If so, you've probably got this problem and may not even know it. It sounds stupid but next time you take a ride in your truck, after resting your arm on the center console for a while, smell your forearm and you too will have the funky Ram smell attached to your skin or clothes.

The issue is this:
The center console top in my truck (the armrest) has what I believe to be a chemical based odor which transfers itself to my clothing and my bare skin. My Ram is configured with bucket seats and a center console. This odor seems to be highly active when the console gets direct sunlight. Temperature does not seem to impact it. I believe that it is activated by UV Rays and this is why I believe it to be chemical based.

We first realized that we had this problem when my wife noticed the odor while on a trip up north. A couple of days later I walked into my house and she told me that she smelled the odor again. I then started searching for the odor and determined that it was on my forearm. On my bare skin no less. This is when we determined that the odor was coming from the console top and transferring itself to me.

Every person that has ridden in my truck since purchase (August 1st 2009) has noticed this odor at one time or another. They all find it offensive. After much debate and general armchair analysis, I believe that the odor is coming from the foam padding beneath the vinyl/leather cover. I am in the computer business and often receive computers from the orient that are packed in foam and styrofoam and I’ve smelled this same skunk-like odor in these boxes. While I’ve been told that this particular console is manufactured here in Michigan, I’m wondering if the foam was sourced elsewhere.

I’ve been met with varied obstacles at my dealer. While they have admitted that there is an odor, they don’t seem to know what to do about it as every truck that they have on their lot that has this type of console, has the odor. They did have a regional rep from Chrysler sit in the truck and he deemed it acceptable. Unfortunately he and I are not on the same page, as I do not. I have 2 neighbors with new Ram trucks equipped with this console, that have the same odor. This is not a “New Car Smell” and is not diminishing as time goes by.

To simply state that “they all have the odor” and “there’s nothing we can do about it” just doesn’t work for me. In my mind this does not justify the problem, it just means that Chrysler has a bigger problem.

If Chrysler cannot resolve this for me then my next course of action is to have a chemist test this material for harmful toxins as I no longer wish to subject myself to the unknown. With seemingly daily reports on consumer products that have been found with lead or other poisonous toxins, it certainly is not a far stretch to believe that given the strange chemical nature of this odor, this could be one of those scenarios.

If anyone knows where I might be able to get this tested, please let me know.

 

Take it to an upholstery shop and have it redone in leather, probably be easier then fighting with Dodge about it and paying a chemist.

I never noticed anything myself.

 

thanks for the advice, but I still live by right makes might!

 

That's odd, never heard anyone else complain about their ram smelling. I've had mine since 08 and never smelled anything other than new car smell, now thats gone.

 

Mine smells like victory...

 

never had an issue

 

I have an early build 09 with buckets and console. I have never even remotely experienced this. Perhaps in 2010 they changed something?

 

 

i guess its just in the 09's???

 

Let me point out that UV rays don't penetrate glass or so I have been told for all of my life. The other is that the plasticizers in the materials making up the interior of the cab are a fact of life and the console and other interior components won't have that nice soft feel without them.

Ever wondered what that **** is on the inside of you windshield in the summer time. Well some of it those plasticizers being boiled out of the plastic and condensing themselves on the windshield. Things like this are a part of modern living and we will have to put up with them unless they can be proved to be carcinogenic, they probably are, in which case you/we would have a case. It is an uphill battle but if you feel strongly enough, go for it. Keep us posted.