Considering Purchase - Thoughts?

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crpngdth2001

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I'm thinking of purchasing this (http://showroom.auction123.com/auto...RR7GT3DS565365.html?leadsource=Craigslist|478) 2013 Ram 1500 Big Horn Quad Cab. Any thoughts on issues I should inspect for, common problems with this year, price? Recently sold my 2018 Tacoma TRD Quad Cab long bed after several (not-at-fault) accidents with significant damage - that only had 17k miles in 3 years. I drive very little (perm work from home), and just don't want to buy new and spend $40K+ for something sitting in my driveway for most of it's life. I'm looking for something 2013+, no loyalty to Ram/Chevy/Ford, 4 door, 6' bed, preferrably under 80k miles, and MAXIMUM $25k. That price needs to include a cap, which this one already has.

Thanks.
 

Treburkulosis

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The only real issues with the ram, is cam failure due to a design flaw. Look at the milage vs idle time. If its more than 25% of that I would be cautious. They have their quirks, but pound for pound I love mine. I have never had one issue with it. The gas milage isn't great, and you will hear a lot of talk about that. I will say tho my dads 13 ecoboost 4x4 gets worse mpg than mine. You are still getting the 6spd not the 8 speed, but yet again I have a 8 speed in my Charger and I like the 6 speed just as well. They are great trucks as long as you take care of them.
 

Treburkulosis

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Price seems fair with the chip shortage. If you were to trade that exact truck in to cavana that is your cash price.

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kurek

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Nothing wrong with '13 model year, I guess (based on seeing other peoples' posts) it has a model-year-unique steering rack but nobody outside of FCA knows what the difference is between that and a '14. Rarely they end up failing, no idea what conditions lead to that.

Any 5.7 (definitely before 2018, maybe after... again nobody outside FCA knows the whole story) has the potential to eat its camshaft but it's not a guaranteed death sentence, seems some do and most don't. Best advice there is stay on top of oil changes and stick to specified oil viscosity/service grade or since people here LOVE to argue about it, you can also apparently use one grade thicker than specified and... whatever. "F" oil argument threads. Point is don't sleep on oil changes and don't run completely the wrong oil.

That truck has the 6 speed RFE transmission, opinions vary but mine is it's a very good transmission up to about the stock horsepower these trucks make, but that's about their limit. If you have big power plans or you use every last pony in the engine on a frequent basis you might shorten the life of the trans. The later 8 speed is a better unit in every way but that doesn't mean the RFE sucks, it's just a "good vs great" sort of scenario and if you're trying to do 450+ horsepower you're just gonna kill the 6 speed. It is my opinion that the transmission oil and filters should be changed at 60k miles on this transmission - it should last the life of the truck if you just don't abuse it or neglect it. Most of the early kinks have been worked out of this trans by ~2009/10 or so.

Pretty cool that truck has the skid plate group and anti-spin rear diff. Assuming the condition of the vehicle checks out it should be cool.
 

aces-n-eights

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Looks pretty good to me, i think the price is fair. The CARFAX says there was minor damage to the rear of the truck in Oct '19. Perhaps the previous owner backed into something - i wouldn't be too concerned with that, just look that area over real well when you see the truck. Try to find the maintenance history if you can. If it checks out - go for it!
 
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crpngdth2001

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I am going to go to my local Ram / Jeep dealer and have the maintenance history pulled before stop out to look at the truck. Thanks for the input all!
 

89grand

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It looks pretty good. The price seems a bit high to me for an 8 year old truck, but used truck prices are insane right now. The biggest drawback is the 6spd. The 8spd is a much better tranny.
 
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