carpenterje

Well gents,
I have had enough of my 06. I've had lots of issues with the truck, transmissions been rebuilt at 3,000 miles the list goes on. After driving through Virginia this past weekend, raining of course, I looked in the back to check on my kids and sure enough I have a huge water stain on my back seat. Yep, the whole rear window leaks in 3 places, not the sliding window, the whole assembly. I got an attorney, cause DC is not helpful. I'll let the attorney do the talking. If things do not work out with the attorney for Lemon Law (been in the shop over 5 times for repairs on drivetrain and check engine light) I'm trading the truck. But, I need to be kept motivated to get another Dodge, cause right now I'm thinking of going to Chevy or Ford. If I do stick with the Dodge, what is ya'lls take on getting the dually, I do plan on pulling horse trailer and I need more bed room than what the short bed has. I've also read that short beds are that great for pulling a goose neck???

ramcneal

Don't give up on Dodge. I know it must suck having something that you can't trust, but your problems aren't common to all Dodge trucks. I had a '95 Dodge 2500 which I trading for a 2000 Ford Excursion w/ the 7.3PSD (I needed the room, 4 kids plus my family was involved with both Boy and Girl Scouts). I've got a Dodge again. The Ford was a good truck with a good engine. I've known others who swear by Ford (same goes for Chevy). There also are folks who've had some major problems with those brands too. My point is that you might get a lemon no matter which brand you purchase. However, it's darn hard for Ford and Chevy to compete with Dodge when it comes to the strength of the engine. Chevy might take the nod for the best automatic, but I've never used one, nor have I personally known anyone with a Chevy so my opinion is formed by what I've read. If you're able to get your truck replaced through the lemon laws you might look at getting another Dodge with the 6-speed manual. I love mine and I'm sure it's darn near bullet proof for when used within the design parameters. e.g. Don't bomb the engine to obscene amounts of torque and pull loads which are greater than the GCVW.

pet05

I agree. You did get a lemon.

Now, if 10% of all Dodges had the same problems, then I would agree and never buy a Dodge again. The fact is maybe 1%-5% of cars/trucks become lemons.

Back in the 80's it was as high as 10%. Since then, car manufacturers are building to higher standards. Yet, every now and theb, they slip out.

greasemonki

There is always one or two that lack in the quality department with any brand truck (read a monday or friday truck). But don't get discouraged from the brand. IMHO dodge makes one of the greatest work trucks out there. Chebby has fallen to the "gadget" crowd, and Ford is still working out the bugs. For what it is worth (its coming from me so not much ) I was looking at a Ford before I bought my Dodge, the manufacturing quality just seemed to be lacking in Fords department.

Stock 99 CTD

I agree with the others. There are bad GM products and there are bad Ford products. Toyota is known to be a quality product. My next door neighbor is a Toyota nut, nothing but Toyota he always says. He bought a new 05 Camry last year for his wife. The Camry is consistently ranked by several groups very high in quality. At 30K miles the engine had to be replaced. Boy was he quite about that for along time until his wife spilled the beans. My point is there are definetely lemons out there, It is too bad when you happen to be the guy that gets it. I was a loyal GM man until my first Dodge CTD. I purchased a new truck in 99 and it went for 7 years without ever even going in for warranty work. Great truck. This year when I decided to get a new truck I could not believe the resale value of a well kept older 2nd generation. After I sold it I looked at the GMC trucks, specifically the Duramax / Allison combo. I liked the truck but the engine did not feel as good as the Cummins, I guess I am used to the straight six by now. Anyway I purchased a new 06 and after 5500 miles feel I made the correct choice.

Good luck and hang in there.

drodgers

Ditto for me too.
Every auto maker produces an anything can go wrong will go wrong auto from time to time. Unfortunately, you got one.
Let the attorney do his thing and see what you get out of DC on this.
Regardless, you should be better off with another Dodge but they all got their issues too.

ramcneal

One thing I've often wondered about regarding the Japanese cars and trucks. They must have lemons as well, but I've not heard about them. Could it be that the dealers for these vehicles have a mandate from the corporate world to not fool around and quickly as possible rectify the problem? It seems that folks have to resort to getting a lawyer involved with the big 3 American companies.

I don't mean to highjack the thread here, but it's something that struck me while reading the replies.

BTW, you want issues go read the forums for BMW motorcycles. Yikes! They're good buts, but a few of the models have had some real troubles which BMW has tried to sweep under the rug.

Anyway, you know you want another Dodge. You will not be happy with a Chevy or Ford.

Geico266

You did the right thing by getting a lemon law attorney. DC will not even listen to you on your own. They will do a buy back of the vehicle and pay your attorney's fees BEFORE it is declared a legal lemon. That way they can sell it again as a "program" car / truck.

Been there, done that. I had a Jeep Grand Cherokee with a SEVERE engine knock. I actually made money on the deal.

96_12V

Sorry about your situation, no one who buys a new truck expects such treatment from it. This is the stuff that got the Americans in trouble in the '80's with shoddy quality control and a "who cares" attitude.

As for Japanese lemons, there is a known issue with the Lexus ES 300 (and I would think the Toyota Camary) from 1997 - 2001 with the 3.0 V-6 with oil gelling and subsequent engine failures. I have actually researched and found that customers had engines replaced at 120k miles Free of Charge in an effort to maintain thier repuation of quality. If you have never visited a Lexus dealer, you should sometime, they do everything they can to treat you like a king - even washing and vaccuming out used vechiles that come in for oil changes.

I must admit, if it were not for the Cummins, I might not be driving an American truck.

Foxborough

One other thought, look at different dealers in your area. I bought my truck at a dealership and hour or more away, do not want to drive too far for service. I have (3) within a 40 mile radius. The closest one I went to first, not impressed. The next time service was up I went to a dealer about 30 miles from home and was really impressed. My #2 rod bearing went out on mine. They even installed my transmission sender line for my gauges. It's your decision, wish you the best.

alMout

I pull a goose neck horse trailer with my short bed just fine. There is no difference in the way a short or long bed pulls, the difference is in the clearance. If the front of your trailer does not have angled sides, you do not have enough clearance to the cab with a short bed when jack knifing in reverse.

XZILR8N

Hang in there, the CTD Dodge Ram is a great machine when you get one of the many that are a quality built unit! Fortunately, my 04.5 has been trouble free for it's 37k miles except for one tiny hydroboost steering fluid drip that was quickly rectified by my Dealer.

It's ironic that in a time of foreign HD Truck competition looming on the horizon, increasing fuel costs, along with a slowing of the HD truck buyer market that Daimler Chrysler is not taking the lead and insisting that it's Dealers better protect it's most profitable customer base. If I were in DC's position, I would be "fortressing my HD truck buyer install base" with all kinds of support right now to hold onto my customers while also winning over those form FORD & GM. Instead, many good customers now seem to be reporting just the opposite. Unfortunately, warranty repair seems to be headed towards the same business model and tactics (either outright rejection, delays/stalling or underfunding the treating of the problem/misdiagnosis) that is often used in the healthcare insurance industry to bolster company profits.

When customers have to hire attorneys to make things right after handing over $40-50k that just flies in the face of good business practice and taking care of your customers!

Hounddog

Imports have just as many lemons.Use to get a list of avaiable buybacks for employees to have a crack at buying before they went ELESWHERE.Toyota may have FINALLY stood up to the sludge issue BUT lots of customers were told to go blow for a LONG time before they did.Even with PROOF of maintance! It got to widespread and Toyota finally did something.

Mike B

Funny, the 06 in our fleet needs a new transmission at 93K miles. I dont know specifically what happened. Of all the different brands of work trucks, I have found the Dodge's to be the MOST reliable of them all, on top of Ford and Chevy. It really takes driving different brands of trucks to really give a fair opinion.