Potential Lemon buy-back, Post-Pandemic Edition

[rubrduk]

My 2021 Ram 1500 has been in the shop 3 times now for the exact same problem, this last time they had it for 3 weeks straight and replaced a number of parts...they test drove it and said it was good, but in less than 1 mile of the leaving the service center, all of the same warnings and symptoms, so I turned around and took it right back.

They have had the truck 30 days total now


Now, this isn't the usual "I hate everyone" post

The dealer that has been servicing my truck, Ellis CJDR is not the dealer I purchased from and they have been very communicative and pleasant to work with. I contacted FCA to open a case after the first time the dealer was unable to identify the problem so I could have maximum efforts solving the issue. Additionally, my FCA case manager has been very communicative and keeps me updated.


So now here I am...it's been 2 months of dealing with the issues, driving multiple loaner cars, missing family summer vacations because I do not have a truck to tow our RV, and all of the other understandable frustrations.

I would love for them to be able to fix my truck and give me a MaxCare extended warranty so I'm not stuck in a truck that I have no confidence in, but they have still yet to identify the root problem.

My next concern is they are going to need to start doing invasive things like replacing the entire wire harness and removing the dashboard (WTF! that sounds like a nightmare, owning a truck that had everything under the hood dicked with!)

My biggest concern is they will need to lemon the truck, which of course now I have a number of costly accessories that I've added to it...but even more so is that I used a family contact for a very significant FCA 5% employee discount on top of some excellent "bottom of the market" pricing in 2020 when the dealership I purchased it from had 114 Ram trucks available! (they had 7 trucks 100% identical to mine in consecutive VIN numbers with exactly the specs I had been searching for!!)

Now you can barely find any BigHorn spec trucks, let alone with the features and options I specifically require, and they are all very premium priced with no discounts!

If I am forced to lemon the truck, I would want FCA to replace it and not just hand me a buy-back check so I don't have to go through the entire process again and then deal with my upgrade accessories and the no longer available discounts and incentives.

Has anyone gone through a replacement vehicle scenario and how much of a pain in the *** is that going to be?!

 

[Hydroblueguy]

My 2021 Ram 1500 has been in the shop 3 times now for the exact same problem, this last time they had it for 3 weeks straight and replaced a number of parts...they test drove it and said it was good, but in less than 1 mile of the leaving the service center, all of the same warnings and symptoms, so I turned around and took it right back.

They have had the truck 30 days total now


Now, this isn't the usual "I hate everyone" post

The dealer that has been servicing my truck, Ellis CJDR is not the dealer I purchased from and they have been very communicative and pleasant to work with. I contacted FCA to open a case after the first time the dealer was unable to identify the problem so I could have maximum efforts solving the issue. Additionally, my FCA case manager has been very communicative and keeps me updated.


So now here I am...it's been 2 months of dealing with the issues, driving multiple loaner cars, missing family summer vacations because I do not have a truck to tow our RV, and all of the other understandable frustrations.

I would love for them to be able to fix my truck and give me a MaxCare extended warranty so I'm not stuck in a truck that I have no confidence in, but they have still yet to identify the root problem.

My next concern is they are going to need to start doing invasive things like replacing the entire wire harness and removing the dashboard (WTF! that sounds like a nightmare, owning a truck that had everything under the hood dicked with!)

My biggest concern is they will need to lemon the truck, which of course now I have a number of costly accessories that I've added to it...but even more so is that I used a family contact for a very significant FCA 5% employee discount on top of some excellent "bottom of the market" pricing in 2020 when the dealership I purchased it from had 114 Ram trucks available! (they had 7 trucks 100% identical to mine in consecutive VIN numbers with exactly the specs I had been searching for!!)

Now you can barely find any BigHorn spec trucks, let alone with the features and options I specifically require, and they are all very premium priced with no discounts!

If I am forced to lemon the truck, I would want FCA to replace it and not just hand me a buy-back check so I don't have to go through the entire process again and then deal with my upgrade accessories and the no longer available discounts and incentives.

Has anyone gone through a replacement vehicle scenario and how much of a pain in the *** is that going to be?!


View attachment 102564

Mine wasn’t too bad once I got them to agree on things! They wanted to give me my money back, but i asked to build a new truck, this was November of 2020. It took 2 month to build and then sat at the dealer for a month waiting in ram to finalize paper work! After that it was a very simple process! Good luck, don’t back down!

 

[greenlawnracing]

Mine wasn’t too bad once I got them to agree on things! They wanted to give me my money back, but i asked to build a new truck, this was November of 2020. It took 2 month to build and then sat at the dealer for a month waiting in ram to finalize paper work! After that it was a very simple process! Good luck, don’t back down!

Tell me more. As opposed to getting your money back, you were able to get a replacement truck? Did you not have a truck for a while?

 

[dts828]

I haven't done lemon law but my brother and a friend has. Document all conversations and save all your records, emails and ect..., make sure they open up a new service record each time. For instance when you picked it up and brought it right back 1mile later should be on 2 separate records. This is important so it counts as separate repair attempts. Some dealers will just reopen the old service ticket since it's the same day.

Once buy back is approved (and the law varies from state to state some so do some research on your state.) typically one option is new truck with same MSRP or you pay MSRP difference. This could be tricky as you mentioned since some options aren't available in all trims due to part shortage and could force you to higher trim with higher MSRP or take cash payment where they deduct small amount for mileage.

Sent from my GM1917 using Tapatalk

 

[rubrduk]

I haven't done lemon law but my brother and a friend has. Document all conversations and save all your records, emails and ect..., make sure they open up a new service record each time. For instance when you picked it up and brought it right back 1mile later should be on 2 separate records. This is important so it counts as separate repair attempts. Some dealers will just reopen the old service ticket since it's the same day.

Once buy back is approved (and the law varies from state to state some so do some research on your state.) typically one option is new truck with same MSRP or you pay MSRP difference. This could be tricky as you mentioned since some options aren't available in all trims due to part shortage and could force you to higher trim with higher MSRP or take cash payment where they deduct small amount for mileage.

Sent from my GM1917 using Tapatalk

I made sure to get a new service record

I’ve also saved all emails ands texts (the dealer has a text system)

hopefully it doesn’t come to this, but I’m making sure I’m lined up with all details in that event

 

[mikeru82]

Having never gone through the process, I'd probably consult a lemon law attorney to find out what your options are for your state.

 

[Aseras]

In most cases, you determine if you want a buy back or a replacement vehicle. When choosing a replacement you get the MSRP value of the truck not what you paid for it. You pay the difference between MSRP of new truck and MSRP of old truck EXCEPT if the truck is identical ( same build, or the closest approximation possible ) but now costs more. If you have a loan is is usually endorsed to the new VIN of the new truck, you keep the loan. Otherwise the Loan is paid off and you take a new loan for the value of the previous payoff. That gets complicated as if the terms are harsher they are also liable for the increased costs.

 

[Aseras]

Also don't let this interfere with your vacations or whatever. you can rent a vehicle that functionally replaces your defective vehicle. Even if you have possession of your lemon vehicle and it is operable, but unsafe or unreliable. The costs of the rental are covered in lemon law. I rented a car for 8 months on my last lemon law and it was covered 100%. My previous PHEV would not charge, but was drivable on gas. I just got a rental car the entire time until settlement.

If you have a RV and this truck is what you towed it with, you can rent a truck capable of towing the RV ( if you can find one ) or any other purposes the defective vehicle would've performed.

 

[rubrduk]

Also don't let this interfere with your vacations or whatever. you can rent a vehicle that functionally replaces your defective vehicle. Even if you have possession of your lemon vehicle and it is operable, but unsafe or unreliable. The costs of the rental are covered in lemon law. I rented a car for 8 months on my last lemon law and it was covered 100%. My previous PHEV would not charge, but was drivable on gas. I just got a rental car the entire time until settlement.

If you have a RV and this truck is what you towed it with, you can rent a truck capable of towing the RV ( if you can find one ) or any other purposes the defective vehicle would've performed.

this is great news....renting a pickup truck is easy, but you are not allowed to tow with them and they typically do not have a brake controller, so you have to use United Rentals, Herc (Hertz Commercial), or Enterprise Commercial, which of course is $800-1000 per week

 

[Hydroblueguy]

Tell me more. As opposed to getting your money back, you were able to get a replacement truck? Did you not have a truck for a while?

It was just like trading in, they give me the amount of my Msrp to build new! You build your new truck, when they deliver it to you, you give them the old truck and sign a few papers, just like if you were to go buy and trade it in! In some states you have to pay a users fee, it’s based off of how many miles you drove, at the 3 attempt to fix the same issue. Mine was going to be $2400 for 8000 miles, however because I bought out of state, the lemon law fell under that state, North Carolina. So I got out of that $2400 usage fee! I did build a truck that cost $2400 more than the old one. Power running boards and air ride suspension. That was all I had to pay was the $2400 for that! No tax, no dealer fees, nothing! Ram treated me very well in the end

 

[rubrduk]

It was just like trading in, they give me the amount of my Msrp to build new! You build your new truck, when they deliver it to you, you give them the old truck and sign a few papers, just like if you were to go buy and trade it in! In some states you have to pay a users fee, it’s based off of how many miles you drove, at the 3 attempt to fix the same issue. Mine was going to be $2400 for 8000 miles, however because I bought out of state, the lemon law fell under that state, North Carolina. So I got out of that $2400 usage fee! I did build a truck that cost $2400 more than the old one. Power running boards and air ride suspension. That was all I had to pay was the $2400 for that! No tax, no dealer fees, nothing! Ram treated me very well in the end

that's cool that you can change anything, the only thing I wish I had was LED lights on mine

 

[GoMango16]

That warning came up on my Jeep. Had low battery voltage.

 

[scottmoyer]

I did a manufacturer buy back a few years ago with Dodge. I opted to do a replacement, so they tried locating a car identical to mine within 500 miles. If there isn't one, they allow you to order. As was mentioned, they do MSRP to MSRP. If the new vehicle costs more than the old, you pay the difference.

Now, if the new MSRP is higher than the old MSRP, for the same options, you can actually do better, because they have a formula to offset the higher costs, that they deduct from the mileage penalty that you have to pay on the old vehicle. I can't remember the formula for the mileage costs, but they usually follow your states lemon law formula for mileage. They call this a use fee. I ended up doing well on my swap because I replaced a 2015 Charger Scat Pack with a 2017 Charger Scat Pack and the shipping costs increased. All other options were the same.

Instead of doing the lemon law, see if the service manager will support doing a buy back. They will check with the regional manager. It was a fairly simple process.

Like someone else stated, because my 2015 loan was with Chrysler Capital, they just changed the VIN on the loan. I then had a 2017 car that already had 1.5 years of payments made. Chrysler did right by me and here I am with another CJDR product.

 

[rubrduk]

That warning came up on my Jeep. Had low battery voltage.

My truck is eTorque,...it has a 48v hybrid system unlike the Jeeps

 

[rubrduk]

I did a manufacturer buy back a few years ago with Dodge. I opted to do a replacement, so they tried locating a car identical to mine within 500 miles. If there isn't one, they allow you to order. As was mentioned, they do MSRP to MSRP. If the new vehicle costs more than the old, you pay the difference.

Now, if the new MSRP is higher than the old MSRP, for the same options, you can actually do better, because they have a formula to offset the higher costs, that they deduct from the mileage penalty that you have to pay on the old vehicle. I can't remember the formula for the mileage costs, but they usually follow your states lemon law formula for mileage. They call this a use fee. I ended up doing well on my swap because I replaced a 2015 Charger Scat Pack with a 2017 Charger Scat Pack and the shipping costs increased. All other options were the same.

Instead of doing the lemon law, see if the service manager will support doing a buy back. They will check with the regional manager. It was a fairly simple process.

Like someone else stated, because my 2015 loan was with Chrysler Capital, they just changed the VIN on the loan. I then had a 2017 car that already had 1.5 years of payments made. Chrysler did right by me and here I am with another CJDR product.

this is the experience that I'm hoping for

 

[Chris3058]

You Americans are lucky for Lemon Laws. Here in the Great white north we have CAMVAP - a volunteer arbitration program run by the automakers. It’s a total joke. Went through it once and won but it’s a royal PITA and it’s almost as if they support each other…..go figure.

 

[Aseras]

You Americans are lucky for Lemon Laws. Here in the Great white north we have CAMVAP - a volunteer arbitration program run by the automakers. It’s a total joke. Went through it once and won but it’s a royal PITA and it’s almost as if they support each other…..go figure.

Its the same here. The state programs are all run by BBB whom is bought and paid for by the manufacturuers. However the law basically makes it always their fault after 3 repairs or 30 days out of service. The result is also set so its pointless. It's all to wear someone down and make them think it is hard and to not bother. They also will schedule your hearing and then offer to settle the day before or morning of to avoic paying the thousands of dollars to have the hearing they will inevitably lose.

Always reject their offers and do the hearing.

 

[KWKSLVR]

I have heard that texts are not official communications from a dealership. You may need to insist that you get everything in writing via email from their email system. If it's coming from someone's personal account or personal phone number, it's likely not counting towards anything legally binding.

 

[IvoryHemi]

My truck is eTorque,...it has a 48v hybrid system unlike the Jeeps

Jeep Wranglers also have the 48V hybrid battery eTorque

 

[Aseras]

I have heard that texts are not official communications from a dealership. You may need to insist that you get everything in writing via email from their email system. If it's coming from someone's personal account or personal phone number, it's likely not counting towards anything legally binding.

A text from someone in a position of authority as far as a layperson would understand is infinitely better than a verbal he said. I used a voicemail the dealership left me about keeping my car overnight to run more tests to cement my over 30 days out of service claim, and then it took 90 more days after that when it was still broke.