Back in a 5th Gen after swearing never again!

[Phillip Berk]

So as the title suggests, I somehow found myself back in a 5th gen after a year or so of ownership of my 2020 Big Horn back in 20-21 which was a nice truck but had constant problems from day 1, two other Jeep and ram ( a 3500 work truck) products both getting lemon law'd or being terribly unreliable I pretty much swore off anything under the stellantis group again, my dad has a Gen V viper currently with under 6k miles and is equally as unreliable, but cool enough to warrant dealing with!

After getting rid of my prior truck about 8 months back (Nissan Titan pro4x) I've run into days where it would have been pretty convenient to have a truck again so I have been keeping my eyes out for maybe an f150 ( thought about one of the base model supercharged ones for low 50's) and then got an email from the dealer that bought back my lemon law'd 4XE about some 2023 Ram 1500's leftover new and after giving the owner of the dealer a call ( he personally assisted with the lemon law) I was able to get a 71,000 sticker Laramie Crew Cab 4x4 Ecodiesel for almost $30,000 off sticker (29 off msrp+ (2k in bs window tint, bed liner, running boards, ceramic coating blah blah I did not mind with the discount) I wired over the money the same day, they had 7, and I ended up with a Black over black truck which normally would not be my first choice but looked super nice and by the time I actually came into the dealer a few hours later, 4 others were sold already! all at pretty great deals (all 20k+ off msrp).

So took the truck home on Friday, left town for a quick trip to Nola, came back yesterday and had my Tint guy and wrap guy come over this morning and get some darker ceramic tints, do some partial blacking out, PPF, etc, and I managed to snag a too good to be true deal on FB for a set of brand new take off Vossen HF6's with brand new tires that a local guy bought new from a dealer ( dealer sold as a dealer accessory for ridiculous number with the truck last year) he took them off the next day for 35" AT's. I normally always go up in tire size and get a nice all-terrain but figured I would try something different this time since this truck will never leave the pavement. Still waiting on some stuff like the bed cover, and the class v hitch, bed step, and amp steps to be delivered but so far have to say I am super happy with how it came out. The ride definitely suffered a bit with the 22's but it is still a super nice ride compared to my Titan. I am curious to hear what else people do to these trucks as I barely modified my 2020. Looking for cool OEM+ and nice to have upgrades. No performance or power mods, I trust this Gen 3 ecodiesel about as far as I could throw the block, so warranty yes, please. Let me know what you guys think! It is super dirty as I have not washed due to the PPF, proper photos will be taken soon!

 

[kapinallinen2]

Good looking truck.
Welcome back to the hive.

 

[Redz72]

Your wrap guy did phenomenal work on those bumpers. The truck looks sharp for sure.

 

[Idahoktm]

That looks so much better with the chrome bumpers/mirrors wrapped and taking off those ugly @ss running boards. Same wheels as @ferraiolo1.

 

[ferraiolo1]

Looks good! Crazy how nice those wheels look on a lifted ish truck and lowered truck. Also it’s still raining in PA…

Also wasn’t me..

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[Phillip Berk]

Looks good! Crazy how nice those wheels look on a lifted ish truck and lowered truck. Also it’s still raining in PA…

Also wasn’t me..

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This looks amazing! still debating dropping it but really don't want to harm the ride anymore. so my wrap guy was struggling with the grill so we left it chrome for now to paint later on but I am not sure if I actually like this! a nice little mix. I see yours is black with the chrome ram, just how I was planning! have some more photos?

 

[Phillip Berk]

Your wrap guy did phenomenal work on those bumpers. The truck looks sharp for sure.

Thank you! We were not able to do the grill, it was turning out bad, so we left it chrome for now but not sure if I want to have it painted now, kind of liking the mix of chrome/black against the wheels.

 

[Redz72]

How difficult was it for him to do the bumpers? I’m having my rockers wrapped with matte PPF next week. I’m looking for a little contrast on the Brilliant Black Crystal Pearl Coat I have now. I’m thinking of having the bumpers done if I like how the rockers come out.

 

[ferraiolo1]

This looks amazing! still debating dropping it but really don't want to harm the ride anymore. so my wrap guy was struggling with the grill so we left it chrome for now to paint later on but I am not sure if I actually like this! a nice little mix. I see yours is black with the chrome ram, just how I was planning! have some more photos?

It’s just a sport edition Laramie. Only thing chrome on it was the badging, which I removed everything but the ram on the front and back

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[frisby5]

Thank you! We were not able to do the grill, it was turning out bad, so we left it chrome for now but not sure if I want to have it painted now, kind of liking the mix of chrome/black against the wheels.

Who was the dealer?

 

[yellowboy]

You must be a glutton for punishment.

After all your issues you come back because of a discount ? Yes they are discounting the Rams big because all Stellantis vehicles have the worst quality control now. A used Ram or Stellantis vehicle is like Kia or Hyundai -- dropping like a lead balloon in resale/ trade in price .

Plus you put money in mods that you will never get back ?

To each his own.

 

[Ros]

I agree on the trade in value part for sure. My '21 lease is up at the end of August and best trade in estimate I've gotten is $3K under my lease payoff and that was actually from a Honda dealer. My RAM dealer offered me considerably less. Since it's going back in on Monday for a wet front passenger carpet plus the trips in for a front actuator, bad speaker, and a fried RF hub, it looks like I'll just be handing in the keys and walking away from RAM for good at the end of August. I didn't expect a $23K trade in value, that's for sure.

 

[Phillip Berk]

You must be a glutton for punishment.

After all your issues you come back because of a discount ? Yes they are discounting the Rams big because all Stellantis vehicles have the worst quality control now. A used Ram or Stellantis vehicle is like Kia or Hyundai -- dropping like a lead balloon in resale/ trade in price .

Plus you put money in mods that you will never get back ?

To each his own.

I must be lol, and yes I am fully aware these trucks are put together with ramen noodles and the person running QC is an escaped chimpanzee from the Miami zoo, But I bought this truck brand new for a massive discount, like I said almost 30k off sticker, on top of that being a 23, the eco diesel has a 5yr/100k mile powertrain warranty, and the rest of the stuff is covered for a few years at least. This is a vehicle that will see occasional daily mixed use but also sit for a week or two at a time so I am not super worried. Miles will stay relatively low, and even if the trade-in is 40 under MSRP in 3-4 years I don't really mind. I am into this truck for under 45k, I don't expect it will become a 20k truck anytime soon, as it is still a full-size 4x4 diesel truck, which will have low miles, as well as in good shape since I don't abuse my vehicles + PPF over all of the impact zones, all the chrome is wrapped, etc. I know I will never get back my money for mods or tint, but the wheels I got for under 1100 locally, I know I could double my money on those, and on top of that, I will have. set of factory fresh brand brand-new tires/rims to put on for when I sell the truck. My last ram, a quad cab 4x4 5.7, I got for 18k under the sticker, traded in for 3k more than I paid a year later with 12k miles.

 

[RookieB555]

Looks good! How much was the wrap and where did you go? Looks like you’re in Florida, same as me.

I just got a used white Limited, would be nice to lose the chrome just like you did.

 

[Phillip Berk]

Looks good! How much was the wrap and where did you go? Looks like you’re in Florida, same as me.

I just got a used white Limited, would be nice to lose the chrome just like you did.

I paid 1,200 for all the chrome wrapped, as well as frontal PPF and various ppf across the touch in high impact area's, part of the bed, doors, sills, gas gap area, etc etc.