Not a Dart Question, Weird 2020 RAM Odometer mileage Question

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"Dart67"

Well-Known Member
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Location
Jessieville, Arkansas
Monday 4/5/2021, My wife and I drove from our home in Jessieville Arkansas to Irving Texas to purchase my New 2020 Ram 1500 Big Horn/Lone Star.

I trailered the new RAM home pulling it with my 03 Ram. I did this for two reasons.

Number 1, so that my wife did not have to drive in the Dallas/Irving traffic. IF I never have to drive in that mess again, It will be too Soon.
Number 2, to avoid putting unnecessary mileage on the new RAM.

Here is my question/problem....

The odometer read 19 miles when we left the dealership for home loaded on my trailer.

After riding on the trailer for the 6 1/2 hour trip home the Odometer shows 359 miles.
This extra 340 miles is pretty much the distance between the two locations.

It was not driven. It was trailered. WHY the mileage increase? It should Still be 19 miles....

I think it is related to the U Connect Navigation. But, the mileage should not increase if the wheels are not turning.
I called the service department of the local dealer.
Their response was "How do we know you did not drive it home?"
I called the selling dealer today and their response was "We can send you a new Odometer verification form with the 359 miles.
My concern is IF down the line near the end of the warranty mileage, this extra 340 miles could make a huge difference on weather a warranty claim was covered or denied.

Thanks, Herb aka Dart67

2 Rams.jpg
2 rams irving.jpg
2 rams home.jpg
 
It’s because the ODM these days is programmed to record distance travelled, not wheel revolutions.

Why? Because if you were stuck in snow or mud and spinning your wheels, the ODM would record a greater distance than actually travelled taking miles off your warranty. Same thing when spinning your wheels at a stop light.

The manufacturer established a way to keep it fair for all. Most people never trailer a vehicle so that circumstance is rare and the miles removed are relatively few...but the other circumstances are a lot more common and those miles might add up to a lot more over the warranty life of a vehicle.

For a vehicle manufactured to be used by hundreds of thousands of people across a vast range of conditions, they had to establish a fair average measurement to honor their warranty.
 
Whose to say no one will trailer it?

If the vehicle is not being driven, it should not add miles to the odometer, period.
 
Whose to say no one will trailer it?

If the vehicle is not being driven, it should not add miles to the odometer, period.

My contention exactly ...
It’s because the ODM these days is programmed to record distance travelled, not wheel revolutions.

Why? Because if you were stuck in snow or mud and spinning your wheels, the ODM would record a greater distance than actually travelled taking miles off your warranty. Same thing when spinning your wheels at a stop light.

The manufacturer established a way to keep it fair for all. Most people never trailer a vehicle so that circumstance is rare and the miles removed are relatively few...but the other circumstances are a lot more common and those miles might add up to a lot more over the warranty life of a vehicle.

For a vehicle manufactured to be used by hundreds of thousands of people across a vast range of conditions, they had to establish a fair average measurement to honor their warranty.[/QUOTE

If the vehicle is NOT being driven The Mileage should NOT increase...
 
So if it logged mileage simply because it changed location, how do they not show hundreds to thousands of miles when they arrive at the dealer from the assembly line?

Did you by chance, leave the start button in accessory mode, so the systems were live?
 
The truck should also record the engine run time which won’t match the the average MPG may actually show it at 99. Call The corporate number in the back of your owners manual and see what they can do. The other thing is to not worry about the extra 340 miles. My dealer covered a repair after after my truck was out of warranty by 500 or so miles.
 
Well I imagine it was trailered to the dealership in some form or another, so if it is GPS or uconnect it wouldnt have had 19 miles on it. Or maybr the battery was disconnected on its original shipping to the dealership.
I see this was somewhat mentioned above sorry
 
So if it logged mileage simply because it changed location, how do they not show hundreds to thousands of miles when they arrive at the dealer from the assembly line?

Did you by chance, leave the start button in accessory mode, so the systems were live?
Simple, the during dealer prep, one of the check off items is to activate the WCM and install the antenna.
 
Thats F'd up. You want a weird optioned truck with no heater and they find one with 19 test driven miles on it and ship it by train from a FL dealership to WA. You receive the new truck at the dealership and its got 3300 miles "on it" already? Pshhh.....That aint mileage, that's location! Ship it to Hawaii and then try and get a bulged tire claim. "Uh, these tires have over 5000 miles "on them"....their outside their warranty" I bet the CAN-BUSS scan tool would show actual mileage on the transmission, and engine time...not that location mileage
 
The truck should also record the engine run time which won’t match the the average MPG may actually show it at 99. Call The corporate number in the back of your owners manual and see what they can do. The other thing is to not worry about the extra 340 miles. My dealer covered a repair after after my truck was out of warranty by 500 or so miles.

I have called the corporate number, yesterday.. When I told the representative the problem, there was a very, very ,very ,very long period of SILENCE. She finally said "What did you say? How did it do that if it was on a trailer? "
She told me this truck is consider an PREMIUM model. (Which I did not know.) And as such the "Premium Response Team" would be calling me today for information and helping me resolve this issuse as well as the problems with the Texas and Arkansas dealers.
 
So if it logged mileage simply because it changed location, how do they not show hundreds to thousands of miles when they arrive at the dealer from the assembly line?

Did you by chance, leave the start button in accessory mode, so the systems were live?

NOPE!!!!!!
 
Thats F'd up. You want a weird optioned truck with no heater and they find one with 19 test driven miles on it and ship it by train from a FL dealership to WA. You receive the new truck at the dealership and its got 3300 miles "on it" already? Pshhh.....That aint mileage, that's location! Ship it to Hawaii and then try and get a bulged tire claim. "Uh, these tires have over 5000 miles "on them"....their outside their warranty" I bet the CAN-BUSS scan tool would show actual mileage on the transmission, and engine time...not that location mileage

I guess us telephone guys think alike.. You did a good job of put what I wanted to say into words.. Thank You...
 
Calling the manufacture district rep does wonders. :rolleyes: One day it was "4-5 weeks for parts" call to the district rep later that day. Next day "Hi, your truck is ready. We found the parts nearby." :realcrazy:
 
Calling the manufacture district rep does wonders. :rolleyes: One day it was "4-5 weeks for parts" call to the district rep later that day. Next day "Hi, your truck is ready. We found the parts nearby." :realcrazy:
When I was a Mopar parts manager, stuff would be on back order all the time.
I really just couldn't get the part from Mopar, but.......
The water pumps on 5.7l Hemi in trucks were on back order because they were ****.
I had a customer who's truck was sitting on our lot waiting on a water pump that I had put on special handling, VOR, and had high priority on.
The customer was getting pissed because he needed the truck for work, we gave him a loaner, but he wanted his, he would call daily wanting an update and I'd tell what I knew. I finally convinced him to call Mopar and *****. Of course they call me to tell me to do exactly what I had already done (after telling the customer that I hadn't in spite of the fact I had and even showed him I had). I get another call from my dealer rep wanting to know why I hadn't gotten the pump yet. I gave him the P/N and told him to find me one and when it gets here I'd put the damn thing on myself. Half hour later he calls back, "I can't find one either!", yeah, no ****. Then I told him, I can get one, but it won't be a Mopar pump, it'll be an aftermarket pump. He tells me that he'd have to get approval from higher up. In the meantime I had already ordered the Gates water pump and had it installed on the mans truck.
Two days later the dealer rep calls me back with the okay. He had no clue that the customer had been driving his truck for a day already.
I billed the water pump out as a Mopar P/N so the customer or future owner wouldn't have a problem later if the pump failed.
The moral of the story is: "We found parts nearby" almost always means aftermarket parts were used or they pulled the part off a used unit.
Even if you were told they weren't.
Customers, more often than not think we're the problem because they're stupid and don't know how the system actually works. They then walk away thinking we're lazy:realcrazy:
In the case of Mopar, there really is no secret stash of parts that only the reps have access to.
We're often told to either put the customer off (while they act surprised we're not doing more and made to be the bad guy) or when it gets to be regular thorn in their side, we go the alternate route.
 
Had a recall on the minivan. Park interlock issue. "Park car and schedule free replacement asap at any Chrysler dealership" ...yeah when there is a nationwide backorder on the replacement part? F it...I think its still not replaced on my van. Something like " it may allow car to be started in other than P or N. " Well I'm not an idiot so it should not apply to my driving style......
 
Had a recall on the minivan. Park interlock issue. "Park car and schedule free replacement asap at any Chrysler dealership" ...yeah when there is a nationwide backorder on the replacement part? F it...I think its still not replaced on my van. Something like " it may allow car to be started in other than P or N. " Well I'm not an idiot so it should not apply to my driving style......
Know the recall.
I think the interlock will break and you won't be able to take out of park or if it breaks while in gear, you won't be able to put in park.
It was a messed up deal. The parts were on back order almost immediately after issuing the recall, so Chrysler's answer was to ration the recall kit to cars sitting in the service dept. but were still two days off.
In addition, they contracted with a call center to schedule the service without coordinating with any of the dealerships.
"Oh Mr Smith, you want to bring your car in at 6:30pm on a Friday, that'll be fine."
except it wasn't and we'd get bitched at when we broke the bad news to people.
 
Had a recall on the minivan. Park interlock issue. "Park car and schedule free replacement asap at any Chrysler dealership" ...yeah when there is a nationwide backorder on the replacement part? F it...I think its still not replaced on my van. Something like " it may allow car to be started in other than P or N. " Well I'm not an idiot so it should not apply to my driving style......
LOL somebody used to brag about this. Claim they used to get in the car, "get ready" from the curb, put it in gear, and then start it up and just go. Thing would roar to life and leap into the street LOL
 
Its amazing how much info new cars gather and retain, without our knowledge or consent.
Ever take your new challenger to the drags? An insurance company can prove you regularly drive 100 mph. They dont know, or care, that it was on a dragstrip.
Look at how much info was captured by the truck Tiger crashed. No investigation neccessary, the CAR tells them what happened.
Edit: one of the insurance companies is currently running a completely inane commercial involving a drag car going down the strip at 20mph, a "safe" driver, and they offer a discount. How the f#%k do you think they determine in real time how you are driving?
 
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