Check your PDI when buying

[Willwork4truck]

I didn’t and and now, 3 weeks later, finally got around to looking under the hood (when I put the battery charger on it due to inactivity). I found the nicely yellow topped w/washer fluid cap, took it off and peered inside. Looked dry as the Sahara desert. I poured in a gallon of w/wash and it came up to full. Hmmm, that sucks as far as the PDI checks. So I looked for the overflow tank, didn’t see it (hemi) but found a plastic coolant cap up front, same thing just with the radiator/engine cooling logo. It has some weird dipstick arrangement in it, with small holes spaced every 1/2 inch or so. Guess they are supposed to “trap” a film of coolant in the hole. The Min/Max lines are not easy for 63 yr old eyes to read. Took me several tries before I figured that the coolant was at minimum. (Cold engine so maybe ok). I was afraid to check the oil based on the previous 2 results...

Moral of the story, don’t trust that the PDI was done very well. Tires were off too, all 4 differing by 5#. I had 40-45# in them, think sticker was 50. (Stock Goodyear all-season 22’s). Not a huge thing and definitely a dealer issue vs, Ram.

 

[cipherbreak]

Solid advise.

 

[TruckDriver]

Agreed and hopefully @RamCares is taking notes!

Even in our time of tech & refined workflows, people are people and it seems FCA/CDJR dealers are staffing from the mid>bottom of the barrel at times. Service staff was unhelpful, not welcoming and basically instilled 0% confidence that they could handle my truck let alone find their way around a spork.

 

[2019REBEL]

Main reason why I had a checklist and it took me about 15-20 minutes to go through it. When buying a vehicle here they have you sign a piece of paper saying everything was good and if it wasn't it's noted on the contract to be fixed to your satisfaction.

 

[Willwork4truck]

Ya know, I’ve read several car forum posts about doing a used vehicle inspection but haven’t ever really thought about new, “thinking” the dealer PDI was supposed to be good. Comes down to either trusting/knowing the dealer process or as in my case, flat not thinking about it.

Fortunately all 4 tires were mounted and the hemi was under the hood, ha ha. If all it was missing was some w wash fluid and the tires were off a few pounds then I got away easy. I never have noticed any of the “rail dust” that some people harp on but then I’ve never bought a dark colored vehicle either. I’m sure that there are cases that are really bad, and I’ve read about buyers later on paying for a clay bar and/or detail buff... sad.

 

[2019REBEL]

When I had my Outdoorsman it was white and I washed it with AutoGlym Magma(after about 4 years) and it turned the whole truck purple I did my Rebel couple weeks ago and hardly had a few places it was purple.
I have never clay bar mine just wash and wax(2-3 times a year)