dave im with you . if you hear of anything let me know. my dash is haggard and they don care.

 

i made a complaint to dodge and the marked site, dodge saysthe same thing . fix it. i wish there was something to do

 

ATTENTION: I am composing an email with a link to this site and sending it to the Better Business Bureau about the problems with the substandard materials that Dodge is using in the composition of their Ram dashboards. I am also going to include a copy of the GO SCREW YOURSELF letter that dodge sent me in regards to this problem. Then I am going to send a copy of the complaint to the Dodge corp. I will update you as to the status soon. All please reply if you wish to get involved. It's time we had a recall!!!!!!!

 

Do you really think that getting them to recall the dashboard is going to cause the company to go under??? You talking about jobs, what about the jobs it will create for all the people who will be making our NEW dashboards??? Get Real!

 

As for how it is a saftey issue, have you looked at what your dashboard houses lately?? Think about all the electrical components that the dashboard is their to cover and protect. Not a saftey issue???

 

Below is a copy of the complaint that I have file with the BBB. I have also sent a copy to the DaimlerChrysler Corp. Please go to the BBB.com and make your voice heard.

 

I don't recall ever saying the company would go under. What I do recall saying is that if they were to fix things like this (problems that don't effect driveability or safety) with every vehicle they sell...THAT would hurt the company. Those comments were also in response to a statement that all of Chrysler's profit goes to Germany now...which is incorrect.

And I hate to break it to you, but dashboards aren't made by hand anymore They're made by machines. Odds are there wouldn't be a single person involved in the production after the design phase. There are ENTIRE factories that are operated by robots now. Some of them are pretty sophisticated as well. So there will be no jobs created to make a new dash.

I refuse to believe that making a company replace a part on a vehicle that is LONG out of warranty just because it doesn't LOOK good is the right thing to do. That's what the dash is there for...looks...it makes everything look nicer. That's it. It doesn't protect what's underneath it from anything (aside from possibly sun, though there is another layer of dash in there that would protect it just as well). It's just there to make everything look nicer. It doesn't effect the way the vehicle operates.....and it still doesn't impact safety, so they shouldn't HAVE to fix it.

I mean if you're going to go after them for something like this, then doesn't that mean I should be able to go after them with problems I had with my '79 Ramcharger? Afterall, it has had more than a few safety issues. The driver's seatbelt fell out of the truck while I was driving down the highway. I even ran it over! Seems like a safety issue to me. [8D] I'm sure my Ramcharger isn't the only one that's had that problem as well. I've seen plenty rusted out worse than mine. So shouldn't that be a complaint to be filed? Or how bout the multiple times my dash started on fire? The first time because the heater fuse melted out of the housing (common problem with most early Ramchargers). Or the time the mice built a nest next to something they shouldn't have. I mean, how did animals get into the truck (probably the huge hole in the floor [8D])...that shouldn't happen. It's not safe. The hinges fell off the hatch more than a few times over the course of it's life. Hit me in the head once as well when it happened. That's not too safe either. They didn't look good after I fixed them either. [8D] I had a Dodge 600 that the floor fell out of (if there hadn't been carpet, my feet would've hit the pavement [X(])...I think that should be another complaint. Sure, the car was almost 15 years old...but that's just not safe. Are you starting to see my point? You can find problems with any vehicle out there...whether they start 5 years after production or 20 years...there WILL be problems. A company shouldn't be expected to fix them ALL. If that were the case, very few companies would be willing to do business anymore...knowing that they would have to fix problems that arise in everything they push out the door until the end of time. That's why they're not required to. That's also why they have warranties and why they're only required to fix the problems that the NHTSA comes to them with.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again...if you want to raise a safety issue with them, make it the trac bars. That IS a safety issue that affects EVERY 4x4 2nd generation Ram on the market. It is a problem that HAS been acknowledged by Chrysler but never fixed. And it DOES have the potential to cause loss of life where-as a cracked dash does not.

 

I bet if a member of your family was sitting in the passenger seat and you were involved in an accident where the passenger air bag did not deploy due to a cracked and ragged dash resulting in their death, you would have a different outlook on this.
This is crap........
I have never seen an auto with a hard plastic dash except the Ram.......all the others have a Vinyl dash.....a material that allows contraction and expansion from temp and the movement you would expect in an automobile.
My question is, why is it just some trucks.....my buddy has a 2000 2500 and his is perfect, he leaves it in the elements all day, I watch mine like a hawk, tinted windows, lower the windows a littlewhen leaving it, use a sun shade and the SOB cracked.
The dashes are POS and should be replaced.

 

How many deaths have been attributed to this problem so far? I ask, because I have not heard of a single one so far.

A crack in the dash will not keep the air bag module from going off. It doesn't care if the dash doesn't look pretty...it only cares about the state of the sensors in the front of the truck. And it bag deploys out the front of the dash...not the top.

Furthermore, the 94-97 Rams didn't have passenger side air-bags...so that already rules out half of the 2nd Gen Rams produced when looking at a problem like this. It severely cuts down on the "affecting all Rams" statement that a lot of people make....if safety is going to be the huge selling point for a fix.

And yes, it is strange that some dashes crack and some don't. And why some dashes crack more than others. I can't explain it...but I'm not an engineer either.

EDIT: I forgot to add...in an accident, a seatbelt will be the safety device that will save a life....not an air bag.

 

I have a 2000 dodge ram 1500 and mine has been cracking for a while so its good to see that other people are having the same problem and are actually taking action towards getting it fixed. Mine looks like a damn bomb went off on top of it and I don't know about yall but its only on my passenger side of my truck.

-nick-