The problem with RAM is the bewildering selection of trucks they have… Not just 1500, 2500, and 3500, but with all the variations of each in terms of trim levels, fascias, and optional packages that seem like good things – but in reality, it makes buying a RAM a nightmare. You sit down with a RAM salesman, and start talking about what you want on your new RAM that starts out at under 39,000 and soon it explodes into the 90K range. The other big problems is that RAM doesn’t have a reputation for being reliable. Not just interior electronics, but in the Engine and Transmissions. A TRUCK has GOT to be Reliable. That’s what its for. Bells and Whistles are not why people buy trucks. Locked up Transmissions and blowing manifolds and leaving oil patches where you park are not things that invite premium dollar expenditures. The other big – BIG – problem is STELLANIS. The CEO has cut corners so hard and so deep in the manufacturing process that the factory is rolling out new vehicles where the employees on the line KNOW there’s a problem, but the line just keeps moving and the problem doesn’t get fixed because they literally can’t fix it… it’s off to the next step in the production cycle. Look, RAM makes some great looking, comfortable trucks that SHOULD be top sellers in the truck market. The #1 thing RAM needs to do… Is leverage their own Buy Out from Stellanis, so RAM, DODGE, and JEEP become their own corporation, without some Euro-Trash jackwagon dictating his personal ideals on how to RUIN American Vehicles. Do that, and RAM trucks can mean something again.
What the Hell does some greasy European know about ANY American vehicle, Let alone pickem’up trucks? We like stuff we can saddle up in the morning and cover 500 miles a day, without busting a sweat, or crossing some frontier into the Soviet Union. Yeah, im that old… had a 2001 Dodge Ram, I loved that truck, that 4×4 kept us able to get to work during the Snowpocolipse on the East coast, and hauled what I needed to move…. it died too young, in an accident I caused, and it hurt like blazes….
That’s exactly right. They don’t know anything about Trucks, Muscle Cars, or Jeeps. They don’t get them.
I don’t have super strong opinions on trucks (beyond sorely missing my ’89 Dakota), but as a classic Jeep enthusiast, I think their attempt to turn it into a luxury brand is an unmaking of everything it stood for. Pants-on-head stupid.
Jeeps are supposed to be tin cans with a drivetrain that will take them anywhere you need to go…and some places you probably shouldn’t. I get that it’s hard to do with .gov automotive standards anymore, but Mahindra found a way. Jeep should have taken notes instead of taking them to court.
100%.
Dodge/Ram’s reliability problems go back way before Stellantis. About a decade ago, back when Dodge and Ram were under the FCA US banner, I worked at an airport rent-a-car counter. We had a decent number of Dodge cars and SUVs in the rental fleet, along with a handful of Ram 1500s. The ONLY FCA US vehicles that weren’t constantly getting deadlined for maintenance issues were the Charger, Challenger, and 300. Everything else was a steaming pile of canine feces.