Summing it up, the truck fails in several of the categories which are the main reasons to buy a diesel pickup, including reliability, durability, and resale value. The value of the truck has declined steadily, since I bought it, and it is still barely worth what I owe on it. It also leaves you with a considerable throttle lag, as the computer decides whether or not it can give the throttle input you desire. The truck is prone to understeer, and traction control is an unwelcome inconvenience that can't be turned completely off unless in four wheel drive, at a dead stop. The left third of the rearview mirror turns into the backup camera, which basically makes the mirror useless for backing up the truck, especially if it's dark. The sheet metal on the body is thin, and both doors were already dinged when I bought it, at 20k miles, apparently by people pushing the doors, near the handle, to close them. The A/C quit working not long after they fixed the heater fan, and I haven't gotten it fixed, yet. You can make the exhaust brake work better by downshifting manually, but touching the throttle will leave you coasting when the torque converter unlocks, and the control for manually shifting barely works. You get better compression braking naturally with the exhaust brake off, because the torque converter stays locked. At highway speeds, the exhaust brake will slow you down to 55, then the torque converter unlocks, and the truck coasts at an idle. It works best with a heavy trailer, but only if you are using the brakes. Speaking of the VGT, the exhaust brake is a nice feature that doesn't work like it should, with the automatic. I opted to mail the actuator to a repair place, at a cost of $500, and two weeks out of service. Since the powertrain warranty ran out two months ago, this is my cost. The dealer first quoted me $2,800 for the device, which is in stock, and said they could drop it to as low as $1,950. Now, at 67,500 miles, the variable geometry turbo actuator has failed. That cost $1,300 for materials and the programmer, not including my time to weld the exhaust and remove the problematic devices. As soon as the warranty was out on the emissions system, I pulled it all off, and installed the biggest muffler I could buy. The heater fan quit working, and one dealer took two weeks to fix it, replacing the fuse box, at a cost to me of $1k. The rear differential failed, and was rebuilt. The main exhaust emission components were all replaced twice. It has been replaced a second time, since then. I also replaced the water pump, myself, during that time. It was back and forth to their shop seven times, all for different problems, in the first nine months that I owned it, for a total of two months in that time period. Here are the downsides: this truck has been in the shop for repair for three months, in the two and a half years that I've owned it, starting with a check engine light on the first drive home from the dealership. capacity of the truck, mileage dropped below 10 mpg on the same highway (a hilly, twisty highway). With a heavy trailer, right at the 17k lb. Highway mileage regularly calculates above 20 mpg, with a best ever of 23.9, driven at or below the speed limit on a round trip between Soldotna and Seward, AK. Mileage is on par with the older, 12v Cummins in the Dodge Rams. Gone is the death wobble that threatened the older models at higher speeds. The new 6.7L Cummins in the later Ram models are whisper-quiet at highway speeds. It turned out that the new truck spent much more time in the shop than the old one ever did. I traded in my '02 model, similarly equipped, knowing that the older model would require some shop time, before long. Think long and hard before you buy this truck.
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