NorCal dealers: Preferred dealer for service?

E36luva

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Dublin CA
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2022 RAM TRX
For Norcal members, who is your go-to dealer? Are you happy with your service advisor and techs? Im located in the east bay, willing to drive for a friendly service center.

Cheers
 
I've been using Michael Stead Hilltop CDJR in Richmond. They've treated me fairly so far. 🙏
 
Good question. I’m over in concord…
 
Sorry to rehash an old thread but is there any updates to this? It's finally time for me to bring in my truck for the first service and also the tailgate recall and would like to know which bayarea dealers have the "best" service departments.

Thanks!
 
Walnut Creek cdjr is good. I got 3 oil changes for $260. I bought the truck from Gilroy.
I’ve been to Walnut Creek as well for oil change/recall stuff. Experience was good. Elvira was knowledgeable about a few of the problems we’re having with the TRX (tailgate, driveshaft clunk). I’ll go there again.

Tracy has been good as well but they may be under new management now?

I would NOT recommend Stoneridge. They mark up everything including the minivans. Service scratched all of my wheels even when I asked them not to rotate tires and they did it anyway.
 
I’m glad that WC is better. They destroyed a car of mine a few years ago. So bad Dodge bought the car.

I am hesitant to use them. They did not want to inspect the rear doors for the missing lights (i still have not had that checked)

I don’t think I have the problem that the tailgate recall is associated with, so I haven’t made an appointment for it. But maybe I’ll give them a chance at WC…
 
I gave walnut creek a shot. Went to have my suspension recalibration done. Long story short I had to explain to the shop foreman that the TRX doesnt have airbag suspension and uses adaptive dampers…they completed the recal at no charge, but didnt follow my request to lift the truck first and reset the module before putting the truck on level ground for the recal. The TSB states to just recal on level ground, so no knock on them for following tsb on something new for them. In any case the “service active dampers” message appeared maybe a handful of times during a day we did over 300 miles and 9ish hours off road. Truck felt fine the whole time and baja mode seemed to be doing its job. But that makes me think the recal wasnt done successfully.

Before that I visited fremont CJDR. A childhood friend of mine has a fleet on turo, and has owned iirc about 8 dodge/rams over the years. He suggested fremont since he had a solid experience and relationship with a couple SA’s over the years. I took my truck to them because I had a whistling dash lol. Like at fwy speeds with the windows up there was a whistling noise of air coming in the cabin from behind the dash…they verified my concern, and spent 6 weeks chasing down the problem. Starting from the heads up display, to A-pillars, to replacing windshield, to finally pulling the dash and verifying with a smoke gun that air was coming in around the cabin filter area. They patched it up at the firewall and put my truck back together. Since then I have done roughly 600 miles off road and 1500 road miles and my cabin is absolutely silent, no rattles, no whistling air.

My truck is currently back at fremont. Getting the tailgate recall done, oil change, and hopefully a complete suspension recalibration. My SA I used last year apparently left the dealer, Im working with Chris and Chris lol, yes there are 2 Chris SA and they are both nice and cool. I was also able to review my suspension request with the service dep manager, he understood my extra request to lift the truck first, and said it wasnt a big deal and they would give it a shot.

The 6 weeks without my truck, when it was new with only 500ish miles was incredibly painful. All the thoughts of “wtf did I just buy a 100k lemon” start to consume you. These are expensive toys, and from my first drive this truck made a emotional connection with me. Im happy with my experience so far at fremont, and I travel there from Dublin, which is only 22 miles away, but takes an hour to come back because fucking 680. When I was dropping off my truck today, there was another customer dropping there car from SF, made me feel all warm and cozy inside knowing others are going out of their way to.
 
Thanks for the responses. Quick follow up question. When you take your truck for service do they provide a loaner? If I’m going to drive to Walnut Creek or Fremont, do I need to make arrangements to get a ride somewhere while they are working on it? I am assuming they take awhile to work on it and waiting at the dealership is out of the question. How long did they have your truck for when you were getting the oil change and tailgate latch recall worked on?

Thanks.
 
Definitely don't take it to Boardwalk in Redwood City -- I've taken mine there twice for service/oil changes and both times requested they reset/recalibrate the suspension as I've received the "service active damper" warning on sharp bumps from the first day I bought the truck (new). They didn't do it either time saying "they couldn't replicate my issue". Then they tried to charge me $1500 for a rear tail light (part only) on the same trip (local body shop charged me $700 for it).

Bunch of clowns. I'd burn my truck to the ground before I ever brought it back to that place.
 
Just wondering if anybody puts the truck in valet mode before dropping it off to the dealer for service?

I’m about to bring my truck in and am debating if I should do that or not. On one hand I don’t want someone possibly abusing my vehicle but on the other hand it seems weird to basically let them know you don’t trust them.

What do you guys do?

Thanks.
 
I don't trust them.

Sadly the techs can bypass valet mode, and your truck will probably come back out of valet mode.
 
Depending on where you are, Elk Grove CDJR’s service department is amazing. I have a fleet of Rams and never any issues.
 
With much hesitation due to past experiences, I scheduled an appt at Fremont CDJR for an oil change, recall, and speaker rattle. My assigned SA was Erlinda. She checked me in within a few minutes, didn't care that I had an intake or Ravelco (not that they should but dealers can be finnicky) and had my truck back to me by end of day.

Very very easy transaction and it appears the place has had a full staff change since my horror story back in 2021. I think I have found my go-to SA!
 
With much hesitation due to past experiences, I scheduled an appt at Fremont CDJR for an oil change, recall, and speaker rattle. My assigned SA was Erlinda. She checked me in within a few minutes, didn't care that I had an intake or Ravelco (not that they should but dealers can be finnicky) and had my truck back to me by end of day.

Very very easy transaction and it appears the place has had a full staff change since my horror story back in 2021. I think I have found my go-to SA!
I actually took my truck there (from Redwood City even!) a month or 2 ago for an oil change and for them to calibrate the suspension (after the other dealers close to me refused). Had the same SA and a really good experience. I'll be bringing my truck back there in the future.

I'm still getting the suspension errors, but at least now it's documented that it was calibrated and they can pursue other solutions.

-mike
 
Pretty sure you want a direct connect dealership. They have srt certification. Only ones up here in norcal I believe are hilltop and Woodland.
 
Definitely don't take it to Boardwalk in Redwood City -- I've taken mine there twice for service/oil changes and both times requested they reset/recalibrate the suspension as I've received the "service active damper" warning on sharp bumps from the first day I bought the truck (new). They didn't do it either time saying "they couldn't replicate my issue". Then they tried to charge me $1500 for a rear tail light (part only) on the same trip (local body shop charged me $700 for it).

Bunch of clowns. I'd burn my truck to the ground before I ever brought it back to that place.
You left out that it takes them a week to find nothing after you wait two weeks for an appointment.
 
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