Hello all,

This is my first post and I would just like to start it off by discussing my 2005 Dodge Ram 1500. I bought this truck about 4 months ago and boy was I excited. I know it is an 05 but it was the newest vehicle I had ever owned. I traded in my trusty ole' 97 F-150 w/ 180,xxx miles that still had plenty of life left in her but she was about to require some pretty extensive front end work so I decided to trade up for something newer. Anyway, the truck I bought is a pretty basic truck, 3.7 V6 regular cab w/ crank windows but it had the nice chrome grill and chrome wheels so it didn't look like a basic fleet truck. Anyway, it had just over 37k miles in it and shined like a new penny. Car fax came back clean and showed it to be a one owner vehicle. I paid $8800 for it which I thought was a pretty good deal. Anyway I've drove the truck almost 3k miles and I must say that the excitement is starting to wear off, and fast. What happened to the Dodge Ram? My dad has had so many Rams I don't think I could count them on all my fingers and they were all tough, durable, well put together trucks. His last one was a 2001 Ram 2500 ext cab 4x4 that was tough as nails; that thing would pull a house down. It had well over 100k miles on it when he finally sold it and it was still in good shape.

My truck on the other hand is a different story. First, the driver's side door sounds as if it is about to rattle off its hinges. I have yet to be able to pin-point what the cause is so I guess its gonna have to go to the dealer for that. Accompanied by the door are other squeaks and rattles that in my opinion a 3 year old truck w/ less than 40k miles shouldn't have. I feel every bump in the road with this truck. (Yes I realize it is a truck but this truck is the worst riding truck I have ever been in) Road noise has slowly became worse as time goes by and the truck in general just feels very cheaply put together. I baby this truck as with every vehicle I own i.e. 180k miles F-150, but I am seriously concerned about the shape this truck will be in at 100k miles.

Sorry for the long post guys but I am just kinda disappointed with this truck so far when comparing it to other Dodge trucks that I have had experience with. As aforementioned by father's 2001 was such a nice truck and all the ones he had before it were great. I dunno, maybe I was unlucky and got one of the bad ones. Anyway, anyone else notice that the Rams aren't what they used to be? Thanks for taking the time to read.

 

What size tires do you have? smaller tires will give you a rougher ride! Also, a reg cab will give you a rougher ride because the wheelbas is so close together. My silverado was like that. You cannot compare your truck to your fathers 2500. apples to oranges. Like comparing the ride quality of a Ford Ranger to your old F-150. Not knocking your truck, but just giving you perspective. I think your in a better position than most of us. You have a basic truck with a v6 that most guys will buy becuase gas mileage, not that it's all that much better, but it's attractive to gas savers. You may actually get a decent trade-in for it. i dunno if you'll get near what you paid, but it's worth a shot!

 

The tires are the factory set I do believe, they are almost worn out. My comparison with my dad's 01 2500 was not only about the ride though, it was pretty obvious the craftsmanship of his truck was better than my 05. I'm not pissed off about buying this truck though, its not a awful truck by any means but I'm just disappointed that the quality and ruggedness of the older Rams seems to be missing. Btw, I love the color of your Ram. :-)

 

What happend to Dodge is the same thing that has happened to all auto makers. The price of steel has gone ape chit. Automakers are using less and less quality metals and other textiles in order for the price of their vehicles to stay competitive. I truly would hate to see what an automaker would charge in today's prices for a truck built like the ones from the 70's and 80's.
And FYI just because a VIN number run on your truck came back clean doesnt mean it IS clean. I have had alot of new body work done on my truck and guess what.... None of it is on my VIN report. Carfax would be great only if everyone on earth were honest, but thats not how this world truns.
Just my 2 cents
Your problems mught just be due to lack of maintence, and or extreme hard abuse.
Did you ask why the previous owner sold it???

 

Bought from a dealership, not from the private seller. The fact that it may have been abused is a possibility. If that is the case, I must commend whoever owned the truck as it is in 100% excellent condition inside and out. They had to have abused it in a "taken care of" sorta way :-) lol. But yeah, with a used vehicle, who knows how it was treated before. All I can do is baby it now and that is what I will continue to do. I'm probably stuck with her for awhile seeing that the value of trucks has sorta sank the past few months.

 

Ahh, sorry I didnt see that in your post.
The good news is you have alot of options for proformance boosting. If push comes to shove I guess you could do a 5.7 hemi swap

 

Most new car buyers tend to take care of their vehicles. Maybe the suspension is a little worn because perhaps the previous owner traveled on a long dirt rough road for his driveway everyday??? Lemon?...lol just kiddin. Have you done an Oasis report on it? That would say what kind of work was done at any dealership for repairs and warranty. With that said, I bet they traded it in because of warranty reasons! If work was done on the inside under the dash, they would have to take it all aprt and maybe when they put it back together they broke some clips or just disrupted the foam pads that stop vibrations and rattles? If the speaker wasn't working or the window crank was jammed, they would have pulld off the door panel. Stuff like that. It is due to cheaper quality off the production line, but I would have to say that more of the problem lies with the repairers. They do half *** jobs especially on warranty work because that isn't what pays. They make nothing on warranty work. That's why I got out of that business. It's a joke.

 

Like you said the tires need replacing soon. That should help the ride quality if you don't get the cheapest tires to replace the original ones. Also shocks would help the ride. At 40K miles the originals are not all that good anymore and shocks aren't that expensive for reasonable quality. The door rattles are something else. There must have been something done there to create this problem. Maybe a trip to a body shop could fix that and not set you back like the dealership would.
Good luck with whatever your decision is.

 

don't think that the tires that are on it are set buy the factory or the dealer for that matter.I bought an '05 QC with what i thought were the stock 20's on it,Untill i got pulled over for doing 76 M.P.H. in a 70 and i had the cruise set to 70.i brought it back to the stealership i got it from and the checked the speedo,It turned out that the truck was set for the origonal 17's that came when it was stock.the stealership put on a set of 20's that they just had laying around so they could get more $$$ for the truck.Well anyway after i spent $800.00 for new tires cause the ones that were on there were crap,they wanted another $300.00 to recalibrate the speedo even though i spent $15,000 on the truck and it was still under warrenty

 

Dunno man, I have the same year and model as you and mine is still like new and I have about the same mileage at 35,000 miles. Mine is solid as a rock.

Sounds like yours might have been wreaked maybe.