In my area, 09 Dodge Rams loaded are being offered at 20% off. Bringing them down from 39,800, to 29,800...These trucks come with lifetime powertrain, and for additional 2,000 you can purchase a lifetime bumper to bumper (crazy i know). So that bring the total to about $32,000, add tax and all that good stuff about $33,500...I offered the guy $30,000 with no money down. I may chose to put $5000 grand down depending the auction result on truck...So that would bring me to about $25,000. So over 84 months at 8.9% thats an additional $3,500 by the end of the 7th year...Or I put another $3,500 down and get 0% interest with a payment of like $380-$400 ish. So this in mind, the guy said they couldnt take my offer. They said the $10,000 off was already too much...But what do you guys think?

 

$39800-20%= $31840. Add $2000 for the warranty. $33840. Add your "1500". $35340. Then go buy an old Ford.

 

dont get a dodge, youll regret it. my girls charger had a rod knock at 10k, warranty did kick in but it still sucked,

 

Why are they being offered at 20% (or 25%, which is $10k off of $39,800)?

Because they're not selling.

Why do they offer a lifetime powertrain warranty?

Because it's a deferred cost incentive. There's a chance they won't be around to honor it. For 4-5 years, it's not much of a liability to them, so they offer that to get you in the door. Ten years from now, it could bankrupt them if they don't get the company turned around. That leaves you without a lifetime warranty.

All that said, stick to your offer. Give them your phone number and tell them to call you when they're ready to sell the truck at that price. When the end of the month rolls around, and a salesman wants to get himself into the next commission bracket, he'll call you.

Jason

 

I believe to keep the lifetime powertrain warranty you have to have all the service and oil changes etc done by the dealer or a shop.

I still don't understand why you are going to sell your sweet F350 for a $30k truck you have to make payments on that won't get much better fuel economy either.

The insurance will be more on the new truck as well.

I vote if the truck doesn't sell on ebay, just keep it. The reality of it is that is is cheaper to maintain it than buy a new one. Besides that its way easier to work on.

Also, if you keep your truck you'll have something different instead of a run of the mill truck.

I don't understand the reasoning of it to sell your truck to get a new one to save money. That just doesn't add up. Thats not counting an mods you do to the new one.

I would rather have the black F350 and just keep up with its repairs. Its less expensive and a better truck.

 

I've personally never had good luck with chrysler vehicles [save for my wife's jeep which is likely an exception and not the rule] and neither has anybody I've known. Usually it's transmission problems; but the worst experience I've ever had with them was actually my dads.

He and mom bought a mid-90's model caravan for about $1500 and it ran fine for about the first year. Then, for reasons unexplained, it began bucking. First we chased down potential mechanical issues and couldn't find anything. Then began the electrical. After 2 months of not being able to find anything, my parents got the money together and took it to a dealership. They had limited means at the time so they gave the dealership one hour and they couldn't find anything. So back home it came. A local mechanic offered to hook up his scanner for a discounted rate, so we did. Wrote down the codes and pursued them all, and nothing.

14 months after first starting to diagnose it, chasing wires till we were blue in the face, 2 different computers and almost 2k later, it still wasn't running right. We never did figure it out, and despite his stubborness of finding out what the problem was- just for the sake of knowing- my dad finally bit the bullet and sent it off to the junkyard.

But that's just been my experience. If you can justify it- if you're sure you have the job security to make the purchase- and you really want it, nobody's stopping you.

 

The only Dodge vehicle we had that was good was a 94 Caravan ES. It was cool for a "soccer mom" vehicle. It had no chrome and was all the same color with factory fog lights. It had the largest available engine and a custom sport tuned suspension with different springs and sway bars etc. It was no slouch for a mini van. It handled really well. That was a damn good van. It had almost 250k on it and never had to be in the shop. All it ever had done it was the regular serviceable stuff like oil, filters, brakes, tires and batteries. I think the alternator or something went out once.

This is what we had only ours was emerald green and had the same wheels that were not white with center captain chairs.

http://consumerguideauto.howstuffwor...-caravan-5.htm

Sorry for all the minivan talk.

I do know a lot of people that have had problems with Dodge and Chrysler vehicles, this was most often transmission problems.

 

to quote the loss prevention guy at our last company meeting ........

"DON'T DO DUMB!"

do not buy a dodge anything unless you are gonna give it to your mother in law......

i bought a dodge, at 80k had to replace the transmission AND the trans computer.
i was a 2 for one deal, my first and last dodge.

 

The transmission issue you talk about is well known in the Dodge world. It was the tranny that was mated to the 5.2 and 5.9 engines. The tranny mated to the 4.7 (baby HEMI) that came out in the early 2000's is nearly bullet proof. They use the same tranny in HEMI powered vehicles today, and they are not known to have issues.

I have a 2001 Dodge Durango with the 4.7l (287) with over 190,000 miles, and have no issues driving it from Utah to Ohio and back. I have had no major problems with it since I bought it new. As for the smaller engine size, it created 30 lbs less TQ and 30 less HP than the 5.9...It just isn't made to be modded much. I have 206 cams, deleted the mechanical fan, and a Fast Man o/s TB. Not much more you can do with the engine.

My only issue with Chrysler today is the instability of the company. If you were to buy a new truck from them today, would the company still be around in 5 years for service?

As for the issues with the Caravan...I have a pic that I took this past weekend that made me laugh...

 

My last Dodge Van a 1999 Grand Caravan had 267K miles on it when I traded it for my 1995 F-150. Never had a problem with that van. I have had this truck for 2 months and nothing but problems.

My current Dodge Van a 2004 Grand Caravan has 120K miles on it and never gives me a problem.

The 1995 F-150 made me walk the day I swapped my van for it. Serpentine belt broke. It was an easy fix, but I am a disabled guy and walking sux.

Since then, I had to walk (call for a ride) when the PLASTIC shaft on the PLASTIC clutch master cylinder snapped.

The right rear spring hanger bracket has broken. The previous owner(s) had welded in plate steel to box that hanger in. My oldest son and I spent 4 hours yesterday grinding all of those welds off. I'll finish the other 3 rivets today.

And now, I see that the radiator is leaking.

I blame the previous owners for the maladies that have struck this truck, and I really don't mind fixing it because it is a labor of love and the truck is mostly rust free. But with 200K on the clock, you'd think I have it a few more months before it made me walk.

I just won the bidding on a hoodscoop from a 1968 Mustang on eBay. You know, the one with turn signals in the back. That is going to look much better on this old truck then it would have on that minivan.

I have driven 30 or 40 new Dodge trucks. Nothing wrong with them and at the Chrysler dealership I work part time for (as a driver) we don't see Chrysler going out of business anytime soon.

Me? There is now way I would tie my finances up for 5 years to buy a new vehicle. Period. I wait until they are a few years old and buy them with cash money.

I paid $3700 for my wife's 2004 Dodge Grand Caravan and I paid $400 for that 1999 I swapped for this truck.

 

Ford has had more then it's share of transmission problems.
I think I can safely say that most automatic transmission problems can be traced to owners who don't service them as they should be. Run 'em till they puke.

 

See, I said those vans were built well. I bet Chrysler will still be around for years to come, even if they do have financial troubles.

 

If you have to sell your f**cking awesome F-350 for money, why are you looking at a brand new truck? All Dodges I have had experience with had horrible gas mileage and been crappy. It seems people are attracted to Dodges because they look aggressive and have a lot of power. But that means nothing in the long run. I get passed by cocky dicks with HEMIs all the time but I highly doubt their trucks will see 15yrs and 225,000 miles. My parent's Jeeps have been good, but they were old enough that Chrysler hadn't completely ruined them yet. Do you have payments on your truck now? You have already put more money into your truck than you will ever get back. That the price of having a REAL truck. Anyone can have a big new hunk of plastic and aluminum. Thats what everyone does, it takes someone different than all the rest to take a big old truck that most people dont look twice at turn it into something special. Thats what you did. I read all your threads and dreamed of doing a 1/4 of what you did to your truck to mine. I guess my opinion is clear. Good luck in selling your truck or whatever you decide to do.

 

By all means, I would love to keep my truck as a show truck on the side, but...I cannot. In my family business, we have to be very mobile, and we use our trucks a lot. The only time I use my truck is when I need it for 8ft sheet rock loads, or mini excavator trailer loads (which my families 1/2 tons do just as easily). The problems it presents is its bad on gas, the second is its reliability (hit or miss), third; it’s a single cab...So there are rare opportunities where using my truck is actually beneficial for our company to survive. I even bought a car over the summer, in an attempt to try and balance these troubles of transporting myself. However, with $265 going towards that car for the next four years, and doing repairs and modifications on the truck, I was still spending $500 or so a month. On top of that, I still wasn’t happy...I hate being in a car 2/3 of the time..I didn’t like maintaining two vehicles and paying two insurances. I needed to make a life changing move that I didn’t want to see come....I had to reassess the issue, which was my F350 was creating a burier of selfishness for my every day truck needs. I needed to suck it up, and wave good bye to her because otherwise I am going to in the end, spend another $15000 on the F350, and still be paying payments on the car. So my only compromise to selling my truck, was to buy a truck of equal value that would make me happy. My brother, who is a dodge fanatic, said even if dodge goes bankrupt, that they would still need to acknowledge their warrnaties to the 09 crown regardless. So, with that said, the dodge is the prettiest of them all. Tundra’s were my top pick, but for the price they are similar to brand new dodges with 0 miles and lifetimes, or a base model Tundra with 25,000 miles is roughly the same price without a warranty. Sadly, fords these days are super weak; I just can’t have that kind of power. The dodge is cool looking, aggressive, 0 miles, AND if the bumper to bumper lifetime warranty holds true, then I will be saving thousands of dollars in the long term.

 

I too have a '01 Durango with the 4.7 and I have 98K on it. Bought it new. Have had all routine maintenance done at dealer and did the air/oil myself.

Just bought a chiltons as the warranty is up and I'll soon be doing the other maint like diff,tranny/filter/band adj,etc. I have heard the 4.7's have gone to 240K and higher if taken care of.

I also had an '08 RAM (sold in July) with the 5.7 Hemi. It has 16 spark plugs. The 4.7 is a "magnum" and only has 8 spark plugs and is not a hemi. It actually has individuals coils attached to the spark plugs - no dist. PCM does it all.

The RAM was cool but - as someone else typed - Expensive on Insurance! And if you had lifetime warranty - you will have to have maintenance done at the dealer. Pain...

We use our Durango for long trips to Houston or Kentucky. It's great for the family 'cuz of the room (3 row seat for the 2,4 year olds) and we use a car top carrier for the luggage.

Since the start of this year and from now on I will not purchase nor recommend anyone else purchase a new Chrysler product because of them being a "Government Motor" type and not knowing their future.

OK - maybe a 90's cherokee with the 4.0 but that's it.


/Ricache