Am I Clueless? Later Model 2019 Build

[Helmetface]

I love the 2019 Ram 1500.

I drove it no less than 4 times (extended dealer joy rides) and sat in their office for a total of 6+ hours, accompanied by endless online research, prior to ordering.

I finally ordered my Nearly decked out Big Horn about 2 weeks ago. At this point, it has a VIN and as of today, a body.

Am I foolish for thinking that I can circumvent many of the known issues that many have expeirenced by ordering one of the last produced 2019 models?

I can deal with minor inconveniences (for a time), but the overwhelming amount of "my truck has been at the dealer for over a month" threads are starting to add up (I understand it's a forum, many come here to complain, seek advice, etc).

At this point, I've given my local dealer $500 to build my Dream Ram. I have it in writing that it is totally refundable, so on that front I am not concerned. The truck comes in, has several issues...I tell the dealer to screw. But if I sign, i drive the truck for 5k, 50k+ miles, then its obviously my issue. I don't want to be one of these cats, posting a "MAJOR FCA ISSUES" thread in 6 months.

My last truck was a 2015 Silverado 2500 that I bought new and just sold at 87k miles (want to compare crappy resale? LOL). Not a single major issue. I didn't really care for the transmission programming and the factory tires were crap...

But I digress! I guess I'm more venting than anything and getting out some of those "I just signed my life away" jitters...But what do y'all think about the truck in it's current state? Are the major complaints a massive over-statement and not indicative of the overall experience?

I welcome anyone who has anything to add!

 

[Zeronet]

My truck was built mid-May 2019. No issues so far after 2000 miles. I too was concerned with the issues reported on this forum and no doubt there have been some problems, especially the early builds. Plenty of TSBs and a couple of recalls have solved many of the early problems. They have incorporated many of those fixes into the assembly line and updated parts. So I felt good about waiting a bit to make the purchase. Time will tell.

No recalls, no trips to the dealer for me so far. Truck has been perfect other than the less than stellar A/C. It does take a few minutes longer to cool off (also has a bigger cab, crew vs quad) than my old truck, but then it’s very comfortable.

Sounds like the 2020s will be unchanged so that’s no reason to wait.

 

[sgtsodo]

I have a February 2018 build and have 11k miles on it. Overall it’s the best truck I’ve ever had. Hasn’t been perfect but darn close.

 

[timtlu]

March 29 build. Only "problems" I've run into are

A. Squealing noise after engine off. Not sure what it is at this point, but best explanation this far is AC related, and my AC is solid.

B. Maybe ever so slight wind noise from maybe ever so slightly misaligned driver side rear door. I go back and forth between I'm making things up and the door definitely needs to be realigned.

However, none of the horror stories. When buying I made sure to look for a newer build date that was past pretty much all of the TSB date ranges. If I were you, I would feel very confident in getting a brand new build date as you describe.

 

[troutspinner]

Stop reading forums. . People with issues seek out resources like this forum for solutions. We have 15k members here. Many have had no issues, many have had issues that were actually not issues, they just didn't understand how the truck works. Keeping the member count in mind, Ram has sold 333k trucks so far this year. This forum represents less than a half of one percent of owners. Also keep in mind what I mentioned about people not having or not understanding issues and the actual percentage of issues is decreased even more.

There is an overwhelming amount of satisfied owners out there. Unfortunately, we don't get to read those stories because the old squeaky wheel gets the grease.

 

[J-Cooz]

Don't forget for every member that has an issue there's probably 50 that has had no issues and doesn't post anything. No vehicle is perfect, but I think you'll be fine. So far with my ram I've noticed only a few small issues, the main one being the alignment is a little off.

 

[Ickabod]

I have a February 2018 build and have 11k miles on it. Overall it’s the best truck I’ve ever had. Hasn’t been perfect but darn close.

Feb 20, 2018 build date. Our trucks must be siblings...

 

[drush]

No issues on mine with a Feb build date.

 

[JJRamTX]

My truck was built in August 18, Nothing that I have had to have done was earth shattering. Brake squeal and vibration noise only when in reverse and cold was my biggest issue besides the two recalls (Adjustable Pedals, and Steering Ground cable). I have experienced three ghosts in the machine but I am pretty sure it was due to the Software OTA update and a couple re-boots for the truck to see all of the updates (TPMS warnings, Screen going blank, three 12" screen system re-boots out of the blue while the truck was driving, and two days of the Key FOB being stupid and not responding until I was within 1 foot of the truck). Now everything is working perfectly and out of ~6 months of ownership, it has been at the dealership 4 days total. Love the truck and the Gas Mileage has impressed me compared to my prior 6 trucks (Currently around 18MPG).

 

[Diamondback]

If I missed your intro, welcome to the forums.

I, too, have been keeping track of all the issues to make sure I go thru them when mine delivers. (It is in TRIM now).
I've been in constant talks with my local dealer (and I was recently hired there as well, so I bring up a lot of what I read here to help all the techs keep track and I would think that there would be soooooooo many people coming into the dealer for allllll the issues I have read here -- the techs are like, we have not seen this or that since the 2019's have come out -- so as others have said above me, "you tend to hear only the BAD and rarely the GOOD) .. I can't wait for mine to show up so I can start using those RAM BOX side storages!

I have an '04 Silverado 2500 HD -- I was not impressed with the engine performance nor the transmission (not to mention to 11MPG city or highway). I purchased a programmer for it and edited all the above and even was able to get 15 city / 21 highway afterwards.

 

[StuartV]

I only have 600 miles on mine, so far. It has no issues, yet. A/C works fine. No funny noises. But, 2 weeks and 600 miles is probably not enough to say much. Other than being able to say I LOVE my new truck!

Sounds like the 2020s will be unchanged so that’s no reason to wait.

There may be no "published" changes, but that doesn't mean they have not made lots of running changes, "under the hood" so to speak. I.e. changes in the way they are building them or design changes on parts they are using to deal with the problems that they have found along the way.

So, I would totally expect each year of these trucks to be slightly better quality and more reliable than the previous year. But, that's not at all to say that the last of the '19s are going to be problematic and early '20s will be a lot better. I would expect that improvements in the build process get (mostly) implemented as they come up with them. And revisions on parts would also (mostly) get incorporated as they come up with them, too.

So, I would expect the first '20 to have quite a few differences "under the hood" from the FIRST '19 that was built. But, I would expect the last '19 and the first '20 to be almost identical, in terms of quality/reliability.

At least, that's my totally-not-an-industry-insider view of it.