Buying my first ram, Advice?????

[me85222]

So I'm buying my first Ram, I've had mostly fords my entire life and a few chevy's. my '15 ecoboost experience has ruined me on fords for a while and chevy's interior can kiss my ass for their price.

I am looking at an '18 Ram 1500 lone star 4x4, it has cloth seats and I will have dealer change those to leather (fake Leather I know) and heated seats. Other than that it will be the way it comes from factory.

I spoke to dealer yesterday although the experience was kinda crappy but not terrible. Their price is better than anyone locally and what they are offering for my trade is better as well.

I use the truck for work mostly and also personal use, I tow some trailers but nothing over 10K pounds, I am looking for input on what you guys have purchased and what you would do differently if given the chance. I have heard the Alpine system is terrible so I will more than likely avoid that.

The Uconnect system without Nav can be upgraded to have Nav by dealer for $600, is it worth the cost?

 

[Ratket]

Welcome.
So the way rams work is 10k back of msrp all day long.
If the dealer u are working with will price match then use this dealer for price matching https://www.dennisdillonchryslerjeepdodge.com/

Also dealers are in bed with the banks, so it is by far better to get pre approved from say like your credit union. I am 99% positive if a dealer pushes a higher apr on a customer they get a kick back from the bank. Also ram has a MaxCare Lifetime warranty that cost an additional 2,400$ - as long as it is in your name it’s covered regardless of mileage. “ Awesome warranty” The Nav is a toss, just depends on ur needs. More will chime in shortly.

 

[S0CAL]

just one piece of advice, really. Wait until the end of the month, doesn't matter which.

 

[MarshRam]

just one piece of advice, really. Wait until the end of the month, doesn't matter which.

Quotas, gotta meet those quotas. Just don't put the pedal to the metal right when you leave the dealership, wait until say, the next day, like 4/1/18, assuming you are buying at the end of this month. If not, you get the idea!

 

[Ratket]

End of the month or not, if they want the sell they will price match. I just traded in for a new 18 1500 and it took me damn near all day to get the price I wanted. At first they even tried marking it way up on me, then I showed them they had it listed for 10k less on their own website. Then we spent 2 hours haggling over apr- which is why I think they get kick backs from the bank. I was walking away at 3.9% - I mean in my truck about to pull out of the parking spot and leave and the sales mngr came out and said “ just give us one more shot, I think we can get the apr you want”. Which is complete ******** cause the dealer doesn’t have any say in what Apr the bank gives you based on your credit. I think the dealer wants you to have a Higher APR cause they get a kick back.

 

[MarshRam]

Ok, some real advice. When I bought my wifes new 2006 accord, I told them what I wanted to pay for it. They said no. I walked out, they chased me to my car and I got my price.

When I bought my 2007 Ram, I told them what I would pay for it. They said no. The next day the sales manager called me and I picked up the truck.

Patience is a virtue!

 

[Mpgrimm2]

Fyi...
The new 2018 Rams (vs 13-17) have the Panasonic 4C (UAS) and 4C-Nav (UAQ) radios with Android auto/Apple CarPlay. Google Maps and/ or Waze works great via Android Auto (I've heard Apple CarPlay is better).

The UAS (non nav) version can't be dealer activated after the fact like previous years.



http://www.ramforum.com/index.php?posts/1458159]M² Mods.

 

[HitchHiker]

You should see 20-25% off MSRP on 2017/2018 models now since the 2019 is imminent and most dealers have both national and regional incentives to clear existing inventories.

FWIW I have a 2018 with the Alpine system and I find it performs quite well especially for a stock radio system. I also had the Alpine in my 2012 and I can say the Alpine system in the 2018 is much better. Not sure exactly what the differences are but I’m sure someone more knowledgeable than me will chime in on point.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[lasher10]

My advice is don't pay the dealer to activate your Navigation. I got mine activated from Navrepair.com for $400.

 

[me85222]

I plan dragging this out for several days, I have no emotional investment in this truck yet at all, test drive I didn't even turn on the a/c. I will go back tomorrow evening for another test drive and have plans tomorrow evening so I will not stay long at all.

Any opinions on the stereo system.

Lasher10 was there any issues with activating the nav through navrepair?

Has anyone had front end issues, steering suspension?

 

[Ratket]

Front ends are solid, only time you hear of guys having issues is when they lvl them with a spacer or go to much and the angles on the uca ball joints are to much. There are aftermarket uca”s if you plan on doing this. the Apple car play is legit, I had nav on my 2500 I traded in, and will take the nav on a phone over it any day of the week.. especially with the car play.

 

[me85222]

Thanks for the info, exactly what I was wondering about with the nav system.

Has anyone ever dealt with going from cloth seats to leather aftermarket seats. The price is damn good compared to factory, I am considering katzkins but I know there are other brands.

 

[pridemore54]

I love the nav on my 2018. Really customizable and gives you tons of options to really tailor it to when you like and need. Not to mention the live weather radar and forecast is pretty nice too when I'm on long trips and can see crappy weather moving in. I will say this, my heated seats haven't worked since day one. They ordered new elements to see if that will help so make sure you test those. Even if it isn't cold out. Also my alpine system really nice. Wish the base kicked in a little lower but Ill take it for a factory system.

 

[Mega-Hemi]

Front ends are solid, only time you hear of guys having issues is when they lvl them with a spacer or go to much and the angles on the uca ball joints are to much. There are aftermarket uca”s if you plan on doing this. the Apple car play is legit, I had nav on my 2500 I traded in, and will take the nav on a phone over it any day of the week.. especially with the car play.

Any problems using the nav w/ car play if you run out of cell service? I like car play better but wonder it the 100% coverage for a GPS would still be beneficial.

 

[Black W900]

Any problems using the nav w/ car play if you run out of cell service? I like car play better but wonder it the 100% coverage for a GPS would still be beneficial.

Get the nav activated, Guys on this site say it's not a good system, but they are flat out wrong.
I have the nav in mine and I like it a lot!
It out performs my Garmin Dezl 770 by a long shot and is as good or better than my Rand McNally TND 730.
Nice thing about the factory system is also...You don't have to have some clunky ************* stuck on you dash or windshield.

 

[tidefan1967]

My Alpine system works great! As far as I'm aware Katzkin leather is some really nice stuff and actually much better than the factory "leather" in my Laramie. You can get your Nav activated on eBay for $350 or less. Just do a search for "Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram Uconnect 8.4 GPS Navigation Activation" on eBay and several options come up. If it says "best offer" I would try like $300 and see what happens because you get three offers I think. When I bought my truck I told them how much I wanted to pay out the door and they matched it pretty quick. My dealer actually beat my credit union's APR by a point or so, so no complaints there.

 

[HitchHiker]

Get the nav activated, Guys on this site say it's not a good system, but they are flat out wrong.
I have the nav in mine and I like it a lot!
It out performs my Garmin Dezl 770 by a long shot and is as good or better than my Rand McNally TND 730.
Nice thing about the factory system is also...You don't have to have some clunky ************* stuck on you dash or windshield.

I will second this perspective. The NAV on these units is just fine, and the integrated weather, and other nearby search criteria like restaurants and gas stations is one click away at any time when traveling. Don't get me wrong Carplay is nice, I use the voice controls for texting and other functions and it works very well, and I probably use my iTunes based music more than the satellite radio on average. Every now and again Carplay will disconnect for no good reason with my iPhone 8 and I have to unplug and replug my device to get it to reconnect, but it doesn't happen often enough to be problematic.

 

[HitchHiker]

I know MOPAR actually offers Katzkin leather in their parts catalog for RAM's here:

https://www.mopar.com/en-us/store/a...DS0132DI/Leather+Interior.html#product-compat

You can probably easily beat the price by going aftermarket, but figured it's worth a mention here.

 

[Ratket]

The Nav isn’t bad, you just have to pay to have it updated every so often, that was my biggest gripe with it. With the google/Apple car play it mirrors the map off your phone to your 8.4 touch screen, and for me that’s all I need. I didn’t know the new Nav had weather built into it, that’s pretty cool.

 

[GRN69CHV]

Put in a lot of aftermarket systems, factory Alpine system is about as good as it gets without spending excess dollars. Only factory systems I've heard that was true standout was Bang and Olufsen system in a high end Audi. Can it be upgraded, yes, does it suck? No. As for buying and what to pay, I looked real hard at leftover 17's and new 18's. Ended up buying a fully loaded '16 Laramie, originally put into service end of '16. Only had 9400 miles on it. Got balance of factory 36mo bumper to bumper and extended powertrain to 7 years / 100K. Even with all the incentives, it was till $6,000 cheaper than if I bought a comparably equipped '18.