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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.
 

HeavyRotation

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Combining all the utility of an American truck platform with all the experience of luxury car ownership was always going to end up causing issues with truck buyers who never owned a Jaguar or Rover. It sucks that your truck is giving you heartburn, but not too surprising with all the doodads. I wonder how these trucks score on reliability with a comparably equipped Maserati or Audi?
 

broken_vet

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Sounds like you've already made up you're mind, you aren't really asking for thoughts or opinions, and your "recommendation" isn't going to fly here, so why are you whining to us about it? You obviously have a lemon. Sorry that it's been a rough go, and you'll probably be happier with another brand. They all have good trucks, but they all have their issues too. Good luck.
 

Rupp

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Yes, I'm afraid that there are so many electronics in these rigs that the long term reliability will not be all that great. With this many doodads odds are something is going to break. I'm still in the honeymoon stage with my 2020 Limited as it only has 1200 miles on it and looks like it will not get much more as I continue to work from home.
 

Buz

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Yes, the amount of electronics on my 2020 Limited has me certain she will be on the selling block @ month 34 of ownership.
That being said, you realize you bought the most technological truck there is/was when it FIRST came out? It was in pure BETA form and you bought it.
Confucius say: "Never buy first year of any new/redesigned vehicle."
 

SD Rebel

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2019, zero issues in 2 years, none. Inside or out, one of the most reliable vehicles I've owned, and I've bought many new vehicles from many different brands.

I was afraid for FCA reliability and quality when I first took delivery, but so far it's been stellar. Which is good because I'm not been happy with RAM dealer network for even the smallest request, like the floor mat recall, service department needs a major overhaul.

What does the future hold? Not sure, but so far my RAM is one of my favorite vehicles of all time.
 

piening2150

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Ram, Dodge, Chrysler, Jeep, etc hasn't had the 100k warranty since 2016, at least not for regular consumer vehicles. Not sure where you got info that any other FCA vehicles still have 100k. My '20 certainly doesn't. It's right on the window sticker too, so it shouldn't be a big surprise.

I'm not usually a fan of extended warranties, but buying an expensive, complicated, first model year of an all new platform and then driving a ton of miles.... I'd say that was the perfect case for getting one. Also, if you've had a ton of problems in a relatively short time, why didn't you try to Lemon Law it?

It sucks you've had so many headaches. Good luck with whatever you decide for the future.
 
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db252

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SpeedyV

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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.
Wow...not much love here! A lot of this looks like bad luck (sorry to say).

Here are a few reactions from a fellow early purchaser (I ordered May 2018, took delivery in September 2018):
  • There were at least two TSBs in early 2019 for the brakes, as documented in the Resources section here (April 10, 2019 and April 25, 2019). Both of these directly addressed your complaint (noise when backing up).
  • You may have just shared the first documented air suspension failure among the 50,000+ members on this forum. Or you may be the second. Either way, sounds like bad luck there.
  • There is an existing thread on the fuel fill issue, so other members have encountered this. Personally, I've had no issues at any gas station (I mostly use QT, but it's never happened elsewhere either). There must be another variable here (e.g. some tolerance in the fuel filler neck installation that causes problems for some drivers, but not others).
  • My 12" screen has rebooted on me twice in the past 2.5 years, presumably for updates (or possibly a crash). That's it. I use CARPLAY2air (wireless CarPlay) and listen to SiriusXM every day without issues (knock on wood).
  • No issues with the cameras, either. The Surround-View cameras are awesome.
  • Sorry to hear about your engine issue, especially out of warranty. Please share when you learn what happened; hopefully it's nothing mechanical and will be a cheap/easy fix!
It's a review like yours that has me thankful I purchased the Lifetime MaxCare warranty while it was still offered. I hope I'll never need it, but it gives me some peace of mind.
 

SpeedyV

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2019, zero issues in 2 years, none. Inside or out, one of the most reliable vehicles I've owned, and I've bought many new vehicles from many different brands.

I was afraid for FCA reliability and quality when I first took delivery, but so far it's been stellar. Which is good because I'm not been happy with RAM dealer network for even the smallest request, like the floor mat recall, service department needs a major overhaul.

What does the future hold? Not sure, but so far my RAM is one of my favorite vehicles of all time.
Like you, I've mainly had a few minor recalls performed. I did have an issue with the reclining rear seats (resolved), and I think my passenger side mirror gear will need replacement (under warranty). Overall, a really solid track record for the first 30 months.
 

TravisJ

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  • You may have just shared the first documented air suspension failure among the 50,000+ members on this forum. Or you may be the second. Either way, sounds like bad luck there.
Really? I didn't think the air suspension in the 5th gen was any different than what was in the 4th gen. Living in the Midwest I always heard the air suspension had some horrific problems/failures in really cold weather. I heard it was the same air suspension system and that made sense as I very rarely see new Rams with air suspension at dealers around me.

Of course my father in law has air suspension and has yet to have any problems in his two years owning it. I would have loved to have it, but I heard similar horror stories from 4th gen owners just like the poster here is talking about.
 

SpeedyV

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Really? I didn't think the air suspension in the 5th gen was any different than what was in the 4th gen. Living in the Midwest I always heard the air suspension had some horrific problems/failures in really cold weather. I heard it was the same air suspension system and that made sense as I very rarely see new Rams with air suspension at dealers around me.

Of course my father in law has air suspension and has yet to have any problems in his two years owning it. I would have loved to have it, but I heard similar horror stories from 4th gen owners just like the poster here is talking about.
No, there were minor revisions to the 5th gens. And as one of the first hundred or so members here, I’d remember if the 5th gens had any widespread issues.
 
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You sit at the gas pump for 15-30 minutes trying to get the auto fill on the gas pump to work? Could you not just...manually hold it down?
It does matter if it's on auto fill or you're just manually holding the handle down, fuel splash back in the filler valve is causing it to kick off either way. Two weeks ago, I did it completely manually and it took 52 pulls of the handle to get 12 gallons in it. That's how often it's kicking off.
 

TravisJ

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It does matter if it's on auto fill or you're just manually holding the handle down, fuel splash back in the filler valve is causing it to kick off either way. Two weeks ago, I did it completely manually and it took 52 pulls of the handle to get 12 gallons in it. That's how often it's kicking off.
Thanks, I kinda figured I was missing something there. Annoying regardless, but yah, that is pretty infuriating.
 
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When a gas pump keeps kicking off, try pulling the nozzle out about 1" (2.5cm) or so from full inserted position.
This almost always stops it from happening.
I have tried that. I read through forums and that is the "by the book" way to fill it up, however it doesn't help. Manually manipulating the angle of the pump handle often fails as well. This is my most frustrating issue with the engine in a close second.
 
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No, there were minor revisions to the 5th gens. And as one of the first hundred or so members here, I’d remember if the 5th gens had any widespread issues.
I also had some issues with the dealer with the diagnosing of the problem on the air suspension because they didn't have anyone that was very well trained, which added to the overall problem and how long it took to get fixed.
 

SpeedyV

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I also had some issues with the dealer with the diagnosing of the problem on the air suspension because they didn't have anyone that was very well trained, which added to the overall problem and how long it took to get fixed.
I can certainly believe that. Vehicle service (any brand) is so hit-or-miss these days (and tends towards the latter, sadly).
 

mikeru82

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Really? I didn't think the air suspension in the 5th gen was any different than what was in the 4th gen. Living in the Midwest I always heard the air suspension had some horrific problems/failures in really cold weather. I heard it was the same air suspension system and that made sense as I very rarely see new Rams with air suspension at dealers around me.

Of course my father in law has air suspension and has yet to have any problems in his two years owning it. I would have loved to have it, but I heard similar horror stories from 4th gen owners just like the poster here is talking about.
It doesn't seem common for dealers to order trucks with air suspension, at least where I live. But just as an FYI, all Limited models have air suspension. So there are probably more of them than you think.
 

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