Purchased my 2018 Ram Express 4x4 Crew back in June and would like to give a brief review after the first 5k miles (8k kms). My previous truck was an 07 Sport 4x4 which served me well and truck before that was an 02 Sport shorty which will go down as my favorite truck of all time (RIP manual trannys). Yes.... I'm a Dodge guy!
I feel that I got a great deal on the truck as the sticker price was north of $53k and I got it for $38k with the dealer swapping out my chrome wheels for blackouts at no extra cost. The blue streak pearl paint is defiantly a looker and I get compliments non stop on this color. With its 3.92 LSD and 8 speed, the truck is very strong! I'm very pleased with the power and impresses me every time I kick it down. However, nothing is perfect and I would like to share some of the things that bug me about the truck.
As much as I like the 8 speed, I have grown to not like the dial knob shifter. After 6 months of using it, I just can't seem to get used to it. There has even been a few times where I go to shift and end up adjusting the fan speed. I also feel there is too long of a delay between switching gears. And one last gripe about it is that I cannot open the door without it automatically going into park if it is in gear. I realize it's not often when this needs to be done, but occasionally it comes in handy.
Well, as it’s been said, you either love it or hate the rotary dial. As far as whether I love it or not, don’t hate it but at least I can say it’s better than the column shifter or mostly over that goofy console shifter but that’s just me. I dunno, maybe that’s just because I took to it so well. I’ve never once reached for any of the other dials when shifting. Just gotta become one with the shifter...lol.
Not gonna comment on the delay because just like with the shifter, you just gotta adjust to it.
The auto park.... well, that’s a safety thing but if you absolutely must move your truck with the door open either buckle your seatbelt or get one of those seatbelt extender things and it won’t do that.
The engine noise on start up is down right embarrassing by times. For a brand new truck to sound like a worn out one is unacceptable. It only does it once in a while (maybe 1 in 20 starts) but of course I can never get it to do it at the dealer!!! My 07 never sounded this bad.
Hmm, my 18 doesn’t do this. Interesting.
It does not tow as well as my 07. I tow a 3500 lb trailer and cannot go over 65MPH (105 KMH) before it starts to sway. It may be because the receiver on my 07 was seized into the hitch and was solid, and my new one has play (normal) or it may be dew to the coils instead of leafs.
Well, the coils might be due to that,
I don’t know. This is the only 4th Gen I’ve had and it has the air ride so maybe that’s why mine tows nice.
The throttle response is lazy on this truck and I hate that the MDS cannot be deactivated altogether. I have an aftermarket exhaust and it sounds horrible when that kicks in. Yes, I realize it is easy enough to disengage it once the truck is going but would just be nice to have it deactivated by a programmer or by the dealer. Apparently these trucks have locked ECU's and it is difficult to even deactivate the daytime running lights.
The throttle response is kinda lazy but as others have said, a PC will change that. I have one but I took it off. Considering selling it. It was nice and fun to play with but it’s just too jumpy. And if you set it too low, you run the risk of throwing a throttle pedal code.
As far as the MDS with your exhaust; I have a Carven Progressive on mine and the MDS tone is really not all that noticeable. My old 2008 tho, was really bad. Glad I had a tuner that could disable it. I don’t know what exhaust you have but mines actually pretty pleasant. It’s loud when I get on it. As far as whether that edge pulsar turns the MDS off or not, you can run a tuner, you just have to get an unlocked pcm first. Or if you’re not looking to tune, just use your gear selector buttons to turn it off. These guys on here that do it, do it just like second nature. I’d just go that route but honestly the MDS time doesn’t bother me like it did on the old truck. Dealer won’t turn it off because they can’t. FCA forbids it snd from what I heard from a service writer, they’ll actually get fined by them for each vehicle they disabled it on.
On your DRL’s, I don’t know if Canada allows the led markers to pass as DRLs or not. I had the marker light drls activated on my truck at the dealer and they didn’t even charge me.
Anyway, just wanted to throw this out there to anyone who was considering buying a newer Ram.
Cheers
Nice review but with a little research, you’ll find that most things have a simple solution.
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