OP... Sorry to hear/read of your repeat misfortune. I do not envy your experience. Spending that much money on anything, let alone a vehicle, and then to endure what you have sounds far beyond frustrating. I spent less than $40k on my preowned 2020 Rebel and I would be in tears if I had half your issues..
With that said, maybe I can provide some helpful insight with some minimal behind the scenes knowledge...
Forgive me for being vague as I have to be careful what I say for obvious reasons, and please forgive my ramblings, but here goes...
So I work for a Tier 1 (meaning direct) supplier to most of the OEMs, including FCA and provide a few integral parts on both the DT and DS platforms...
I have even been to the Sterling Heights Assembly Plant (SHAP) during the preproduction phase and my company was, in some small regards, involved in the launching of the new 1500...
So I can tell you that FCA faced a ton of issues getting this platform off the ground in ramp up and was plagued with one problem after another, in the preproduction build phases, ramp up and in the early production build phases.
While FCA definitely did have some self-induced set backs and hurdles of their own (to be expected), the vast majority of the issues they faced were caused by their suppliers, not FCA themselves.
All of this, is unfortunately, industry standard when launching a completely new and redesigned platform. FWIW, not to toot my own horn (as I definitely have my fair share of shortcomings) but I am a seasoned manufacturing engineer with decades of experience in the industry and IMHO, despite the countless hurdles they faced in the launch phase, FCA did an outstanding job with this platform.
Often times when an OEM releases a “new” body style (typically every 8-10 years) they usually just modify or improve on as much of the existing design as they can. They will update the body, trim and interior, but the drivetrain, suspension geometry, components, ect are based largely on the existing design as much as possible. The OEMs will, in fact, often use the same tooling and “carry-over” as many parts/components as they can to reduce cost, timing and potential failures. Sometimes they just modify the same tooling under engineering changes.
We make parts for several OEMs today in molds that were originally built in 2006 for platforms that have been retired for years. However, I can tell you that every part we make for the DT platform is out of new tooling and all the components we supply are of their own, completely new design. Every part/component for this platform that I am aware of, including those produced by our competitors are completely new and unique to the new design. When FCA advertises the 19-21 1500 as an “ALL NEW DESIGN” they mean it!!
With all things considered, and with the information above, you have to understand that the amount of design, development, testing, engineering, prototyping, tooling, fixturing, automation, programming, training, ect... that goes in to creating a new vehicle like this is just plain ****ing insane!!
Just one small part on this truck that we supply, that you probably don’t even know exists, that you may never even see, and that is small enough to fit in a shoe box, literally took us year to design, prototype, and tool. And the tooling and equipment that makes that one part literally cost $1,000,000.00 and almost cost me my marriage to build.
When you go to the dealership and see that window sticker with a $60,000.00 price tag, you think the same thing we all do.. “Holy ****! That’s expensive!” In reality, it’s cheap!!
With all that said, when launching a new platform there are so many things that can go array that just can’t be foreseen. Any OEM, I don’t care who it is, is going to have more than a few issues pop up when building a new vehicle. It’s unavoidable. That’s why they say “never buy the first one of anything”. Some problems can be caught and dealt with on the line or in the infancy of the first few batches of production. Some issues won’t present themselves until 10, 20, 50 or even 100k miles down the road, literally! Even 3 years in, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few more TSB’s or Recalls announced in the future. The fact that there’s as few as there are so far, I think shows there’s something to be said FCA!
My advice would be to place some calls to FCA and advise them of every problem you’ve faced so far and in the future. Maybe they can/will do something for you, probably not. But I doubt the dealers are effectively communicating non-warrantied repairs up the chain as much as they could/should. And the truth is no one wants to build/sell a piece of ****. Reputation and word of mouth are everything in this industry. If they can help you, within reason, they probably will. And if they can use your experience and feedback to improve their product in the future, they will.
At the end of the day, the fact remains, all OEMs have their fair share of problems, especially with new platforms. From my experience as a repeat Ram customer now four times over, who has owned the other two brands as well, and as a supplier to FCA.. I trust them with my money. Maybe I’m off base, but that’s my $0.02...
Good Luck! I hope everything works out and I hope you don’t give up on the brand.
5thgenrams.com
