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New 2025 3500 Bricked after 357 miles

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piledrvr40

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posted this as a reply, but realized I was hijacking someone else's thread with a couple of edits. So here is my story.

Just joined, I bought a 2025 3500 6.7 Big Horn last week from the big dealer in Idaho. Picked it up on Wednesday. Got in to drive home and made it to I-205 in Portland. I was in rush hour traffic and got lots of messages. 4x4 not available, put in park and pick a gear, check engine light went on, etc. I was in stop and go traffic on a section of the freeway that had no shoulder. I needed to go roughly 500 yards to get to an area with a shoulder. Didn't make it. Truck went into park and would not move. ODOT Incident Response showed up after I called. They knew where the manual override lever was and we got the truck into neutral and he pushed me off the road. 357 miles, had the truck in my possession for 6 hours and 14 minutes total time from picking it up to when the tow truck dropped me at a dealership in downtown Portland. Road side assist setup the tow. When I called them back to see about a rental car, I was told they don't do that. So I was stranded at a closed dealership in downtown Portland with my backpack and a suitcase. Awesome. Took an Uber to the Airport and got a rental so I could drive home. Apparently RAM has this new magic trick that turns a 3500 into a Kia Sportage. So far I've got one dealer trying to figure out what is going on with the truck, a case opened with RAM customer service, and a dealership in Idaho that isn't being that helpful in resolving this situation as they want to wait to see if the truck can be fixed. Dealer working on the truck had to open a ticket with RAM's (STAR) engineering group as apparently there are so many faults and codes the tech has no idea where to start.

I'm not a happy camper as one might imagine. I made my position to the dealership I bought it from pretty clear, I either want a new truck or my money back. I do not want a truck that couldn't even make it home and I sure as heck don't want to be chasing electrical issues for months on end. Truck had a total of 452 miles on it when it bricked, 357 miles of it was me driving.

This may get ugly. What none of them realize is I do have an ace up my sleeve as I've worked closely with 3 of the 4 NTSB board members on other issues recently. The feds are way worse than any lawyer out there. I'm going to give about a week to get resolved before pushing the big red button.

I have a 2010 2500 at home that is still going strong at 245k, so I know they can build something that actually works.
 
Really sorry to hear all that, especially as expensive as these things are. I bought a 3500 from the same dealer you did. I’ve had some weird warnings and cautions as noted in some of my other posts, but nothing as extreme as you’ve mentioned. I did have several of the downloadable updates installed at my local dealer and so far none of those advisories have come back in about 3,000 miles or so. Some of your symptoms sound similar to what some folks have dealt with with the faulty wheel speed sensors, but it seemed like the majority of those folks owned duallys. Whatever the situation is, good luck getting it all sorted out. I can understand how frustrating that would have been dealing with in that situation.
 
i know people that have driven new vehicles around for a week and got their money back because they just didn't like it. Seems like in this situation, they should have no problem swapping the truck if it's not something stupid.
 
JBoze said:
i know people that have driven new vehicles around for a week and got their money back because they just didn't like it. Seems like in this situation, they should have no problem swapping the truck if it's not something stupid.
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You would think it would be easier than this. But so far The dealer I got it from in northern Idaho is treating me like a mushroom. They want to wait and see what the tech says is the latest I got from them. Like I said in my original post, I'm giving them until Monday before I go full on scorched earth. I've already talked to my counsel about it. I have a contracts lawyer for my businesses and he's already digging into it just in case. Pretty disappointed in RAM and DS at this point.
 
The latest is the dealership where my truck is at is still working on diagnosing what is wrong. They got a flowchart from STAR apparently and are working their way through it. They had to charge the batteries, which is another question in my mind, before launching into this. Day 4 of trying to "fix" things. This is a complete joke, it's obviously broke to the point this isn't even funny.

I called the service manager at DS, the other dealership won't even answer their calls or so I'm told. They still want to wait for a diagnosis before deciding what to do. So I now have my lawyer looking into this between the contract and Idaho lemon laws. Not impressed with those guys to say the least and it's getting worse by the day. I'll be traveling the rest of this week, so I'm going to have to try and handle this remotely as well. This is the last time I buy a truck from them. Wife is seriously pissed as well. Working on documenting everything. My review will not be great, too bad you can't do zero stars.

Talked with RAM "service" again yesterday afternoon as well. Got a new case manager as I chewed out the last one. They started by telling me that they don't have to cover the rental car. My response was we're done here, all communication will be going through my counsel going forward. That changed the attitude immediately. Suddenly he figured out that he could cover my rental car and will make sure I'm not out of pocket. Funny how that works. Hard to deal with a call center in India let alone RAM. I need to start recording all my calls with them.

My Garmin watch keeps telling me that my tress levels are high, no kidding.

Having ODOT Incident Response send me the report from when they showed up.
 
piledrvr40 said:
The latest is the dealership where my truck is at is still working on diagnosing what is wrong. They got a flowchart from STAR apparently and are working their way through it. They had to charge the batteries, which is another question in my mind, before launching into this. Day 4 of trying to "fix" things. This is a complete joke, it's obviously broke to the point this isn't even funny.

I called the service manager at DS, the other dealership won't even answer their calls or so I'm told. They still want to wait for a diagnosis before deciding what to do. So I now have my lawyer looking into this between the contract and Idaho lemon laws. Not impressed with those guys to say the least and it's getting worse by the day. I'll be traveling the rest of this week, so I'm going to have to try and handle this remotely as well. This is the last time I buy a truck from them. Wife is seriously pissed as well. Working on documenting everything. My review will not be great, too bad you can't do zero stars.

Talked with RAM "service" again yesterday afternoon as well. Got a new case manager as I chewed out the last one. They started by telling me that they don't have to cover the rental car. My response was we're done here, all communication will be going through my counsel going forward. That changed the attitude immediately. Suddenly he figured out that he could cover my rental car and will make sure I'm not out of pocket. Funny how that works. Hard to deal with a call center in India let alone RAM. I need to start recording all my calls with them.

My Garmin watch keeps telling me that my tress levels are high, no kidding.

Having ODOT Incident Response send me the report from when they showed up.
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Based on how you come across in your post can see why people at DS an others are not wanting to call you back, I get being Pi ssed off about it, but how you talk or come across to people are not doing your self any favors. btw in the greater PDX metro area we have few dealers who have good diesel techs and those who do are hard to get in to for service as they are booked months in advance...
 
56ram2500 said:
Based on how you come across in your post can see why people at DS an others are not wanting to call you back, I get being Pi ssed off about it, but how you talk or come across to people are not doing your self any favors. btw in the greater PDX metro area we have few dealers who have good diesel techs and those who do are hard to get in to for service as they are booked months in advance...
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I think you mis-understood or maybe I didn't make it clear. The dealership working on my truck will not talk with Dave Smith. I'm sure that the people I'm dealing with at Dave Smith cringe having to talk to me, but I have learned one thing in life. If you don't advocate for yourself, you will get walked all over. Maybe I'm a bit of an a-hole at times, but I don't care. A company can earn my respect and trust, same as people. I'll be a repeat customer and willing to help out others. Break that trust, you're on my S list. So far RAM and DS have not proven to be trustworthy or willing to do the right thing.
 
piledrvr40 said:
I think you mis-understood or maybe I didn't make it clear. The dealership working on my truck will not talk with Dave Smith. I'm sure that the people I'm dealing with at Dave Smith cringe having to talk to me, but I have learned one thing in life. If you don't advocate for yourself, you will get walked all over. Maybe I'm a bit of an a-hole at times, but I don't care. A company can earn my respect and trust, same as people. I'll be a repeat customer and willing to help out others. Break that trust, you're on my S list. So far RAM and DS have not proven to be trustworthy or willing to do the right thing.
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I get being an advocate for yourself, but have also learned to at first not be the bull in the China shop, once I leaned that I got much farther when dealing with dealers or independent shops especially here in the PNW, btw I bought my truck from DS and my servicing dealer will not talk to DS about any thing nor other Ram dealers, was told they don't talk to any other dealers out side of the metro area and I experienced it first hand when another dealer in north central WA fat fingered my VIN to another truck in there care, that caused major problems for me trying to get my local dealer to be able to fix my truck on a recall all due to neither one wanting to take to the other, btw it took me a few weeks with the help of Ram cares to get my truck fixed, btw learned later on part of the problem of it taking longer then it should have was because it was felt I was too forceful because I raised my voice when i talked to the SM trying to get the problem corrected...
 
Maybe I missed it, but did you or the dealership mention checking the fuses/relays? There are quite a few instances on this forum about electrical gremlins because most the fuses are not fully pushed in. It was the first thing I checked when I got my keys and all of them went in quite a bit. Not sure if this would cause what's going on with your truck or not. But definitely look into at some point or you could have trouble later on. I did this under the hood and under the dash.
 
motorhead426 said:
Maybe I missed it, but did you or the dealership mention checking the fuses/relays? There are quite a few instances on this forum about electrical gremlins because most the fuses are not fully pushed in. It was the first thing I checked when I got my keys and all of them went in quite a bit. Not sure if this would cause what's going on with your truck or not. But definitely look into at some point or you could have trouble later on. I did this under the hood and under the dash.
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Honestly I left this up to the dealership that is fixing the truck. They have been doing a pretty good job keeping me informed and I have zero issues with those guys. It's just frustrating to have to deal with 2 different dealerships and RAM customer service. The dealership in Portland is the only one that seems on top of their game.

I've been traveling for work, so other than contacting my attorney, I didn't really do much chasing things down this last week. I did learn from my attorney that the clock is ticking based on Idaho Lemon laws. They (Dave Smith) have until the 24th to fix it and then it automatically becomes a replace the truck with a new one or buy it back at $105% of the purchase price plus pay for any other expenses incurred, which I'm keeping track of closely. So I'm waiting to see what happens. Even if they get it done, one more failure and it invokes the Lemon laws in Idaho, that is the law up to either 40,000 miles or two years, whichever comes first. Would have been easier and less risk to just replace the truck at this point.
 
If the truck is registered, and the title is in prosses with the lean holder it would be harder for them too exchange for a new truck. Long-time back I purchased a truck and with-in a few hundred miles the engine light came on. They couldn't find the issue, so they asked if I would drive around with a 2000K -dollar computer hooked up to it so after they cleared it and the engine light came back on it would send the code directedly to Cummins. They actually wanted me to sign documents that would make me responsible for the computer in case it ever got stolen. I said no and told them that I will be InTouch with my lawyer. Not 3 hours passed and they had me in a new truck. The dealer manager explained that if the registration and title had been filed that they would not have been able to exchange the truck for a new one.
 
Times they are a'changin', my friend. These days, many companies train their employees to stop communicating directly with the customer as soon as the customer mentions a lawyer or a lawsuit or any other such related legal gobbliddygook. Bringing up the possibility (or the threat) of legal action is best left as a very last resort if you intend to have open and productive dialog with the regular folks who can help you before things get to that point. BUT, this is just one dirty redneck's advice, and I'm no attorney.
 
The issues you describe are not common but others have had the same issues and their trucks have been fixed. The 2025+ have had a lot of electrical gremlins with the new implemented Atlantis Architecture. Your truck is not "bricked", that's just dramatic talk from you.

You do seem a but abrasive and quick to jump to 100 from zero. Even if I was to consider an attorney to resolve an issue like yours, I certainly wouldn't tell the dealer. I would just let them get the letter. Talk of attorneys etc tend to make dealerships shut down(any business for that matter).
 
Well I get that some people don't like my approach, but the saga continues and honestly I'm glad I'm going down the path I am. I'll do me and if you don't like it, so be it.

I had a voice mail from the dealership where the truck was being repaired this morning. It's done. They replaced the transmission module and test drove it. When I had it towed to the dealership it had 452 miles on it. Talked to my attorney, he told me to get up there and pick up the truck to meet the terms of the contract. So I drove up to PDX, dropped off the rental car and got an Uber to the dealership. They test drove it, so it had 494 miles on it when I picked it up today.

Drove down I-5 towards home, just north of Albany, OR I got a "service transmission" message. The the check engine light came on and it lost power but still drove. I tried to get it to the dealership in Albany. Didn't make it again. Same issue. I had made it off the freeway, but broke down as soon as I hit the brakes for a stop light. 557 miles this time. So I only made it 63 miles before this POS bricked again.

Because I had my attorney look into both the contract and the Lemon laws in Idaho, I know exactly what to do and not to do. This now qualifies as a lemon under Idaho law.

If anyone thinks that Dave Smith cares, they don't anymore since being bought out. They are owned by the RJF Auto Partners group out of Texas. RJF Auto Partners is owned by Sonic Automotive, which is a publicly traded company under the ticker SAH. They are based out of Charlotte, NC. 2025 revenue forecast for Sonic is $25B. You, me and everyone else are just a quarterly and annual sales target. So this is what I am up against, therefore getting an attorney involved and knowing exactly what I can and can't do per the contract I signed and what the law says for the jurisdiction I bought the vehicle in is a key part of navigating this. I am and will be a pain in the ass to these companies along with Stellantis. I've actually been told to be a pain in the butt by two different service managers now, the one in PDX and the one the truck is at now. No problem for me.

This truck, and others with this issue (and there are), are a safety hazard. Stellantis/RAM has a memo out to all the dealerships regarding this issue. I filed a report with the NSTB yesterday online per my contacts over there. I now have to amend that report. This portion will take some time as it is the Federal government and it will be next year before they even can start on it.

Dodge trucks used to be pretty decent, this one is my third but will be my last unless things change at RAM.
 
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