I would have to argue with you on that one. Just because we are in the press doesn't mean anything really different. I purchased our long-term 2019 Ram 1500 Laramie Sport with my own money and with discounts from Ram because we are in the press, nor have they given us any discounts on any of the Mopar accessories for our truck. That being said, I have been a normal customer since purchasing the truck on April 22nd.
Now, when I made the video the night I discovered the issue, I did it because I would have never made the discovery of the problem if I didnt have my keyfob on my person. As soon as I posted this article on the forums
@RamCares reached out to me as I see them do for many of our forum members when they have issues asking if I needed assistance in guiding me in the right direction.
It just so happens that Ram also watches our YouTube channel and website, as they do many others and seen our issue. The video itself only has a couple of thousand hits (nothing to really push it to the forefront of YouTube's search results). But Ram does reach out to customers when they do see potential issues, as some of our other 5thGenRams forum members have seen in the past. You can search the forums and find a few threads where Ram had reached out to the customer to find the issue.
The only difference in my situation was that our Ram media representative reached out to us on behalf of engineering since they talk to us on a regular basis. The first thing they asked me was if I had a keyfob in the truck. When I wrote back the situation to them and I told them I was taking it to my local dealer, they asked me if I was willing to share the VIN of the truck as well as my dealer, so they could research the issue to make sure if it was an ongoing issue with other trucks, so I did.
Now before I took the truck in, my cousin who is an ASE certified mechanic told me to try to do a "hard reset of the truck" by disconnecting the battery and letting it set. Remember this was just before Thanksgiving and I couldn't get into the dealer for service until the following week. I didn't want to have my truck vulnerable for theft, so I did what my cousin said and the hard reset seemed to solved the issue.
I waited a few days to make sure the issue did not reappear and I reached out to Ram engineering to tell them what I did and how it seemed to resolve the issue. It also seems to fix the Uconnect issue I had with my 12-inch screen disconnecting my calls on almost every phone call I was on. Ram told me to keep them in the loop if anything changes and they were going to research the issue.
However, never did Ram get me into the dealer faster or roll out a red carpet to get our truck fixed any faster than anyone else's. They simply stated concern about the issue and were looking to see if this issue might affect other customers or might be a cause for a potential recall.
As a member of the press, we might get test vehicles for a week here or there and get to go to special events to drive the vehicles before the public, but Ram and FCA as a whole love to hear honest feedback. They have told us to be honest in our reviews and not to sugar coat stuff since feedback helps them fixed issues the long run. FCA doesn't pay us to do the reviews, they might cover a flight, food, or lodging but usually a lot of it is done independently on our own. Example
@Jared B went to drive the Rebel and Power Wagon in British Columbia a few months ago. Although the event was a few hours from his home, we both had traveled to Grand Bend, Ontario for a drag racing event for our site MoparInsiders.com and we paid for Jared to fly back home to go to the event and then fly back to Ontario to wrap up our other content for the sites.
If you are a follower of both the MoparInsiders and 5thGenRams YouTube channels, you will notice we do test a lot of vehicles (some of which we get through local dealers since not everything is available in the press fleet). One vehicle we were particularly hard on was the new 2019 Ram 1500 Classic Warlock. Jared and I both felt after being at the debut of the truck at the Toronto Auto Show and him driving it, it felt more like a sticker package than something special. That being said Ram never said anything negative to us about it, but when you are part of the press and you give your honest opinion about something there are usually fans who will attack your opinion or something you are issue you are having.
Just like our friends at TFLTruck, when we do give our honest opinions about something you tend to get feedback and positive and negative on both sides. Something I have talked about with Andre a few times. It does matter if we are a strictly Ram site either, diehard fans will come at you. It shows how passionate people are, as I am about Mopars. But it's one of the reasons why I bought this truck. I wanted a platform to write about the positive and negative aspects of ownership in the long run, something we can't do with a vehicle handed over to us for a few hours or just a week.
My comment about Ram stands. I was really surprised at how fast
@RamCares responded to us and I love the fact that Ram customer service is active on here and our HD site, HDRams.com. Did Ram get my issue fixed any faster... no. But I like the fact they reached out to me to see if they see if they can investigate the issue.
