Mark Dodge Thread

[JoeI21]

Picked her up today! Financing got with me around 4:00 PM Friday, took me about 30 minutes to read through and fill out the paperwork. I think I spent about 20 minutes in the dealership (Raining hard) so I didn't get to do a good evaluation until I got home. There were a couple of very minor scratches I'll polish out tomorrow and my tailgate was a bit off on alignment as well. Very similar to the problems you had cevans.

Overall I drove home going about 75 MPH. Read the owners manual and they recommend not going above 55 MPH for the first 300 miles... oops

i’ve seen a lot of talk about needing paint correction after delivery of the vehicle. is that in response to the minor scratches you noticed or am i missing something completely different

 

[cevans6318]

Picked her up today! Financing got with me around 4:00 PM Friday, took me about 30 minutes to read through and fill out the paperwork. I think I spent about 20 minutes in the dealership (Raining hard) so I didn't get to do a good evaluation until I got home. There were a couple of very minor scratches I'll polish out tomorrow and my tailgate was a bit off on alignment as well. Very similar to the problems you had cevans.

Overall I drove home going about 75 MPH. Read the owners manual and they recommend not going above 55 MPH for the first 300 miles... oops

I took mine to 80 miles an hour as soon as I got on the freeway after leaving there. Lol. I never really believe in those recommendations on what miles per hour or what not to keep the engine during the brake in. That sucks you had to deal with the rain as well. The dealership being real small and the service drive being small makes it hard to put the truck anywhere to inspect it.

 

[Dunga]

I took mine to 80 miles an hour as soon as I got on the freeway after leaving there. Lol. I never really believe in those recommendations on what miles per hour or what not to keep the engine during the brake in. That sucks you had to deal with the rain as well. The dealership being real small and the service drive being small makes it hard to put the truck anywhere to inspect it.

I remember when I picked up my Stingray from Criswell in Gaithersburg and drove to North Dakota where I used to live. My first stop for the night was in Ohio which helped get the 500 miles of breakin. You couldn’t use cruise control, limit top speed but I don’t remember to what. The worst was you needed to continuous shift 5-6-7-6-5 gears and can’t stay more than a few minutes in a gear. That was bonkers. My arm was sore.

 

[SealTeamFive]

i’ve seen a lot of talk about needing paint correction after delivery of the vehicle. is that in response to the minor scratches you noticed or am i missing something completely different

a couple of things. First off, when the dealership washed my truck they put a bunch of microscratches in the paint. Second, there were little water spots. Third, even new paint from the factory can use a polishing step - it smooths out the clear coat and increases the glossy look of the paint.

Without going into a lot of detail there are two steps you take for paint correction - Compounding and Polishing. I skipped the compounding step because I didn't have any scratches that required that level of effort. The polishing step was just that - polishing the final layer for extra shine. Honestly I probably could/should have compounded the hood because there were a few scratches and spots the polishing agent didn't remove.

I started around 6 AM and didn't finish until 5:30 PM, taking only an hour or so off for lunch. Whoever Mark Dodge gets to do paint correction and ceramic for $700, that's a good price for 10 hours of work plus probably $100 in materials.

 

[JoeI21]

a couple of things. First off, when the dealership washed my truck they put a bunch of microscratches in the paint. Second, there were little water spots. Third, even new paint from the factory can use a polishing step - it smooths out the clear coat and increases the glossy look of the paint.

Without going into a lot of detail there are two steps you take for paint correction - Compounding and Polishing. I skipped the compounding step because I didn't have any scratches that required that level of effort. The polishing step was just that - polishing the final layer for extra shine. Honestly I probably could/should have compounded the hood because there were a few scratches and spots the polishing agent didn't remove.

I started around 6 AM and didn't finish until 5:30 PM, taking only an hour or so off for lunch. Whoever Mark Dodge gets to do paint correction and ceramic for $700, that's a good price for 10 hours of work plus probably $100 in materials.

great explanation. thank you

 

[Dunga]

Sounds like my truck is getting picked up today with estimated delivery Wednesday!

 

[Rammmer]

Sounds like my truck is getting picked up today with estimated delivery Wednesday!

Very nice, congrats. Did you have to raise your shipping bid again above $1 per mile?

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[Dunga]

Very nice, congrats. Did you have to raise your shipping bid again above $1 per mile?

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I didn’t. All said and done, and granted I don’t have any last minute complications it would come to $0.86 per mile I think.

1,191 miles for $1,025.

 

[JoeI21]

I didn’t. All said and done, and granted I don’t have any last minute complications it would come to $0.86 per mile I think.

1,191 miles for $1,025.

that’s awesome. thanks for the info. good luck

 

[Rammmer]

I didn’t. All said and done, and granted I don’t have any last minute complications it would come to $0.86 per mile I think.

1,191 miles for $1,025.

Not too bad. Diesel still seems to be falling so hopefully I can make out okay on cost when my truck is ready.

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[JVSTBEE]

I didn’t. All said and done, and granted I don’t have any last minute complications it would come to $0.86 per mile I think.

1,191 miles for $1,025.

I was at $1.07 per mile--not a lot of trucks coming to ND, historically, so I had to lean a little more aggressive.

Will also be delivered on Wednesday.

 

[Dunga]

I was at $1.07 per mile--not a lot of trucks coming to ND, historically, so I had to lean a little more aggressive.

Will also be delivered on Wednesday.

Thanks guys. @JVSTBEE that’s still not as bad as it could have been. Initially when I ordered my truck I was told $0.8-$1.1 per mile. Then a couple weeks ago they moved to a more “premium” transport company looking at $1.4-$1.6 per mile which is quite a bit more. I don’t know what all happened other than diesel prices coming down.

 

[JVSTBEE]

Thanks guys. @JVSTBEE that’s still not as bad as it could have been. Initially when I ordered my truck I was told $0.8-$1.1 per mile. Then a couple weeks ago they moved to a more “premium” transport company looking at $1.4-$1.6 per mile which is quite a bit more. I don’t know what all happened other than diesel prices coming down.

You're absolutely right--definitely could have been worse. I had more budget allocated to the shipping costs with gas prices doing what they were a couple of months ago. I do think diesel pricing is the main factor here, before I got the call this morning and before you & I connected, I was going to have them drop the bid and just wait it out since I thought the fuel price trending was favorable.

 

[JoeI21]

You're absolutely right--definitely could have been worse. I had more budget allocated to the shipping costs with gas prices doing what they were a couple of months ago. I do think diesel pricing is the main factor here, before I got the call this morning and before you & I connected, I was going to have them drop the bid and just wait it out since I thought the fuel price trending was favorable.

are you planning on doing anything to the truck when you receive it? i.e. paint correction, ceramic or ppf? i’m wondering if i ship straight to my ppf guy this way it gets off the truck and can get a full work up with out me needing to drive it back out

 

[JoeI21]

are you planning on doing anything to the truck when you receive it? i.e. paint correction, ceramic or ppf? i’m wondering if i ship straight to my ppf guy this way it gets off the truck and can get a full work up with out me needing to drive it back out

that’s a general question for anyone whose receiving or has done it in the past

 

[Dunga]

are you planning on doing anything to the truck when you receive it? i.e. paint correction, ceramic or ppf? i’m wondering if i ship straight to my ppf guy this way it gets off the truck and can get a full work up with out me needing to drive it back out

I had MD do their ceramic treatment. It’s not in-house but they have a local business they work with. I’ll have to see it when it arrives. I think I’m gonna want the ppf. I have it on most all my vehicles. Not excited about spending the money but it kinda pays for itself.

 

[JoeI21]

I had MD do their ceramic treatment. It’s not in-house but they have a local business they work with. I’ll have to see it when it arrives. I think I’m gonna want the ppf. I have it on most all my vehicles. Not excited about spending the money but it kinda pays for itself.

couldn’t agree more. it’s a tough nut. but it’s paid for itself on every vehicle i’ve done it too

 

[JVSTBEE]

are you planning on doing anything to the truck when you receive it? i.e. paint correction, ceramic or ppf? i’m wondering if i ship straight to my ppf guy this way it gets off the truck and can get a full work up with out me needing to drive it back out

I may do paint correction, depending on how the truck looks when it arrives. I won't be doing ceramic or PPF. Automatic car washes are a thing up here and there's no getting around it, so I'd rather do paint correction once or twice a year (moving into winter, coming out of winter) knowing that I'll never have perfect paint up here.

 

[GeorgiaBoy]

are you planning on doing anything to the truck when you receive it? i.e. paint correction, ceramic or ppf? i’m wondering if i ship straight to my ppf guy this way it gets off the truck and can get a full work up with out me needing to drive it back out

Not a bad idea! Coordinating delivery and PPF/tint/ceramic timing would have been a nightmare for me. So I just left it in the garage for a couple days fiddling with all the bells and whistles.

 

[Dunga]

Not a bad idea! Coordinating delivery and PPF/tint/ceramic timing would have been a nightmare for me. So I just left it in the garage for a couple days fiddling with all the bells and whistles.

How long did it take you to get used to it? My wife’s ‘21 GLE and even two months in the MBUX is still not growing on me. And I’ve owned prior gen Mercedes’. This is my first Stellantis and I guess the the infotainment has gotten good reviews lately.