Cancelled my ordered Ecodiesel and bought one off of a lot.

[RangerGress]

I ordered a Big Horn on 4Mar. It was built on 28Mar then went into some QA Check limbo for 31 days, where it remains to this day. My dealer apparently couldn't get any info on what was going on. As the weeks in QA Hold came and went I started thinking that I was not at all sure that I wanted a truck with problems so serious that it spent >4wks and counting in QA Hold. Also, I was annoyed that my dealer didn't tear down the gates of hell to find out what was going on. So I started shopping around area dealers. Yesterday morning I closed a deal on a similar Laramie. Tomorrow I'm renting a car, driving a couple hundred miles and fetching the truck. Meanwhile the Big Horn will still be collecting dust in JS (Storage) QA Check status.

My dealer is now ****** at me, and I feel lousy as hell for punking him. But I waited and waited for some info on the truck while everyone else was getting there's and I got tired of waiting for Ram to tell me why my truck was sitting in a lot broken. The dealer says he's going to keep my deposit. I contacted my credit card company and filed a claim for a reversal of charges. If that doesn't work, it's small claims court. Having done that before it's no big deal.

I feel ****ty about how this went down. It's certainly not the dealer's fault that my truck turned out to be a lemon. I know this puts the dealer in a bind, but that doesn't mean I'm going to walk away from $1k. It's an Ecodiesel, it will sell.

 

[RVTRKN]

They will get over it, I was trying to buy a RAV4 with 0 interest on the balance borrowed from my dealer, and they seemed not to give a damn, even after buying 4 vehicles from them. There competitor payed the interest up front to close the deal with zero interest, I then called my dealer to setup service.

 

[Regcabguy]

Test drive your Ecodiesel thoroughly before signing.

 

[gtwitch]

Does anyone know what Auto trans they are putting with the Fiat ecodiesel and are they offering a Manual 6 with it???

gtwitch in wyoming

 

[Wayne M.]

Test drive your Ecodiesel thoroughly before signing.

Regcab- why do you say?

 

[jgillott]

I ordered a Big Horn on 4Mar. It was built on 28Mar then went into some QA Check limbo for 31 days, where it remains to this day. My dealer apparently couldn't get any info on what was going on. As the weeks in QA Hold came and went I started thinking that I was not at all sure that I wanted a truck with problems so serious that it spent >4wks and counting in QA Hold. Also, I was annoyed that my dealer didn't tear down the gates of hell to find out what was going on. So I started shopping around area dealers. Yesterday morning I closed a deal on a similar Laramie. Tomorrow I'm renting a car, driving a couple hundred miles and fetching the truck. Meanwhile the Big Horn will still be collecting dust in JS (Storage) QA Check status.

My dealer is now ****** at me, and I feel lousy as hell for punking him. But I waited and waited for some info on the truck while everyone else was getting there's and I got tired of waiting for Ram to tell me why my truck was sitting in a lot broken. The dealer says he's going to keep my deposit. I contacted my credit card company and filed a claim for a reversal of charges. If that doesn't work, it's small claims court. Having done that before it's no big deal.

I feel ****ty about how this went down. It's certainly not the dealer's fault that my truck turned out to be a lemon. I know this puts the dealer in a bind, but that doesn't mean I'm going to walk away from $1k. It's an Ecodiesel, it will sell.

I had a very similar situation back in the early '90's (I think it was for a '91 IIRC). I attempted to order a new Chevy K2500 4x4 regular cab. Very basic 4x4, AC, manual trans, Black with a grey interior. I put my order deposit down. Less than 2 weeks later, the dealer called and said that there was a problem getting my truck ordered, but he had found me the identical truck on another dealer's lot. When the truck arrived, it was a Black 2500 all right, but loaded to the max and well beyond what I could afford at the time. Obviously, I didn't take the truck and they refused to return my deposit until I involved an attorney.

 

[DonFitzwater]

Does anyone know what Auto trans they are putting with the Fiat ecodiesel and are they offering a Manual 6 with it???

gtwitch in wyoming

8 speed Chrysler built ZF and automatic only, no manual.

 

[Regcabguy]

Regcab- why do you say?

By that I mean put the potential vehicle through a test drive on the freeway,surface streets,parking lots and make sure it's free of any annoying issues.
This applies to any vehicle. Didn't mean to single anything out.
I read where guys have taken delivery only to have issues on the freeway etc.

 

[Wayne M.]

Oh yea. I drove mine before I signed. I thought there were some issues surfacing, by the way you stated it.

 

[RangerGress]

~280 miles coming home from the dealership. 1/2 rolling hills, half flat. Had cruise control on 78mph for most of the way. 27.3mpg. I noted that when I went below 75mph I got 30mpg. The thing about the truck that really got my attention is just how much interiors have advanced. I've gone thru a lot of vehicles, but I've not owned a new vehicle in a decade. They've come a long ways.

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[Bob4x4]

Good looking truck.They seem to have a nice bit of power for all the mpg they get.

 

[Wingate]

By that I mean put the potential vehicle through a test drive on the freeway,surface streets,parking lots and make sure it's free of any annoying issues.
This applies to any vehicle. Didn't mean to single anything out.
I read where guys have taken delivery only to have issues on the freeway etc.

hey that would be me!

 

[TJJEEPER]

Any progress in getting your deposit back?
Point them to this thread and be prepared to "out" them if they are balking.

The fact they couldn't get your truck isn't their fault, that belongs to Chrysler. You showed patience beyond normal expectations but that doesn't give them the right to keep your deposit.

 

[Wingate]

did you give the dealer the chance to source one to sell you via dealer trade or did you simply go buy another truck without discussing it with them and giving them the opportunity to keep your business?

 

[RangerGress]

I did not give the dealer a chance. The dealer that I ordered the truck from would have wanted me to just be patient with the truck that was stuck in QA. I didn't want to get into a tussle trying to apply pressure to the dealer to instead find a truck on someone else's lot and figure out how to get it from them. That discussion would have caused a lot of teeth grinding on both sides. I wanted a truck already on a lot. Since cherry red isn't common, there were only a handful of them in this part of the country. In contrast, black or white Hemi 1500's are a dime a dozen and any dealer ought to be able to get their hands on one in a couple days.

On the other hand, had my Internet searches found that the first dealer did in fact have a cherry red 1500 reasonably close to what I was looking for, then I would have called them and say "sell me the truck on your lot."

 

[Wingate]

Well, normally I find myself on the customer side, but in this case, I feel you deserve to lose the 1000.00 deposit. They ordered a truck specifically for you and entered into a sale in good faith. You are the one who broke the contract. If you take them to court, the first thing they will throw at you is the face that you never discussed options or gave the opportunity to make adjustments to the agreement you entered into.
I personally feel that the right thing to do in that case would have been once you found a truck that suited your wants/needs/desires, you should have went to the dealership where you placed the order and explained to them you found this truck and give them the opportunity to dealer trade that unit in and complete the sale.
Maybe the reason the ordered truck is sitting in QA instead of being delivered is because the one you got off the lot has some defect that Ram is correcting before they hit sales lots?

 

[RangerGress]

We may have to agree to disagree.

A couple weeks before I gave up on my truck stuck in QA Hold (Storage) I talked to the dealer via email and phone. I said that I was very concerned about the truck, that I was unhappy that I was getting no information about it, and I was frustrated because via Web resources I could see hundreds of trucks built after mine already in the hands of the owners. I suggested that maybe we should just call it off because there were numerous examples of similar trucks on lots in the area.

Among their possible responses was certainly, "how about we do a dealer trade and get one of those trucks on lots you've been looking at." Instead their response was "be patient." So I was patient for an additional 2 weeks. I figured in that time surely they'd be able to find out what was going on with my truck. Nothing happened. So I ran out of patience.

I do feel lousy about punking the dealer, make no mistake. Wasn't there fault that my truck was a lemon. I feel strongly tho that if they had raised hell with Ram they'd have gotten info on my truck. These things are selling like hotcakes. The truck won't be on their lot long. The fact that customer orders take precedence over dealer orders kind of means that I helped them get one of the hottest selling trucks in decades to their lot.

Re. Maybe the reason the ordered truck is sitting in QA... Baseless conjecture isn't something to base decisions on.

 

[TDRGuy]

Scott, glad you've got your truck.
Look forward to further driving reports.

RP