do you believe consumer reports???

[Badunit]

I believe Consumer Report's reliability ratings. And I trust what they have to say about rough rides and the like. But you have to understand what is going on.

Reliability: Heavy trucks are usually put to heavy use and heavy use results in more repairs. Car-like trucks are treated like cars, resulting in less wear and tear and less repairs. If you are comparing a car-like truck driven on smooth roads back and forth to work to a full size truck hauling heavy loads over rough roads (and off road), the full size truck will lose in this category.

Recommendations: Their recommendations are toward car-like trucks because their readership is interested in ride quality not capability as a truck. I read their recommendations but their opinion of ride quality or the look of the dashboard is far down the list of things I think of as important.

 

[Larry Willard]

Yes, I believe that Consumer Reports is made up of a bunch of twinkled-toed types who prefer bicycles and Prius cars.

Have to agree with Harvey on that.

 

[Bill Stockard]

I believe Consumer Report's reliability ratings. And I trust what they have to say about rough rides and the like. But you have to understand what is going on.



Reliability: Heavy trucks are usually put to heavy use and heavy use results in more repairs. Car-like trucks are treated like cars, resulting in less wear and tear and less repairs. If you are comparing a car-like truck driven on smooth roads back and forth to work to a full size truck hauling heavy loads over rough roads (and off road), the full size truck will lose in this category.



Recommendations: Their recommendations are toward car-like trucks because their readership is interested in ride quality not capability as a truck. I read their recommendations but their opinion of ride quality or the look of the dashboard is far down the list of things I think of as important.

Yep, the Honda Ridgeline is their kind of a truck. :-laf



Bill

 

[mwilson]

:-laf



HEY easy on the bicycles HB it's ok to bag on the Prius thou. And as far as twinkled toes did the wife and daughter tell you about painting my toe nails when I was asleep in my easy chair? THEY SEEMED TO GET A KICK OUT OF IT. A guy cant even take a nap around here

What color???



For some reason I just had to ask... .



Mike.

 

[HBarlow]

Gale told me he prefers hot pink.

 

[rscurtis]

Yep, the Honda Ridgeline is their kind of a truck. :-laf



Bill

Let me tell you a story about the Ridgeline. When I had my rental business, one of the items I had for rent was a Terramite TLB that was transported on a Beck tandem-axle trailer with surge brakes. The whole package was around 5000#, maybe a little more. A stripped down F150 could barely handle it. A second generation Dakota would squat in protest, unless I positioned the load to control the tongue weight. Never tried the small Chevy/GMC of the era, they couldn't carry more than 500#. Customer came in one day with a RL, it handled that load with no problem at all- until he ran out of gas as soon as he pulled into the store on return trip.

 

[AHarris]

First Nissan truck was a 2006 I believe.





Mike.

Nissan Titan first came out for MY 2004 and is little changed since then. I test drove one in March 2004 and was impressed with the test drive. Glad I didn't buy the truck, though.

 

[Bill Stockard]

Let me tell you a story about the Ridgeline. When I had my rental business, one of the items I had for rent was a Terramite TLB that was transported on a Beck tandem-axle trailer with surge brakes. The whole package was around 5000#, maybe a little more. A stripped down F150 could barely handle it. A second generation Dakota would squat in protest, unless I positioned the load to control the tongue weight. Never tried the small Chevy/GMC of the era, they couldn't carry more than 500#. Customer came in one day with a RL, it handled that load with no problem at all- until he ran out of gas as soon as he pulled into the store on return trip.

Yep, I know what a Terramite is. I wouldn't have thought RL would do it. They must be tougher than they look. My wife drives a Honda Odyssey and I figured RL was just an Odyssey with part of the roof chopped off. I wouldn't pull anything behind her Ody. It doesn't have a trailer hitch and won't get one as long as she owns it. If anything needs towing, it goes behind my dually.



Bill

 

[rscurtis]

I was skeptical too, but it made me a believer. I would've thought the Dakota was a little more capable.

 

[AABEN]

I think it could be from the frunt ends going out so fast. Witch RAM should put a heaver frunt end in them! But RAM let us rebild them at are cost.

 

[BIGNASTY]

What color???



For some reason I just had to ask... .



Mike.

Red and it looks good I think. :-laf HOT PINK? HOW GAY WOULD THAT BE RED IS MORE MY COLOR

 

[Cosmo]

Yep, I know what a Terramite is. I wouldn't have thought RL would do it. They must be tougher than they look. My wife drives a Honda Odyssey and I figured RL was just an Odyssey with part of the roof chopped off. I wouldn't pull anything behind her Ody. It doesn't have a trailer hitch and won't get one as long as she owns it. If anything needs towing, it goes behind my dually.



Bill

As a Subaru tech I install trailer hitches a couple times a month usually - it's one of our more popular accessories. On the Forester you remove the 5mph crumple-zone bumper beam and replace it with a 2" square tube hitch bar... so when someone hits you at a stop light it might puncture your bumper cover, but the structure around it stays intact. It's quite similar to replacing your truck's bumper with a steel ranch bumper.



I'm sold on the idea of putting receivers on all of my vehicles. Let the other guy's crumple zone dissipate the energy in a minor fender bender.

Nissan Titan first came out for MY 2004 and is little changed since then. I test drove one in March 2004 and was impressed with the test drive. Glad I didn't buy the truck, though.

As a 1/2 ton truck they're excellent. I'd rather have one than a Ram 1500. However, you've got a big plow and a bigger trailer - those aren't really 1/2-ton truck accessories. It would have been a tragedy to try them with a Titan.

 

[AHarris]

As a 1/2 ton truck they're excellent. I'd rather have one than a Ram 1500. However, you've got a big plow and a bigger trailer - those aren't really 1/2-ton truck accessories. It would have been a tragedy to try them with a Titan.

I think most of the bad press on the Titan came from the first and second year models--later iterations were more reliable. Still, the Ram 1500 is IMHO a much better truck with a much better V8 (Hemi).



I wouldn't even consider a 1/2 ton for what I do with the truck now. With the Cummins, I get as good as or better fuel mileage than I could ever hope to achieve with a 1/2 ton gasser. My sig truck gives me the best of both worlds--comfort and decent fuel economy combined with the ability to plow and tow heavy. As an added bonus I have a truck that will easily last 250,000 miles, maybe longer, since I do my best to take good care of it.

 

[HBarlow]

Yep, it will last longer and still have a good resale value when you're ready to replace it.

 

[R. Weber]

just got consumer reports in mail today,

FULL SIZE PICKUPS page 67 predicted reliability ratings.

dodge ram 2500 turbodiesel predicted reliability at negative (86%) that's 86% worse than average... predicted for 2012 model based on last 3 model years. YIKES. What do they recommend? Chevy Avalanche (is that a truck?) Toyota Tundra, and F150.

On the bright side GM 2500 was the worst at (123%) one spot below the ram. Nissan Titan was #1 at +50%???

My '08 6. 7 has been doing great lately, where do they get this stuff?

I have had a 1994 Ram 2500 with over 100,000 miles towed 12000 lb RV and not one problem. I bought a 1998. 5 Ram 2500 with the ISB motor and had over 125,000 miles on it with only one problem a manifold pressure sensor went out. I had a 2003 Ram 3500 and had no problem but sold it to a family member and he still has it no problems. I replaced it with a 2005 Ram 3500 and another 2500 Ram because we needed the 3. 73 rear end and the 03 had a 3. 5 that shift hunted constantly. The current 3500 had a rear U joint go out at 40,000 but it was replaced easily under warranty. Have over 200,000 now and no problems. Maintenance has been typical oil, fluids, tires etc. They have the 48RE in both 4WD. Consumer Reports is a liberal org that sells itself to the left. I asked for years to have the trucks evaluated and the response was it was too expensive. Yet the buy Porsche, Lexus, Prius, Mercedes Cadillacs etc. . Consumer Reports should stick to vacuum cleaners and peanut butter. they way to tell which vehicles have problems and which are keepers is to look in classified ads. The ads are full of problem vehicles. The vehicles that are absent are the good ones that everyone hangs on to. Just my thoughts. Enjoy your Ram. We Tow horse trailers, have heavy RVs, and put them through their paces in harsh winters of Wyoming and hot summers. WE have no modifications or chips they are stock. I say this because most problems I read about with Rams have aftermarket changes. Thanks.

 

[HBarlow]

Product testing done by Consumer Reports is generally objective and accurate and I believe good sources of reliable information.

Vehicle reliability reports on trucks like all of us own and drive are not in my opinion. I've been a paying subscriber for many years and I think the vehicle reliability reports come from voluntary submissions by members. Who bothers to fill and out and send in the reports - dissatisfied owners which skews the reporting.

I don't need a bunch of twinkle-toed libs in Connecticut who probably own and drive a Prius or Kia to tell me about good trucks to own. I know more than they do about Cummins powered Rams and would guess that most TDR members do also. That's why we own them.

 

[DBithell]

Product testing done by Consumer Reports is generally objective and accurate and I believe good sources of reliable information.

Vehicle reliability reports on trucks like all of us own and drive are not in my opinion. I've been a paying subscriber for many years and I think the vehicle reliability reports come from voluntary submissions by members. Who bothers to fill and out and send in the reports - dissatisfied owners which skews the reporting.

OK Harvey; Agree their surveys are as likely to get filed in the round can as filled out and mailed in as they are long and time consuming. I agree with you that dissatisfied owners are more likely to fill out these surveys - they want to share all the bad stuff they experienced. But, try to grasp this, which vehicle evidently has the highest number of dissatisfied owners? There should be some correlation to the results. I have brand X am happy so don't fill out the survey. I have brand Y and am unhappy so fill it out. Get what your saying but that doesn't mean all is good for brand Y. One last thing as LT Collumbo would say, vehicles are a major purchase for most folks, so if they are happy/unhappy more likely to share that info than for a cracked crock pot liner for example. So, IMO there is some truth to what they say. You say the data skewed by the unhappy guys filling out the form, so evidently there were more unhappy than happy.

 

[HBarlow]

Vehicle problems experienced probably depend at least as much, perhaps more on driver rather than truck brand.

I've put a total of 670k miles on three Dodge Rams and never experienced a fraction of the problems that some TDR members report. I've never had an injection pump, injector, or lift/transfer pump failure except the first one on my '01 which failed a block from the Dodge dealer when the truck had 65k miles on it.

While I would report no problems many owners believe all of those components and more are very failure prone. So what good would the reports actually be?

The point is the product reliability testing on light trucks and cars reported by Consumer Reports is not objective, the vehicles are not operated under controlled testing, and there is not even any way to know how honest or accurate the reports are or even how many reports a disgruntled owner could submit.

 

[DBithell]

Vehicle problems experienced probably depend at least as much, perhaps more on driver rather than truck brand.

I've put a total of 670k miles on three Dodge Rams and never experienced a fraction of the problems that some TDR members report.

Evidently, more bad drivers bought the hd ram diesel in consumer reports than the other brands then? Because they're bad drivers, they had more problems, became disgruntled, and thus filled out the survey. Thus the bad report card. You disagree with the bad report card based on your 670k miles of trouble free experience. OK.

I only have 50k on my '08 6. 7 and it hasn't been trouble free - mostly emissions related which are issues that aren't fixable. Think about that, not fixable. If it's not fixable it must be the drivers fault. The regen didn't complete because me the driver wasn't working the truck hard enough, so the sensor/filter/whatever plugged up. "These trucks were meant to be beat" was what the tech said to me - my bad. Course that was the early days < 1k, there were some absurd # of regen attempts and no completions and flash #x of #x+20 was supposed to correct it... ...

So, the best thing to do is to become a good driver and don't idle, no short trips, work it hard for its limited purpose, run the exhaust brake, heck avoid using the cruise control so that the VGT keeps on working. And use the 13 year old but reliable gasser for getting groceries. Works for me.

Guessing a lot of your 670k was prior to the 6. 7?

 

[HBarlow]

I have 115k on my '08 and it has been trouble free. I know better than to use it or any truck with a large, heavy diesel engine with a huge cast iron block as a grocery getter.

If you bought one thinking it was a good fit as a commuter car or for running short trip errands you made the wrong choice. The trucks work great when they are highway driven enough to complete the regen cycles but are really intended to be used for towing heavy trailers. They are working trucks.

Cummins and Dodge didn't have a meeting and decide to install all that emissions crap on their trucks because they were bored or had too much money to spend. It was mandated by the federal government driven by tree huggers. Cummins and Dodge did the best engineering job they knew how to do to meet outrageous standards in a short period of time.

The problems you claim to have experienced, whatever they may be, are certainly "fixable. " There is no question about that. The problem is your dealer has probably advised you more than once that your truck's duty cycle is inappropriate and is responsible for the problems you've had. They probably also hold the opinion that you have not and will not change the duty cycle so they will not continue replacing very expensive components or expending expensive shop labor time to clean and reclean sooted components. A Dodge Ram regional service manager has probably declined to pay for more.

Your dealership or other private shops will replace anything you want replaced as often as you want them to work on it if you are paying.