rev up your engines today I'm going to talk about the RAM 1500 eco diesel now
the new eco diesel the 2020 version has changes in it from the classic Ram
diesel if you're remembering a past Dodge Ram diesel pickup now they just
called them Ram they changed the name hey what's in a name but it came with a very
reliable coming straight six-cylinder diesel engine and yeah it didn't put out
a lot of horsepower 160 of them to be exact
they were extremely reliable diesel engines and they were a straight-6 they
deliberately put a straight-6 in for ease of maintenance there was lots of
room to working on them when they did finally break down they were easy to
work on I'm not a Chrysler fan by any stretch of the imagination but those
early pickups that had the straight six-cylinder diesel engine I had
customers drive those things three four five hundred thousand miles and the
engines of transmissions are still going strong they started making it bigger and
bigger and I got a 6.7 liter diesel you can still get them in the 3500 s and
stuff but the eco diesel and a new ones that's a completely different animal the
ego diesel that they're all advertising now is their big Saviour power and gas
mileage is a v6 diesel but an engine is made in Italy Italian engine it's paired
with a ZF transmission now the zr ones it's a German design company but they're
not made in Germany to me this changing around the stuff all the time
it's very symptomatic of problematical companies you got the early diesels then
they tried Aysen transmissions and now they're using the ZF transmissions it's
like they can't make their mind up which company they want making their
transmissions they're not even making their own transmissions they're buying
it from somebody else they're going to do that they stick to some manufacturer
and have them perfect them an example of that is Toyota and denso some
toyotas pretty much all used Nippon Denso air conditioning compressors over
the years they've always bought them from Denso
so they don't say oh gee we'll buy them from one company then another company
then another company as an example if you go over decades Honda's but their
air conditioning compressors from various different companies some denso
and lots of different companies and they had a lot of problems with
their air conditioning Honda makes great cars but their air conditioning
compressors have always been suspect and remains so this day so with Chrysler
changing what transmissions they put with these diesels that's a mistake I'm
sure that they decided to go to a cheaper one and then they didn't like
the Aisin ones so now they've gone to the ZF ones which is not a good thing
when it comes to vehicle manufacturing if you want quality and reliability that
new v6 to diesel engine made in Italy so that's got one strike against it made in
Italy I've had customers with these diesel engines the v6 Italian wants
they're not happy with the bid just don't hold up over time take the early
six-cylinder Cummins diesels in the Rams those thing could run three four
five hundred thousand miles they were really bulletproof engines I've had
customers with those b6 eco diesels less than a hundred thousand miles and then
the engines had problems not something you want to expect in a diesel engine if
a customer's worth four diesel engines the engines only go three or four
hundred thousand miles yeah the transmissions maybe they go 200k
and then you'd have to replace it with the rebuilt ones but the engines were still
going strong that's the whole point of buying a diesel engine when it's gonna
last a really long time they're very expensive to repair when they do break
customer minor had Ecodiesel ram v6 had engine problems they wanted them to buy
back the vehicle now here in the united states have the lemon law dodge wouldn't
buy back his truck on his lemon law but they offered him compensation money
spent all their money on the truck the engine didn't hold up that well he
didn't want compensation money he wanted his money back and go buy a Ford truck
instead if your vehicle doesn't meet all the qualifications of lemon law it can
make a diminished lemon law where they can offer you cash for compensation that
you get to keep the truck and they give you some money they offered him three
grand and he was so mad he take it you said I'll never buy another
one of their products Italians then I've known for making really reliable
long-lasting designs they never have Chrysler Fiat as far as I can read
they're even talking about pulling fiat out of the United States market entirely
now they're still gonna sell a bunch of chrysler cars and a fiat engines and all
kinds of fiat parts but the actual line of fiat cars they're talking about
pulling it out of the united states last I checked Fiat sales united states
are down 44% the actual Fiats themselves so it wouldn't surprise me a Fiat pulls
out of the United States again they pulled out 1983 and it wouldn't be
surprised if they pull out again the quality's not there and Americans just
aren't gonna buy that chunk but here I assume that a lot of potential customers
for the RAM Ecodiesel have no idea that these v6 diesel engines are buying are
made in Italy and if you research anything about these Italian diesel
engines especially the v6 s they've been laden with problems like I say I had a
customer with one he engine started going out had about a hundred thousand
miles just under a hundred thousand miles now I might be laughing at it because
I have an ironic sense of humor but if you would bought one of those things
you're not gonna be laughing you're really gonna be crying or you're gonna
get as mad as can be at Fiat Chrysler for putting these Italian made diesel
engines in their big trucks now that said if you get the really big trucks
like the 3500 you can still get the big Cummins engine in it now the vehicles
themselves do have problems some people have picked the 3500 dodges one of the
worst trucks out there so I'm not saying go out and buy one but at least it's got
a decent engine in it it's gonna be able to pull and haul and last because sure
you can get horsepower and a lot of torque out of a souped up v6 diesel
engine but hey if it's an Italian made diesel engine and you're pulling a lot
of weight putting a lot of stuff in the van odds are it's not gonna last like a
Ford diesel that might go three four hundred thousand miles these things
can't take it not you want to get a truck to just puddle around in
town in against the purpose of a diesel in the first place they can pull stuff
they can all stuff in the bed if you're gonna get a truck for just tooling
around don't waste your money on a diesel truck get a gasoline truck the
cost less they're faster you're not pulling all that weight you don't care
I've got a customer whose axe boyfriend owned one but a gasoline engine and he
was such a fanatic he got mad at her because she saw her horse saddle on the
back of his pickup truck bad he said that's gonna scratch my bed and he
wouldn't even haul or sell he went his bed scratch you know she kind of
realized he was nutcases he loved him anyway so she dumped him probably so it
was cause you wouldn't let her put the saddle on the bed of his pickup well he
had a gasoline engine it made sense he was never gonna pull anything haul
anything he didn't need a diesel engine but if you want a diesel pickup truck
you want an engine neck and pull' that can haul you don't want one that wears
off before its time and even though they extended the warranty to five years or
100,000 miles to a true diesel pickup owner a hundred thousand miles isn't
spit they want something that's gonna go two three four hundred thousand miles
they don't want something it's gonna fall apart that quickly for diesel
engines are supposed to be stronger they cost a lot more money to buy for that
reason which is a reason you know if we apply an Italian diesel engine it is not
gonna hold up from my experience in the past they have problems because they've
been using these engines for the last six years unlike I say if you don't
believe me google it and you'll see the problems that these v6 eco diesel
engines have had to me it's kind of the same as Fiat they pull all the united
states in 1983 then they come back it looks like they're gonna have to pull
their brand out again had they gotten any better over the years
No so why anybody would want to buy a vehicle that had an Italian source
diesel engine is beyond me I know scumming diesel engines were great
engines why didn't they keep using them well because Fiat Chrysler it's Italian
company right now of course Fiat Chrysler merged with the French company I wouldn't be
surprised they start using fresh diesel engines but I do have to say from my
knowledge of they actually they make better diesel engines than the
Italians do but maybe 10 years from now they'll have
Rams with French diesel engines and their good engines I don't know I can't
forecast the future that fire I just warned you about what's out there now
what not to buy so not at least you can't say you weren't warned by Scotty
if you go out and buy an eco diesel and it falls apart before its time, so if you
never want to miss another one of my new car repair videos, remember to ring that bell