air suspension immediately" message.
Air suspension will not actuate correctly, front end is in entry/exit height and won't lift, rear end is in normal and raises to offroad 1, after which I stop pressing buttons and drive to nearest dealership.
Truck has been at the dealership since February, where they have (according to them) replaced the ENTIRE air suspension system, and simply cannot get the suspension to function correctly. I had to get FCA corporate (now something called "Stellantis" apparently?) involved after the one month mark in order to get back ordered parts expedited.
After continual effort by the dealership techs, with remote assistance from FCA's "Star Team" engineers, they are still unable to get the truck to function properly on its' own. They say they can get it to work while controlling it with their computer, but the truck will not stay inflated on its' own, nor will all 4 wheels actuate correctly.
I've now been without the truck for three months, and the service Manager is telling me that they have essentially done everything they can do, and that FCA is not approving their request to authorize additional parts because the truck is apparently not showing the specific error code that FCA needs it to show in order to authorize said parts.
The service manager seems to have basically given up, and tells me that he's never seen an issue like this, or had to deal with FCA on one vehicle so extensively. He also told me that he's not even certain that the additional requested parts will solve the problem, and that once the air suspension systems fail, they generally have problems in perpetuity.
The dealership has offered me decent trade in terms to trade me out of the truck so they can be rid of the issue, but I still have a not huge, but not trivial (to me) balance on my current loan.
I've asked my case rep at FCA to offer some kind of assistance toward the deal on the new truck, or to just get the parts they need. She says she has escalated the issue but heard nothing.
Meanwhile, I still have no truck and no resolution.
Anyone have any ideas, or know any avenues I might take to help get some resolution?
Thanks for reading.
