MagicMarker
New Member
- Joined
- Feb 16, 2022
- Messages
- 3
- Reaction score
- 3
So I’ve been reading this forum for a while but finally decided to join now that I actually own my 2019 1500 Bighorn. I thought I might share the fun story of ownership for me to the group. So I have a total of 4 kids making my family a 6 seat vehicle family. When Ram added a couple inches to the crew cab and offered 6 seats… I was able to convince my wife (reality check: she told me about the added space) to trade in the minivan because the kids actually got more leg room in the truck than in the van.
But the trick of the deal was the payments, I needed them to be close to that of the minivan. But Ram had an offer… “lease to buy” where I paid the assumed depreciation between sticker and what they guess the truck would be worth in three years (converted to a monthly payment). Needless to say this was pre COVID. Fast forward 3 years and 30k miles… I would be able to buy the truck with the lease pay off of the pre negotiated price of $27k (which is a no brainer).
The problem came in when I tried to send FCA my money. Their payoff instructions are designed for dealers not for people and even though I called them 4 times to ensure I had the instructions correct (which they emailed me) right after I sent the certified check I called to give them the tracking number and they told me I sent it to the wrong address (used the address printed on the instructions). After escalating and calling for weeks… a month later I find they found my check, thought it should be sent to pay off a loan at my bank, then my bank sent it back to me. When I finally figured all this out I was 1 month past the end of lease and got a special address to send the payoff check then finally got ownership of my truck.
From that point on I vowed not to deal with Chrysler Financial ever again…. Which lasted about a month and a half when my wife forced me to get her a new Jeep JL Unlimited (since we just got out of car payments).
Well that is my story, but now I own my truck and to reward me of ownership… the battery crapped out like clockwork after 3 years… I guess the car gods do have a sense of humor
But the trick of the deal was the payments, I needed them to be close to that of the minivan. But Ram had an offer… “lease to buy” where I paid the assumed depreciation between sticker and what they guess the truck would be worth in three years (converted to a monthly payment). Needless to say this was pre COVID. Fast forward 3 years and 30k miles… I would be able to buy the truck with the lease pay off of the pre negotiated price of $27k (which is a no brainer).
The problem came in when I tried to send FCA my money. Their payoff instructions are designed for dealers not for people and even though I called them 4 times to ensure I had the instructions correct (which they emailed me) right after I sent the certified check I called to give them the tracking number and they told me I sent it to the wrong address (used the address printed on the instructions). After escalating and calling for weeks… a month later I find they found my check, thought it should be sent to pay off a loan at my bank, then my bank sent it back to me. When I finally figured all this out I was 1 month past the end of lease and got a special address to send the payoff check then finally got ownership of my truck.
From that point on I vowed not to deal with Chrysler Financial ever again…. Which lasted about a month and a half when my wife forced me to get her a new Jeep JL Unlimited (since we just got out of car payments).
Well that is my story, but now I own my truck and to reward me of ownership… the battery crapped out like clockwork after 3 years… I guess the car gods do have a sense of humor
