Dodge Ram

Which Dodge Ram years should you avoid?

Going by 4,419 owner complaints filed with NHTSA, the Dodge Ram years to avoid are 1996, 1995, 1998, 1994 and 2001.

• 1996625 complaints, 3.9× a typical Ram year, most often about the brakes.
• 1995611 complaints, 3.8× a typical Ram year, most often about the brakes.
• 1998483 complaints, 3.0× a typical Ram year, most often about the brakes.
• 1994469 complaints, 2.9× a typical Ram year, most often about the brakes.
• 2001436 complaints, 2.7× a typical Ram year, most often about the body and frame.

3 more years cleared the same bar; they are marked in the table below.

How this is worked out: each year is compared with a typical year of the same model, which takes most of the difference in sales out of it, and its share of serious failures is compared with every other car of the same model year, because older cars were complained about differently. A year needs 25 complaints to be judged at all. Complaints are unverified owner reports. Full method →