I've had 3 Rams so far- '07 Quad Cab Laramie, "11 Quad Cab Sport, and my '17 Crew Cab Sublime Sport-1 of 5000. I like them and get pretty decent mileage on the highway. But I've always been a Mopar freak. No complaints here..........

When did they change Dodge trucks to Ram?

I think all 3 are about the same these days, each trying to out innovate each other. Ford with the aluminum body, GM with the hokey tailgate step thing, Ram with whatever they offer. Cabs are too big, beds too small. too high up....hardly a useful truck anymore. Maybe for soccer moms.
I'll stick with my old GMC.....300,000k and still runs and drives great....and I can use it.

Some dealers don't seem to get it through their heads that a good service experience is what brings the customer back for another vehicle. So many times I've worked at dealers (as both a manager and a service advisor) where the owner feels he should cheap out on wages in the service department. They hire people with no customer service skills for minimum wage and don't bother to look after the good techs and as a result end up with pissed off customers. That's one reason why I got out of the business. I've often thought of starting a consulting business to advise dealers on how to look after customers. I was in a Honda dealership to buy a part last year and I saw so many glaring instances of poor customer service. It was not only the way the employees dealt with customers, but the complete layout of the building. Most dealer principals come from a sales background and really don't have any idea how the service department works and how important it is for customer retention.

Just replaced the drivers door window mtr. on girlfriends Toyota Corolla, dealer wanted $1000+ to do it,$ 582 for mtr. & 4 hrs labour, got mtr. on Amazon for $68 & took me 1 hour to do it!!!! RIP OFF or what???

dualquadpete wrote:

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I'm still having problems finding a decent GM dealer for servicing my 2015 Yukon, problems getting a appointments, then shoddy work [ last 3 different dealers] & last one suggested almost $ 2000 in service that "should be done" one item that I knew I needed was frt. brakes [rotors & pads] they quoted $ 900+ just finished doing it myself for $ 160 in parts [ slotted rotors & ceramic pads] taking a "pass" on Brake flush, cooling flush, changing frt. & rear diff. fluid & trans fluid at 55,ooo MILES???? Also no service loaners, so end up sitting there for 3 hrs at ea. shop. Buddy of mine who lives north of Kingston says his Gm dealer gives him a loaner, then drives his truck up to his place & swaps out vehicles!! Think the dealers in my area should be thinking "how to keep customers, not scare the $hit out of them with suggested servicing & make you sit there for hours for oil & filter & general check over"

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I used to go to a GM dealer in Charlottetown because of convenience (work location) and could not wait to dump them! I actually left a blazing negative critique on their website when I left ... good riddence!

I am now with a GM dealer in Summerside (closer to home) and the service dept./mechanics are excellent. Like night & day on a tiny Island where news travels fast.

The biggest problem GM and Ford have with RAM is the cost of production. Production costs for ram is 8$ an hour cheaper than GM. GM has launched a lawsuit against Chrysler accusing them of bribing UAW officials to settle contracts at a lower cost. Some union leaders have already resigned so we will have to wait until the suit is settled to find out all the dirt. Ram trucks sell because they are $10,000 cheaper than a similar equipped GM and Ford. I am a GM buyer but in reality the quality of all manufactures is almost equal and for myself brand preference and a great dealership make GM my choice.

Al

Like I said previously, I've owned 3 Rams from new and put over 100,000 km's on them and only changed the brakes once on my '11 just before I traded it of on because I spotted a very small spot of rust on the lower pinch weld under the driver's door. I get over 100,000 k's to a set of tires. Other than that the truck was in next to new condition and went to the 'States as well as my '07 when I traded it in. And the comment about Rams being less expensive than GM are right. I was a huge GM fan until I found that I got a better deal buying Mopar trucks to GM/Chevy. I find that I get more for bag for my buck going with the Ram. Fords are nice trucks but the aluminum bodies aren't pretty to replace. We have to use god awful rivets to replace the panels. They stand out more than the originals. And where we use to repair body panels- doors/box sides/ fenders/ hoods we are placing them now. I never got into this trade to be a replacement monkey. There's zero skill in that procedure. I just had to replace one of those folding tailgates on a GMC Denali cause it had a dent on it and if it were steel I could've repaired it easily. We don't have the technology to repair these aluminum body panels yet.

This is just my opinion of course. Also Ram builds a certain amount of Limited Special Edition trucks in the 4th Gen trucks. Gm/Chevy builds a million of their trucks with no limited number production runs. Most of them fancy colored Rams-Orange/Blue/Yellow/Black/Green are limited runs at 5000 each in N American like the one I have. And Also Dodge posts all their production number runs at the end of their year end runs like my brother's '17 Green Go Shaker Challenger is 1 of 1 of 53 in Canada with the specific options that his car has. His '19 Hellcat Widebody we figure is 1 of 2 in Canada as well. We'll know soon enough. What's Chevy got in limited production? Who else has a 717hp SUV in the domestic market? Or a 707hp 4 door Widebody muscle car? Thinking outside the box or what?........

The local Dodge dealer had a beautiful black Ram regular cab short box. 4X4 with the HEMI. That's all I'd need.

Pontiacanada wrote:

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I call the majority of trucks I see today, "toy trucks".

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This made me chuckle;
I've recently been "teaching" my boy (4yo) that all these four door extended cab "trucks" aren't real trucks - I may have used the term "toy" to illustrate my point to him as well!
Whereas trucks like our 1992 Chevrolet half ton, regular cab are real trucks ;)

Taylor55 wrote:

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The biggest problem GM and Ford have with RAM is the cost of production. Production costs for ram is 8$ an hour cheaper than GM. GM has launched a lawsuit against Chrysler accusing them of bribing UAW officials to settle contracts at a lower cost. Some union leaders have already resigned so we will have to wait until the suit is settled to find out all the dirt. Ram trucks sell because they are $10,000 cheaper than a similar equipped GM and Ford. I am a GM buyer but in reality the quality of all manufactures is almost equal and for myself brand preference and a great dealership make GM my choice.

Al

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 Al, thank you for that sobering information.