I have a 05 dodge ram 1500 hemi sport. I have an instrument cluster that is acting up and was considering just buying a replacement instead of reflowing the solder and digging into the things that are wrong with it. So I've been looking on a lot of forums and noticed that it seemed to be common practice (even across different brands) that you get a core charge on instrument clusters. Take it in give them the vin and mileage and come back and swap in a couple days. Get your core charge money back. Seemed easy and most people were saying around 300 dollars for it which I'm willing to bite the bullet and pay.


So today I called one dealer and they want $810 for a cluster. No core charge to refund. After work I ran over to the other dealership in town and got a quote for them hoping for the best. They said $860... I asked the process to the second guy I talked to there and he said I gave them the vin and mileage, I come back and we swap them out, then they take the old one. Sounds right, but the key words here are take the old one. Shouldn't that mean a core charge should be credited back to me?


Now these dealerships in town don't have the highest reputation so I am going to call a couple dealerships in near by towns to see what they say. That will have to be tomorrow since its after 5 now.


So I'm wondering if I'm missing something or if things have changed? Or what else I need to be educated on and maybe not asking correctly for? Hopefully some of you guys have recent experience with this.


Thanks