Hey everyone! I've been on the site since April and was planning on buying a new 2020 or 2021 Ram Limited. Life is full of surprise though isn't it? Well after COVID-19 messed with inventory and discounts, etc. I was in no rush since I had started my search of seriously being ready to buy in April but the rebates in Texas on the Limiteds have been awful for 6 months running and I was picky about how I wanted my truck optioned which combined with dealers having the upper hand really limited (pun intended) what I could do.
I began to open myself up to the possibility of used in June but of course being picky makes that kind of hard as well haha. Everything happens for a reason though right? Fast forward to August and I found a dealership in Lake Charles, LA (this was a week before Hurricane Laura) that had a truck configured how I wanted except the Bed Utility Group and the eTorque were missing BUT the dealer was offering $12K dealer discount so I that alone made me reach out. I've been through this before and there was one other dealership in MO that had a dealer discount that high but of course they low-balled my trade and had over $2K in add-ons and wouldn't remove them so the deal wasn't what it seemed and I ceased contact. The LA dealer offered a decent value for my trade after a little back and forth and I was waiting on a Purchase Order to break it all out to ensure no surprises. Well instead of getting me the PO by the end of the day (this was Saturday, 15 August), the dealer went silent. By Monday (17th) he reached out to me in the morning to let me know the General Sales Manager who approved my deal had a family issue to take care of that day so he'd be in at 5:30pm that afternoon and would promptly send me the PO. Now I should add that since the truck didn't come with the BUG, I pointed out to the dealer that they would need to offer me some kind of deal on the RamBox divider/extender and the bed step since those were the two things that make up a BUG in a Limited with RamBox and he said it would be on the PO when they sent it to me so I said ok no problem.
So of course 5:30 rolls around and still no PO so in the meantime I decide to check Auto Trader again since it'd been a few days and I came across what is now my current truck. Patriot Blue was my 1st choice, Max Steel Metallic was my 2nd and Ivory Pearl Tri-Coat was my 3rd as far as colors go and this was one Ivory. It had every option I wanted INCLUDING THE BUG and eTorque and looking at the many pictures posted, I could tell the exhaust tips were black and were 5" (stock are 3 or 3.5" I forget) so I thought hmmm. The windows were all rolled down so I couldn't see if it had tint installed already and I could tell it had a hard folding tonneau which I also thought was great as I would have been installing one any truck I bought. In one of the other pictures, I could tell the tires weren't the factory Goodyears but the pick wasn't high-res enough as when I zoomed in, I couldn't make out the tire. So I figured why not...the price was REALLY good...$53K and only 9406 miles. According to the pricing guides, retail for this truck was several thousand higher and in-fact, the trade-in value on KBB for Very Good on this truck was $56-57K. I had checked the Carfax and it was a personal vehicle owned on a lease and nothing was odd or wrong so that was good. I contact the Internet Sales Manager and ask him to take some pictures for me of specific things (windows rolled up, top of the tonneau cover so I could see the brand, close-up of tires so I could see the brand and size, payload sticker, back sliding window to check for cracks as has been posted many times here, headliner to check for leaks/stains from dual pane, etc. and asked him to take a small video clip with his phone of a cold-start). He responded within 10 minutes and WOW! I could hear the exhaust and tell it was aftermarket (which I was happy about), the tires were Nitto Ridge Grapplers in 33x12.5x22 size and the windows were ceramic tinted max legal in TX. The tonneau was a Mopar Hard Folding tonneau cover and it already had wheel locks as well.
This was in Houston so a 3-hr drive for me so after getting the pics, I figured ok let's see what they offer in trade because this is a GREAT price so I'm sure they'll low-ball me. Oh and by the way, this is an Audi Dealership. So we conclude with several texts after I provide all the info on my trade and plenty of pics and he tells me he'll have the market value of my trade in the morning. Sure enough, Tuesday morning rolls around and he texts me the glorious words "the trade market value of your vehicle is $14,000". Now mind you, the BEST I had gotten so far was $12,000 after back-and-forth and I had engaged at least 7 times previous to this with values anywhere from an insulting $6500 up to $11,000 that I was able to negotiate up to $12,000 (the dealer in LA that I was waiting on the PO from). Now I knew this was going to happen barring shenanigans from the dealership. At this point, it's now Wednesday the 19th and the dealership in LA reaches out in the morning and tells me the GM wants to talk to me on the phone and asks for my number but at this point I didn't respond (poetic justice if you ask me).
Friday morning rolls around and I've got my financing set-up and put my older two girls in the car with me and we head toward the dealership in Houston. I arrive around 4pm and the truck was out front with a Red Audi Sold sign on it and the first thing I do is dive under the truck as the suspense of the whether it's an aftermarket exhaust or just tips. Sure enough, I look at the muffler and "MagnaFlow". I look and find out it's the MagnaFlow Ram 1500 Street Series Cat-Back Performance Exhaust System (19430) with 5" Black Tips, Stainless Steel and 3" tubing. I check the truck over for about 10 minutes and then text the Internet Sales Manager who brought out the key as I had requested be ready when I arrived and away I went with just my two older girls and I for a test-drive. It drove great and I loved the sound of the exhaust...no drone. I inspected for all the things I've seen posted on the forum and didn't see anything so fingers crossed. With 9406 miles on the odometer my hope was that anything that would rear it's ugly head likely would have at this point but either way I have the balance of the factory warranty and will be buying the extended Chrysler warranty (7yr/unlimited miles) anyway.
In the end, I paid saved about $7500 when you factor in the lower price, bigger trade amount, value of the tonneau, tint and the fact it had the BUG (step and divider/extender) and that doesn't take into account the value of the Nitto Ridge Grapplers or the MagnaFlow exhaust.
I have some mods coming but for right now here's some pics from when I got it home and detailed/waxed.
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