disappointed_owner94
Member
- Joined
- Mar 8, 2021
- Messages
- 6
- Reaction score
- 6
- Points
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- Age
- 30
Long time reader, first time posting. I was looking for a new truck in early 2018 when Ram announced the new redesign of their entire truck series. I ended up placing a factory order on the 2019 Ram 1500 Limited. After multiple factory delays, I ended up getting my truck 5+ months later. At first, I was on top of the world with all of the new features and comfort of the new model. I regularly drive 100+ miles per day for work, so my truck racks up miles quickly, but 90% of these miles are while using cruise control on the interstate. The first 35,000 miles were pretty good during the first year and that was just long enough for the standard base warranty of 3 years/36,000 miles to run out; then came the expensive problems.
First, we’ll start with the brakes. Starting around 25,000 miles, I started getting a high pitch squeal in my brakes while backing up. This usually happens during cold temperatures (sub 45 degrees), when it has rained or is humid. The squealing sounds like two whales mating and it’s a great noise to make everyone stop and stare while you back up in a new $65,000 truck. Ram has never acknowledged the problem to develop a fix, despite hundreds of posts of fellow Ram owners complaining of the same issue. Dealers just told me that everything seemed right and there we’re no mechanical problems according to Ram. I have 70% brake pad life left with 100,000 miles on the truck in two years, so I’m not close to abusing my brakes due to where my truck is driven. Still to this day, the squeals remain and gradually gets louder as time goes on.
Staying on the outside of the vehicle, we’ll go to the air suspension system. Air suspension is a very nice luxury for a great ride. In my situation, it was easily justified for how many hours I spend in the vehicle per week. The justification is much more difficult when the compression system goes out within 18 months. This $2,000+ replacement started having intermittent operation and ended up becoming completely disabled, leaving my truck on its bumpers. If you think your vehicle suspension isn’t good, you should try it with absolutely no suspension as you get thrown around the vehicle. It took the better part of two months to get this issue diagnosed and replaced, while coming with a nice bill. The part replacement comes with a flat two-year warranty (no milage limitations) making it better than the warranty on the truck while new. Makes complete sense, right?
Rounding up the outside of the truck issues, this might be the most frustrating of all. When fueling the truck, which I do frequently given how much I drive, the angle of the gas filler tube makes gas splash back against the pump causing it to shut off, as the nozzle thinks your tank is full. If you get lucky with a certain kind of pump nozzle, you can leave it set to fill up the tank, but the other half of the time, the pump will auto shut off after dispensing a much as 1 gallon or .01 gallons. This has led to it taking 30+ minutes to get 30 gallons in my tank. I will usually give up after it taking 15 minutes to get 5 gallons and I’ll just try again the next day. If it was just a problem with one brand of gas station pumps, it would still be a problem, but I could manage that. This problem occurs at every gas station brand in multiple states. This takes up so much time and leaves me regularly frustrated and has yet to be addressed or even acknowledged as a problem.
Now that the exterior of the truck has been covered for the most part, we can now go inside and look at the electronic problems. The 12” screen is awesome in stature, but the software that backs it up, not so much. On a regular basis, the truck has to be shut off and turned back on multiple times to fix a glitch. This can range from the screen being frozen, to no audio, the screen being blank, apple carplay quits recognizing my phone or some of the climate controls being non-responsive. It’s a regular task to shut my truck off and restart it at a stop light, so that the software on the screen will reset. Glitchy only beings to describe it.
Another problem I had with the software was that the backup camera would stay frozen on the screen and made the entire thing non-responsive. This happened any time that I shifted into reverse and the camera came up or if I hit the camera button. The only thing that would get it to go off was turning the vehicle off and back on. Imaging backing up out of a parking space and then your screen being unusable until you shut it off. Ram’s over the air update did not fix this problem. I had to take it in to a dealer and pay for software to be re-flashed to temporarily fix the issue, which recently resumed. Don’t let the big touch screen draw you in, because behind it is cheap, buggy software.
Now for the grand finale, let’s talk engine problems! On the same day that I rolled over 100,000 miles, as I’m driving on the interstate, my dash screen gets lit up with multiple messages warning about failures and loss of power. I immediately get over on the side of the road as the engine starts to lose power and sounds/feels awful as it is misfiring. I come to a stop, put it in park and turn it off. I wait for 10 minutes to see if a software glitch caused it, but the truck will not start again. In order for my two-year-old truck to be towed, I had to research to find an interior panel that needed to be removed in order to manually disengage the transmission. The really big kicker here is that from 2010 – 2021, Ram has had a 5 year/100,000 mile powertrain warranty every year except for one; 2019. For one year, they shortened it to 60,000 miles and that’s the first model year of this truck, the one I own. You have to go all the way back to a 2006 Ram to find a shorter warranty period. I’m currently waiting to see from the dealer how extensive the damage is.
When planning on purchasing a vehicle, you regularly look at the features and pricing. This truck initially checked off all of the boxes to make it a class-leader. Twenty-nine months later I’m here to tell you had a great body style, leather and a big touch screen don’t make this truck reliable and leaves a pile of problems to sort out and pay for. Take the sticker price, add 10%+ (pending engine diagnosis) and that’s what your expenses will really look like after two years. But don’t worry, the frustrations with that amount come along free of charge! Our company owns 7 Ram service trucks and after this experience, I don’t believe we will continue to have a relationship with the brand, if this is what Ram’s reliability and durability has come to look like. After I figure out what it will take to fix the engine and make it drivable again, this truck will be getting a for sale sticker. The grass may or may not be greener on the other side, but another brand is at least worth giving a shot after this. My recommendation: find a good dealer that can help you find another brand for your next truck.
First, we’ll start with the brakes. Starting around 25,000 miles, I started getting a high pitch squeal in my brakes while backing up. This usually happens during cold temperatures (sub 45 degrees), when it has rained or is humid. The squealing sounds like two whales mating and it’s a great noise to make everyone stop and stare while you back up in a new $65,000 truck. Ram has never acknowledged the problem to develop a fix, despite hundreds of posts of fellow Ram owners complaining of the same issue. Dealers just told me that everything seemed right and there we’re no mechanical problems according to Ram. I have 70% brake pad life left with 100,000 miles on the truck in two years, so I’m not close to abusing my brakes due to where my truck is driven. Still to this day, the squeals remain and gradually gets louder as time goes on.
Staying on the outside of the vehicle, we’ll go to the air suspension system. Air suspension is a very nice luxury for a great ride. In my situation, it was easily justified for how many hours I spend in the vehicle per week. The justification is much more difficult when the compression system goes out within 18 months. This $2,000+ replacement started having intermittent operation and ended up becoming completely disabled, leaving my truck on its bumpers. If you think your vehicle suspension isn’t good, you should try it with absolutely no suspension as you get thrown around the vehicle. It took the better part of two months to get this issue diagnosed and replaced, while coming with a nice bill. The part replacement comes with a flat two-year warranty (no milage limitations) making it better than the warranty on the truck while new. Makes complete sense, right?
Rounding up the outside of the truck issues, this might be the most frustrating of all. When fueling the truck, which I do frequently given how much I drive, the angle of the gas filler tube makes gas splash back against the pump causing it to shut off, as the nozzle thinks your tank is full. If you get lucky with a certain kind of pump nozzle, you can leave it set to fill up the tank, but the other half of the time, the pump will auto shut off after dispensing a much as 1 gallon or .01 gallons. This has led to it taking 30+ minutes to get 30 gallons in my tank. I will usually give up after it taking 15 minutes to get 5 gallons and I’ll just try again the next day. If it was just a problem with one brand of gas station pumps, it would still be a problem, but I could manage that. This problem occurs at every gas station brand in multiple states. This takes up so much time and leaves me regularly frustrated and has yet to be addressed or even acknowledged as a problem.
Now that the exterior of the truck has been covered for the most part, we can now go inside and look at the electronic problems. The 12” screen is awesome in stature, but the software that backs it up, not so much. On a regular basis, the truck has to be shut off and turned back on multiple times to fix a glitch. This can range from the screen being frozen, to no audio, the screen being blank, apple carplay quits recognizing my phone or some of the climate controls being non-responsive. It’s a regular task to shut my truck off and restart it at a stop light, so that the software on the screen will reset. Glitchy only beings to describe it.
Another problem I had with the software was that the backup camera would stay frozen on the screen and made the entire thing non-responsive. This happened any time that I shifted into reverse and the camera came up or if I hit the camera button. The only thing that would get it to go off was turning the vehicle off and back on. Imaging backing up out of a parking space and then your screen being unusable until you shut it off. Ram’s over the air update did not fix this problem. I had to take it in to a dealer and pay for software to be re-flashed to temporarily fix the issue, which recently resumed. Don’t let the big touch screen draw you in, because behind it is cheap, buggy software.
Now for the grand finale, let’s talk engine problems! On the same day that I rolled over 100,000 miles, as I’m driving on the interstate, my dash screen gets lit up with multiple messages warning about failures and loss of power. I immediately get over on the side of the road as the engine starts to lose power and sounds/feels awful as it is misfiring. I come to a stop, put it in park and turn it off. I wait for 10 minutes to see if a software glitch caused it, but the truck will not start again. In order for my two-year-old truck to be towed, I had to research to find an interior panel that needed to be removed in order to manually disengage the transmission. The really big kicker here is that from 2010 – 2021, Ram has had a 5 year/100,000 mile powertrain warranty every year except for one; 2019. For one year, they shortened it to 60,000 miles and that’s the first model year of this truck, the one I own. You have to go all the way back to a 2006 Ram to find a shorter warranty period. I’m currently waiting to see from the dealer how extensive the damage is.
When planning on purchasing a vehicle, you regularly look at the features and pricing. This truck initially checked off all of the boxes to make it a class-leader. Twenty-nine months later I’m here to tell you had a great body style, leather and a big touch screen don’t make this truck reliable and leaves a pile of problems to sort out and pay for. Take the sticker price, add 10%+ (pending engine diagnosis) and that’s what your expenses will really look like after two years. But don’t worry, the frustrations with that amount come along free of charge! Our company owns 7 Ram service trucks and after this experience, I don’t believe we will continue to have a relationship with the brand, if this is what Ram’s reliability and durability has come to look like. After I figure out what it will take to fix the engine and make it drivable again, this truck will be getting a for sale sticker. The grass may or may not be greener on the other side, but another brand is at least worth giving a shot after this. My recommendation: find a good dealer that can help you find another brand for your next truck.
