Crack in body - Bad weld?

[Paultg]

That's awesome! Glad it worked out and that the "pay it forward" rule seems to work its way back around to you.

 

[SD Rebel]

Awesome man, karma or whatever you want to call it, really glad to hear your story.

 

[Aseras]

This is great news, so glad to hear that you've been made whole. Unfortunately, it was not FCA or your original dealer that did so. But your new neighbor who you assisted and then stepped up to the plate to assist you in return. I'm certain he didn't do that due to the generator loan, but as the type of dealership manager that we all hope to come across if we ever have a problem like this which on it's face says that FCA needs to make you whole and also keep "crack" off the used truck market.

Oh that crack is for sure going on the market, it'll get fixed as cheap as possible and sent to auction.

OP should post the VIN of your old truck in this thread so it shows up on searches to help out any future buyers who are doing their due diligence.

 

[ClancyO]

If you are close to southeastern PA, looking at a used 2019 Granite Crystal 4x4 Bighorn, 6’4”, level 2, chrome clad wheels, chrome tube steps, wheel liners, vent visors & 11,250+ miles on it, PM me - the last 6 digits of the vin are very easy to remember.

 

[RamLink83]

If you are close to southeastern PA, looking at a used 2019 Granite Crystal 4x4 Bighorn, 6’4”, level 2, chrome clad wheels, chrome tube steps, wheel liners, vent visors & 11,250+ miles on it, PM me - the last 6 digits of the vin are very easy to remember.

I'm in Berks County Pa. Can you provide information on the dealership which made things right for you? Always looking for a good dealership to work with if I have problems with my Ram.

 

[Brianziggy64]

And now for the rest of the story...

I live in a community of older homes (40’s-60’s era). All these house have varying degrees of issues, fortunately our only real problem is that the basement gets water. Not much, but enough to make you cautious. We’ve had some pretty severe weather lately. We had a tropical storm come thru and dump 7.5” of rain over 8-9 hours. No real damage, but presoaked the ground for wat came next... A few days later we had a mega thunderstorm come thru that spawned a tornado just a few blocks away and dumped 4.5” of rain in 1 hour. I had a 16” wave breaking at the end of my driveway and my neighbors, who are fairly new and I had not yet met, had water breaking over the trunk of her Altima and totaled the car in their driveway. They also had a tree come down and take out the power. I have a generator to power sump pumps and keep the fridge/freezer from going, so I fired that up and all was well. We were out 24 hours, but no biggie considering the damage other people took. And the new neighbor who’s tree took out the line - well it also yanked the line off the house, so when the rest of us came back, they didn’t. I offered them my generator, showed them how to run it, even gave them cords and a Jerry can full of gas. Just being a good neighbor. It took over 2 weeks for them to get their power back. I’ve never run that gennie that long!! Again, no biggie, that’s what the thing was designed to do.

Meanwhile, I found the crack and this drama started. Appointment made to fix on Monday morning. New neighbors returned the generator and related with a nice thank-you card. Met the husband for the first time, and general conversation turned to the truck. Showed him the crack and his opinion was like everyone else - I’d make Chrysler buy it back! I agreed but told him I didn’t have the appetite for a long fight, just wanted to be made whole again and move on, besides, I didn’t know how to get that started. He said, “I do!” Turns out he’s the sales manager at the largest ram dealer in 100+ miles. The same dealer in fact that happens to have THE unicorn truck that I’d consider replacing the current with (like most of you, my list is VERY specific!). I didn’t talk to anyone when I looked at their inventory in person the day before. He told me to cancel/postpone the appt he’d see what he could do.

Best case, we could force a buyback through the original dealer. Maybe. In the end, they gave me fair market trade (which was $2500 less than my OTD price 18 months ago), and a title/tax/tag OTD price on the new truck that exceeded my expectations. Add that to the equity I had in the old truck and I’m good. Payment went up, but I got WAY more truck.

What ultimately becomes of ‘crack’.. I don’t know. Don’t really care.

About those specific criteria...
Has to have 6.4 bed.
Has to have 5.7 w/o e-torque
Has to have 3.92 rear, brake controller.
Color is complicated. Prefer to avoid dark (moving to desert southwest soon), allergic to red. Ivory would be awesome, white or silver good. Others considered..
Bed utility group would be swell
Sport Package would be swell
Led lights would be swell
33 gallon gas tank would be swell
Laramie/Leather would be swell, but finding one if this without e-torque was impossible when I bought 18 months ago.
Do not want Lane-keep, pano roof, or any other myriad of electronics that may/may not work 10 years from now..

Meet ‘Fluffy’:
View attachment 66508
Laramie level 1, 5.7 (no et), 3.92, sport, off-road, bed utility, nav, 20” premium wheels, under seat storage. Only thing it lacks is the 33 gallon tank. It is not lacking in smiles per mile!

I still haven’t been inside the dealership. Neighbor brought fluffy home last night, took crack back this morning. Going up tonight to sign paperwork (after an EXTREMELY thorough inspection)!

So yeah. Wasn’t planning on a new truck. Most likely would have kept ‘crack’. Most likely would not have been happy.

Karma works both ways.

Great story!! Glad it worked out in your favor!

 

[mikeru82]

That's a great story. Props for being neighborly, and it paid back for you. New truck looks great. It's almost exactly what I was looking for when I was shopping 10 months ago. If it had the rambox option it would be perfect.

 

[busa2009]

For what it’s worth, I did get a call from Ram Cares yesterday. Of course it was related to the case, not this thread. And the person I spoke too was a regional manager even though they didn’t introduce themselves as such. And they were very good at not admitting to anything, but assured me they are taking care if this. I suspect the call was because of the immediate denial and subsequent approval with nothing in between. (No new evidence- it was patently obvious from the start this was a defect).

Here’s my problem with the lemon law:

- Significantly decreases the resale value. Define significantly
- Makes the vehicle unsafe to drive and likely to cause a serious injury or death.
Gonna be hard to prove there.
- Impacts the normal functions of the vehicle.
Not at all

And the biggest problem, I’m moving cross country in the next 2-3 months. I need a truck to drag the trailer with most of my worldly possessions in it. I don’t have time or the appetite for a protracted legal battle with a far from certain outcome and no truck.

Does Ram owe me something for the value I’ve lost? Absolutely. Will I ever see it? Doubtful. And yet the replacement truck will more than likely be another Ram.

but Im only confused about one thing..why are you so eager to sit still and reluctant to go for the lemon law considering you have to wait anyway and all your baseless assumptions cant be proven unless you try...So, im confused as to your truck will be getting repaired and in that time you could at least try instead of making up reasons as to not try

 

[ClancyO]

There are plenty of things I’ll go to the mat for, this just wasn’t one of them. I’m cool with calling it even and enjoying the new rig. I’m not waiting on anything, old truck is someone else’s problem. They’ll fix it and it’ll be THAT truck still running 45 years from now..

 

[busa2009]

There are plenty of things I’ll go to the mat for, this just wasn’t one of them. I’m cool with calling it even and enjoying the new rig. I’m not waiting on anything, old truck is someone else’s problem. They’ll fix it and it’ll be THAT truck still running 45 years from now..

Good deal. hope they get right the first go round.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[JohnnyBgoode]

what does the original dealer suffer when taking the buyback. Does it really hurt them or just their pride?

 

[nburd]

Congrats! Very glad you worked it out.